This video describes how Joseph Smith had multiple times where self inflicted pain can be found in revelations he received, as well as rebukes that a false prophet would have left out of the public record.
So this video in the Evidences section was inspired by a recent trip I took to the Kirtland area, and while visiting the Church history sites, we were at the Isaac Morley farm, and as we were pondering over the history of the Church there I realized, it dawned on me that the revelation that Joseph Smith received for Isaac Morley to go to Missouri essentially evicted Joseph from the property. That’s where Joseph was living, and it dawned on me that this was a great evidence of Joseph being a prophet. If he was a fraudulent prophet, why would he want to give a revelation like that, that would force him to move? In fact, he ended up having to move out quite a ways from the main place in Kirtland there out to Hiram, Ohio with the John Johnson farm took him in.
It made me think also while I was out there during the Kirtland Safety Society crisis, I’ll do a separate video on that at some point, but in this darkest time of apostasy in 1837, Joseph sent some of his most faithful brethren that you would think he’d want to surround himself with. Heber C. Kimball particularly, Orson Hyde, Joseph Fielding. He sent a number of other brethren out to Great Britain on missions and they were extremely successful. They baptized 2,000 people in eight months and really laid the groundwork for the Twelve to go forth on their missions just two years later, bringing the church membership to 6,000 there, and it’s really what saved the church as those saints came to Nauvoo and added a great strength to the church in many different ways.
Then I thought about many of the scriptures that Joseph included in the revelations that were essentially detrimental towards Joseph. It would be embarrassing. If you were a fraudulent prophet, you would not want to include some of these. So as an example, D&C 3, after Joseph had the lost manuscript, the 116 pages with Martin Harris. Verses six, seven and eight, it says “And behold how oft you have transgressed the commandments and the laws of God and have gone on in the persuasions of men. For behold, you should not have feared man more than God. Although men set at naught the counsels of God, and despises his words, yet you should have been faithful; and he would have extended his arm and supported you against all the fiery darts of the adversary; and he would have been with you in every time of trouble”.
D&C 5 Verse 21: “And now I command you, my servant Joseph, to repent and walk more uprightly before me, and to yield to the persuasions of men no more.” I’d like to share three other examples from the Doctrine and Covenants. D&C 64 verse 7. “Nevertheless, he has sinned; but verily I say unto you, I, the Lord, forgive sins unto those who confess their sins before me and ask forgiveness, who have not sinned unto death. To be clear the “he has sinned”, was referring to to Joseph in the earlier verse.
D&C 90 verse 1: “Thus saith the Lord, verily, verily I say unto you my son, thy sins are forgiven thee, according to thy petition, for thy prayers and the prayers of thy brethren and have come up into my ears.”
And the last one, D&C 93 verse 37: “And now verily I say unto Joseph Smith, Jun.– You have not kept the commandments, and must needs stand rebuked before the Lord;” I’m sure there are many other examples we could come up with. I just wanted to share a few different ideas that I received as I was a pondering over this message while visiting the sites in Kirtland.
Latter-day Saints’ Q&A is a video series not produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but by me, an ordinary member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an independent voice, with a passion for studying Church history and defending the faith. In this series, I provide evidences for the restoration, and address tough questions posed by critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, offering faithful answers based on accurate research and historical references which will be posted at the end of each video.
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