Joseph Smith Biography

(Grace) #1

Without Disclosing My True Identity


themselves fools before God, and [came] down in the depths of humility.”^5 Nothing about
education, money, success, or anything else associated with the wisdom of the world’s
smartest and most successful and popular people (which are “they whom [the Lord God]
despiseth”), is of any worth. Unless one can admit all of these things and “cast these things
away,”^6 they will never be able to learn real truth. This is because the mind would remain
closed to other possibilities outside of that person’s accepted cognitive paradigm of “facts.”


Past Civilizations in the Americas


After the period that the Book of Mormon covers (roughly ending in 400 C.E.), Mathoni
and Mathonihah were able to convince a small number of the ancient Native North
Americans (aboriginal peoples) to give up all the “vain and foolish”^7 things that their
neighbors to the South (Mesoamerica and South America) had invented and incorporated into
their societies. During one of Mathonihah’s “class presentations” to Joseph, he outlined how
both he and Mathoni did this on one particular occasion. He explained the Five W’s associated
with the rise of the great Aztec, Mayan, Inca, and Moche Empires (among others). As the great
Native American societies warred among themselves and created religions and societies that
added to human suffering, a few societies remained peaceful, loving, and equal in all things.
As Joseph considered the history lessons he was receiving, he quickly recognized the
difference between a society of people that had few, if any, human-induced miseries, and
those that experienced a great deal of misery and discord. The difference was that the less
“advanced” and less “civilized” societies (as the world would come to categorize them) had
given up their “vain and foolish” beliefs and concentrated more on getting along with each
other as equal human beings. These societies, therefore, had a lot fewer problems than those
considered more “advanced” and “civilized.”
John alluded to this reality in his revelation when he said, “And that no man might
buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”^8
The more complex life becomes in any given society with money and merchandise and all
the peripherals of civilized life, the more oppressive it becomes for the “least” of those in that
society. Money and the material things that a more civilized society demands create
excesses for a few and scarcity for the rest. Scarcity and excesses then create the ambiguous
perception of “value.” Promoting and purporting the value of money creates competition;
and from competition comes a world where only a handful of “competitors” come out on
top. These money-driven societies shun the rest of the vast populations that are left to
survive in a world controlled by a relative few. The less civilized the society, the less there is
to compete for and the more the people tend to look out for one another’s needs, which
eliminates stress and paves the way for happiness.
The mountainous South American city modernly known as Machu Picchu^9 was the
location where the two Brothers took a small group of people, leading them away from the
larger, urbanized cities that existed at the time. The people in the more developed cities had
been taught by their religious leaders to fear the “great mountains,” where they thought that
thunder, lightning, and “smoke” (actually clouds) came from. For this reason, the Brothers
chose the area where Machu Picchu is located to hide their “converts” away from the
corruption of “civilization.”^10
Eventually, warriors from the urbanized societies at the time discovered the people
who had isolated themselves in these mountains. Being influenced by their “High Priests,”
the warriors killed the people of Machu Picchu and the city was abandoned forever as

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