Joseph Smith Biography

(Grace) #1

Without Disclosing My True Identity


According to the book, it was prophesied to the people concerning the life and death
of Christ in Jerusalem and that he would one day appear personally to the people in the
Western Hemisphere. He was there with the people to do exactly what he did when he was
among the Jews (thus mirroring the Bible): teach the things that his “father” (our advanced
creators) expected of us. The advanced authors of the Book of Mormon needed to present a
scenario that would illustrate the universal occurrence that happens in all human cultures
among all free-willed mortals. They needed to show that when faced with the simplicity of
treating each other with equality and respect, the people would rather have a religion that
gave them value and class over others.
The blind and deaf LDS/Mormon readers do not follow the Book of Mormon’s
storyline concerning the visitation of Christ^36 correctly. Why? Because their own religious
beliefs and traditions are far more important to them than abiding by the code of humanity
presented in the story by Christ.
In the story, Jesus introduces the concept of baptism, which is a symbolic
representation that one has been “born again” like a little child is born. The ordinance is
purely symbolic in nature and helps the receiver make a commitment to throw out
everything that they have learned, believed, and accomplished since being born into the
world, and then come out of the water as a new person ready and willing to listen to
Christ and do what he tells them. Jesus repeats this instruction (to become as a little
child) twice with emphasis, telling the people that if they don’t “become as a little
child...ye can in nowise receive these things [that he is about to tell them].”^37 He then
calls twelve men to “baptize” the people and to “minister those same words which [he]
had spoken—nothing varying from the words which [he] Jesus had spoken.”^38


Relying Solely on the Words of Christ


Nothing is more important in the Book of Mormon than the “words which Jesus had
spoken.”^39 These words were the main emphasis of the entire record. Throughout the
narrative, all of the written prophesy and counsel, from Lehi’s vision at the beginning to the
prophecy of Samuel the Lamanite near its end, point the reader towards “the words which
he shall speak unto you shall be the law which ye shall do.”^40
Indeed, when Moroni first appeared to the young Joseph, he made it a point to
emphasize that the Book of Mormon “contained the fullness of the everlasting Gospel...as
delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants.”^41 These words were to be given exactly
as Jesus gave them (or at least as they are reported as being given) to the Jews—nothing
varying from the words which Jesus had spoken.
Joseph was commanded to interpolate Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and 7 into the Book of
Mormon narrative, which later became 3 Nephi, chapters, 12, 13, and 14. He was to have his
scribe write the words exactly as they were written in the New Testament, which the people
of the early United States of America already believed were the unadulterated “word of
God.” Joseph did exactly what he was told to do by the advanced humans responsible for
the text of the Book of Mormon—a text that Joseph received through the Urim and Thummim.


The People are Given a Choice


In Joseph’s day, the question was, upon reading the Book of Mormon account of
Christ’s visit to the ancient inhabitants of the American continent, what would the people

Free download pdf