Joseph Smith Biography

TWENTY-FOUR

(1829)

Joseph hoped to find the faithful few who understood and desired the truth—very few were found. Joseph

protected the identity and work of the Three Nephites. The future role of Joseph’s brother, Hyrum, is

further explained. Joseph protected himself against fraud alleged by his enemies with the Testimony of the

Eight Witnesses. He began to give the people what they wanted—religion.

Finding the Few

Joseph realized that very few, if any, would give up their religious beliefs and
traditions and accept that the “old things are done away, and all things have become new.”^1
He understood how frustrating it was for Jesus to teach “new things” and why it was
reported that he commented to his disciples:

No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is

put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.

Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the

wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new

bottles, and both are preserved.^2

Was there anyone living during the early 19th Century who could be considered a
“new bottle”? Was there anyone who understood that the true “kingdom of God”^3 to be
established upon the earth—“thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”^4 —was simply “the
kingdom of God within you”? Joseph thought he would find some...at least at first. He had
the same emotional ties to the people and their righteous potential that the biblical character
Abraham had, as related in the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.^5 Abraham
pleaded with the Lord to spare the people if just fifty righteous people were found in the
cities. The number was adjusted from fifty to forty, then to thirty, then to twenty, then to
ten; but not even ten “new bottles” could be found in either city.
From the time of his graduation from the four-year degree he received from the
teaching of the Three Nephites, John, and other advanced humans (September 1827), Joseph
tried futilely to gently persuade (without impeding their free will) his family, friends, and
new acquaintances to understand the significance of the true everlasting gospel of Jesus, the
Christ. None did. Only three came close to grasping the real intent and purpose of Joseph’s
mission—his father and two of his brothers, Hyrum and Samuel; but even in regards to
them, Joseph was under strict mandate not to disclose his true identity. However, these three
men were close enough to Joseph to offer him the support he needed without requiring
anything in return.

Joseph’s Support Network

LDS/Mormon historians are hard-pressed to account for the fact that neither Joseph
Sr., nor Hyrum, nor Samuel ever received a visitation from an angel, never saw a vision, and