A Discourse, by President Joseph Smith
Delivered at the Conference held near the Temple, in Nauvoo, April 6,
1844
Reported by W. Richards, W. Woodruff, T. Bullock, and W. Clayton
Journal of Discourses, Volume 6, pages 1-11.
Beloved Saints,-I will call the attention of this congregation while I
address you on the subject of the dead. The decease of our beloved
brother, Elder King Follett, who was crushed in a well by the falling
of a tub of rock, has more immediately led me to that subject. I have
been requested to speak by his friends and relatives; but inasmuch as
there are a great many in this congregation who live in this city, as
well as elsewhere, who have lost friends, I feel disposed to speak on
the subject in general, and offer you my ideas so far as I have
ability and so far as I shall be inspired by the Holy Spirit to dwell
on this subject.
I want your prayers and faith that I may have the instruction of
Almighty God and the gift of the Holy Ghost, so that I may set forth
things that are true and which can be easily comprehended by you, and
that the testimony may carry conviction to your hearts and minds of
the truth of what I shall say. Pray that the Lord may strengthen my
lungs, stay the winds, and let the prayers of the Saints to heaven
appear, that they may enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth; for
the effectual prayers of the righteous avail much. There is strength
here; and I verily believe that your prayers will be heard.
Before I enter fully into the investigation of the subject which is
lying before me, I wish to pave the way and bring up the subject from
the beginning, that you may understand it. I will make a few
preliminaries, in order that you may understand the subject when I
come to it. I do not calculate or intend to please your ears with
superfluity of words, or oratory, or with much learning; but I
calculate to edify you with the simple truths from heaven.
In the first place, I wish to go back to the beginning-to the morn of
creation. There is the starting-point for us to look to, in order to
understand and be fully acquainted with the mind, purposes, and
decrees of the great Eloheim, who sits in yonder heavens as he did at
the creation of this world. It is necessary for us to have an
understanding of God himself in the beginning. If we start right, it
is easy to go right all the time; but if we start wrong, we may go
wrong, and it will be a hard matter to get right.
There are but a very few beings in the world who understand rightly
the character of God. The great majority of mankind do not comprehend
anything, either that which is past or that which is to come, as
respects their relationship to God. They do not know, neither do they
understand the nature of that relationship; and, consequently, they
know but little above the brute beast, or more than to eat, drink, and
sleep. This is all man knows about God or his existence, unless it is
given by the inspiration of the almighty.
If a man learns nothing more than to eat, drink, and sleep, and does
not comprehend any of the designs of God, the beast comprehends the
same thing. It eats, drinks, sleeps, and knows nothing more about God:
yet it knows as much as we, unless we are able to comprehend by the
inspiration of Almighty God. If men do not comprehend the character of
God they do not comprehend themselves. I want to go back to the
beginning, and so lift your minds into a more lofty sphere and a more
exalted understanding than what the human mind generally aspires
to.
I want to ask this congregation-every man, woman, and child, to answer
the question in their own heart, what kind of a being God is? Ask
yourselves; turn your thoughts into your hearts, and say if any of you
have seen, heard, or communed with him. This is a question that may
occupy your attention for a long time. I again repeat the question-
What kind of a being is God? Does any man or woman know? Have any of
you seen him, heard him, or communed with him? Here is the question
that will peradventure from this time henceforth occupy your
attention. The Scriptures inform us that "This is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent."
If any man does not know God, and inquires what kind of a being he is,-
if he will search diligently his own heart-if the declarations of
Jesus and the Apostles be true-he will realize that he has not eternal
life; for there can be eternal life on no other principle.
My first object is to find out the character of the only wise and true
God, and what kind of a being he is; and if I am so fortunate as to be
the man to comprehend God, and explain or convey the principles to
your hearts, so that the Spirit seals them upon you, then let every
man and woman henceforth sit in silence, put their hands on their
mouths, and never lift their hands or voices or say anything against
the man of God or the servants of God again. But if I fail to do it,
it becomes my duty to renounce all further pretensions to revelations,
inspirations, or to be a Prophet; and I should be like the rest of the
world-a false teacher, be hailed as a friend, and no man would seek my
life. But if all religious teachers were honest enough to renounce
their pretensions to godliness, when their ignorance of the knowledge
of God is made manifest, they will all be as badly off as I am, at any
rate; and you might just as well take the lives of other false
teachers as that of mine, if I am false. If any man is authorized to
take away my life because he thinks and says I am a false teacher,
then, upon the same principle, we should be justified in taking away
the life of every false teacher; and where would be the end of blood?
and who would not be the sufferer?
But meddle not with any man for his religion; and all governments
ought to permit every man to enjoy his religion unmolested. No man is
authorized to take away life in consequence of difference of religion,
which all laws and governments ought to tolerate and protect, right or
wrong. Every man has a natural and, in our country, a constitutional
right to be a false prophet as well as a true prophet. If I show,
verily, that I have the truth of God, and show that ninety-nine out of
every hundred professing religious ministers are false teachers,
having no authority, while they pretend to hold the keys of God's
kingdom on earth, and was to kill them because they are false
teachers, it would deluge the whole world with blood.
I will prove that the world is wrong, by showing what God is. I am
going to inquire after God; for I want you all to know him and to be
familiar with him; and if I can bring you to a knowledge of him, all
persecutions against me ought to cease. You will then know that I am
his servant; for I speak as one having authority.
I will go back to the beginning, before the world was, to show what
kind of a being God is. What sort of a being was God in the beginning?
Open your ears and hear, all ye ends of the earth; for I am going to
prove it to you by the Bible, and to tell you the designs of God in
relation to the human race, and why he interferes with the affairs of
man.
God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted Man, and sits
enthroned in yonder heavens. That is the great secret. If the vail was
rent to-day, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and
who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make
himself visible,-I say, if you were to see him to-day, you would see
him like a man in form-like yourselves, in all the person, image, and
very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image,
and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked,
talked, and conversed with him, as one man talks and communes with
another. (Correction - Numbers 23:19 & John 4:24)
In order to understand the subject of the dead, for the consolation of
those who mourn for the loss of their friends, it is necessary that we
should understand the character and being of God, and how he came to
be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have
imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity, I will
refute that idea, and will take away and do away the vail, so that you
may see. (Correction - Malachi 3:6)
These are incomprehensible ideas to some; but they are simple. It is
the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the
character of God and to know that we may converse with him as one man
converses with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that
God himself the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus
Christ himself did; and I will show it from the Bible. I wish I was in
a suitable place to tell it, and that I had the trump of an archangel,
so that I could tell the story in such a manner that persecution would
cease for ever. What did Jesus say? (Mark 1t, Elder Rigdon.) The
Scriptures inform us that Jesus said, "As the Father hath power in
himself, even so hath the Son power"-to do what? Why, what the Father
did. The answer is obvious-in a manner, to lay down his body and take
it up again. Jesus, what are you going to do? To lay down my life, as
my Father did, and take it up again. Do you believe it? If you do not
believe it, you do not believe the Bible. The Scriptures say it, and I
defy all the learning and wisdom and all the combined powers of earth
and hell together to refute it. (Correction - 1 Corinthians 15:1-4
describes the Christian Gospel)
Here, then, is eternal life-to know the only wise and true God; and
you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and
priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you,-namely, by
going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a
great one,-from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until
you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in
everlasting burnings and to sit in glory, as do those who sit
enthroned in everlasting power. And I want you to know that God, in
the last days, while certain individuals are proclaiming his name, is
not trifling with you or me. (Correction - Matthew 22:30)
These are the first principles of consolation. How consoling to the
mourners, when they are called to part with a husband, wife, father,
mother, child, or dear relative, to know that, although the earthly
tabernacle is laid down and dissolved, they shall rise again, to dwell
in everlasting burnings in immortal glory, not to sorrow, suffer, or
die any more; but they shall be heirs of God and joint-heirs with
Jesus Christ. What is it? To inherit the same power, the same glory,
and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of a God and
ascend the throne of eternal power, the same as those who have gone
before. (Correction: Isaiah 42:8) What did Jesus do? Why, I do the
things I saw my Father do when worlds come rolling into existence. My
Father worked out his kingdom with fear and trembling, and I must do
the same; and when I get my kingdom, I shall present it to my Father,
so that he may obtain kingdom upon kingdom, and it will exalt him in
glory. He will then take a higher exaltation, and I will take his
place, and thereby become exalted myself. So that Jesus treads in the
track of his Father, and inherits what God did before; and God is thus
glorified and exalted in the salvation and exaltation of all his
children. It is plain beyond disputation; and you thus learn some of
the first principles of the Gospel, about which so much hath been
said. (Note: Joseph Smith is in everlasting burnings but is not God.
Revelation 20:15)
When you climb a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step
by step until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles
of the Gospel: you must begin with the first, and go on until you
learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while
after you have passed through the vail before you will have learned
them. It is not all to be comprehended in this world: it will be a
great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the
grave. I suppose I am not allowed to go into an investigation of
anything that is not contained in the Bible. If I did, I think there
are so many over-wise men here, that they would cry "treason" and put
me to death. So I will go to the old Bible and turn commentator to-
day. (Correction: The Christian Gospel is about Jesus Christ not about
a Mormon's attempt at becoming a false god. 1 Corinthians 1:17-18)
I shall comment on the very first Hebrew word in the Bible. I will
make a comment on the very first sentence of the history of creation
in the Bible-Berosheit. I want to analyze the word. Baith-in, by,
through, and everything else. Rosh-the head. Sheit-grammatical
termination. When the inspired man wrote it, he did not put the Baith
there. An old Jew, without any authority, added the word. He thought
it too bad to begin to talk about the head! It read first, "The head
one of the Gods brought forth the Gods." That is the true meaning of
the words. Baurau signifies to bring forth. If you do not believe it,
you do not believe the learned man of God. Learned men can teach you
no more than what I have told you. Thus, the head God brought forth
the Gods in the grand council. (Correction: Isaiah chapter 45)
I will transpose and simplify it in the English language. Oh, ye
lawyers, ye doctors, and ye priests, who have persecuted me, I want to
let you know that the Holy Ghost knows something as well as you do.
The head God called together the Gods and sat in grand council to
bring forth the world. The grand counsellors sat at the head in yonder
heavens, and contemplated the creation of the worlds which were
created at that time. When I say doctors and lawyers, I mean the
doctors and lawyers of the Scriptures. I have done so hitherto without
explanation, to let the lawyers flutter, and everybody laugh at them.
Some learned doctor might take a notion to say the Scriptures say thus
and so; and we must believe the Scriptures; they are not to be
altered. But I am going to show you an error in them. (Note: Joseph
Smith was a fool. Proverbs 10:18)
I have an old edition of the New Testament in the Hebrew, Latin,
German, and Greek languages. I have been reading the German, and find
it to be the most correct translation, and to correspond nearest to
the revelations which God has given to me for the last fourteen years.
It tells about Jachoboy, the son of Zebedee. It means Jacob. In the
English New Testament it is translated James. Now, if Jacob had the
keys, you might talk about James through all eternity, and never get
the keys. In the 21st verse of the fourth chapter of Matthew, my old
German edition gives the word Jacob instead of James. (Note: Joseph
Smith could not read or write German)
The doctors (I mean doctors of law, not of physic,) say, "If you
preach anything not according to the Bible, we will cry treason." How
can we escape the damnation of hell, except God be with us and reveal
to us? Men bind us with chains. The Latin says Jachabod, which means
Jacob; the Hebrew says Jacob, the Greek says Jacob, and the German
says Jacob. Here we have the testimony of four against one. I thank
God I have got this old book; but I thank him more for the gift of the
Holy Ghost. I have got the oldest book in the world; but I have got
the oldest book in my heart, even the gift of the Holy Ghost. I have
all the four Testaments. Come here, ye learned men, and read, if you
can. I should not have introduced this testimony, were it not to back
up the word Rosh-the head, the father of the Gods. I should not have
brought it up, only to show that I am right. (Note: Joseph Smith could
not read or write Greek)
In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the Gods;
and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world and
people it. When we begin to learn in this way, we begin to learn the
only true God and what kind of a being we have got to worship. Having
a knowledge of God, we begin to know how to approach him and how to
ask so as to receive an answer. (Correction: Isaiah 40:13-14)
When we understand the character of God and know how to come to him,
he begins to unfold the heavens to us and to tell us all about it.
When we are ready to come to him, he is ready to come to us.
Now, I ask all who hear me, why the learned men who are preaching
salvation say that God created the heavens and the earth out of
nothing? The reason is, that they are unlearned in the things of God
and have not the gift of the Holy Ghost. They account it blasphemy in
any one to contradict their idea. If you tell them that God made the
world out of something, they will call you a fool. But I am learned,
and know more than all the world put together. The Holy Ghost does,
anyhow; and he is within me, and comprehends more than all the world;
and I will associate myself with him.
You ask the learned doctors why they say the world was made out of
nothing; and they will answer, "Don't the Bible say he created the
world?" And they infer, from the word create, that it must have been
made out of nothing. Now, the word create came from the word baurau,
which does not mean to create out of nothing; (Correction: The Hebrew
word "bara'" does mean to create out of nothing. Genesis 1:1; The
Hebrew word "yatsar" means to form out of existing elements. Genesis
2:7) it means to organize-the same as a man would organize materials
and build a ship. Hence we infer that God had materials to organize
the world out of chaos-chaotic matter, which is element, and in which
dwells all the glory. Element had an existence from the time He had.
The pure principles of element are principles which can never be
destroyed: they may be organized and re-organized, but not destroyed.
They had no beginning, and can have no end. (Correction: God is not an
element. Colossians 1:17)
I have another subject to dwell upon, which is calculated to exalt
man. But it is impossible for me to say much on this subject. I shall,
therefore, just touch upon it; for time will not permit me to say all.
It is associated with the subject of the resurrection of the dead-
namely, the soul, the mind of man, the immortal spirit. Where did it
come from? (Note: Mankind is a lesser trinity in comparison to God. 1
Thessalonians 5:23) All learned men and doctors of divinity say that
God created it in the beginning. But it is not so. The very idea
lessons man in my estimation. I do not believe the doctrine. I know
better. Hear it, all ye ends of the world; for God has told me so; and
if you don't believe me, it will not make the truth without effect. I
will make a man appear a fool before I get through, if he does not
believe it. I am going to tell of things more noble.
We say that God himself is a self-existent being. Who told you so? It
is correct enough; but how did it get into your heads? Who told you
that man did not exist in like manner upon the same principles? Man
does exist upon the same principles. God made a tabernacle and put a
spirit into it, and it became a living soul. [Referred to the old
Bible.] How does it read in the Hebrew? It does not say in the Hebrew
that God created the spirit of man. It says, "God made man out of the
earth, and put into him Adam's spirit, and so became a living
body."
The mind or the intelligence which man possesses is coequal with God
himself. I know that my testimony is true; hence, when I talk to these
mourners, what have they lost? Their relatives and friends are only
separated from their bodies for a short season: their spirits which
existed with God have left the tabernacle of clay only for a little
moment, as it were; and they now exist in a place where they converse
together the same as we do on the earth. (Note: Within three months
Joseph Smith was humbled. Matthew 23:12)
I am dwelling on the immortality of the spirit of man. Is it logical
to say that the intelligence of spirits is immortal, and yet that it
had a beginning? The intelligence of spirits had no beginning, neither
will it have an end. That is good logic. That which has a beginning
may have an end. There never was a time when there were not spirits;
for they are co-equal with our Father in heaven. (Note: Within three
months Joseph Smith was humbled. Luke 14:11)
I want to reason more on the spirit of man; for I am dwelling on the
body and spirit of man-on the subject of the dead. I take my ring from
my finger and liken it unto the mind of man-the immortal part, because
it has no beginning. Suppose you cut it in two, then it has a
beginning and an end; but join it again, and it continues one eternal
round. So with the spirit of man. As the Lord liveth, if it had a
beginning it will have an end. All the fools and learned and wise men
from the beginning of creation, who say that the spirit of man had a
beginning, prove that it must have an end; and if that doctrine is
true, then the doctrine of annihilation would be true. But if I am
right, I might with boldness proclaim from the housetops that God
never had the power to create the spirit of man at all. God himself
could not create himself. (Note: Within three months Joseph Smith was
humbled. Luke 18:14)
Intelligence is eternal and exists upon a self-existent principle. It
is a spirit from age to age, and there is no creation about it. All
the minds and spirits that God ever sent into the world are
susceptible of enlargement.
The first principles of man are self-existent with God. God himself,
finding he was in the midst of spirits and glory, because he was more
intelligent, saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have
a privilege to advance like himself. The relationship we have with God
places us in a situation to advance in knowledge. He has power to
institute laws to instruct the weaker intelligences, that they may be
exalted with himself, so that they might have one glory upon another,
and all that knowledge, power, glory, and intelligence which is
requisite in order to save them in the world of spirits. (Correction:
Revelation 4:11)
This is good doctrine. It tastes good. I can taste the principles of
eternal life, and so can you. They are given to me by the revelations
of Jesus Christ; and I know that when I tell you these words of
eternal life as they are given to me, you taste them, and I know you
believe them. You say honey is sweet, and so do I. I can also taste
the spirit of eternal life. I know it is good; and when I tell you of
these things which were given me by inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
you are bound to receive them as sweet, and I rejoice more and more.
(Note: Sadly, people believed the fables of Joseph Smith. 2 Timothy
4:3-4)
I want to talk more of the relation of man to God. I will open your
eyes in relation to your dead. All things whatsoever God of his
infinite wisdom has seen fit and proper to reveal to us, while we are
dwelling in mortality, in regard to our mortal bodies, are revealed to
us in the abstract and independent of affinity of this mortal
tabernacle; but are revealed to our spirits precisely as though we had
no bodies at all; and those revelations which will save our spirits
will save our bodies. God reveals them to us in view of no eternal
dissolution of the body, or tabernacle. Hence the responsibility-the
awful responsibility that rests upon us in relation to our dead; for
all the spirits who have not obeyed the Gospel in the flesh must
either obey it in the spirit or be damned. (Correction: Hebrews 9:27)
Solemn thought!-dreadful thought! Is there nothing to be done? No
preparation-no salvation for our fathers and friends who have died
without having had the opportunity to obey the decrees of the Son of
Man? Would to God that I had forty days and nights in which to tell
you all! I would let you know that I am not a "fallen prophet." What
promises are made in relation to the subject of the salvation of the
dead? and what kind of characters are those who can be saved, although
their bodies are mouldering and decaying in the grave? When his
commandments teach us, it is in view of eternity; for we are looked
upon by God as though we were in eternity. God dwells in eternity, and
does not view things as we do.
The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is
to seek after our dead. (Correction: Acts 1:8) The Apostle says, "They
without us cannot be made perfect;" for it is necessary that the
sealing power should be in our hands to seal our children and our dead
for the fulness of the dispensation of times-a dispensation to meet
the promises made by Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world
for the salvation of man.
Now, I will speak of them. I will meet Paul half-way. I say to you,
Paul, you cannot be perfect without us. It is necessary that those who
are gone before and those who come after us should have salvation in
common with us; (Correction: Romans 1:20) and thus hath God made it
obligatory upon man. Hence God said, "I will send Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he
shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of
the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a
curse."
I have a declaration to make as to the provisions which God hath made
to suit the conditions of man, made from before the foundation of the
world. What has Jesus said? All sins, and all blasphemies, and every
transgression, except one, that man can be guilty of, may be forgiven;
and there is a salvation for all men, either in this world or the
world to come, who have not committed the unpardonable sin, there
being a provision, either in this world or the world of spirits. Hence
God hath made a provision that every spirit in the eternal world can
be ferreted out and saved (Correction: Luke 16:19-31), unless he has
committed that unpardonable sin which cannot be remitted to him either
in this world or the world of spirits. God has wrought out a salvation
for all men, unless they have committed a certain sin; and every man
who has a friend in the eternal world can save him, unless he has
committed the unpardonable sin. And so you can see how far you can be
a saviour. (Correction: Isaiah 45:21)
A man cannot commit the unpardonable sin after the dissolution of the
body, and there is a way possible for escape. Knowledge saves a man;
and in the world of spirits no man can be exalted but by knowledge. So
long as a man will not give heed to the commandments, he must abide
without salvation. If a man has knowledge, he can be saved; although,
if he has been guilty of great sins, he will be punished for them. But
when he consents to obey the Gospel, whether here or in the world of
spirits, he is saved. (Correction: John 3:16)
A man is his own tormentor and his own condemner. Hence the saying,
They shall go into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. The
torment of disappointment in the mind of man is as exquisite as a lake
burning with fire and brimstone. I say, so is the torment of man.
I know the Scriptures and understand them. I said no man can commit
the unpardonable sin after the dissolution of the body, nor in this
life until he receives the Holy Ghost; but they must do it in this
world. Hence the salvation of Jesus Christ was wrought out for all men
in order to triumph over the Devil; for if it did not catch him in one
place, it would in another; for he stood up as a Saviour. All will
suffer until they obey Christ himself.
The contention in heaven was-Jesus said there would be certain souls
that would not be saved; and the Devil said he could save them all,
and laid his plans before the grand council, who gave their vote in
favour of Jesus Christ. (Correction: Psalm 2:7-8) So the Devil rose up
in rebellion against God, and was cast down, with all who put up their
heads for him.
All sins shall be forgiven except the sin against the Holy Ghost; for
Jesus will save all except the sons of perdition. What must a man do
to commit the unpardonable sin? He must receive the Holy Ghost, have
the heavens opened unto him, and know God, and then sin against him.
(Correction: The unpardonable sin is the rejection of the Biblical
Jesus Christ. John 15:26) After a man has sinned against the Holy
Ghost, there is no repentance for him. He has got to say that the sun
does not shine while he sees it; he has got to deny Jesus Christ when
the heavens have been opened unto him, and to deny the plan of
salvation with his eyes open to the truth of it; and from that time he
begins to be an enemy. This is the case with many apostates of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
When a man begins to be an enemy to this work, he hunts me; he seeks
to kill me, and never ceases to thirst for my blood. He gets the
spirit of the Devil-the same spirit that they had who crucified the
Lord of Life,-the same spirit that sins against the Holy Ghost. You
cannot save such persons; you cannot bring them to repentance: they
make open war like the Devil, and awful is the consequence.
(Correction: Matthew 7:15)
I advise all of you to be careful what you do, or you may by-and-by
find out that you have been deceived. Stay yourselves; do not give
way; don't make any hasty moves: you may be saved. If a spirit of
bitterness is in you, don't be in haste. You may say that man is a
sinner. Well, if he repents, he shall be forgiven. Be cautious: await!
When you find a spirit that wants bloodshed-murder, the same is not of
God, but is of the Devil. Out of the abundance of the heart of man the
mouth speaketh.
The best men bring forth the best works. The man who tells you words
of life is the man who can save you. I warn you against all evil
characters who sin against the Holy Ghost; for there is no redemption
for them in this world nor in the world to come.
I could go back and trace every subject of interest concerning the
relationship of man to God, if I had time. I can enter into the
mysteries; I can enter largely into the eternal worlds; for Jesus
said, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14th
chap., 2nd v.) Paul says, "There is one glory of the sun, and another
glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star
differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of
the dead." (1st Cor. 15th chap., 41st v.) What have we to console us
in relation to the dead? We have reason to have the greatest hope and
consolations for our dead of any people on the earth; for we have seen
them walk worthily in our midst, and seen them sink asleep in the arms
of Jesus; and those who have died in the faith are now in the
celestial kingdom of God. And hence is the glory of the sun.
(Correction: 2 Corinthians 5:1-8)
You mourners have occasion to rejoice (speaking of the death of Elder
King Follett); for your husband and father is gone to wait until the
resurrection of the dead-until the perfection of the remainder; for at
the resurrection your friend will rise in perfect felicity and go to
celestial glory, while many must wait myriads of years before they can
receive the like blessings; and your expectations and hopes are far
above what man can conceive; for why has God revealed it to us?
I AM AUTHORIZED to say, by the authority of the Holy Ghost, that you
have no occasion to fear; for he is gone to the home of the just.
Don't mourn; don't weep. I know it by the testimony of the Holy Ghost
that is within me; and you may wait for your friends to come forth to
meet you in the morn of the celestial world. (Note: Deuteronomy 18:22)
Rejoice, O Israel! Your friends who have been murdered for the truth's
sake in the persecution shall triumph gloriously in the celestial
world, while their murderers shall welter for ages in torment, even
until they shall have paid the uttermost farthing. I say this for the
benefit of strangers. (Note: Mormons are not Jews)
I have a father, brothers, children, and friends who have gone to a
world of spirits. They are only absent for a moment. They are in the
spirit, and we shall soon meet again. The time will soon arrive when
the trumpet shall sound. When we depart, we shall hail our mothers,
fathers, friends, and all whom we love who have fallen asleep in
Jesus. There will be no fear of mobs, persecutions, or malicious law-
suits and arrests; but it will be an eternity of felicity.
A question may be asked-"Will mothers have their children in
eternity?" Yes! yes! Mothers, you shall have your children; for they
shall have eternal life; for their debt is paid. There is no damnation
awaits them, for they are in the spirit. But as the child dies, so
shall it rise from the dead, and be for ever living in the learning of
God. It will never grow: it will still be the child, in the same
precise form as it appeared before it died out of its mother's arms,
but possessing all the intelligence of a God. Children dwell in the
mansions of glory and exercise power, but appear in the same form as
when on earth. Eternity is full of thrones, upon which dwell thousands
of children reigning on thrones of glory, with not one cubit added to
their stature. (Correction: 2 Corinthians 5:1)
I will leave this subject here, and make a few remarks on the subject
of baptism. The baptism of water, without the baptism of fire and the
Holly Ghost attending it, is of no use: they are necessary and
inseparably connected. An individual must be born of water and the
spirit in order to get into the kingdom of God. (Correction: A person
must be first-born into this world to be born-again eternally.) In the
German, the text bears me out the same as the revelations which I have
given and taught for the last fourteen years on that subject. I have
the testimony to put in their teeth. My testimony has been true all
the time. You will find it in the declaration of John the Baptist.
[Reads from the German.] John says, "I baptise you with water; but
when Jesus comes, who has the power (or keys), he shall administer the
baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost." Great God! where is now all the
sectarian world? And if this testimony is true, they are all damned as
clearly as anathema can do it. (Correction: Luke 23:39-43) I know the
text is true. I call upon all you Germans who know that it is true to
say aye. (Loud shouts of aye.) (Note: Most foreigners who were Mormons
were from England not Germany.)
Alexander Campbell, how are you going to save people with water alone?
For John said his baptism was good for nothing without the baptism of
Jesus Christ. "Therefore, not leaving the principles of the doctrine
of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the
foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of
the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of
resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we
do, if God permit." (Heb. 6th chap., 1st to 3rd v.)
There is one God, one Father, one Jesus, one hope of our calling, one
baptism. All these three baptisms only make one. Many talk of baptism
not being essential to salvation: but this kind of teaching would lay
the foundation of their damnation. (Correction: 1 Corinthians 1:14-18)
I have the truth, and am at the defiance of the world to contradict me
if they can.
I have now preached a little Latin, a little Hebrew, Greek, and
German; and I have fulfilled all. I am not so big a fool as many have
taken me to be. The Germans know that I read the German
correctly.
Hear it, all ye ends of the earth-all ye priests, all ye sinners, and
all men. Repent! repent! Obey the Gospel. Turn to God; for your
religion won't save you, and you will be damned. I do not say how
long. There have been remarks made concerning all men being redeemed
from hell; but I say that those who sin against the Holy Ghost cannot
be forgiven in this world or in the world to come: they shall die the
second death. Those who commit the unpardonable sin are doomed to
Gnolom, to dwell in hell, worlds without end. As they concoct scenes
of bloodshed in this world, so they shall rise to that resurrection
which is as the lake of fire and brimstone. Some shall rise to the
everlasting burning of God; for God dwells in everlasting burnings
(Correction: Revelation chapter 4); and some shall rise to the
damnation of their own filthiness, which is as exquisite a torment a
the lake of fire and brimstone.
I have intended my remarks for all, both rich and poor, bond and free,
great and small. I have no enmity against any man. I love you all; but
I hate some of your deeds. I am your best friend; and if persons miss
their mark, it is their own fault. If I reprove a man and he hates me,
he is a fool; for I love all men, especially these my brethren and
sisters.
I rejoice in hearing the testimony of my aged friends. You don't know
me: you never knew my heart. No man knows my history. (Correction:
Numerous authors have documented the sinful life of Joseph Smith) I
cannot tell it: I shall never undertake it. I don't blame any one for
not believing my history. If I had not experienced what I have, I
could not have believed it myself. I never did harm any man since I
was born into the world. My voice is always for peace.
I cannot lie down until all my work is finished. I never think any
evil, nor do anything to the harm of my fellow-man. When I am called
by the trump of the archangel and weighed in the balance, you will all
know me then. I add no more. God bless you all. Amen.
Note: Joseph Smith was dead less than three months after gave this
blasphemous sermon.
2 Peter 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even
as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in
destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring
on themselves swift destruction.
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