Without Disclosing My True Identity
“returned to report” what he had learned as a messenger who did not disclose his true
identity. The people had rejected the “fullness of the everlasting Gospel” in favor of a
religion of the “philosophies of men mingled with scripture.”^4 The presentation conveyed
the symbolic reference that all of them—those who had received Lucifer’s religion “very
well”—had “sold the tokens and signs they received in the Garden of Eden” (i.e., their
humanity) for money.^5
Ego, Pride, and the Philosophies of Men, Mingled With Scripture
By 1843, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, now headquartered in
Nauvoo, Illinois, was a boiling vessel of the “philosophies of men mingled with scripture,”
to which Joseph allowed the councils of the Church to add whatever ingredients they
desired. Joseph’s role was simply to “stir the pot.” The people’s hearts were hardened by
hatred and vengeance for their enemies; and their desires for worldliness rivaled those of
any other people on earth at the time. It was this intense desire for the wealth and honors of
the world upon which Nauvoo was built and made to prosper.
The pride of the LDS people had grown exponentially in relation to their worldly
success and glory. Their heads were swelled and inflated to such a degree that their ears
were stopped and their eyes were swollen shut, so that they could neither hear nor see.
Critics Have Erroneously Believed That Joseph Controlled the LDS Church
Critical histories of Mormonism have claimed that Joseph Smith, Jr. was solely
responsible for the LDS Church—its beginnings, its doctrines, and everything else that
became of it. These critics have speculated that Joseph also had control of the LDS people’s
hearts and minds. In these things, they are incorrect. On the contrary, it was the support
structure of the LDS Church leaders surrounding Joseph, and the people they led, who were
responsible for the development of their Church.
Outside of the Church, by 1843, Joseph’s enemies were mustering their forces
and imagining all kinds of vain and foolish things about the LDS Church and its
“prophet.” On September 4th, a meeting was held at Carthage, seat of Hancock County,
Illinois, which constituted the first mob gathering of those who would later be
responsible for Joseph’s murder. The notes of the meeting revealed the general view of
Joseph’s enemies at the time:
This meeting having convened for the purpose of taking under advisement
a subject of vital importance not only to this county, but to all the
surrounding counties, regret that we are necessarily and irresistibly forced
to the conclusion that a certain class of people have obtruded themselves
upon us, calling themselves Mormons, or Latter-day Saints, and under the
sacred garb of Christianity, assumed, as we honestly believe, that they may
the more easily, under such a cloak, perpetrate the most lawless and
diabolical deeds that have ever, in any age of the world, disgraced the
human species.In evidence of the above charge, we find them yielding implicit
obedience to the ostensible head and founder of this sect, who is a