Without Disclosing My True Identity
pain of their separation added to Joseph’s emotional burden in 1837. Joseph loved those two
“Injuns” more than he did his own life. He cried for hours when they left him.
Joseph met Mary Fielding during this time of turmoil at Kirtland. Mary fell in love
with Joseph from the moment she met him. Adding to Joseph’s grief was the widowing of
his beloved brother, Hyrum, with the loss of his wife, Jerusha Barden, who was the love of
Hyrum’s life. She had died during childbirth on October 13, 1837. Joseph recognized the
intense love that Mary had for him (Joseph) and soon received a “revelation” instructing
Hyrum and Mary to wed later that year.^64 Mary secretly loved Joseph more than she did
Hyrum, whom she married soon after Jerusha died. But, in Mary’s eyes, that was as good as
could be expected to allow her to be as close as possible to the man she deeply loved—her
prophet, Joseph.
The church priesthood authorities were spiraling out of control in their exercise of
dominion over the Church. The men were receiving their own revelations and would
often censure Joseph and bring him up on charges before the High Councils of the Church.
The secret of his role that Joseph kept hidden in his heart caused him frustration, and
sometimes led to the loss of his temper. In these instances, he acted contrary to the love he
truly had for his fellow human beings, thus precipitating charges against him by Church
authorities. The year of 1837 was the beginning of a major apostasy from the Church,
chiefly among the highest priesthood quorums.^65
Imperfections in the Book of Mormon Scrutinized
Intellectual members who had read and embraced the Book of Mormon pointed out
things that contradicted what they wanted to believe about their new religion. They pointed
out many grammatical errors and other stumbling blocks that they felt needed to be
changed in the book.^66 The people not only “looked beyond the mark,” as it was taught in
the book, but were completely blind to its purpose. Joseph authorized the committees to
discuss the changes and compile what they felt the Book of Mormon should say. They
eventually made tens of hundreds of grammatical changes, including many substantive
“corrections” as well as significant changes in wording that altered the original meaning.
For example, because they didn’t have a clue who Christ actually was, they changed 1
Nephi 11:18, 21, 32 and 13:40 from presenting Christ as “God,” to presenting him as “the son of
God.”^67 They completely disregarded other parts of the Book of Mormon where it specifically
explained that Christ was indeed “the Father and the Son,”^68 and what this actually meant. Also,
in the original 1830 publication of the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 21:28 read thus:
And now Limhi was again filled with joy, on learning from the mouth of
Ammon that king Benjamin had a gift from God, whereby he could interpret
such engravings; yea, and Ammon also did rejoice.^69These “learned ones”^70 realized that King Benjamin was already dead at this time.
They changed “king Benjamin” to “Mosiah.” The 1830 version of Ether 4:1 made the same
mistake, according to the intellectuals, and they changed those words, too. They also
pointed out that 1 Nephi 12:18 refers to “Jesus Christ before his name was revealed to the
Nephites for the first time in 2 Nephi 10:3. They changed “Jesus Christ” to “Messiah.”^71
Critics ripped apart the Book of Mormon and its text, demonstrating with logic and
well-thought-out arguments that the book could not have been received from God because