JOSEPH THE MARTYR

 

I mentioned in my post yesterday how the critics of Joseph Smith come to the surface when I post about him and I did get a couple yesterday but the outpouring of love and testimonies of Joseph that you all shared was overwhelming. I cried knowing that he is so loved and remembered and honoured for his incredible service to mankind.

It seemed like the adversary had won when Joseph was martyred but that can never be because “the works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught.” (D&C 3:1)

One of the comforting things about Joseph’s martyrdom for me is that he didn’t go to his death alone. Joseph knew he was not coming back from Carthage jail. How wonderful it must have been for him to have a member of his family by his side but it was not by chance that Hyrum joined his brother in death:

“The Prophet Joseph Smith conferred upon Hyrum Smith all the keys, authority and gifts of the priesthood which he, the Prophet, held and which were formerly held by Oliver Cowdery. The Lord also revealed to Hyrum Smith all that was necessary to make him completely and to the full degree, a witness with his brother Joseph, as a prophet, seer, revelator and president of the Church, and to stand through all time and eternity at the head of this dispensation with his brother Joseph, a witness for Jesus Christ.” (President Joseph Field Smith, “Doctrines of Salvation” 1:218-9; see also D&C 136:39; Hebrews 9:16-17; Doctrine & Covenants Student Manual p 348)

It must have been the darkest time for the members of the Church but consider the distress of the brothers’ death on his family:

“After the corpses were washed and dressed in their burial clothes we were allowed to see them. I had for a long time braced every nerve, roused every energy of my soul, and called upon God to strengthen me; but when I entered the room, and saw my murdered sons, extended both at once before my eyes; and heard the sobs and groans of my family – the cries of ‘Father! Husband! Brothers!’ from the lips of their wives, children, brothers and sisters, it was too much – I sunk back crying to the Lord in the agony of my soul, My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken this family? A voice replied, I have taken them to myself that they might have rest….

“As I looked upon their peaceful, smiling countenances, I seemed to almost hear them say: mother, weep not for us; we have overcome the world by love; we carried to them the gospel, that their souls might be saved – they slew us for our testimony, and thus placed us beyond their power – their ascendancy is for a moment – ours is an eternal triumph.”

-          (Joseph and Hyrum Death Masks, history.churchofjesuschrist.org)

Satan didn’t succeed in destroying the Saviour’s ministry or that of His servant, Joseph. All he has done is prove the authenticity of the Church by the attention he is giving us. No other Church is so favoured. President Spencer W. Kimball has said that the negative attention the Church gets is in one way a good sign: “We can tell that we are making progress by the attention we get from the adversary…This has been the lot of the Lord’s people from the beginning and it will be no different in our time”. (In CR April 1980; D&C Student Manual p 301)

You stood so resolute and willing

In the councils of heaven,

Knowing the jaws of hell

Would open at the mention of your name.

 

Still, you knelt in the sacred grove

And uttered the words of faith.

You honoured your promise

To restore the truth

And you opened the heaven’s gate.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Joseph Smith's Last Dream by Jon McNaughton)

JOSEPH, THE PIONEER OF OUR FAITH

 

Imagine you were called into your Bishop’s office and he said he had a brand- new calling that he feels God wants only you to fill. He tells you there will be members in your ward who will oppose you every step of the way, call you a fraud and even attempt to kill you for it. Would you accept?

This is Joseph, the Prophet of this Dispensation. He was called by God for our generation to have God’s word through him only and in no other way (D&C 5:10; see also “Sermons and Writings of Bruce R. McConkie [1989] p 19). In other words, a brand-new calling.

I am often amazed at the sheer magnitude of the responsibility Joseph had in restoring the Saviour’s Church. Not so much the work involved or even the persecution of the unbelievers, as great as that was, but the opposition which he had to deal with within the Church.  

When you consider that most of the early converts came from Christian backgrounds where they were no doubt indoctrinated in the concept that revelation from heaven has ceased, it is no surprise to me then that his death originated from within the Church. I don’t know how he withstood one betrayal after another, none of which prospered against him:

“In early 1844, a group of apostates in Nauvoo, Illinois, declared the Prophet Joseph Smith to be a fallen prophet and tried to start a rival church. Some even held secret meetings, during which they plotted to kill him. (See Glen L. Leonard, “Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, A People of Promise” [2002], 357-62.

There has been opposition to Joseph’s calling as the prophet of this Dispensation from the commencement of the Church to today. The Lord’s prophecy that ‘the ends of the earth shall inquire after his name and fools shall have him in derision’ (D&C 122:1) has truly been fulfilled. Joseph’s name has been slandered over and over. He has been called a gold digger, a fraud, a false prophet and a tool of Satan.

Joseph was also told in Liberty Jail that hell shall rage against him (D&C 122:1). There is only one person who is in charge of hell. Joseph was on Satan’s radar right from the beginning when he tried to silence him in the Grove (JSH 1:15): “It seems as though the adversary was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom else why should the powers of darkness combine against me?” (JST 1:20) And combine they did.

There is another who was called to a brand-new calling that would lead to His death. A greater disturber of Satan’s kingdom than Joseph. One of the accusations by the Sanhedrin that led to Jesus’ death was their claim that He too was a tool of Satan by whom He performed His miracles (Matthew 12:24-27).

We too are annoyers and disturbers of Satan’s kingdom. As the saints of this the last Dispensation we have ‘a labour to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness….” (Moroni 9:6). The greatest calling of all…..and not for the faint hearted.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Joseph by Brent Borup)