Commenting on Joseph Smith’s theology of ethics, Blake Ostler wrote that Joseph:
[S]tated “Happiness is the object and design of our existence and will be the end thereof if we pursue the path that leads to it, and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 255)
Aligned with these thoughts is Lehi’s well-known aphorism: “Man is that he might have joy” (2 Ne. 2:25). Joseph Smith seems to have suggested that an act is not good merely because God commandments it; rather God commands us to do acts because they will make us happy and lead us to the choices that result in the greatest happiness for us. The ultimate good in such a view is grounded in the fact that happiness is the greatest good.
Joseph Smith also made a statement that seems, at first blush, to teach a divine-command theory of ethics or the view that an act is good or evil solely by virtue of the fact that God commands it. Joseph said: “That which is wrong under one circumstance may be, and often is, right under another. God said, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ At another time he said, ‘Thou shalt utterly destroy.’ This is the principle on which the government of heaven is conducted—by revelation adapted to the circumstances in which the children of the kingdom are placed. Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason thereof until long after it transpires.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 256)
Now I am open to the possibility that Joseph Smith is inconsistent in the various statements he made. After all, he was a prophet, not a systematic theologian. Yet there is an easy way to reconcile this statement with the view that happiness is the greatest good and that God commands only what will lead to our happiness. The italicized words imply that God has a reason outside of his will upon which he bases his commands. The “reason” for God’s commands is that God can see how what he commands will lead to our happiness. We obey him because we trust him to lead us to the greatest happiness and joy. Given his superior knowledge of what leads to happiness, it is simply irrational not to obey him if we trust him to seek our greatest happiness. Thus, even this statement seems to assume something like a utilitarian principle rather than a divine-command theory of ethics. (Blake T. Ostler, Exploring Mormon Thought, volume 2: The Problems of Theism and the Love of God [Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2006], 95-96, emphasis in original)
Such comes from ch. 3 of the book. For two podcast episodes featuring Blake Ostler and his sons Corey and Jacob on this topic, see
