Joseph Smith Biography

Nine (1814)

necessary to prepare the earth and its people for the mortal messenger according to the
earth’s timetable. What, therefore, could possibly be the pride of a true messenger’s
“crown”? For he knows that he is nothing without the help of advanced monitors.
In “cast[ing] their crowns before the throne,” these prophets effectually agreed
to give up their personal “sovereignty” (crown)—or free will, in order to be servants,
allowing themselves—their mortal bodies and emotions—to be abused, stoned, and
killed (as seen fit by advanced monitors) by those for whom their message is
intended. They allow their free will to be “acted upon” (according to their mortality) by
the manipulations of those “angels” or advanced beings who monitor this earth and
oversee their work. True prophets of God (“four and twenty elders”) understand their
roles as tools in the hands of advanced monitors; thus, they feel a deep humility and
take no glory or honor unto themselves.
The moniker, “Without disclosing [his true] identity” (in part, the title of this
biography), is taken from the temple endowment that was later given by Joseph Smith. The
original context included the instruction for the messengers to:

visit the man Adam in the Telestial world, without disclosing their identity. Have

them observe conditions generally; see if Satan is there, and learn whether

Adam has been true to the token and sign given to him in the Garden of Eden.

Have them then return and bring me [Elohim/Jehovah] word.^10

John’s Revelation perfectly agrees with this mandate of a true messenger and is
further “unfolded” in his explanation of the following, corrected translation of his words
in Revelation 5:6:

And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and the four beasts stood the

elders and a Lamb as if it were to be slain, having twelve horns and twelve

eyes, which are the twelve servants of God sent forth into all the earth.^11

In his authorized explanation, John says,

The prophets (“twelve servants”) to whom Christ gives knowledge and

authority (“twelve eyes”), go throughout the earth and teach the people, and

become, in essence, his mouth, his ears, and his eyes.^12

John and the “Three Nephites” have provided mortal continuity through the ages.
But were they to open their mouths in the capacity of a true messenger, their fate would be
sealed, and intervention in their behalf would have to be continuous to protect their
physical lives. Furthermore, they would be marked and followed relentlessly through time.
Therefore, fully mortal true messengers are needed according to the mandate of “Elohim”
and “Jehovah to “observe,” “see” and “learn” that which happens on the earth.
Advanced beings and even those now “resurrected,” such as Joseph and Moroni,
though being highly experienced, will never be able to contextually comprehend the current
world’s economic, social, political, and technological conditions like a living, fully mortal
human is able to do. They do not have the emotional or the veiled human connection to the
current environment, but only the collection of their own experiences from their own past