Without Disclosing My True Identity
through the years while the simple “holy order of God” was transformed into two separate
priesthoods of many different offices and appendages. Even though he later left Joseph and
stopped supporting him, Cowdery stayed true to his covenant of secrecy.
In Oliver’s mind, Joseph had changed over time and was no longer acting “after the
manner of the holy order of God.” The other two main witnesses to the gold plates stood
with Oliver on the matter. David Whitmer and Martin Harris both left Joseph at the same
time. Whitmer’s, An Address to All Believers in Christ, resonated the true feelings of the Three
Witnesses of the Book of Mormon: “This matter of priesthood has been the great hobby and
stumbling block of the Latter Day Saints.” The LDS/Mormon priesthood was certainly not
“mentioned in the New Covenant of the Book of Mormon.”^145
Nevertheless, neither Whitmer, nor Cowdery, nor Harris was called by God to be a
true messenger who did not disclose his true identity. Joseph was. He did exactly as he
was instructed to do by the actual voice of Christ that he heard during the First Visitation,
and through the instruction and intelligence he received from Moroni, the Three Nephites,
and John the Beloved. “The New Covenant of the Book of Mormon” would also justify his
actions. Joseph could have “prophesied to the understanding of men; for the Spirit speaketh the
truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really
will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls.” But
the Latter-day Saints, as well as all the Gentiles and Jews of the world, “sought for things
that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by
looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them,
and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And
because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble.”^146
The Opposition of Martin Harris
After Joseph, Hyrum, and Oliver “received the priesthood by the laying on of hands,”
as correctly explained by the commentary given above, they began to baptize others for
a few months prior to anyone mentioning that they needed to legally organize a church.
However, there were those who were opposed to the introduction of priesthood
authority from the beginning.
Martin Harris had transcribed the first 116 pages of Joseph’s dictation of the Book of
Mormon. He was well aware of what the 116 pages contained. The Book of Lehi contained
a much more detailed journal of what happened to Lehi at the time that “there came many
prophets, prophesying unto the people that they must repent or the great city Jerusalem
must be destroyed.”^147 It told why Lehi felt bad for the people and what caused him to
“pray unto the Lord, yea, even with all his heart, in behalf of his people.”^148 It gave
reference to the preachings of Zenos and Zenock,^149 two of the “many prophets,
prophesying unto the people” during the days of Lehi.
Martin Harris marveled at the amount of information given concerning the preaching
of Zenos and Zenock to the Jewish High Priests, one of whom was Lehi himself. Harris knew
what an organized religion and priesthood would do to the people. He knew that these things
were condemned in the Book of Lehi and were explained as the very things that caused the
downfall of all civilization and which led to the destruction of “the great city Jerusalem.”^150
There was no way Martin was going to support Joseph’s introduction of a
priesthood and authority that he knew was condemned in the part of the record that he had
transcribed. When he heard the claims made by both Hyrum and Oliver concerning the