Joseph Smith Biography

Twenty-Eight (1833)

and erroneously assumed that Joseph was referring to the early LDS Saints, even though at
the time the revelation was given, there had been no major LDS persecutions.
Joseph later acquiesced to the people’s desire that he become more political and issue
decrees that supported his constituency in Illinois as well as the Southern States.^85 He
became very adroit at giving the people what they wanted, even if it meant contradicting
himself time and time again.

Contradictions Required of Joseph Led to the First Apostate (Ezra Booth)

These blatant contradictions were made because Joseph was under a mandate,
unbeknownst to the Church, to not disclose his true identity, and to give the people the
desires of their hearts. It was this incongruity that led to the first LDS apostate.^86 This man
was the first of many who claimed to be close to Joseph but then turned on him and became
his enemy, because of Joseph’s inconsistencies. Ezra Booth could not believe the
contradictions between Joseph’s prophecies, the “everlasting gospel,” and the reality of
what was happening in the Church at Kirtland, Ohio, and then at Independence, Missouri.
When Booth questioned the Prophet, Joseph’s Editor-in-Chief Rigdon came to the rescue:

Behold, I, the Lord, was angry with him who was my servant Ezra Booth,

and also my servant Isaac Morley, for they kept not the law, neither the

commandment; They sought evil in their hearts, and I, the Lord, withheld my

Spirit. They condemned for evil that thing in which there was no evil;

nevertheless I have forgiven my servant Isaac Morley.^87

Beginning in November 1831, Booth published a series of letters in the Ohio Star that
vented his disgust with Joseph and what he then called a “delusion.”^88 His writings were
well thought out and composed with intellect, wit, and an honest reflection of the time he
spent with Joseph and the early leaders of the Church. He wrote, in part:

On our arrival in the western part of the State of Missouri, the place of our

destination, we discovered that prophecy and vision had failed, or rather had

proved false.—This fact was so notorious, and the evidence so clear, that no

one could mistake it—so much so, that Mr. Rigdon himself said, that

“Joseph’s vision was a bad thing.” ***Mormonism has in part changed its

character, and assumed a different dress, from that under which it made its

first appearance on the Western Reserve.^89

Sidney Rigdon challenged Ezra Booth to a public debate on the matter, and
edited a revelation that specifically mandated that both he and Joseph take the time to
counter the falsehoods that Booth was spreading.^90 Booth never confronted Joseph in
public. Any man who would, was confounded. Not only did Joseph know what his
own “undisclosed” mandate was, but, as a true messenger, he also knew all real truth.
A true messenger has never been confounded in public by any enemy or critic. But
during the year 1833, the second renowned friend-turned-enemy made a futile
attempt, and found out why a true messenger cannot be confounded, nor should any
man make the attempt to do so.