Thirty-Eight (1843)Piecing Together a “History” of the Church and Joseph’s Life
The Times and Seasons was the principal LDS publication in Nauvoo. First published
in November of 1839, it became the means by which Joseph officially presented the history
of the Church as he wanted it published, beginning in 1842. It became the main source of
information for later biographers and historians, who attempted to paint a picture of Joseph
and the Church from each of their subjective views. Its existence provides strong evidence
that the current History of the Church from which this Nauvoo periodical was primarily
quoted—published by the modern Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was grossly
edited and misrepresented.^18 Honest research reveals that the modern history accepted by
most LDS/Mormon members is not what really happened in the early days of their Church,
but what the LDS Church leaders, beginning with Brigham Young, wanted the people to
believe happened.
The modern LDS Church does not hide this truth from its members. However,
because very few LDS/Mormons know the true history of their faith—nor could they care less
to know—the Church’s curriculum does not mention it. An article in the Ensign magazine
could not be any clearer on the published histories and biographies about Joseph’s life:
It has been well known that the serialized “History of Joseph Smith” consists
largely of items from other persons’ personal journals and other sources,
collected during Joseph Smith’s lifetime and continued after the Saints were
in Utah, then edited and pieced together to form a history of the Prophet’s
life “in his own words.”^19The Kinderhook Plates
Critics have claimed that the Kinderhook plates^20 proved that Joseph could not
translate ancient writings. The above-mentioned Ensign article was published to defend
Joseph against these allegations. In 1843, a few men reported that they had discovered an
ancient burial mound. They announced that they were going to dig it up; and they made
sure that a couple of LDS leaders were present when the digging took place.^21 The plates
were taken to Joseph to be translated—so the history books are wont to explain. The plates
were really forgeries made by a few men who lived in Kinderhook, Illinois. Because of the
facsimiles that corresponded to the Book of Abraham that had been published in the Times
and Seasons in 1842,^22 the men were able to make their forgeries by copying some of the
characters from the published account, age them with acid, and then bury them.^23 In this
way, they hoped to expose Joseph as a false prophet.
The LDS Church’s research was correct in pointing out that there was never a record
of Joseph attempting to translate the plates until William Clayton produced his version of
the Church’s history under the direction of Brigham Young almost a decade after Joseph
was killed. It was not until 1879 that one of the Kinderhook men found out that Young had
published an account of the plates claiming that Joseph had attempted to translate them; it
was then that one of the forgers came forward and revealed the forged nature of the plates.^24
Had Joseph attempted to translate the forgeries and publish anything about them in
1843, the anti-Mormon activists would have been all over it and published their plan of
deception and exposed Joseph as a false prophet. Nothing was ever said, because Joseph
wanted nothing to do with the plates; therefore, the forgers had nothing to expose. When