THIRTY-SIX
(1841)
The LDS people rejected the true message and desired that a man lead them in religion instead.
They chose, as Nauvoo’s Mayor, the one who ultimately played a significant role in ending Joseph’s temporal
life. The doctrines of baptism for the dead and tithing were introduced because of the people’s desire
and under the leadership and proposals of Brigham Young and other early leaders.Who Would the LDS People Choose to Lead Them?
Was Joseph Smith, Jr. visited by Christ and Moroni and other advanced humans?
Did the Three Nephites and John instruct him in interviews and give him intelligence? Was
he chosen as a true messenger who knew and understood God’s will for the people? If these
things were indeed true, then wouldn’t it have seemed reasonable for the people to want
only Joseph to guide them? Wouldn’t they have used their free will and their vote to
support what Joseph said, even if it contradicted what they thought was right and just? If
they were given their voice and could choose who should guide them and give them
counsel, why would they choose Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Sidney Rigdon, Brigham
Young, or any other man or “High Council” over Joseph to lead them and teach them?^1
At any time, the members of the LDS/Mormon Church could have used their free
will and the principles of democracy incorporated in the protocol of the Church to vote to
listen to every word that “proceedeth forth out of the mouth of God.”^2 And there was only
one man specifically named and presented whose voice was the same as the voice of God.
In other words, there was only one man who knew the real truth. This man was Joseph
Smith, Jr.^3 It was to Joseph whom
the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the
earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith Jun., and spake unto him from
heaven, and gave him commandments; ...that the fulness of my gospel might
be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and
before kings and rulers. ...And after having received the record of the
Nephites, yea, even my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., might have power to
translate through the mercy of God, by the power of God, the Book of Mormon.
And also those to whom these commandments [the fulness of the everlasting
Gospel as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants] were given, might have
power to lay the foundation of this church...whether by mine own voice or by
the voice of my servants, it is the same.^4Instead, by 1841, the people could not have cared less what Joseph had to say.
Subconsciously, they blamed him and his administration for the failures of Kirtland,
Independence, and Far West. The Book of Mormon and its prophecies were not being quoted
or used in any of the sermons given by the leaders to the people, making the true message
and purpose of the book even further removed from them.^5 It became a “sealed book”^6 to
the people, locking away its true meaning^7 and the “fullness of the everlasting Gospel”