Thirty-Five (1840)“labor 12 hours in a day for almost nothing rather than starve at once.”
Mormonism thrived among the radical religionists who welcomed a
reordering of their destitute world. Brigham wrote Joseph that “they do
not seem to understand argument, simple testimony is enough for them.”
[Being illiterate and very uneducated, over 90% of the English converts couldn’t
read the Book of Mormon.] ...When all but two apostles left Great Britain,
the Church kept growing under the direction of local authorities. As
Joseph said, the Church was now organized and “the leaven can spread.”^12“Spreading the Leaven” Through Pride
The blind LDS historians have never understood—nor would they admit it if they
did—that the “leaven” Joseph referred to, as quoted above, was the same “leaven” Jesus
referred to when he said,
Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
...How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning
bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the
Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of
the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the
Sadducees.^13The LDS Church and its doctrine (“leaven [that] spread”^14 ) had become no
different than every other religion that Christ told Joseph was an “abomination in his
sight.”^15 The doctrines were inventions of the leaders of the Church. Their doctrines
were not only the cause of the widespread contention among the members, but more
especially among the church leaders. Joseph knew that the LDS people were fulfilling
the prophecies of Nephi:
They wear stiff necks and high heads; yea, and because of pride, and
wickedness, and abominations, and whoredoms, they have all gone astray
save it be a few, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless,
they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by
the precepts of men.^16The LDS people were unable to distinguish that the prophecies contained in a
book that only they declaimed, pertained to them alone! They would never consider
that they were prideful of their religion and that they had gone astray because they were
taught by the precepts of men. They would never envisage their “leaven” to be the same
doctrine that the Pharisees and Sadducees taught the people in Jesus’ day. They never
contemplated that they were acting in every way exactly like the Jews did in rejecting
the words of Christ and listening to the foolishness of the leaders of their traditional and
orthodox religion. The LDS/Mormon people were looking to be led by the “further light
and knowledge”^17 their god had promised them. They fervently prayed at the altars of
their false gods with the words of their mouths. Their idolatrous god answered them and
gave them the carnal religion that they desired.