Without Disclosing My True Identity
Just like Mormon, Josephendeavor[ed] to preach unto this people, but my mouth was shut, and I was
forbidden that I should preach unto them; for behold they had willfully
rebelled against their God. ...But I did remain among them, but I was
forbidden to preach unto them, because of the hardness of their hearts; and
because of the hardness of their hearts the land was cursed for their sake.^35Mormon disclosed in his writings what Joseph could not. Mormon was “forbidden that I
should preach unto them”; but Joseph was mandated to support and perpetuate whatever
the people desired in religion.
The early Saints could not understand why nothing was working out for them. They
had been persecuted and chased out of the prophesied “land of Zion” (Independence, MO),
paralleling the story of Mormon and his people in the Book of Mormon:
And it came to pass that same year [1833] there began to be a war again
between the [Saints] and the [Gentiles]. And notwithstanding [Joseph] being
young [age 27], was large in stature; therefore the [Saints] appointed [him]
that [he] should be their leader, or the leader of their armies [which they
called Zion’s Camp]. [The Saints were] frightened [by the Missourians and]
therefore they would not fight, and they began to retreat towards the north
countries [to Clay County]. [The people were abused and stripped of
everything they had;] [t]hus there began to be a mourning and a lamentation
in all the land because of these things, and more especially among the
[Saints]. And it came to pass that when [Joseph] saw their lamentation and
their mourning and their sorrow before the Lord, [his] heart did begin to
rejoice within [him], knowing the mercies and the long-suffering of the Lord,
therefore supposing that he would be merciful unto [the Saints] that they
would again become a righteous people. But behold, this [his] joy was vain,
for their sorrowing was not unto repentance, because of the goodness of God;
but it was rather the sorrowing of the damned. ...And they did not come
unto Jesus with broken hearts and contrite spirits. ...And it came to pass that
my sorrow did return unto me again, and I saw that the day of grace was
passed with them, both temporally and spiritually; ...^36Far West Became a Temporary Place of Refuge
The Saints had failed to establish a sound headquarters for the Church in Kirtland, Ohio
and were forced to abandon their holy “House of the Lord” to dissenters within the church and
to their creditors.^37 Their “prophet, seer, and revelator” stayed with them, but he was being
chased continually by the law and by his enemies from both within and without the Church.^38
Joseph, and most of the Saints who remained loyal to him, fled to Far West, Missouri
in the early part of 1838.^39 With the help of Alexander Doniphan,^40 a sympathetic lawyer who
had been introduced to Joseph a few years earlier by Timothy (of the Three Nephites), the
Missouri government had specifically assigned a place to the Mormons, giving them their
own county by splitting up Ray County. Caldwell County would become almost entirely
Mormon, but was supported and graced by the people living in the surrounding counties.