In September 1823, Joseph Smith was promised that his name "should be had for good and evil among all nations kindred and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people” (History, circa June 1839–circa 1841 [Draft 2]; cf. JS-H 1:33 in the Pearl of Great Price).
There
are a number of treatments of how this prophecy has been fulfilled,
including John A. Tvedtnes, "Praise to the Man,"
Meridian Magazine, June 13, 2005:
During his lifetime and up to our day, the prophet Joseph has
been vilified by a vast array of people. Some of them are simply ignorant of
the man and what he really taught; others, not content to see him die at the
hands of an armed mob with blackened faces, feel it necessary to continue
dragging his reputation through the filth built up by their predecessors. As
time passes, more and more people have come to admire, if not follow, Joseph.
Today, Joseph Smith is revered as a prophet by members of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, some twelve million strong, and he
was recently listed among the top 100 contenders for the title “The Greatest
American.” Countless others hold him in derision and some actually earn their
livelihood by writings books, pamphlets, and web sites critical of Joseph and
the Church he founded. In between these two extremes are the great masses of
the earth who have either not heard his name or who have no opinion regarding
his work. The question for all men is what we should make of this
nineteenth-century farmer whose teachings spanned the centuries, from ancient
times to the future.
As early as February 1833, Joseph proclaimed in the name of the
Lord that, “In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the
hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you,
by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation” (D&C 89:4). The
revelation then goes on to enumerate substances that are not good for the body,
including tobacco and alcoholic beverages. To be sure, there were others who
spoke out against the evils of these substances before and after Joseph Smith,
but he was unique in saying that the warning was being given because of the
“evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in
the last days.” Not until the end of the twentieth century, when the U.S.
Congress began investigating the tobacco companies, did it become clear to the
American public that the tobacco industry had literally conspired to cover up
research on the negative effects of its product and to find ways to gain new
adherents. Even one who rejects Joseph Smith’s claim to have been a prophet
called of God should be able to see that his warning way well ahead of its
time.
Joseph preempted his contemporaries in other ways as well. His
1844 campaign for the presidency of the United States called for the
end of slavery, the annexation of Texas and adjoining territories,
and the sale of government land to raise funds for social programs. [1] Nearly seventy years before Einstein formulated his special
theory of relativity, Joseph Smith wrote of the exchange between time and space
(Abraham, Facsimile 2, Figure 1). Benjamin F. Johnson, one of his close
associates, wrote that
He
was the first in this age to teach “substantialism”, the eternity of matter,
that no part or particle of the great universe could become annihilated or
destroyed; that light and life and spirit were one; that all light and heat are
the “Glory of God”, which is his power, that fills the “immensity of space”,
and is the life of all things, and permeates with latent life, and heat, every
particle of which all worlds are composed; that light or spirit, and matter,
are the two first great primary principles of the universe, or of Being; that
they are self-existent, co-existent, indestructible, and eternal, and from
these two elements both our spirits and our bodies were formulated. [2]
George Q. Cannon left a similar testimony:
There
are many doctrines that we have taught that were very unpopular in the
beginning that they now receive. Why, there are Elders in this congregation who
can well remember that it was a common belief, when they preached the Gospel to
religious people, that the world was created out of nothing. That was a
commonly received idea. Joseph Smith taught the eternal duration of matter. He
taught the doctrine that matter was indestructible; that it never had a
beginning; that it never could have an end; that it might undergo chemical
changes, but that it was indestructible, and that the elements of which the
earth is composed were eternal – never had a beginning and never would have an
end. The whole religious world were shocked at such an idea, and so in regard
to the time occupied in the creation of the earth. But Joseph taught the true
principle connected with this. He said the days mentioned as occupied in the
creation were not our days of twenty-four hours’ length, but were periods of
time. Now, that is a commonly received doctrine, although it was sneered at and
rejected by religious men at the time it was taught by the Elders of this
Church. And so it has gone on. [3]
Some of Joseph Smith’s contemporaries, while not willing to join
his religious movement, nevertheless admired him as a great innovator. In a
letter home written 6 February 1840, Congressman Matthew S. Davis wrote:
I went last evening to hear “Joe Smith,” the celebrated Mormon,
expound his doctrine. I, with several others, had a desire to understand his
tenets as explained by himself. He is not an educated man: but he is a plain,
sensible, strong minded man. Everything he says, is said in a manner to leave
an impression that he is sincere. There is no levity, no fanaticism, no want of
dignity in his deportment. He is apparently from forty to forty-five years of
age, rather above the middle stature, and what you ladies would call a very
good looking man. In his garb there are no peculiarities; his dress being that
of a plain, unpretending citizen. He is by profession a farmer, but is
evidently well read …
During the whole of his address, and it occupied more than two
hours, there was no opinion or belief that he expressed, that was calculated,
in the slightest degree, to impair the morals of society, or in any manner to
degrade and brutalize the human species. There was much in his precepts, if
they were followed, that would soften the asperities of man towards man, and
that would tend to make him a more rational being than he is generally found to
be. There was no violence, no fury, no denunciation. His religion appears to be
the religion of meekness, lowliness, and mild persuasion. [4]
On 22 March 1842, the Columbus Advocate newspaper
published a letter to the editor that read:
Having recently had occasion to visit the city of Nauvoo, I
cannot permit the opportunity to pass without expressing the agreeable
disappointment that awaited me there. I had supposed, from what I had
previously heard, that I should witness an impoverished, ignorant and bigotted
population, completely priest-ridden, and tyrannized over by Joseph Smith, the
great prophet of these people.
On the contrary, to my surprise, I saw a people apparently
happy, prosperous and intelligent. Every man appeared to be employed in some
business or occupation. I saw no idleness, no intemperance, no noise, no riot –
all appeared to be contented, with no desire to trouble themselves with
anything except their own affairs …
During
my stay of three days, I became well acquainted with their principal men, and
more particularly with their Prophet, the celebrated “Old Joe Smith.” I found
them hospitable, polite, well-informed and liberal. With Joseph Smith, the
hospitality of whose house I kindly received, I was well pleased; of course on
the subject of religion, we widely differed, but he appeared to be quite as
willing to permit me to enjoy my right of opinion, as I think we all ought to
be to let the Mormons enjoy theirs; but instead of the ignorant and tyrannical
upstart, judge my surprise at finding him a sensible, intelligent,
companionable and gentlemanly man. In frequent conversations with him he gave
me every information that I desired, and appeared to be only pleased at being
able to do so. He appears to be much respected by all the people about him, and
has their entire confidence. He is a fine looking man about thirty-six years of
age, and has an interesting family. [5]
In a speech made at a public gathering in Nauvoo, on 17 May,
1844, non-Mormon attorney John Reid said,
The first acquaintance I had with Gen. Smith was about the year
1823. He came into my neighborhood, being then about eighteen years of age, and
resided there two years: during which time I became intimately acquainted with
him. I do know that his character was irreproachable; that he was well known
for truth and uprightness, that he moved in the first circles of the community,
and he was often spoken of as a young man of intelligence and good morals and
possessing a mind susceptible of the highest intellectual attainments.
I early discovered that his mind was constantly in search of
truth, expressing an anxious desire to know the will of God concerning His
children here below, often speaking of those things which professed Christians
believe in. I have often observed to my best informed friends (those that were
free from superstition and bigotry) that I thought Joseph was predestinated by
his God from all eternity to be an instrument in the hands of the great
Dispenser of all good, to do a great work what it was I knew not. [6]
Following Joseph Smith’s announcement of his candidacy for the
Presidency of the United States, some non-Mormon newspapers actually
seemed to favor him. The Illinois Springfield Register of 20
March 1844 carried an article entitled, “General Joseph Smith a Candidate for
President, noting, “It appears by the Nauvoo papers that the Mormon Prophet is
actually a candidate for the presidency.” Contrasting the prophet’s clear views
with the “shuffling and dodging” of Senator Henry Clay, the author added that
“General Smith … ought to be regarded as the real Whig candidate for
President.” The Iowa Democrat of the same date carried this
editorial:
We see from the Nauvoo Neighbor that General Joseph Smith, the
great Mormon Prophet, has become a candidate for the next presidency. We do not
know whether he intends to submit his claims to the National Convention, or
not; but, judging from the language of his own organ, we conclude that he
considers himself a full team for all of them.
All that we have to say on this point is, that if superior
talent, genius, and intelligence, combined with virtue, integrity, and enlarged
views, are any guarantee to General Smith’s being elected, we think that he
will be a “full team of himself.” [7]
The Missouri Republican expressed the view that
Joseph Smith’s entry into the Presidential race would unseat President Martin
Van Buren. [8] A visitor to Nauvoo
wrote a letter to the editor of the Church-owned Times and Seasons,
saying,
I have been conversant with the great men of the age: and, last
of all I feel that I have met with the greatest, in the presence of your
esteemed Prophet, General Joseph Smith. From many reports, I had reason to
believe him a bigoted religionist, as ignorant of politics as the savages; but,
to my utter astonishment, on the short acquaintance, I have found him as
familiar in the cabinet of nations as with his Bible and in the knowledge of
that book I have not met with his equal in Europe or America. Although I should
beg leave to differ with him in some items of faith, his nobleness of soul will
not permit him to take offense at me. No, sir; I find him open, frank, and
generous – as willing others should enjoy their opinions as to enjoy his own.
The General appears perfectly at home on every subject, and his familiarity
with many languages affords him ample means to become informed concerning all
nations and principles, which with his familiar and dignified deportment
towards all must secure to his interest the affections of every intelligent and
virtuous man that may chance to fall in his way, and I am astonished that so
little is known abroad concerning him.
Van Buren was my favorite, and I was astonished to see General
Smith’s name as a competitor; but, since my late acquaintance, Mr. Van Buren
can never re-seat himself in the Presidential chair on my vote while General
Smith is in the field. Forming my opinions alone of the talents of the two, and
from what I have seen, I have no reason to doubt but General Smith’s integrity
is equal to any other individual; and I am satisfied he cannot easily be made
the pliant tool of any political party. I take him to be a man who stands far
aloof from little caucus quibblings and squabblings, while nations,
governments, and realms are wielded in his hand as familiarly as the top and
hoop in the hands of their little masters.
Free from all bigotry and superstition, he dives into every
subject, and it seems as though the world was not large enough to satisfy his
capacious soul, and from his conversation one might suppose him as well
acquainted with other worlds as this.
So far as I can discover, General Smith is the nation’s man, and
the man who will exalt the nation, if the people will give him the opportunity;
and all parties will find a friend in him so far as right is concerned.
General Smith’s movements are perfectly anomalous in the
estimation of the public. All other great men have been considered wise in
drawing around them wise men; but I have frequently heard the General called a
fool because he has gathered the wisest of men to his cabinet, who direct his
movements; but this subject is too ridiculous to dwell upon. Suffice it to say,
so far as I have seen, he has wise men at his side – superlatively wise, and
more capable of managing the affairs of a State than most men now engaged
therein, which I consider much to his credit, though I would by no means speak
diminutively of my old friend.
From
my brief acquaintance, I consider General Smith (independent of his peculiar
religious views, in which by-the-by, I have discovered neither vanity nor
folly,) the sine qua non of the age to our nation’s
prosperity. He has learned the all-important lesson “to profit by the
experience of those who have gone before;” so that, in short, General Smith
begins where other men leave off. I am aware this will appear a bold assertion
to some; but I would say to such, call, and form your acquaintance, as I have
done; then judge. [9]
The editor of the Saint Louis Organ, after
admonishing all other candidates for the Presidency to drop out of the race,
wrote, “General Joseph Smith, the acknowledged modern Prophet, has got them all
in the rear; [10] and from the common
mode of testing the success of candidates for the Presidency, to wit., by
steamboat elections, he (Smith) will beat all the other aspirants to that
office two to one. We learn from the polls of the steamboat Osprey,
on her last trip to this city, that the vote stood for General Joseph Smith, 20
gents and 5 ladies; Henry Clay, 16 gents and 4 ladies; Van Buren, 7 gents and 0
ladies.” [11]
In 1844, Josiah Quincy, the well-known mayor of Boston,
Massachusetts, visited Nauvoo, Illinois, in company with Charles Francis Adams.
So impressed was Quincy with the genius of the prophet that he later wrote:
It
is by no means improbable that some future textbook, for the use of generations
yet unborn, will contain a question something like this: What historical
American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon
the destinies of his countrymen? And it is by no means impossible that the
answer to that interrogatory may be thus written: Joseph Smith, the
Mormon Prophet. And the reply, absurd as it doubtless seems to most men now
living, may be an obvious commonplace to their descendants. History deals in
surprises and paradoxes quite as startling as this. The man who established a
religion in this age of free debate, who was and is today accepted by hundreds
of thousands as a direct emissary from the Most High, such a rare human being
is not to be disposed of by pelting his memory with unsavory epithets. Fanatic,
impostor, charlatan, he may have been, but those hard names, furnish no
solution to the problems he presents to us. Fanatics and impostors are living
and dying every day, and their memory is buried with them; but the wonderful
influence which this founder of religion exerted and still exerts, throws him
into relief before us, not as a rogue to be criminated, but as a phenomenon to
be explained. The vital questions Americans are asking one another today have
to do with this man and with what he has left us. [12]
The New York Sun of 4 September 1843 carried an
article entitled “Joe Smith, the Mormon Prophet,” which, while it rejected the
claims of Mormonism, had positive things to say about Joseph Smith:
This Joe Smith must be set down as an extraordinary character, a
prophet-hero, as Carlyle might call him. He is one of the great men of this
age, and in future history will rank with those who, in one way or another, have
stamped their impress strongly on society.
Nothing can be more plebeian, in seeming, than this Joe Smith.
Little of dignity is there in his cognomen; but few in this age have done such
deeds, and performed such apparent miracles. It is no small thing, in the blaze
of the nineteenth century, to give to men a new revelation, found a new
religion, establish new forms of worship, to build a city with new laws,
institutions, and orders of architecture, to establish ecclesiastical, civil
and military jurisdiction, found colleges, send out missionaries, and make
proselytes on two hemispheres. Yet all this has been done by Joe Smith, and
that against every sort of opposition, ridicule, and persecution.
That
Joe Smith, the founder of the Mormons, is a man of great talent, a deep
thinker, and eloquent speaker, an able writer, and a man of great mental power,
no one can doubt who has watched his career.
Some modern scholars have also admired Joseph Smith’s
accomplishments. During my lengthy residence (1971-79) in Israel, I often heard
the late Professor David Flusser, who had chaired the department of comparative
religions at the Hebrew University, speak about the man he, too, called “the
prophet.” When I last saw him, Flusser was working on a book comparing Joseph Smith’s
first vision with similar accounts in early Christian texts. [13] Another Jewish professor, Yale University’s Harold Bloom, wrote:
Smith’s
religious genius always manifested itself through what might be termed his
charismatic accuracy, his sure sense of relevance that governed biblical and
Mormon parallels. I can only attribute to his genius or daemon his uncanny
recovery of elements in ancient Jewish theurgy that had ceased to be available
either to normative Judaism or to Christianity, and that had survived only in
esoteric traditions unlikely to have touched Smith directly. [14]
W. D. Davies, a noted theologian at Duke University, agreed with
Bloom, writing that “Mormonism is the Jewish-Christian tradition in an American
key … What it did was to re-Judaize a Christianity that had been too much
Hellenized.” [15]
Another renowned American scholar who commented on Joseph
Smith’s work was the late William Foxwell Albright of Johns Hopkins University.
After a critic of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wrote to him
asking that he denounce the Book of Abraham, Albright defended Joseph Smith,
saying, “I do not for a moment believe that Joseph Smith was trying to mislead
anyone; I accept the point of view of a Jewish friend of mine at the University
of Utah, [16] that he was a
religious genius and that he was quite honest in believing that he really could
decipher these ancient texts. But to insist that he did [mislead] is really
doing a disservice to the cause of a great church and its gifted founder.” [17]
At the close of the 20th century, more and more
symposia on Joseph Smith and the restored Church were being held at places such
as Oxford and Durham universities in England. On 6-7 May of 2005, in honor of
the 200th anniversary of the prophet’s birth, a two-day
symposium on “The World of Joseph Smith” drew Latter-day Saint and non-LDS
scholars to the Library of Congress, with video and audio streaming on the
internet.
Perhaps the most well-known of the accolades directed at the
prophet is the one written by his close associate John Taylor soon after
Joseph’s murder and subsequently incorporated into the Doctrine and Covenants
as section 135:
Joseph
Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for
the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it.
In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon,
which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of
publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting
gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought
forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and
Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of
the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded
a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great,
and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the
Lord’s anointed in ancient time, has sealed his mission and his works with his
own blood. (D&C 135:3).
More significant still is the
Lord’s assessment of his chosen prophet:
I
the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the
earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from
heaven, and gave him commandments; And also gave commandments to others, that
they should proclaim these things unto the world; and all this that it might be
fulfilled, which was written by the prophets – The weak things of the world
shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones, that man should not
counsel his fellow man, neither trust in the arm of flesh – But that every man
might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world; That
faith also might increase in the earth; That mine everlasting covenant might be
established; That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and
the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers. (D&C
1:17-23)
Indeed, we feel to shout “Praise to the man who communed with
Jehovah! Jesus anointed that Prophet and Seer. Blessed to open the last
dispensation, kings shall extol him and nations revere.” [18]
Notes for the Above:
[1] History of the Church 6:243-4.
[2] Benjamin F. Johnson letter to to George F. Gibbs, 1903, cited in
E. Dale LeBaron, “Benjamin Franklin Johnson: Colonizer, Public Servant, and
Church Leader” (M.A. thesis, Brigham Young University, 1967), 331.
[3] Journal of Discourses 24:258-9.
[4] History of the Church 4:78-9.
[5] Ibid., 4:565.
[6] Ibid., 1:94.
[7] Ibid., 6:268.
[8] Ibid., 6:269.
[9] Ibid., 6:269-70.
[10] I.e., they were all behind in the unofficial “polls” of the
time.
[11] Republished in the 8 May 1844 edition of the Times and
Seasons; see History of the Church 6:361.
[12] Josiah Quincy, Figures of the Past (Boston:
Little, Brown, and Co., 1883), 376.
[13] I fear that the book was never completed and may not see the
light of day.
[14] Harold Bloom, The American Religion (New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1992), 101.
[15] W. D. Davies, “Israel, the Mormons and the Land,” in Truman G.
Madsen, ed., Reflections on Mormonism: Judaeo-Christian Parallels (Provo:
BYU Religious Studies Center, 1978), 91.
[16] Probably Louis Zucker, whom I was privileged to count among my
teachers and friends.
[17] William F. Albright to Grant S. Heward, Baltimore, Maryland, 25
July 1966. We are indebted to Boyd Peterson who, under a grant from FARMS, was
able to photocopy this and many other pieces of correspondence about the Book
of Abraham held in various university library collections.
[18] Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 27.
To be fair, it is true, as noted by one critic, that
Inititally one may observe that
such sentiments as these would sound just as appropriate coming from any
religious leader -- from Paul to Jesus to Moses, from Jim Jones to David Koresh
to the leader of the Bahai movement. (J. P. Holding, The Prophecies of Joseph
Smith: A Critical Look)
To
quote another (then-Reformed Baptist, now atheist) critic:
The problem is that anyone in
history that has made bold claims can have this said of them. However here I
think it is again used for the purpose of confirming Joseph as a Prophet.
I view the on-going fulfilment of Moroni's words to Joseph as
something that is consistent with his being a prophet of God; I agree with the
above critics that this is not overwhelming evidence of Joseph Smith being a
true prophet of God, as many historical figures have had both good and bad
spoken of them throughout the world, including figures we all would agree were
false prophets (Muhammad, for e.g.) so, I would view this as evidence, but not
"proof" of Joseph as a prophet.
Further Reading:
Resources on Joseph Smith's Prophecies
