Mar 01 2009
Joseph Smith Has More to Boast of Than Any Other Man
In my post, “There is no God but the LDS Church is true,” I wrote the following:
Joseph Smith said that he has done more for mankind than anyone else (including Jesus), and apparently the Church agrees with him. We have buildings named after him, we sing his praises, and we teach our children that he restored the True Church to the earth, along with their ABC’s.
I had a commentor respond to my post by saying:
One error you did make however is that church leaders always use the quote “Joseph Smith has done more for mankind save Jesus Christ.” Save means besides.
I don’t want to say something that is incorrect on my site - if I am wrong, then I am more than willing to admit to it. I decided to research the subject to see what I could figure out. I found the following quotation from the History of the Church, Volume 6 (this is Joseph Smith talking. It is entitled “His Testimony Against the Dissenters at Nauvoo.”)
I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet.
If you want to verify that I am not taking this out of context, please check out the online version of the History of the Church, Volume 6 - hit Ctrl + F to find this quotation on the webpage. I can’t link to the exact spot on the webpage, sorry. If you have the set of the History of the Church volumes and want to find it in your own books at home, look on pages 408 - 409.
So, was my original quotation exactly right? No. But the gist of it is the same. Joseph Smith is saying that he has more to boast of than any other man, more than Jesus Christ even.
Yeah, I’d say that was pretty egotistical.
Thoughts?
Now that I know so much more about JS than I ever did before, it really weirds me out that they sing his praises. They revere such a con man. It’s sad and scary.
Whew! Yeah, I have to go egotistically with you and a perhaps a bit megalomaniacal.
To be honest, I’ve never known a truly great man (or woman) who HAD to trumpet their own worth. Great people are generally too busy to stand about bragging.
We just had a testimony bearing in church this last Sunday rave about the “integrity” of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. I wanted to laugh. My wife wanted to walk out.
As for JS expounded upon his own greatness, I’m reminded of an old quote: “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.”
Good one, goldarn. That’s Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Rainfeather, I know what you’re saying. I am reading “One Nation Under Gods” right now and the more I read, the angrier I get at what a sleazeball he really was. If anyone could read that book and still have a testimony then more power to them, but I honestly believe that copies of that book ought to be handed out along with copies of the Book of Mormon. Let the investigator read them side by side and then decide which side to believe.
Thanks for the link, Equality. I have also added your site to my blogroll. Congrats on the engagement, btw.
Stephanie, I haven’t gotten to this part in “One Nation Under Gods” yet but I remember reading about it in Rough Stone Rolling: Joseph Smith eventually has himself crowned King. Yeah, megalomaniac is right…
Goldarn, it’s good to have a sense of humor about this. I vary between being able to laugh at the whole thing, and being angry to the bitter core about it all. It’ll probably be years before I’m completely calm and can be rational enough that I’d be able to go into an LDS building without screaming out the truth.
The thing is, if my own story taught me nothing, it certainly taught me this: You cannot force someone out of the Church. I never, ever, ever would have been forced to leave. I’m just stubborn enough that the more someone tried to push me to leave, the more I’d dig in my heels and sing Joseph Smith’s praises. I’m stubborn like that.
So I know that getting into someone’s face and telling them the truth won’t work. As much as I’d absolutely love to pack up Under Gods and send it to my mother to read, I know it would never happen, and it would damage our relationship in the process. So I read, and I fume, and I post on here.
Seems to be working so far….
~Lyoness
You are so awful to say such horrible things about the greatest man who ever lived!! Shame shame shame!
Just kidding Lyoness! This is Utah from exmormforms…just checking out the site, looks good. Enjoyed your Word of Wisdom post as well. I haven’t been able to get a taste for coffee yet either….I do like a good beer, always have. You missed out on Mike’s Hard Ice Tea, that was my favorite of the flavored beers, I don’t think they make it anymore though.