The description that Josiah Quincy, then president of Harvard University, gave of the Prophet Joseph Smith as he was in the spring of 1844, just over a month before the Martyrdom, is perhaps one of the most famous given by someone not a member of the church. It is certainly one which is still sporadically referenced in from General Conference talks to books and blogs, and for good reason. As statements go, it is a powerful one:
It is by no means improbable that some future text-book, 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 to-day 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.
Figures of the Past, pg. 390 of the e-book edition.
Quincy, though he goes on to speak disdainfully of the Prophet’s religious claims, nevertheless recognizes the inherent greatness of the man himself, referring to him as an “extraordinary man” (pg. 392, PDF) who was “endowed with that kingly faculty which directs, as by intrinsic right[.]” (pg. 395, PDF) But my favorite part of Quincy’s profile of the Prophet actually comes at the end of the chapter. After he has finished describing his last conversation with the Prophet, which included his political ideals and Presidential candidacy, Quincy freely admits his inability to provide any kind of neat summary of the Prophet that would explain him to those readers who were not Latter-day Saints:
Who can wonder that the chair of the National Executive had its place among the visions of this self-reliant man ? He had already traversed the roughest part of the way to that coveted position. Born in the lowest ranks of poverty, without booklearning and with the homeliest of all human names, he had made himself at the age of thirty-nine a power upon earth. Of the multitudinous family of Smith, from Adam down (Adam of the “Wealth of Nations,” I mean), none had so won human hearts and shaped human lives as this Joseph. His influence, whether for good or for evil, is potent to-day, and the end is not yet.
I have endeavored to give the details of my visit to the Mormon prophet with absolute accuracy. If the reader does not know just what to make of Joseph Smith, I cannot help him out of the difficulty. I myself stand helpless before the puzzle.
Figures of the Past, pgs. 413-414 of the e-book edition.
Quincy’s comments about being puzzled by Joseph Smith and his accomplishments calls to mind the benediction of the King Follet Discourse, in which the Prophet himself declared:
You don’t know me – you never will. You never knew my heart. No man knows my history. I cannot do it. I shall never undertake it. I don’t blame you 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 have been born in the world. My voice is always for peace. I cannot lie down until my work is finished. I never think evil nor think anything to the harm of my fellowman. When I am called at the trump and weighed in the balance, you will know me then. I add no more. God bless you. Amen.
King Follet Discourse, pg. 17
How are we to understand the puzzle of this man whose history is beyond telling in so many ways?
Men like Quincy, born to wealth, prestige, and position, could not understand how this man “in a checked coat, dirty white pantaloons, [and] a beard of some three days growth” (source) with no formal education could organize tens of thousands, build a city from scratch, and draw the devotion of hundreds of thousands who had never met him or heard his voice while men like Quincy, with all the privileges of education, wealth, and experience, never could rise above the level of base local politics. How could this low born ruffian attract so many people to him when men of Quincy’s upper class character couldn’t do anything of the sort? Likewise, the Prophet’s own followers could not truly understand him either. They had a better understanding of his prophetic calling than men like Quincy did, but their religious devotion to the man could as easily obscure who he was as it could reveal about him. In their eyes he could be as easily idolized as he was demonized by his opponents. In either case the real man and his real history are lost.
Which is a shame, because the accomplishments of Joseph Smith are absolutely phenomenal. Even the briefest recitation of his main achievements and ideas should be enough to set your head spinning. There is a reason (or rather many reasons) for why the Latter-day Saints claim, without any false modesty or arrogance, that Joseph Smith is the second greatest man in history, behind Jesus Christ and ahead of all the great leaders of men. This article is my attempt to highlight just some of the characteristics and accomplishments of Joseph Smith which justify this claim.
Joseph the Theologian
To start off with one of the obvious ones, he is one of America’s premiere theologians, ecclesiastical philosophers, and religious leaders. Though reviled by traditionalists like Quincy, who described the religious tenets of so-called Mormonism as “monstrous,” (Figures, pg. 397, PDF), the reality is that the theology that Joseph Smith taught solves every problem of classical Christian theology.
For example, there is no Problem of Evil in Latter-day Saint theology. By rejecting the classical ideas that created the problem in the first place, Joseph completely circumvents it altogether. As shocking as it may be to some, Joseph taught that human agency is an eternal principle which God cannot violate and that human imperfection comes not in our creation by God but in our existence. We are eternal intelligences, co-eternal with God Himself. But we are imperfect, the flaws which lead to us doing evil are part of our nature. He did not create us with these imperfections, they were part of us eternally before He began any of His work with us. Heavenly Father, desiring for us to have as much joy and possible, instituted the only plan by which we may be perfect, have those flaws removed, and become beings of absolute Light and Truth.
That plan is this mortal life and the path through it to an existence free of imperfections, evil, and suffering, to divinity, is the Atonement of Christ. Evil exists naturally within our very nature and we act it out upon one another with the only thing making anything else possible being God’s Plan of Salvation. Therefore, He is not the source of evil, we are. He did not create evil, it is a manifestation of our natural imperfection. He is the only source for us to become anything other than evil. God is the source of all good and all He does is designed to ultimately make us good as well. Evil exists not because of God, but because we have yet to accept Christ and live His commandments.
And this is but one example. Joseph’s theology solves numerous other problems in Christianity.
By dismissing the convoluted pagan Greek philosophies masquerading as Christianity that are at the heart of the Doctrine of the Trinity – the conflict ridden history of which is masterfully told in When Jesus Became God – Joseph Smith was able to not only read the scriptural texts as plainly as possible, but to accept them at face value. When Genesis 1 says the Gods formed the Earth from pre-existing matter, Joseph did not need to bend over backwards to try and fit the philosophies of men – the singular errors of monotheism and creatio ex nihilo (creation from nothing) – into what the scriptural text actually says. He could simply accept what the scripture actually says.
Ironically, for all the claims by a variety of Christians and Jews to believe nothing but what the biblical text says, Joseph Smith is the only one who actually did so and they have lambasted and vilified him for it. Nevertheless, by doing so he corrected some of the most basic errors which are still plaguing Christianity today – such as the prevalence of people who think the world is only 6,000 years old and that it was created in six literal days. The tension between Christianity and science? Almost nonexistent in the theology of Joseph Smith. And, to the degree that the Saints are influenced by the Prophet’s teachings over the culture they grow up in, it isn’t present in LDS theology either.
One final example before I move to the next topic: Joseph’s teaching that there were Gods involved in the Creation, and that the creative act was begun by the Head God of the Gods calling them together to council about the work they would do is absolutely astounding to modern Christians. But when Joseph taught there was a Father God, a Mother Goddess, and their Firstborn Son who stood as the leader of all the sons of God, he was teaching a doctrine that is not only embedded in the foundation of the biblical texts (though obscured by millennia of mistranslation and misinterpretation) he was also enunciating the primeval doctrines of the religion we now know as Judaism before they were intentionally altered by those who wished to eliminate these truths from the religious practice of the Israelites, from scripture, and from history itself. Joseph taught, and Latter-day Saints today believe, the authentic religion of the ancient Hebrews and share their understanding of the Gods and Goddess they worshiped.
I could fill pages with examples of Joseph’s radical theology and the numerous ways that his keen mind cut the Gordian knot of Christian error. People have already done so. I will merely end this section by saying that the more I have studied the philosophy, thinking, and theology of Joseph Smith the more breathtaking they have become. Josiah Quincy may have felt comfortable (may have even felt it necessary out of defensiveness) to dismiss Joseph as a “vulgar… bourgeois Mohammad” (Figures, pg. 399, 401 PDF), but given the insights he had and the way they not only solve the most desperate problems of Christianity (and modern society) and open up entirely new vistas of metaphysics to be explored and understood, I thank God that He has led me to the answers so many others miss because they are simply unwilling to listen.
Joseph the Organizer
Where Quincy could find very little to say about Joseph’s theological and revelatory principles, he had a much more positive opinion of Joseph’s organizing and architectural skills. In a letter Quincy wrote to his wife, he remarks not only on the temple, but also the Prophet’s ability to organize men:
We passed the whole day in his [Joseph Smith’s] society, & had one of the most extraordinary conversations I ever participated in, he preached for us, prophesied for us, interpreted hieroglyphics for us, exhibited his mummies and took us to his temple which he is now erecting on a most majestic site of hewn stone. Every inhabitant dedicates the labor of his tenth day to its structure, it will be finished within a year & whether Mormonism expires or not, must remain a massive memorial of its existence for centuries.
May 16, 1844, Letter
Quincy also had this to say about the temple and the city of Nauvoo:
The clouds had parted when we emerged from the chamber of curiosities, and there was time to see the Temple before dinner. General Smith ordered a capacious carriage, and we drove to that beautiful eminence, bounded on three sides by the Mississippi, which was covered by the holy city of Nauvoo. The curve in the river enclosed a position lovely enough to furnish a site for the Utopian communities of Plato or Sir Thomas More; and here was an orderly city, magnificently laid out, and teeming with activity and enterprise.
…The Mormon Temple was not fully completed. It was a wonderful structure, altogether indescribable by me. Being, presumably, like something Smith had seen in vision, it certainly cannot be compared to any ecclesiastical building which may be discerned by the natural eyesight.
Figures of the Past, pgs. 388, 389 of the e-book edition.
Indeed, Joseph’s vision was indescribable, all the moreso because Quincy and those like him could not understand how the Prophet could organize his people so effectively. They could see the results – the wonderful temple, the well organized and successful city – but they, like so many today who say they like Mormons but hate Mormonism, were blind to the cause. They were too busy denouncing Joseph as insane or absurd to truly understand his skills as a leader of men and the power of the ideas he taught to organize men long after he was gone. They didn’t, perhaps even couldn’t, see how you can’t have the one without the other. Put simply, you cannot have Mormons without Mormonism and their religious beliefs are the well spring of everything that makes the Saints so successful, then and now. It was why Joseph could transform the empty wilderness into cities like Nauvoo wherever the Saints went.
And it wasn’t just in Nauvoo that Joseph’s city and community planning skills were put to the test and proved successful. His basic plans for the city became the template for hundreds of cities all across the western United States as the Saints used it as their model everywhere they went. Long after his death, Joseph’s city planning skills, and the opportunities they created for building a large, beautiful, green city, are still being felt by and benefiting the people of today. Joseph’s legacy as a city planner and civic leader is literally written across the face of the American Mid-West as the organizing structure of the lives of millions of people and they don’t even realize it.
As a leader of men, Joseph didn’t need to compel anyone to do anything. His ideas were compelling enough. I believe this classic story as told by then Elder John Taylor illustrates what I mean:
“Some years ago, in Nauvoo, a gentleman in my hearing, a member of the Legislature, asked Joseph Smith how it was that he was enabled to govern so many people, and to preserve such perfect order; remarking at the same time that it was impossible for them to do it anywhere else. Mr. Smith remarked that it was very easy to do that. ‘How?’ responded the gentleman; ‘to us it is very difficult.’ Mr. Smith replied, ‘I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves.’”
Because the princes (and presidents) of the Gentiles can only accomplish what they will through the exercise of domination and control (see Matthew 20:25-29) they can only ever do anything through great difficulty, through the mud and blood of democracy and the organized hatred of partisan politics. As a result they never could understand how Joseph could organize people the way he did without their tools of governmental control. The Prophet’s organizational power came not through the exercise of power, but by the influence of his ideas upon the minds and hearts of men and this baffled non-members then and now. This is why they always resort to describing the Saints as idiots or brainwashed, despite all the evidence otherwise. Incapable of seeing anything other than their own views as the “intelligent ones” they have to dismiss all others as stupid or controlled in order to justify their own actions and belief systems. Yet it is just those ideas, the ideas that the Prophet taught, which make such mass peaceful organization and action possible without violence of any kind.
Thus, because of their arrogance, the ability of the Prophet to lead and the ability of the Saints to seemingly accomplish the impossible surpassed the comprehension of his critics (then and now.) Those who could only ever gain influence through the exercise of compulsion could never understand the power and purity of Joseph’s ideas and the clarity that his vision imparted to others then and now. Therefore his critics could not understand how he could lead by virtue and not through dominion. In this way, Joseph was a modern exemplar of the tradition Roman virtues, particularly auctoritas, the spiritual authority that one had in society as an exemplar of the industriousness, piety, and service to the community expected of a leading citizen. Joseph was a leading man because he lead by example an that example was a powerful light that drew others to him. That Quincy could not understand this is particularly ironic given that he certain had a classical education in the history and ideals of Greece and Rome.
Unfortunately, it isn’t simply the Josiah Quincys of the world that overlook the organizational genius of Joseph Smith. Many of the Saints do as well. It is a typical refrain among members that Joseph Smith could never have led the Saints across the Plains and settled the Intermountain West as effectively as Brigham Young did. But this seems like hogwash to me. During his lifetime Joseph led Zion’s Camp, whose organization into companies with captains at their head all the way up to the Prophet himself who was in charge of everything, would be copied by Brigham Young on the western trek to settle in the Salt Lake Valley. Joseph built up Kirtland, organized towns in Missouri, and, of course, founded Nauvoo in Illinois, all from scratch. If Joseph could found, build, and lead a city like Nauvoo, which rivaled Chicago in its day, then he certainly could have built something like Salt Lake City. I love Brigham Young and think that he gets a far worse reputation than he deserves and that he deserves far more accolades than he gets, but Joseph Smith was easily his equal in every way, including as an organizer and leader of men. Brigham never did anything that he didn’t first see Joseph do.
Joseph the Politician
As a politician there is at least much to love about the Prophet’s insights as there is to question. He clearly understood the full dangers of slavery decades before many others and proposed an inspired answer to those dangers long before they would have ever become problems that threatened to shred the nation and cost hundreds of thousands of lives to solve. On this, Quincy himself wrote:
Smith recognized the curse and iniquity of slavery, though he opposed the methods of the Abolitionists. His plan was for the nation to pay for the slaves from the sale of the public lands. “Congress,” he said, “should be compelled to take this course, by petitions from all parts of the country; but the petitioners must disclaim all alliance with those who would disturb the rights of property recognized by the Constitution and foment insurrection.”
It may be worth while to remark that Smith’s plan was publicly advocated, eleven years later, by one who has mixed so much practical shrewdness with his lofty philosophy. In 1855, when men’s minds bad been moved to their depths on the question of slavery, Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson declared that it should be met in accordance “with the interest of the South and with the settled conscience of the North. It is not really a great task, a great fight for this country to accomplish, to buy that property of the planter, as the British nation bought the West Indian slaves.” He further says that the” United States will be brought to give every inch of their public lands for a purpose like this.”
We, who can look back upon the terrible cost of the fratricidal war which put an end to slavery, now say that such a solution of the difficulty would have been worthy a Christian statesman. But if the retired scholar was in advance of his time when he advocated this disposition of the public property in 1855, what shall I say of the political and religious leader who had committed himself, in print, as well as in conversation, to the same course in 1844? If the atmosphere of men’s opinions was stirred by such a proposition when war-clouds were discernible in the sky, was it not a statesmanlike word eleven years earlier, when the heavens looked tranquil and beneficent ?
Figures of the Past, pgs. 411-412 of the e-book edition. Added paragraphization.
Not only did the Prophet Joseph Smith foresee the coming American Civil War and one of its chief causes nearly thirty years before it came, he also understood clearly how to avert that same disaster decades before it came. What is more, Joseph had proposed the ending of slavery by 1850. Imagine that if instead of the Compromise of 1850, which only drove the nation farther towards the fratricidal mass murder of civil war, we got a comprehensive and effective plan to end slavery over a decade before such a war broke out? The entire future history of America would have been different and undoubtedly better.
Even in places where I disagree with Joseph Smith (namely, his desire to expand the powers of the President to respond to rebellions in the states) it is wonderful to note that he understood the proper way to go about gaining such power was by formally altering the U.S. Constitution and not just assuming that power because he thought he could or should do so. Such respect for the system not only avoids the unchecked expansion of power that we see in the American Presidency today, it also preserves the foundation of republican democracy that so many claim to cherish. While the Prophet wished a greater power given to the President, surely based on the experiences with ethnic cleansing the Saints had suffered in Missouri, it is important to understand that he knew there was only one proper way to go about gaining such power. He was unwilling to violate the constitutional system even if meant the changes he thought should occur did not take place. In a political society today where so many pay lip service to concepts of republicanism and democracy only to try and get away with as much as possible once in power, Joseph’s example as both a true democrat and a true republican are a standard for all of us to follow.
I also can’t help but approve of his advice about what to do with lying politicians:
We have had Democratic Presidents, Whig Presidents, a pseudo-Democratic-Whig President, and now it is time to have a President of the United States; and let the people of the whole Union, like the inflexible Romans, whenever they find a promise made by a candidate that is not practiced as an officer, hurl the miserable sycophant from his exaltation, as God did Nebuchadnezzar, to crop the grass of the field with a beast’s heart among the cattle.
History of the Church, Pg. 207, emphasis in original.
Joseph the Seeker of Justice
Much is said today about how broken the American justice system is, and rightfully so. Clark Neily, a former constitutional lawyer, went so far as to describe it as “a raging dumpster fire of injustice.” And it seems that a majority of Americans agree with the sentiment if not the hyperbole. And a prime example of this defectiveness is the mass incarceration rate:
While the overuse of imprisonment is a problem of endemic proportions around the world, the human rights violations associated with this practice are particularly egregious in the context of the United States. With an incarceration rate five to ten times that of other western democracies, the United States has less than five percent of the world’s population, but our country’s prisoners account for one quarter of the global prison population. Indeed, the U.S. incarcerates more people—in absolute numbers and per capita—than any nation in the world, including the far more populous China, which rates second, and Russia, which rates third.
Overcrowding and Overuse of Imprisonment in the United States, pg. 1
China is a totalitarian Socialist regime operating literal concentration camps and Russia is an autocratic system where one man has held the lion’s share of power for over two decades now and is infamous for using that power to eliminate his political enemies. Yet it is the United States of America, the land of the free, that has more people imprisoned in cages of concrete and steel. The United States, the so-called land of liberty, beats and cages more of its people than the most authoritarian and tyrannical regimes on Earth.
How disturbing is that?
Yet, here, as in many other places, Joseph Smith’s foresight shines brightly. This is what he had to say about prisons during his presidential campaign in 1844:
Petition your State Legislatures to pardon every convict in their several penitentiaries, blessing them as they go, and saying to them, in the name of the Lord, Go thy way and sin no more.
Advise your legislators, when they make laws for larceny, burglary, or any felony, to make the penalty applicable to work upon roads, public works, or any place where the culprit can be taught more wisdom and more virtue, and become more enlightened. Rigor and seclusion will never do as much to reform the propensities of men as reason and friendship. Murder only can claim confinement or death. Let the penitentiaries be turned into seminaries of learning, where intelligence, like the angels of heaven, would banish such fragments of barbarism. Imprisonment for debt is a meaner practice than the savage tolerates, with all his ferocity. “Amor vincit omnia.” [Love conquers all.]
Imagine a justice system focused on teaching wisdom, virtue, and enlightenment to criminals, that taught them work skills while also having them accountable for their actions. Imagine a justice system were the only people imprisoned would be murderers. Imagine a place were education is the main way that society responds to crime, where reason and friendship are the foundations of how criminals are to be treated, where love, not punishment, is the guiding principle. Well, Joseph did not simply imagine such a system, he was an advocate for it. He understood the difference between a justice system and a legal system from personal experience and promoted the former over the latter.
If we followed his counsel now then today’s problems of mass incarceration, and the destruction it has wrought across large sections of American society, would simply not exist if only because there would be no place to put those convicted of crime. This may not completely fix the problem of overcriminalization, but at least it would not destroy the lives of those convicted of crimes. After all, it is far easier to maintain your home and your job and your family if your punishment is showing up to a work crew on the weekend to fill potholes instead of being sentenced to life in prison because you have 1.5 ounces of marijuana on you when arrested.
Joseph, who himself had spent time in prison for victimless “crimes” and meaningless charges not only understood in a very personal way the problems of modern prisons, but also how to solve them. That he was ultimately murdered while in jail on trumped up charges should give those of us who claim to follow the truths revealed through him even greater impetus to put his teachings about the legal system into action today. He wanted to turn the legal system into a justice system by applying the principles of Christianity for the salvation of offenders, not simply for their punishment or destruction. So should we.
Joseph The Martyr
The events of the Martyrdom are well known among members of the church. I cannot surpass Dr. Truman G. Madsen’s retelling of the fateful events that led up to the murder of the Prophet and his brother Hyrum, as well as the attempted murder of Elders John Taylor and Willard Richards. I can only recommend that you go read or listen to Dr. Madsen’s remarks yourself.
That said, I have always been arrested by the Prophet’s words on his way to Carthage, where he knew he would die. He had been in hiding, but his friends urged him to go and face the legal challenges laid before him for his role as mayor of Nauvoo in the destruction of the tabloid, The Nauvoo Expositor. Even when those outside of Nauvoo were threatening to murder him and exterminate the Saints, Joseph’s friends believed that, just as he had escaped all previous threats upon his life, he would escape this one as well. In the end, knowing what was coming, knowing that going to Carthage would mean his death, he acquiesced to their wishes, saying:
“If my life is of no value to my friends it is of none to myself.
…I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am calm as a summer’s morning. I have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward all men. If they take my life I shall die an innocent man, and my blood shall cry from the ground for vengeance, and it shall be said of me ‘He was murdered in cold blood!’ ”
History of the Church, Pgs. 549, 555
The courage contained in these lines startle me every time I read them and inspires within me the deepest awe. Here is an example of true manhood that deserves every ounce of respect and awe that we can muster for it.
I have known some to dispute Joseph’s claim, saying that because in the last desperate instance he used a gun to defend his brother and his friends from their murderers that Joseph does not qualify as a martyr. This is foolishness. In the quote above we see him both unarmed and submissive, willingly going to what he knows is certain death, to face the murderous hatred of the militia and die for his beliefs. By every definition of the word martyr, Joseph was one. He willingly went to Carthage even though he knew he would be killed there. He was killed because of his beliefs, because he proclaimed the Restoration and taught the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ no matter what all the forces of Earth and Hell said about him or did to him. Unable to frighten him from his mission they decided to murder him. And he suffered all his life in the cause of Christ. No matter what the agenda driven may say to try and deny him his martyr’s crown, Joseph gave his life and earned his reward in Heaven, where his soul mingles with all the souls of the martyrs, crying to God for justice against those who have shed their blood. (see Revelation 6:9)
To make a brief side note, it was not a mob that murdered Joseph, but a well ordered state militia carrying out a predetermined plan to cold-bloodedly murder him. As Dallin H. Oaks, then President of BYU, and Dr. Marvin Hill, then Professor of American History, wrote in their seminal historical and legal examination of the event:
The murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith at Carthage, Illinois, was not a spontaneous, impulsive act by a few personal enemies of the Mormon leaders, but a deliberate political assassination, committed or condoned by some of the leading citizens in Hancock County [Illinois].
Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith, Pg. 6
It was “a carefully planned military-style execution” rather than a “spontaneous mob uprising,” and we need to remember to speak of it accordingly in order to speak of it truthfully.
Back to the larger point though, it is not just his death that makes Joseph a martyr and worthy of the honor of a martyr’s crown. It is his life. As the third definition of what a martyr is explains, a martyr is one “who undergoes severe or constant suffering.” Does this not in many ways describe Joseph’s life as a prophet?
From an early age, when most of us are still watching cartoons and playing with our toys, Joseph was about the Lord’s work and being prepared for prophethood. Even at fifteen men reviled him for telling the truth of what he had seen and experienced in the First Vision. (see Joseph Smith-History 1:21-26) His entire life was spent in the Lord’s service. He and his wife, pregnant with twins at the time, were driven from her father’s home and from their families, persecution in New York forcing them to flee to Ohio in the middle of winter with little more to their names than the clothes on their backs. Just as they were getting established in Kirtland they were violently driven from there to Missouri, where they left behind both the frying pan and the fire only to descend into Hell itself.
Escaping the Pit of Liberty Jail, once again with nothing, he and the Saints end up in a malarial swamp – a mosquito infested bywater bend of the Mississippi that Joseph directed the transformation of into a thriving metropolis. Again and again in his life Joseph gave up everything – wealth, family, friends, even children – to serve God. He and his family were victims of hatred, violence, brutal genocidal violence all there lives because they would not forsake the Gospel of Jesus Christ or their callings to do His work. It was not just that he sacrificed his life when he was shot that makes him a martyr. It is that he sacrificed his life all his life to serve God that makes him a martyr. He was a living martyr and such love and devotion to Christ has certainly earned him his crown in Heaven and all the honors we can bestow upon his name upon the Earth.
Final Thoughts
In any list of the greatest men of history, of course Christ is number one. But who would make up that distant second place? George Washington? Thomas Jefferson? Winston Churchill? Napoleon Bonaparte? Julius Caesar? Madame Curie? Catherine the Great? Einstein? Gandhi? Martin Luther King, Jr.?
For me, the answer is obvious.
I have only been able to touch upon a few things here to explain why this is so, and likely other members could name many more reasons why he deserves such a place in history. I could with more space and time, but I have neither here. Instead, I will end by quoting the majestic description of the Prophet’s work written by then Elder John Taylor in the obituary that he wrote after the Martyrdom and which is today recorded as Doctrine and Covenants 135:3. It reads:
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 times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!
He lived great. He died great. And the work he did in the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is destined to transform all the world in the most positive way possible. There is no greater legacy and accomplishment than that.
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.
I remember when I first sang that hymn while investigating the church. I remember the thrill that it brought to my soul, the powerful witness the Spirit bore to me through the hymn’s lyrics. I still thrill at it whenever we sing it. Not just because of the stirring tune it is sung to, but because of the stirring truths it teaches about the Prophet’s character and accomplishments as the Lord’s servant. Reverence, respect, honor, and praise, are all things duly given to one of the greatest and most important men in all of history, the Prophet Joseph Smith. I look forward to the time that I can express my gratitude to him in person.