Without Disclosing My True Identity
organizing a church, or even considering the possibility—he knew what the lost 116 pages
containing the book of Lehi said about organized religion. Harris was noticeably absent
when the “Church of Christ” was officially and legally organized on April 6, 1830.^31
The church was organized, not by the “voice of the prophet,” but by the “voice of the
people.” Oliver Cowdery received his own “revelations” from God about how the church
should be formed.^32 It was Cowdery’s “revelation,” and not anything from Joseph, that
became the blueprint for the Church of Christ. Oliver’s revelation indicated that there
should be ordained priests and teachers “according to the gifts and callings of God unto
men.”^33 Joseph was not allowed to stop Oliver, but instead, used much of Oliver’s revelation
in his own.^34 Not to be outdone, the final of the three witnesses and early “convert” to
Mormonism, David Whitmer, touted his own relevance and importance to “the rise of the
Church of Christ in these last days,”^35 in his personal writings as well.^36
Save Two Churches Only
In the beginning, while he still had hope that the people might accept the purity of the
“everlasting Gospel as delivered by the Savior,” every person who sought Joseph out was told
what the Book of Mormon explicitly taught; which was that “there are save two churches only;
the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil.”^37 With a
heavy heart, no matter how subtly he explained what the nuances in meaning were of “the
church” referred to in the Book of Mormon, the people were unable to grasp the correct concept.
A “church” had nothing to do with an organized body; and it should have been obvious to
them that there was no organized “church of the devil.” Joseph would often sigh and “groan
within himself because of the blindness of the rebellious people.”^38
The people who sought out Joseph and who believed in the Book of Mormon gathered
months before the official church was formally organized. Joseph did not seek out
converts—they came to him. Before the legal organization of the Church of Christ, the
people were already gathered together and “spiritually” organized;^39 many who were
willing were baptized by Oliver and Joseph during the year of 1829. At that time, when
Joseph received a “revelation from the Lord,” the people were not referred to as a church,
but as “my people”^40 —in the same sense that Jesus once said his “brother, and sister, and
mother” were “whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is heaven.”^41 Joseph futilely
attempted to point out that even when people were “assemble[d]...together in different
bodies, being called churches...notwithstanding there being many churches they were all
one church, yea, even the church of God; for there was nothing preached in all the
churches except it were repentance and faith in God.”^42
Desiring an Organization and Duties
But the people wanted religion! They wanted someone to preach to them.^43 And
according to their wishes, Joseph made sure that the authority of the Church rested in the hands
of the people. Votes sustained and approved leaders and disapproved them. Throughout the
minutes of the meetings kept by the clerks, motions were presented and seconded, almost ad
nauseam. Joseph kept his hands clean of the people’s church and gave them what they desired, as
he was commanded. One profound example (of many) of how Joseph stayed out of the people’s
church, is outlined in detail in Appendix 1 of this book on the priesthood: Joseph had nothing to