Without Disclosing My True Identity
26 And then shall the work of the Father commence at that day, even when this gospel shall be
preached among the remnant of this people. Verily I say unto you, at that day shall the work of the
Father commence among all the dispersed of my people, yea, even the tribes which have been lost,
which the Father hath led away out of Jerusalem.
27 Yea, the work shall commence among all the dispersed of my people, with the Father to prepare the
way whereby they may come unto me, that they may call on the Father in my name.
28 Yea, and then shall the work commence, with the Father among all nations in preparing the way
whereby his people may be gathered home to the land of their inheritance.
29 And they shall go out from all nations; and they shall not go out in haste, nor go by flight, for I
will go before them, saith the Father, and I will be their rearward.
The commencement of the Father’s work was contingent upon whether or not the
Gentiles repented and the Lord established his church among them. ONLY if “they” had
repented and established his church among them, would the work of the Father have
commenced with them. Only then, would the “power of heaven come down among them” and
Christ would have dwelt in their midst. This is what Joseph tried to tell the people (the
Gentiles). He spoke often of the Lord cutting his work “short in righteousness.”^24 This meant
that if the Gentiles would not have hardened their hearts against the “fullness of the everlasting
Gospel...as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants,” then the Lord would have come
sooner than the “Father’s work” intended. Even now this promise of cutting short his work is
still extended to the Gentiles, though now less likely than ever to be realized.
Joseph’s Hope in Fulfilling Book of Mormon Prophecy About the Native Americans
During the spring of 1831, Joseph began to see how obstinate the people were
against living the true gospel of Christ. His hope in finding a people who would give up
their “old wine” for the “new” began to diminish. His hope was revived, however, in what
he had learned from Mathoni and Mathonihah about the American Indians. The indigenous
people were not given to the desires of the “church of the devil”—that great and abominable
church, whose members desired “the gold, and the silver, and the silks, and the scarlets, and
the fine-twined linen, and the precious clothing, and the harlots.”^25 Joseph had high hopes
of establishing a mission center where the Church could fulfill the words of the Book of
Mormon prophecy concerning the “remnant of the house of Jacob.”
On June 7, 1831, at Kirtland, Ohio, Joseph gave the “elders whom he hath called and
chosen in these last days, by the voice of his Spirit”^26 the first indication that Missouri was the
place to be “consecrate[d] unto my people, which are a remnant of Jacob.”^27 This was also the first
time he mentioned that the “work of the Father” could be “cut short in righteousness.”^28 But from
that time forth, the “elders of the church” began to change the meaning of the prophecies of the
Book of Mormon and Joseph’s own counsel to fit their egos and “harden[ed] hearts.”^29
Joseph left Kirtland with a few “elders” on June 19, 1831, “for the land of Missouri,
agreeable to the commandment before received, wherein it was promised that if [they] were
faithful, the land of [their] inheritance, even the place for the city of the New Jerusalem,
should be revealed.”^30
The LDS/Mormons never did notice the “ifs” placed in the prophecies they received
both from Joseph and from the Book of Mormon. Like the white men did to the Native
Americans in all their dealings with them, they (the white men) stole the Native American’s
land, their culture, their peaceful lifestyle...and their prophecies. Obviously, the