August 7, 2023 • 47 mins
Gerrit Dirkmaat speaks at the 11th annual birthday dinner for the Interpreter Foundation on how the only reason we have Joseph Smith's teachings intact today is because of Brigham Young's loyality and hard work in making sure that as others were attacking Joseph's teachings, Brigham preserved them.
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Episode Transcript
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Faithful Saints is dedicated to promoting truthand correct principles based on the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. Though the truth isoftentimes uncomfortable, the Savior said it will
set us free. The truth,no matter how uncomfortable, leads to Christ.
Visit us at Faithful Saints dot comfor more. We live in a
time where there is this very oddattempt to try to separate Joseph Smith and
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Brigham Young. Now that was anattempt from the beginning, obviously once Joseph
was murdered. But you actually havemultiple apostate groups in the Inner Mountain West
whose primary argument is that, well, Joseph Smith was a true prophet,
just Brigham Young wasn't. And that'sthe reason why I'm like now the new
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prophet. And you also have otherother groups that have made arguments that you
know, run the gamut of allkinds of a historical as well as nefarious
things, um, even to thepoint of, well, you know,
Brigham Young actually conspired with Willard Richardsand John Taylor to kill Joseph Smith.
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That's that's what actually happened. Now, no worry that we don't have any
actual historical basis for that. Butit sure sounds good if if it doesn't
sound good at all, um um. And one of the ways you can
tell that people that are making thatargument are not historians is they haven't actually
read what these men thought of Josephand their private interactions. Um. I
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know we're going a little late.So if anyone, if anyone has to
get up and leave, I canthen feel like it's because it's late,
so you can just I'll be like, Oh, they're not they don't think
this is boring. It's just thatthey have to go. Angie, my
wife, Why I'm your ride?I don't even know how it's uh wow
anyway, but so please please feelfree to go if you need to go.
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I know that that time constraints areyou know, time constraints plus me
speaking is early exit. Um.This I titled this Sweeter than Honey Brigham
Young's devotion to Joseph Smith's teachings afterthe martem I get asked all the time
because I worked on the jose Smithpapers and have written about Joseph a lot.
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You know, what, what's Jose'spersonality like? And one of the
ways that I've always felt to characterizeJoseph Smith's personality is Joseph was a lover
of other people. I mean,he just loved other people. He was
happiest when he was around other people. He got excited about doctrines that meant
more people were going to be saved. Joseph loved people. He just did.
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If you had to characterize Brigham Young'spersonality, the most essential aspect of
it is Brigham Young loved Joseph Smith, the most essential aspect to who he
was. He was as devoted toJoseph Smith as any person who has ever
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been a member of this church.And it actually is a pretty important aspect
of our history that he was.I mean, much of what I'm going
to talk about it's familiar to everybody. I don't have time to do a
big deep dive, not that anyonewants. No one ever goes anywhere saying,
oh I hope they do a deepdive, and it's really boring long
talk. So I'll just making aboring long talk. After Josemuh's murder,
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you know, reading about how menlike Wilfred Woodruff and Brigham Young found out
is it's devastating. They're out ontheir missions and they start to hear it
peacemeal right. One of them speaking. They're they're arguing that Joseph Smith,
you know, should be president,because Joseph's running for president. They're doing
these electioneering meetings, and after onemeeting, a man you know, stands
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up and says, I know onegood reason why Joseph won't be president.
Oh what's that? Well, hewas shot and then and they showed him
the paper where he was killed.Wilfrid Woodruffe, you know, tries to
stay strong for a couple of days, but then he when he meets Brigham
Young, they both essentially retire toa room where they just cried. I've
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never shed a tear since I heardthe death of the Province from Wolford Wood's
journal until this morning. But mywhole soul has felt nerved up like steel.
Then Brigham Young arrived in Boston thismorning. I walked to them to
fifty seven Temple Street and called uponsister voice. Brigham Young took the bed
and I the big chair, andhere veiled my face and for the first
time gave vent and my grief andmourning for the prophet and patriarch of the
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church, Joseph and Hiram Smith whowere murdered by a gentile mob after being
bathed by a flood of tears.I felt composed. They personally felt this
loss, but they didn't have awhole lot of time to deal with that
because they then had to hurry andget back to Nauvoo, deal with the
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fall out of Joseph Smith and hiresmith murder. Now, of course,
part of the problem that is goingto happen after Joseph is murdered is that
the Corm of the Twelve Apostles didnot always have the same standing in the
Church that it that it does certainlynot now. I mean, in fact,
there wasn't a Corm of the TwelveApostles until February of eighteen thirty five,
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So there was a growth in thatcalling. When they're first called,
they're called to be a traveling highcouncil. Now that doesn't sound like a
very big deal to you, becauseyou know, I mean, today there's
you know, so many steaks,and every steak has twelve high councilman,
and there's some have been former account. I mean, no one brags to
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anyone today saying, you know,like you know, I was a high
councilman. Oh, well, becareful, you know, I mean,
yeah, I mean they're falling offthe back of trucks everywhere essentially today,
right that I apologized everyone as ahigh councilman, but they know there's lots
of them, you know, Imean, but in the early Church,
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well, there aren't any stakes.Right. So you have the High Council
of the seat of Government, youhave the High Council there in Kirtland,
and that's a pretty powerful position becausethere's no whether the High Council. When
the Corn of the Twelve first called, they're called to be a traveling High
Council, which meant that they hadauthority everywhere outside of the headquarters of the
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church. And so that was theprimary point of their calling, was to
regulate the affairs of the church aswell as preaching the gospel everywhere outside of
the headquarters of the church. Nowthat's going to come in very handy when
Joseph is imprisoned along with other churchleaders in Richmond and then Liberty Jail in
Missouri, because as the Saints aregathering in Quincy and being scattered out of
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Missouri, it is the Quorum ofthe Twelve who are in charge. Because
it's literally their role to be incharge outside of the headquarters of the church.
Over the course of the time thatBrigham and other members of the corm
of the Twelve, Sir Joseph wasgoing to start giving them more and more
and more responsibilities. You see someof this through Document Covenant, section one
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twenty six, where even though thecalling of an apostle is to go out
and preach, Brigham Young is toldby the Lord, You're you're gonna sit
for a while. You're not goingto be going out the way that you
always have been. We actually havea really kind of cool moment in August
of eighteen forty one where you actuallysee this transition where you see Joseph Smith
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giving a different type of power tothe Korum of the Twelve m It's a
sixteen August eighteen forty one conference andit's a conference that have been called and
Joseph Smith is not there. Hewas supposed to be presiding at it.
People show up to it and he'snot there, and instead the person presiding
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is Brigham Young. Now everyone knows, no, the apostles don't have authority
inside of Navo. Joseph from thefirst presidence he has authority. The apostles
have authority outside. And so whenBrigham gets to the stand, you know,
the first thing he does is prettynervously. He wants to tell everyone,
but, hey, I'm doing thisbecause Joseph told me to do it.
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That he hoped that no one couldview him and his brethren as aspiring
because they'd come forward to take partof the proceedings before them. For he
could assure the brethren that nothing couldbe farther from his wishes and that of
his corn than to interpose with thechurch affairs in Zion and her stakes.
Again, they were supposed to haveauthority outside of the stakes up there in
Nabu, for he had been inthe vineyards so long they become attached to
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foreign missions. And nothing could inducehim to retire therefrom and attend to the
affairs of the church at home.But a sense of duty, the requirements
of Heaven and the revelations of Godto which he would always submit, be
the consequence what it might. Andthe brethren of his corum responded amen.
So it was a conference in thefirst two halfs. And the reason why
Joseph was gone is the preceding nighthis young boy Don Carlos had passed away,
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and so he was actually burying DonCarlos that morning, and instructed Brigham
Young to preside over this meeting.And so when Joseph came back for the
afternoon session of that meeting. Thisis the minutes of that meeting. President
Joseph, now arriving, proceeded tostay to the conference at considerable length.
The object of the president meeting inaddition to what President Brigham Young had stated
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in the morning, and he saidthat the time had come when the twelve
should be called upon to stand intheir place next to the first Presidency and
attend to the settling of immigrants andthe business of the church at the stakes,
and assist to bear off the Kingdomvictorious to all nations. And as
they had been faithful in a bornthe burden of the heat of the day,
that it was right that they shouldhave an opportunity providing them something for
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themselves and families, and at thesame time relieve him so that he might
attend to the business of translating.So you actually see this active transition.
Then, of course, all throughouteighteen forty one, forty two, forty
three Joseph is relying on the corumof the twelve more and more and more
and more. Of course, afterjose must murder, there are other claimants
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to the throne, so to speak. The one that is most conspicuous to
most Laturday Saints, but the onethey've they've heard about most is is Sydney
Rigden. And there's going to bethis meeting that is called where Sydney Rigden
is going to present the reasons whyhe believes he should be a guardian for
the church, that he should bethe leader of the church. Brig Young
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and his journal will write this afterthis meeting August eighth. This day is
long to be remembered by me.It is the first time that I've met
with the church at Navu since brothersJoe and him was killed, and that
occasion on which the church was calledsomewhat painful to me. Brother Rigden had
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come from Pittsburgh to see the brethrenand to find out if they would sustain
him as the leader of the Saints. I persevered a spirit to hurry business,
to get a trustee and trust anda presidency over the church and priesthood
or no priest had right or wrongthis grieved my heart. Now Joseph is
gone. It seemed as though manywanted to draw off a party and be
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leaders. But this cannot be.The Church must be one, or they
are not the lords. The saintslooked as though they had lost a friend
that was able and willing to counselthem in all things. In this time
of sorrow. My heart was filledwith compassion. After Brother Rigden had made
a long speech to the saints,I should think five thousand, I arose
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and spoke to the people. Myheart was swollen with compassion towards them,
and the power of the Holy Ghost, even the spirit of the prophets,
and I was enabled to comfort thehearts of the saints. In the afternoon,
according to my request, that peopleassembled by the thousands, and I
laid before them the order of theChurch and the power of the Priesthood.
And after a long laborer's talk ofabout two hours in the open air,
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with the wind blowing, the churchesof one heart and one mind, and
they vote to follow the korum ofthe twelve. Brigham will write to his
daughter. The power of the priestWood was explained, and the order there
of, on which the whole churchlifted up their voices and hands for the
twelve to move forward and organize thechurch and lead it as Joseph lead it,
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which is our indispensable duty to dothis. Again, is the driving
force of Brigham Young in his leadershipof the Korum of the Twelve is that
there's a lot of things that JosephSmith has introduced into navou that are not
exactly popular. And in fact,very quickly after Smith has murdered there are
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people who begin to argue that someof the doctrines Joseph Smith had taken too
far. Now, of course,the one that easily and quickly comes to
everyone's mind is the idea of pluralmarriage, but that's not the only one.
Even at this time, the wholeidea of temple ordinances are not as
universally well received as they certainly aretoday. But I'll talk about that more
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in a minute. Sydney Riggin's goingto persist even after the vote of the
church, and again from Brigham Young'sjournal, had an interview with Brother Sidney
Rigden. He said that he hadpower and authority above the twelve, and
he did not consider himself bound totheir counsel in the evening, the Twelve
had a counsel with him again,and he was far from being or feeling
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in interest with the Twelve, Andafter a long conversation, Brother Rigdon's license
was demanded. He would not givethem up and said the church had not
been led for a long time bythe Lord and that he should tell all
about the secrets of the church.So one of the one of the reasons
why Brigham is going to react sonegatively to Sidney Rigdon is because part of
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Rigdon's argument is Joseph made mistakes.Part of the church hasn't been led by
the Lord for a long time.Actually, Joseph's gone off down the wrong
way. Luckily I'm here, SidneyRiggin, and I'm going to be able
to fix things. Of course,Riggin's primary argument was that he was a
member of the first Presidency and thereforehe had authority. The first Presidency had
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authority. He willed that to Joseph, and he's actually undermined in his argument
in a very unexpected way. Hisargument is I'm a member of the first
Presidency, I therefore have authority overthe corn of the Twelve. But in
eighteen forty two, Orson Pratt hadWell had been caught up, his wife
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had been caught up in the JohnC. Bennett, Imbruglio and Orson.
Pratt had for a time apostatized,and in his absence, amas A Lineman
had been called to the Krum ofthe twelve. And then Pratt came back,
and in fact, when they werere baptizing Pratt, Pratt said that
he would rather lie down and diethan to not have his apostleship back,
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which doesn't really seem like the mosthumble thing in the world. But they
agree to have it back. Whatthe problem is, it's the Korum of
the twelve, it's not the Corumof the thirteen. And they've already called
Lynman back to it. So whatJoseph does is he makes amas A Lineman
a member of the first Presidency.So he actually had actually three members of
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the first Presidency at the time.He had William Law and amas Alman as
well as well as Sidney Rington.Well, that ends up working out really
well in his favor because here theprimary argument of Rigdon is, well,
I'm a member of the first Presidencyand I'm the one who has the authority.
And Lyman stands up and says I'ma member of the first Presidency too,
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and I know that the Corn ofthe twelfth has authority. That's pretty
hard to beat. That is anargument, right, I mean, there's
not one First Presidency member who justhad more power than the other. In
the first conference that will follow thisin September of eighteen forty four, Brigham
is going to speak very directly tothe saints. Like I said, it's
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not something we generally think about,but there was a lot of people that
were nay saying Joseph and the thingsthat Joseph taught, in part the fact
that Joseph Smith had been teaching veryradical things about salvation, about work for
the dead, about leaving the nationand moving to another country, about who
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God is and how God came tobe God. Those things were not universally
well received. It's hard for usto put it in that mindset because many
of these things are some of ourfavorite doctrines. But when Joseph Smith first
taught Doctrine and Covenant section seventy six, lots of people left the church over
that. They left the church becauseif Joseph's going to teach that there isn't
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actually an eternal hell, a Protestantstyle hell, where people burn in hell
forever. But in fact that everyonewill have suffered to the enough by the
end of the millennium that they willall be resurrected and go to a kingdom
of glory. And that kingdom isso great and so glorious you can't possibly
describe it. People said, nope, all right, okay, with the
Book of Mormon, but not notthat you know. They drew as Joseph
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said, they drew stakes. SoBrigham will say this, the business of
this day will result in this thing. All those who are for Joseph and
Hiram, the Book of Mormon,the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, the
Temple, and Joseph's measures for thetwelve, and they being one party,
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will be called upon to manifest theirprinciples openly and boldly. Then we will
wish all those who are the oppositeparties to enjoy the same liberty and is
to be as decided and as bold, and to show their principles as boldly
and be as decided as they arein their secret meetings and in their private
councils. If they are for SydneyRigdon and believe he is the man to
be the first president and the leaderof the people. We wish them to
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manifest it as freely as they doin other places, because this will form
another party. All I ask ofmen or women to do is this,
if they believe in Sydney Rigdon andwant to be led by them, I
want they should be bold enough togo with him and not say they want
to tarry with the church. Theysay they believe in Joseph Smith, and
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at the same time all their operationsare to destroy and to tear down what
he has built up back. Brighamwill in October make this even more clear.
It is the test of our fellowshipto believe and confess that Joseph lived
and died a prophet of God ingood standing. For Brigham, that was
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a test of fellowship at the time. None of this well. I think
Joseph went wrong with plural marriage.I'm pretty sure he's wrong about the idea
of eternal stealings. I don't knowabout these endowment things. The test of
fellowship was do you accept everything thatJoseph Smith taught him? And I don't
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want anyone to fellowship of the twelvewho says that Joseph has fallen. If
you don't know who's right it isto give revelations, I will tell you
it is I. There has neverhas a man stood between Joseph and the
twelve, and unless we aposthetize,there never will. If ironman had lived,
he would have stood between Joseph andthe twelve, but he would have
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stood for Joseph. Did Joseph ordaineany man to take his place? He
did? Who was it? Itwas Hiram, but hire Ram fellow martyr
before Joseph. If Hiram had lived, he would have acted for Joseph,
and then we would have gone up. The twelve would have set down at
Joseph's right hand and hire him onthe left. The Bible says God is
set in the church first apostles,then prophets afterwards, because the keys in
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power the apostleship are greater than thatof the prophets. Sidney Rigdon cannot hold
the keys without Joseph. If hehad held the keys with Joseph and been
faithful, he would have been withus. If the Twelve did not apostatize,
they carry the keys of the kingdomwherever they go. He concluded by
requesting all the brethren to tarry withus into all this businesses through. So
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you had a very clear sense earlyon. You have these different claimants,
these different people that are claiming thatthey know a better way, but all
of them are claiming. But wealso need to need to just change a
little bit of what Joseph was teaching. Oh yes, yes, Joseph Smith
was a prophet. He was wrongabout this, but he was right about
the other things. And the natureof Brigham Young and the Korum of the
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Twelve is Nope, everything that Josephtaught is what we believe. And if
it's popular, that's what we believe. And it's not popular, that's what
we believe. And if we're persecutedfor it, that's what we believe.
And if people love it. Wedon't make a decision on what we believe
on the basis of what people want. We make it on the basis of
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what Joseph taught. End of story. In fact, Brigham you can really
see personally where he kind of gothis dander up before. When they're talking
to the Council of fifty minutes,they're talking about just how rough things have
been in the United States, andlook, they've been terrible in eighteen forty
five. The lack of legal protectionof the Saints in Illinois is ridiculous.
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They're following up the allowance of themurder of Joseph and Hiram by allowing mobs
to burn and destroy homes, sendSaints into a being refugees, killing people
with of course, no prosecutions thatyield anything, if there aren't at all.
And while they're talking in about gettingready to leave, there are some
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pretty some pretty rough feelings felt towardsboth the Illinois government and the government of
the United States, which is standingidly by and watching this happen. And
Alman Babbott, who was a politician, he was a lifelong Democratic politician,
in fact, had served in theIllinois legislature. He tried to, you
know, calm some folks down.He's like, you know, we got
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to be careful what we say,because you know, some people said some
things in Missouri that you know,weren't taken very well. And the next
thing you know, you know,there's a mob, and the meeting goes
on. Brigham Young stops the meeting, stops the meeting to say when Elder
Babbott was speaking about inflammatory speeches.I know that he had Joe in his
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mind, and no man can everspeak against Joseph in my presence, but
I shall tell him of it.That gives you an idea of who Brigham
was in Iowa. When he chastisesthe saints, one of the things he
says to them is that they neededto stop their fornications. They needed to
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stop their lying, they need tostop their adulteries, they need to stop
their evil speaking. And then hesays, brother Joseph bore with you these
things because he was a merciful man. But I will not Now. Brigham
did have mercy. But at thesame time, the biggest issue for Brigham
Young always was whether or not peoplewere loyal to Joseph Smith. In fact,
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if you had to find a don'tknow if you want to call it
a character flaw for Brigham. ButBrigham was more than willing to allow people
to repent. If you read readhis history in Utah, people are repent
all the time. People aposthetize,become a big problem, Come back,
repent, it's fine. The peoplethat Brigham struggles with are the people who
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spoke against Joseph. Those are theones that, yeah, he lets him
back into the church, but Idon't know that he ever fully comes to
terms with it. That's the casewhen when it comes with Thomas Marsh,
when Thomas Marsh returns, he struggleswith it. You know, you're the
one who said that Joseph Smith wasa false prophet, You're I mean,
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And he struggles with it. Ashe's talking in this council fifty meeting,
Brigham says, to carry out Joseph'smeasures is sweeter to me than honey or
the honeycomb. While Joseph was living, it seems as though he was hurried
by the Lord all the time,and especially for the last year. It
seemed that he laid out of workfor this church will last them twenty years
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to carry out. And I usedto wonder why it was that he used
to be hurried so, not supposingthat he was going to die. But
now I understand the reason. Withregard to the propriety of going ahead in
this thing, we're all of onemind with regard to how and when and
where we begin we want to investigate. I have no doubt or dubity on
my mind with regard to the Lordcommunicating the knowledge, no more than I
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have and I can walk home Brigham'sface with four major issues at the immediately
after the murder of Joseph Smith.The first is apostacy from win it inside
the church. You have multiple peoplethat are attempting to create their own branches,
trying to lead people away. Youalso have people that are opposing certain
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aspects and teachings that Joseph had andthey're leaving. And you then have mob
violence and threats from without the church. So you have this internal dissension and
you also have external pressures all happeningat the same time. And among all
of these things, Brigham knows thething that Joseph was very, very concerned
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about was completing the temple so thatthe ordinances could be administered, and so
Brigham is going to keep that up. In fact, there are going to
be people who tried to counsel him, hey, we probably shouldn't be spending
so much time and money on thetemple. And again Brigham's responses, Joseph
said, built the temple, sothat's what we do, right. And
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then the other thing that Joseph hadset out but that was not popular,
was it was Joseph who had cometo the determination that the Saints needed to
leave the country, that they neededto leave that city of Nabu that they'd
built, and not just leave toanother state, not just travel to another
state where they could be driven outin a few years, that they needed
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to leave the nation itself. Nowthat was not a popular plan, certainly
if you're one of the people whohas to leave. And so there are
a lot of people who thought,well, now that Joseph's gone, you
know, maybe we can just makenice people there Navo and everything will be
fine. And Brigham is adam him. Joseph said we need to leave.
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So we're going to leave, andso they have to make those preparations.
You find the various claimants to thethrone, so to speak, they are
arguing for something separate. Sidney Riggandoesn't need doesn't believe that they need to
complete the temple, nor does hebelieve that they need to move to the
west like Joseph tadd In fact,he wants to take people back to Minanga
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Hill, Pennsylvania, and in factdoes he leads his group that follow him
back there. William Marks is goingto claim he's the president. Remember that,
you know, someone being a stakepresident today again, is you know,
no one you know is rushing upto get their autograph. But in
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the time where there's not very manystakes, and you are the stake president
of the stake at the seat ofgovernment, which is Navo, you have
authority. He's going to claim fora time that he should be the leader
of the church, or that heshould be a guardian at least until Joseph
Smith's son was old enough. Probablyone of my favorite people who leaves during
this time just because it's got greathair, is I mean it really does?
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I mean look at that. Imean, this is George Adams.
So George Adams. He is goingto he's a member of the Council of
fifty and shortly after this time isgoing to decide that he's actually the thirteenth
Apostle. He didn't get called tobe an apostle, but he is one,
and that he has actually more authoritythan the corn of the twelve.
And so he's gonna follow James Strangefor a little while, and then he's
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going to establish a church called theChurch of the Messiah. He's gonna lead
a colony to Palestine and they aregoing to settle there for about a year
and a half and then it doesn'twork out as well as as they thought
it would. Of course, Andmost people know James Strang and his attempt
to his claim that he has aletter from Joseph Smith that makes some the
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profit if anything happens. Of allof them, of course, Strang has
the He gathers the most followers.Um. There are followers that go come
from all over the place. Butin all of these cases, these different
offshoot groups, they primarily gained theirfollowers outside of Navu. They primarily gained
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them from the branches. They primarilygained them from recent converts that are coming
from England. And you can seewhy because as a strange eye, you
can meet someone on the docks inBoston as they're getting off a ship and
say, oh, you you're moreyes, Joseph Smiths of probably, well,
you know you don't want to goto Navu bringing me. I'ms crazy.
He's teaching that man can become likeGod. He's teaching that that that
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you know, you can have morethan one wife. And what those are
things that weren't being taught, youknow, by the missionaries. It wasn't
the second discussion. Um, anduh, but inside of Navo, there's
actually very few people that will look. There are several hundred, but that's
not very many considering the level overten thousand in the area. Right in
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RYM Young's journal you get a discussionabout these various apostheses as they're getting ready
to leave the country. If anyonewishes the fall of Sydney, William Smith,
James Strang, I say go away, and we'll cut them off from
the church and let them take theircourse for salvation. I know where the
power of the priests a lies.We may have to suffer repeated wrongs in
consequence of those falsehoods that are andwill be circulated about us. But my
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faith is that God rules the elements, and the prince and power the air
will be stayed. While the Lordwill fight our battles. As in the
days of Moses. We will seedeliverance brought to pass. Although there may
be bloodshed frequently. Still this mustneeds be that the scripture might be fulfilled.
It is but a small matter forus to ask to lay his life
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down if he is only prepared toreceive his change. But when he takes
his exit from this world, hegoes into the society of disembodied spirits,
and there become one of those thatwait the resurrection of the body. If
humility and faithfulness has characterize your lives, you will find your state much better
than in the present. I saythe time will come, and many of
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you shall see when the purpose ofthe Lord will be carried out upon the
heads of those who have committed ungodlydeeds upon the saints. They will not
be permitted to run at large asthey do now. Neither will you be
permitted to use the name of Deityin veins they have done in times before.
Again a little bit later, Iwas informed this morning and some persons
that were advocating the folly and nonsenseof James Strang. Now, if they
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wish to follow him, let themgo. They're at liberty as they please.
I want no person to follow uscontrary to their wishes. Therefore,
let no one go off and saythat they're in danger of their lives amongst
us, because we different opinion.This is not so. Mister Strang represents
Joseph Smith as the Stone and Shepherdof Israel, and that he Strang is
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his sessor in the office. Thisis certainly an absurd idea, and it
comes in contact with Joseph's you relativeto the matter, josephs saying in the
Book of Doctrine and Covenants, andso does the Scriptures, that Christ is
the shepherd and Stone of Israel,and not Joseph Norstrain. However, I'll
not consume time in talking such nonsense. It's not worth the short journey of
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a man's nose. Yet Yet thereare those that try on the way,
and attire on the way, andwish to rest, to rest, they
think that they've gone far enough.But those that endure the end, I
think will get the crown. Whenthe time comes our pioneers to start,
then there will be no cessation ofgathering, For we must gather up the
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house of Israel. Every man willhave his penny for his services. Let
there be no feelings about this matter, should you not be first. We
are laying a foundation for you allthat will bring you all in remembrance before
the ward in his own due time, and none of you will be neglected.
In his journals, I'll skip throughsome of this, But in his
journals, Brighan has a conversation withm. Ruben Miller. Ruben Miller is
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most famous, I think to LaturdaySaints, because he's the one who records
Oliver Cowdrey's testimony the Book of Mormonwhen he returns to the church. Well,
Ruben Miller had been very much affectedby the James Strang's claims, and
so he comes to meet with Brigham. I had a conversation with Ruben Miller
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of Ottaway. It is ottaway.I don't know why he always spells it
outaway. I'm just assuming that's howhe says it. So he Brigham is
he is not a great speller.So anyway, he being considerably bewildered by
Strang's new fangled revelation, and renderedhim almost devoid of reason, although apparently
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honest in what he was doing,and said that the word of the Lord
would decide satisfactorily to him. WhereuponI said, thus saith the Lord unto
Reuben Miller, through Brigham Young,that Strang is a wicked and corrupt man,
and that his revelations are as falseas he is. Therefore, turn
away from this folly, and neverlet it be said of Ruben Miller that
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he ever was led away and entangledby such nonsense. Thus saying, I
left him my time being too preciousto be spent in hearing and even talking
about such trash. And again theundercurrent of this, I mean, someone
might read this and say, well, you know said, there's Brigham just
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trying to hoard power to himself.Well you notice what the touchstone of it
was, though Strang isn't endorsing everythingthat Joseph Smith tom. And so for
Brigham, part of the reason whyis if you are not going to embrace
everything that Joseph tom, then youaren't. For me. Brigham of course
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is going to embrace it. Imean, he's going to teach many of
the same things that Joseph teaches thatyou won't find being taught in these multiple
apostate branches that break away from theChurch. For instance, God is an
exalted man, he's an eternal man, he's never lasting man, and he
is God. Now that is nota commonly taught thing, certainly not taught
among these various groups that will formtheir own their own following. And so
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it may be said of all thosewho will be exalted from this earth who
received their celestial ordination. Brigham knowsthat this is not a popular doctrine.
I know, I know it's acommon doctrine to us today. But there's
a reason why William Law led outwith that in the novel Expositor wasn't just
about plural marriage. It certainly was, But he spends a lot of time
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talking about how Joseph is teaching thatGod became God. He's teaching that we
can become like God. That's strikingat the heart of blasphemy to a Christian
questioning the act of God, theself existence of God. Anyway, Brigham
says, we know when we believeabout him, and how we know what
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the scriptures say about him. Stilltoo many it grades upon their ears to
say to them that our Father andour God was once really a man as
we are as I am to thinkthat he's from everlasting, ever lasting.
He is, as far as weknow, from all eternity to all eternity.
But there's a great many things thatwe can't comprehend. Yet we are
not capacitated to comprehend them. Ilove that That's how he explains the pre
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existent life. Says that you can'tyou aren't capacitated to understand it. So
when you think what doesn't make senseto me, yeah, you can't.
You won't be able to. Ofcourse, one of the major things that
Brigham does is, even though itis not popular, He's going to follow
Joseph Smith's teaching to leave the country. And there are many who wonder whether
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or not that's going to happen afterJoseph's murder, brigging me on very quickly
on the begin that process of lookinginto going to the Republic of Texas,
going to Mexico, possibly going tothe Oregon territory that's jointly occupied. In
any case, Brigham's mantra was thathe was going to follow the prophet Joseph
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Smith. That jose Smith's murder didnot stop the work that Joseph Smith had
laid out, whether it was templeordinances, whether it was controversial doctrines,
whether it was a massive move acrossa continence. If Joseph Smith taught it,
then Brigham Young was going to endorseit. He saw himself as fulfilling
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whatever it is that Joseph taught.And that's the reason why I said,
carrying out Joseph's measures were sweeter thanhoney to me now in closing, because
I know we got to go andI could talk a lot more but I
mean, it's boring enough as itis. I think I'm going to jump
to something that I'd like to sharewith you. We're talking awful lot about
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these, um, these various leadersof the church. But at the last
minute, as I was sitting therereading dinner, I felt impressed to add
this story that isn't isn't Brigham's um, and it isn't anyone you've ever heard
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of before. I'm I'm in aroom with a bunch of geniuses. So
I guess, okay, a lotof you have probably heard of them before.
But um, this is Emmeline AndersonBottom. She's one of the people,
her and her husband who followed BrighamYoung after Joseph Smith was murder Now,
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unlike some people who weren't willing toleave Navu and to go, her
and her family were very willing toleave Navu, but her husband was appointed
and assigned to stay in Navu afterthe main body of the Saints left,
to help take care of the peoplethat were still arriving, to help get
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some of the poor, to helpthem get further off, to help sell
some of the properties that they couldsell, and in September of eighteen forty
five, the democratic violence in Illinoisboiled over to the point where a mob
was assembled of hundreds of men whoattacked the remaining Laturday Saints that were there
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in Navu mL And. Anderson's husband, William and her fourteen year old son
Augustus were two of the people killedin the Battle of Navu. He said
goodbye to his mom that morning.Augustus did and said, Mom, I'm
going to protect you, and acannon ball killed him. Who were shooting
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cannonballs into a How many people doyou think we're arrested for that? How
many people tried? How many peopleconvicted? Nobody? The Saints are driven
and scattered and murdered. And there'sm Line. The reason why she doesn't
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have her husband and her son anymore. It's not because she's wicked. It's
not because she didn't have faith.Literally, because they followed the prophet's commandment
to stay. They could have left, but they stayed. So you can
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only imagine then that m Line wouldbe bitter and upset everything in this world
taken away from it. To makematters worse, she contracts rheumatoid fever and
is struggling physically, really for theremainder of her life. She has two
young little girls, and that's what'sleft of her family. She writes a
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letter in eighteen forty nine. She'sstill not able to make it out west,
but she writes a letter from Iowato her family. Now her family,
you can tell from this letter hascompletely cut her off because she joined
the church. In fact, thefirst few pages of this letter, she's
simply saying, I keep writing toyou, and you don't ever answer her.
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You know, I'm hoping that you'llrespond. But to give you an
idea of where she stood in herfaith, I want to read the last
part of this letter. She said, I have not married since the death
of my William, and I donot feel as though I could ever live
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live in such a small branch ofthe church, in a little house of
my own, with my two children. We've had to offer many privations,
many many privations in this life.But it will be made up to me
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most fortuitously and important request I makeof you, and I beg of you
to grant me this one favor,some one of you to take and to
find out the names of our progenitorsas far back as you can, and
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to send these to me in aletter. Do this and God shall reward
you for it. I will writeyou every particular also when I hear from
you, Amlin Anderson. This womanlost everything because she believed. And what
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was her request to her family,I need you to send me the genealogy
because we're going to baptize these people. She didn't say that that was the
undercurrent of it. She believed herfaith was not based upon the external events
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that sorely affected her life. She'dlost her health, she'd lost her home,
she'd lost her husband, she'd losther son. But she hadn't lost
her faith. And I think that'sone of the things that we forget in
the constant rush to criticize Brigham Youngas a prophet of the church. The
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reason why we have a temple ceremonyis because Brigham Young refused to give it
up. The reason why there arewashings and annointings is because Brigham Young refused
to give it up. The reasonwhy we believe an eternal marriage at all
because Brigham Young refused it up.The reason why we believe that the work
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for the dead will encompass all ofthe children of our heavenly Father is because
unlike all of these various apostate groups, Brigham Young refused to give up.
Brigham was a man who was devotedto the prophet of the Restoration. As
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Brigham said of Joseph, he wasa man, and he had foibles like
all other men, but he wasperhaps the best man who ever lived.
Similarly, Brigham Young has his faults, they are blared from the rooftops.
At the same time, he's thesame man who utterly refused to just leave
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the poor behind a nauvoo when allthe rich were begging him to. Brigham
said, we're not going to leaveanyone just because they can't afford to make
the journey. I want to testifyto you that I know that Joseph Smith
was a prophet of God, thathe saw the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.
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That is the reason why I believethat Jesus is my savior, because I
know that Joseph Smith saw him.And I know that Joseph Smith received revelations
about the Temple, about doctrines thatare unique to what we believe today.
And we have those because Brigham Youngwas a defender of our faith. He
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was not tossed around by every windof doctrine. He was solid and steadfast
and adam and at least, accordingto one source, dies with Joseph's name
on his lips, saying, Joseph, Joseph, Joseph. I am grateful
for the sacrifices of women like Emiland Anderson, so that I have faith
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for men like Brigham Young who stayedthe course, for all those saints who
struggled and suffered, so that wecan defend the faith that they gave us.
And I say that in the nameof Jesus christing them. I think
you can understand why we wanted Garrettto speak to us tonight, and I
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hope you can understand why we areso committed to a project that defends Brigham
Young. And the twelve is thelegitimate successors to Joseph Smith, the people
who kept it going and who refusedto give it up despite all the pressures
to do that. I want toshare my testimony two those things are true.
Joseph was a prophet of God,and that Brigham Young was his legitimate
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and divinely chosen successor. And Isay that in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen. Now, we are sograteful to you that you have come,
and we've asted snow to offer thebenediction tonight, and thank you very
much, and we wish you safetravel back home.
Faithful Saints is dedicated to promoting truthand correct principles based on the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. Though the truth isoftentimes uncomfortable, the Savior said it will
set us free. The truth,no matter how uncomfortable, leads to Christ.
Visit us at Faithful Saints dot comfor more. We live in a
time where there is this very oddattempt to try to separate Joseph Smith and
(00:30):
Brigham Young. Now that was anattempt from the beginning, obviously once Joseph
was murdered. But you actually havemultiple apostate groups in the Inner Mountain West
whose primary argument is that, well, Joseph Smith was a true prophet,
just Brigham Young wasn't. And that'sthe reason why I'm like now the new
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prophet. And you also have otherother groups that have made arguments that you
know, run the gamut of allkinds of a historical as well as nefarious
things, um, even to thepoint of, well, you know,
Brigham Young actually conspired with Willard Richardsand John Taylor to kill Joseph Smith.
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That's that's what actually happened. Now, no worry that we don't have any
actual historical basis for that. Butit sure sounds good if if it doesn't
sound good at all, um um. And one of the ways you can
tell that people that are making thatargument are not historians is they haven't actually
read what these men thought of Josephand their private interactions. Um. I
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know we're going a little late.So if anyone, if anyone has to
get up and leave, I canthen feel like it's because it's late,
so you can just I'll be like, Oh, they're not they don't think
this is boring. It's just thatthey have to go. Angie, my
wife, Why I'm your ride?I don't even know how it's uh wow
anyway, but so please please feelfree to go if you need to go.
(02:02):
I know that that time constraints areyou know, time constraints plus me
speaking is early exit. Um.This I titled this Sweeter than Honey Brigham
Young's devotion to Joseph Smith's teachings afterthe martem I get asked all the time
because I worked on the jose Smithpapers and have written about Joseph a lot.
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You know, what, what's Jose'spersonality like? And one of the
ways that I've always felt to characterizeJoseph Smith's personality is Joseph was a lover
of other people. I mean,he just loved other people. He was
happiest when he was around other people. He got excited about doctrines that meant
more people were going to be saved. Joseph loved people. He just did.
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If you had to characterize Brigham Young'spersonality, the most essential aspect of
it is Brigham Young loved Joseph Smith, the most essential aspect to who he
was. He was as devoted toJoseph Smith as any person who has ever
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been a member of this church.And it actually is a pretty important aspect
of our history that he was.I mean, much of what I'm going
to talk about it's familiar to everybody. I don't have time to do a
big deep dive, not that anyonewants. No one ever goes anywhere saying,
oh I hope they do a deepdive, and it's really boring long
talk. So I'll just making aboring long talk. After Josemuh's murder,
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you know, reading about how menlike Wilfred Woodruff and Brigham Young found out
is it's devastating. They're out ontheir missions and they start to hear it
peacemeal right. One of them speaking. They're they're arguing that Joseph Smith,
you know, should be president,because Joseph's running for president. They're doing
these electioneering meetings, and after onemeeting, a man you know, stands
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up and says, I know onegood reason why Joseph won't be president.
Oh what's that? Well, hewas shot and then and they showed him
the paper where he was killed.Wilfrid Woodruffe, you know, tries to
stay strong for a couple of days, but then he when he meets Brigham
Young, they both essentially retire toa room where they just cried. I've
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never shed a tear since I heardthe death of the Province from Wolford Wood's
journal until this morning. But mywhole soul has felt nerved up like steel.
Then Brigham Young arrived in Boston thismorning. I walked to them to
fifty seven Temple Street and called uponsister voice. Brigham Young took the bed
and I the big chair, andhere veiled my face and for the first
time gave vent and my grief andmourning for the prophet and patriarch of the
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church, Joseph and Hiram Smith whowere murdered by a gentile mob after being
bathed by a flood of tears.I felt composed. They personally felt this
loss, but they didn't have awhole lot of time to deal with that
because they then had to hurry andget back to Nauvoo, deal with the
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fall out of Joseph Smith and hiresmith murder. Now, of course,
part of the problem that is goingto happen after Joseph is murdered is that
the Corm of the Twelve Apostles didnot always have the same standing in the
Church that it that it does certainlynot now. I mean, in fact,
there wasn't a Corm of the TwelveApostles until February of eighteen thirty five,
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So there was a growth in thatcalling. When they're first called,
they're called to be a traveling highcouncil. Now that doesn't sound like a
very big deal to you, becauseyou know, I mean, today there's
you know, so many steaks,and every steak has twelve high councilman,
and there's some have been former account. I mean, no one brags to
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anyone today saying, you know,like you know, I was a high
councilman. Oh, well, becareful, you know, I mean,
yeah, I mean they're falling offthe back of trucks everywhere essentially today,
right that I apologized everyone as ahigh councilman, but they know there's lots
of them, you know, Imean, but in the early Church,
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well, there aren't any stakes.Right. So you have the High Council
of the seat of Government, youhave the High Council there in Kirtland,
and that's a pretty powerful position becausethere's no whether the High Council. When
the Corn of the Twelve first called, they're called to be a traveling High
Council, which meant that they hadauthority everywhere outside of the headquarters of the
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church. And so that was theprimary point of their calling, was to
regulate the affairs of the church aswell as preaching the gospel everywhere outside of
the headquarters of the church. Nowthat's going to come in very handy when
Joseph is imprisoned along with other churchleaders in Richmond and then Liberty Jail in
Missouri, because as the Saints aregathering in Quincy and being scattered out of
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Missouri, it is the Quorum ofthe Twelve who are in charge. Because
it's literally their role to be incharge outside of the headquarters of the church.
Over the course of the time thatBrigham and other members of the corm
of the Twelve, Sir Joseph wasgoing to start giving them more and more
and more responsibilities. You see someof this through Document Covenant, section one
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twenty six, where even though thecalling of an apostle is to go out
and preach, Brigham Young is toldby the Lord, You're you're gonna sit
for a while. You're not goingto be going out the way that you
always have been. We actually havea really kind of cool moment in August
of eighteen forty one where you actuallysee this transition where you see Joseph Smith
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giving a different type of power tothe Korum of the Twelve m It's a
sixteen August eighteen forty one conference andit's a conference that have been called and
Joseph Smith is not there. Hewas supposed to be presiding at it.
People show up to it and he'snot there, and instead the person presiding
(08:05):
is Brigham Young. Now everyone knows, no, the apostles don't have authority
inside of Navo. Joseph from thefirst presidence he has authority. The apostles
have authority outside. And so whenBrigham gets to the stand, you know,
the first thing he does is prettynervously. He wants to tell everyone,
but, hey, I'm doing thisbecause Joseph told me to do it.
(08:28):
That he hoped that no one couldview him and his brethren as aspiring
because they'd come forward to take partof the proceedings before them. For he
could assure the brethren that nothing couldbe farther from his wishes and that of
his corn than to interpose with thechurch affairs in Zion and her stakes.
Again, they were supposed to haveauthority outside of the stakes up there in
Nabu, for he had been inthe vineyards so long they become attached to
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foreign missions. And nothing could inducehim to retire therefrom and attend to the
affairs of the church at home.But a sense of duty, the requirements
of Heaven and the revelations of Godto which he would always submit, be
the consequence what it might. Andthe brethren of his corum responded amen.
So it was a conference in thefirst two halfs. And the reason why
Joseph was gone is the preceding nighthis young boy Don Carlos had passed away,
(09:15):
and so he was actually burying DonCarlos that morning, and instructed Brigham
Young to preside over this meeting.And so when Joseph came back for the
afternoon session of that meeting. Thisis the minutes of that meeting. President
Joseph, now arriving, proceeded tostay to the conference at considerable length.
The object of the president meeting inaddition to what President Brigham Young had stated
(09:37):
in the morning, and he saidthat the time had come when the twelve
should be called upon to stand intheir place next to the first Presidency and
attend to the settling of immigrants andthe business of the church at the stakes,
and assist to bear off the Kingdomvictorious to all nations. And as
they had been faithful in a bornthe burden of the heat of the day,
that it was right that they shouldhave an opportunity providing them something for
(10:00):
themselves and families, and at thesame time relieve him so that he might
attend to the business of translating.So you actually see this active transition.
Then, of course, all throughouteighteen forty one, forty two, forty
three Joseph is relying on the corumof the twelve more and more and more
and more. Of course, afterjose must murder, there are other claimants
(10:24):
to the throne, so to speak. The one that is most conspicuous to
most Laturday Saints, but the onethey've they've heard about most is is Sydney
Rigden. And there's going to bethis meeting that is called where Sydney Rigden
is going to present the reasons whyhe believes he should be a guardian for
the church, that he should bethe leader of the church. Brig Young
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and his journal will write this afterthis meeting August eighth. This day is
long to be remembered by me.It is the first time that I've met
with the church at Navu since brothersJoe and him was killed, and that
occasion on which the church was calledsomewhat painful to me. Brother Rigden had
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come from Pittsburgh to see the brethrenand to find out if they would sustain
him as the leader of the Saints. I persevered a spirit to hurry business,
to get a trustee and trust anda presidency over the church and priesthood
or no priest had right or wrongthis grieved my heart. Now Joseph is
gone. It seemed as though manywanted to draw off a party and be
(11:31):
leaders. But this cannot be.The Church must be one, or they
are not the lords. The saintslooked as though they had lost a friend
that was able and willing to counselthem in all things. In this time
of sorrow. My heart was filledwith compassion. After Brother Rigden had made
a long speech to the saints,I should think five thousand, I arose
(11:52):
and spoke to the people. Myheart was swollen with compassion towards them,
and the power of the Holy Ghost, even the spirit of the prophets,
and I was enabled to comfort thehearts of the saints. In the afternoon,
according to my request, that peopleassembled by the thousands, and I
laid before them the order of theChurch and the power of the Priesthood.
And after a long laborer's talk ofabout two hours in the open air,
(12:15):
with the wind blowing, the churchesof one heart and one mind, and
they vote to follow the korum ofthe twelve. Brigham will write to his
daughter. The power of the priestWood was explained, and the order there
of, on which the whole churchlifted up their voices and hands for the
twelve to move forward and organize thechurch and lead it as Joseph lead it,
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which is our indispensable duty to dothis. Again, is the driving
force of Brigham Young in his leadershipof the Korum of the Twelve is that
there's a lot of things that JosephSmith has introduced into navou that are not
exactly popular. And in fact,very quickly after Smith has murdered there are
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people who begin to argue that someof the doctrines Joseph Smith had taken too
far. Now, of course,the one that easily and quickly comes to
everyone's mind is the idea of pluralmarriage, but that's not the only one.
Even at this time, the wholeidea of temple ordinances are not as
universally well received as they certainly aretoday. But I'll talk about that more
(13:26):
in a minute. Sydney Riggin's goingto persist even after the vote of the
church, and again from Brigham Young'sjournal, had an interview with Brother Sidney
Rigden. He said that he hadpower and authority above the twelve, and
he did not consider himself bound totheir counsel in the evening, the Twelve
had a counsel with him again,and he was far from being or feeling
(13:48):
in interest with the Twelve, Andafter a long conversation, Brother Rigdon's license
was demanded. He would not givethem up and said the church had not
been led for a long time bythe Lord and that he should tell all
about the secrets of the church.So one of the one of the reasons
why Brigham is going to react sonegatively to Sidney Rigdon is because part of
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Rigdon's argument is Joseph made mistakes.Part of the church hasn't been led by
the Lord for a long time.Actually, Joseph's gone off down the wrong
way. Luckily I'm here, SidneyRiggin, and I'm going to be able
to fix things. Of course,Riggin's primary argument was that he was a
member of the first Presidency and thereforehe had authority. The first Presidency had
(14:37):
authority. He willed that to Joseph, and he's actually undermined in his argument
in a very unexpected way. Hisargument is I'm a member of the first
Presidency, I therefore have authority overthe corn of the Twelve. But in
eighteen forty two, Orson Pratt hadWell had been caught up, his wife
(15:01):
had been caught up in the JohnC. Bennett, Imbruglio and Orson.
Pratt had for a time apostatized,and in his absence, amas A Lineman
had been called to the Krum ofthe twelve. And then Pratt came back,
and in fact, when they werere baptizing Pratt, Pratt said that
he would rather lie down and diethan to not have his apostleship back,
(15:24):
which doesn't really seem like the mosthumble thing in the world. But they
agree to have it back. Whatthe problem is, it's the Korum of
the twelve, it's not the Corumof the thirteen. And they've already called
Lynman back to it. So whatJoseph does is he makes amas A Lineman
a member of the first Presidency.So he actually had actually three members of
(15:48):
the first Presidency at the time.He had William Law and amas Alman as
well as well as Sidney Rington.Well, that ends up working out really
well in his favor because here theprimary argument of Rigdon is, well,
I'm a member of the first Presidencyand I'm the one who has the authority.
And Lyman stands up and says I'ma member of the first Presidency too,
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and I know that the Corn ofthe twelfth has authority. That's pretty
hard to beat. That is anargument, right, I mean, there's
not one First Presidency member who justhad more power than the other. In
the first conference that will follow thisin September of eighteen forty four, Brigham
is going to speak very directly tothe saints. Like I said, it's
(16:32):
not something we generally think about,but there was a lot of people that
were nay saying Joseph and the thingsthat Joseph taught, in part the fact
that Joseph Smith had been teaching veryradical things about salvation, about work for
the dead, about leaving the nationand moving to another country, about who
(16:52):
God is and how God came tobe God. Those things were not universally
well received. It's hard for usto put it in that mindset because many
of these things are some of ourfavorite doctrines. But when Joseph Smith first
taught Doctrine and Covenant section seventy six, lots of people left the church over
that. They left the church becauseif Joseph's going to teach that there isn't
(17:19):
actually an eternal hell, a Protestantstyle hell, where people burn in hell
forever. But in fact that everyonewill have suffered to the enough by the
end of the millennium that they willall be resurrected and go to a kingdom
of glory. And that kingdom isso great and so glorious you can't possibly
describe it. People said, nope, all right, okay, with the
Book of Mormon, but not notthat you know. They drew as Joseph
(17:41):
said, they drew stakes. SoBrigham will say this, the business of
this day will result in this thing. All those who are for Joseph and
Hiram, the Book of Mormon,the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, the
Temple, and Joseph's measures for thetwelve, and they being one party,
(18:03):
will be called upon to manifest theirprinciples openly and boldly. Then we will
wish all those who are the oppositeparties to enjoy the same liberty and is
to be as decided and as bold, and to show their principles as boldly
and be as decided as they arein their secret meetings and in their private
councils. If they are for SydneyRigdon and believe he is the man to
be the first president and the leaderof the people. We wish them to
(18:26):
manifest it as freely as they doin other places, because this will form
another party. All I ask ofmen or women to do is this,
if they believe in Sydney Rigdon andwant to be led by them, I
want they should be bold enough togo with him and not say they want
to tarry with the church. Theysay they believe in Joseph Smith, and
(18:49):
at the same time all their operationsare to destroy and to tear down what
he has built up back. Brighamwill in October make this even more clear.
It is the test of our fellowshipto believe and confess that Joseph lived
and died a prophet of God ingood standing. For Brigham, that was
(19:12):
a test of fellowship at the time. None of this well. I think
Joseph went wrong with plural marriage.I'm pretty sure he's wrong about the idea
of eternal stealings. I don't knowabout these endowment things. The test of
fellowship was do you accept everything thatJoseph Smith taught him? And I don't
(19:33):
want anyone to fellowship of the twelvewho says that Joseph has fallen. If
you don't know who's right it isto give revelations, I will tell you
it is I. There has neverhas a man stood between Joseph and the
twelve, and unless we aposthetize,there never will. If ironman had lived,
he would have stood between Joseph andthe twelve, but he would have
(19:55):
stood for Joseph. Did Joseph ordaineany man to take his place? He
did? Who was it? Itwas Hiram, but hire Ram fellow martyr
before Joseph. If Hiram had lived, he would have acted for Joseph,
and then we would have gone up. The twelve would have set down at
Joseph's right hand and hire him onthe left. The Bible says God is
set in the church first apostles,then prophets afterwards, because the keys in
(20:18):
power the apostleship are greater than thatof the prophets. Sidney Rigdon cannot hold
the keys without Joseph. If hehad held the keys with Joseph and been
faithful, he would have been withus. If the Twelve did not apostatize,
they carry the keys of the kingdomwherever they go. He concluded by
requesting all the brethren to tarry withus into all this businesses through. So
(20:40):
you had a very clear sense earlyon. You have these different claimants,
these different people that are claiming thatthey know a better way, but all
of them are claiming. But wealso need to need to just change a
little bit of what Joseph was teaching. Oh yes, yes, Joseph Smith
was a prophet. He was wrongabout this, but he was right about
the other things. And the natureof Brigham Young and the Korum of the
(21:03):
Twelve is Nope, everything that Josephtaught is what we believe. And if
it's popular, that's what we believe. And it's not popular, that's what
we believe. And if we're persecutedfor it, that's what we believe.
And if people love it. Wedon't make a decision on what we believe
on the basis of what people want. We make it on the basis of
(21:26):
what Joseph taught. End of story. In fact, Brigham you can really
see personally where he kind of gothis dander up before. When they're talking
to the Council of fifty minutes,they're talking about just how rough things have
been in the United States, andlook, they've been terrible in eighteen forty
five. The lack of legal protectionof the Saints in Illinois is ridiculous.
(21:51):
They're following up the allowance of themurder of Joseph and Hiram by allowing mobs
to burn and destroy homes, sendSaints into a being refugees, killing people
with of course, no prosecutions thatyield anything, if there aren't at all.
And while they're talking in about gettingready to leave, there are some
(22:15):
pretty some pretty rough feelings felt towardsboth the Illinois government and the government of
the United States, which is standingidly by and watching this happen. And
Alman Babbott, who was a politician, he was a lifelong Democratic politician,
in fact, had served in theIllinois legislature. He tried to, you
know, calm some folks down.He's like, you know, we got
(22:37):
to be careful what we say,because you know, some people said some
things in Missouri that you know,weren't taken very well. And the next
thing you know, you know,there's a mob, and the meeting goes
on. Brigham Young stops the meeting, stops the meeting to say when Elder
Babbott was speaking about inflammatory speeches.I know that he had Joe in his
(23:00):
mind, and no man can everspeak against Joseph in my presence, but
I shall tell him of it.That gives you an idea of who Brigham
was in Iowa. When he chastisesthe saints, one of the things he
says to them is that they neededto stop their fornications. They needed to
(23:22):
stop their lying, they need tostop their adulteries, they need to stop
their evil speaking. And then hesays, brother Joseph bore with you these
things because he was a merciful man. But I will not Now. Brigham
did have mercy. But at thesame time, the biggest issue for Brigham
Young always was whether or not peoplewere loyal to Joseph Smith. In fact,
(23:45):
if you had to find a don'tknow if you want to call it
a character flaw for Brigham. ButBrigham was more than willing to allow people
to repent. If you read readhis history in Utah, people are repent
all the time. People aposthetize,become a big problem, Come back,
repent, it's fine. The peoplethat Brigham struggles with are the people who
(24:08):
spoke against Joseph. Those are theones that, yeah, he lets him
back into the church, but Idon't know that he ever fully comes to
terms with it. That's the casewhen when it comes with Thomas Marsh,
when Thomas Marsh returns, he struggleswith it. You know, you're the
one who said that Joseph Smith wasa false prophet, You're I mean,
(24:30):
And he struggles with it. Ashe's talking in this council fifty meeting,
Brigham says, to carry out Joseph'smeasures is sweeter to me than honey or
the honeycomb. While Joseph was living, it seems as though he was hurried
by the Lord all the time,and especially for the last year. It
seemed that he laid out of workfor this church will last them twenty years
(24:53):
to carry out. And I usedto wonder why it was that he used
to be hurried so, not supposingthat he was going to die. But
now I understand the reason. Withregard to the propriety of going ahead in
this thing, we're all of onemind with regard to how and when and
where we begin we want to investigate. I have no doubt or dubity on
my mind with regard to the Lordcommunicating the knowledge, no more than I
(25:15):
have and I can walk home Brigham'sface with four major issues at the immediately
after the murder of Joseph Smith.The first is apostacy from win it inside
the church. You have multiple peoplethat are attempting to create their own branches,
trying to lead people away. Youalso have people that are opposing certain
(25:38):
aspects and teachings that Joseph had andthey're leaving. And you then have mob
violence and threats from without the church. So you have this internal dissension and
you also have external pressures all happeningat the same time. And among all
of these things, Brigham knows thething that Joseph was very, very concerned
(26:02):
about was completing the temple so thatthe ordinances could be administered, and so
Brigham is going to keep that up. In fact, there are going to
be people who tried to counsel him, hey, we probably shouldn't be spending
so much time and money on thetemple. And again Brigham's responses, Joseph
said, built the temple, sothat's what we do, right. And
(26:25):
then the other thing that Joseph hadset out but that was not popular,
was it was Joseph who had cometo the determination that the Saints needed to
leave the country, that they neededto leave that city of Nabu that they'd
built, and not just leave toanother state, not just travel to another
state where they could be driven outin a few years, that they needed
(26:47):
to leave the nation itself. Nowthat was not a popular plan, certainly
if you're one of the people whohas to leave. And so there are
a lot of people who thought,well, now that Joseph's gone, you
know, maybe we can just makenice people there Navo and everything will be
fine. And Brigham is adam him. Joseph said we need to leave.
(27:07):
So we're going to leave, andso they have to make those preparations.
You find the various claimants to thethrone, so to speak, they are
arguing for something separate. Sidney Riggandoesn't need doesn't believe that they need to
complete the temple, nor does hebelieve that they need to move to the
west like Joseph tadd In fact,he wants to take people back to Minanga
(27:27):
Hill, Pennsylvania, and in factdoes he leads his group that follow him
back there. William Marks is goingto claim he's the president. Remember that,
you know, someone being a stakepresident today again, is you know,
no one you know is rushing upto get their autograph. But in
(27:48):
the time where there's not very manystakes, and you are the stake president
of the stake at the seat ofgovernment, which is Navo, you have
authority. He's going to claim fora time that he should be the leader
of the church, or that heshould be a guardian at least until Joseph
Smith's son was old enough. Probablyone of my favorite people who leaves during
this time just because it's got greathair, is I mean it really does?
(28:14):
I mean look at that. Imean, this is George Adams.
So George Adams. He is goingto he's a member of the Council of
fifty and shortly after this time isgoing to decide that he's actually the thirteenth
Apostle. He didn't get called tobe an apostle, but he is one,
and that he has actually more authoritythan the corn of the twelve.
And so he's gonna follow James Strangefor a little while, and then he's
(28:37):
going to establish a church called theChurch of the Messiah. He's gonna lead
a colony to Palestine and they aregoing to settle there for about a year
and a half and then it doesn'twork out as well as as they thought
it would. Of course, Andmost people know James Strang and his attempt
to his claim that he has aletter from Joseph Smith that makes some the
(29:00):
profit if anything happens. Of allof them, of course, Strang has
the He gathers the most followers.Um. There are followers that go come
from all over the place. Butin all of these cases, these different
offshoot groups, they primarily gained theirfollowers outside of Navu. They primarily gained
(29:22):
them from the branches. They primarilygained them from recent converts that are coming
from England. And you can seewhy because as a strange eye, you
can meet someone on the docks inBoston as they're getting off a ship and
say, oh, you you're moreyes, Joseph Smiths of probably, well,
you know you don't want to goto Navu bringing me. I'ms crazy.
He's teaching that man can become likeGod. He's teaching that that that
(29:44):
you know, you can have morethan one wife. And what those are
things that weren't being taught, youknow, by the missionaries. It wasn't
the second discussion. Um, anduh, but inside of Navo, there's
actually very few people that will look. There are several hundred, but that's
not very many considering the level overten thousand in the area. Right in
(30:07):
RYM Young's journal you get a discussionabout these various apostheses as they're getting ready
to leave the country. If anyonewishes the fall of Sydney, William Smith,
James Strang, I say go away, and we'll cut them off from
the church and let them take theircourse for salvation. I know where the
power of the priests a lies.We may have to suffer repeated wrongs in
consequence of those falsehoods that are andwill be circulated about us. But my
(30:32):
faith is that God rules the elements, and the prince and power the air
will be stayed. While the Lordwill fight our battles. As in the
days of Moses. We will seedeliverance brought to pass. Although there may
be bloodshed frequently. Still this mustneeds be that the scripture might be fulfilled.
It is but a small matter forus to ask to lay his life
(30:53):
down if he is only prepared toreceive his change. But when he takes
his exit from this world, hegoes into the society of disembodied spirits,
and there become one of those thatwait the resurrection of the body. If
humility and faithfulness has characterize your lives, you will find your state much better
than in the present. I saythe time will come, and many of
(31:14):
you shall see when the purpose ofthe Lord will be carried out upon the
heads of those who have committed ungodlydeeds upon the saints. They will not
be permitted to run at large asthey do now. Neither will you be
permitted to use the name of Deityin veins they have done in times before.
Again a little bit later, Iwas informed this morning and some persons
that were advocating the folly and nonsenseof James Strang. Now, if they
(31:37):
wish to follow him, let themgo. They're at liberty as they please.
I want no person to follow uscontrary to their wishes. Therefore,
let no one go off and saythat they're in danger of their lives amongst
us, because we different opinion.This is not so. Mister Strang represents
Joseph Smith as the Stone and Shepherdof Israel, and that he Strang is
(31:59):
his sessor in the office. Thisis certainly an absurd idea, and it
comes in contact with Joseph's you relativeto the matter, josephs saying in the
Book of Doctrine and Covenants, andso does the Scriptures, that Christ is
the shepherd and Stone of Israel,and not Joseph Norstrain. However, I'll
not consume time in talking such nonsense. It's not worth the short journey of
(32:22):
a man's nose. Yet Yet thereare those that try on the way,
and attire on the way, andwish to rest, to rest, they
think that they've gone far enough.But those that endure the end, I
think will get the crown. Whenthe time comes our pioneers to start,
then there will be no cessation ofgathering, For we must gather up the
(32:44):
house of Israel. Every man willhave his penny for his services. Let
there be no feelings about this matter, should you not be first. We
are laying a foundation for you allthat will bring you all in remembrance before
the ward in his own due time, and none of you will be neglected.
In his journals, I'll skip throughsome of this, But in his
journals, Brighan has a conversation withm. Ruben Miller. Ruben Miller is
(33:09):
most famous, I think to LaturdaySaints, because he's the one who records
Oliver Cowdrey's testimony the Book of Mormonwhen he returns to the church. Well,
Ruben Miller had been very much affectedby the James Strang's claims, and
so he comes to meet with Brigham. I had a conversation with Ruben Miller
(33:30):
of Ottaway. It is ottaway.I don't know why he always spells it
outaway. I'm just assuming that's howhe says it. So he Brigham is
he is not a great speller.So anyway, he being considerably bewildered by
Strang's new fangled revelation, and renderedhim almost devoid of reason, although apparently
(33:52):
honest in what he was doing,and said that the word of the Lord
would decide satisfactorily to him. WhereuponI said, thus saith the Lord unto
Reuben Miller, through Brigham Young,that Strang is a wicked and corrupt man,
and that his revelations are as falseas he is. Therefore, turn
away from this folly, and neverlet it be said of Ruben Miller that
(34:14):
he ever was led away and entangledby such nonsense. Thus saying, I
left him my time being too preciousto be spent in hearing and even talking
about such trash. And again theundercurrent of this, I mean, someone
might read this and say, well, you know said, there's Brigham just
(34:35):
trying to hoard power to himself.Well you notice what the touchstone of it
was, though Strang isn't endorsing everythingthat Joseph Smith tom. And so for
Brigham, part of the reason whyis if you are not going to embrace
everything that Joseph tom, then youaren't. For me. Brigham of course
(34:55):
is going to embrace it. Imean, he's going to teach many of
the same things that Joseph teaches thatyou won't find being taught in these multiple
apostate branches that break away from theChurch. For instance, God is an
exalted man, he's an eternal man, he's never lasting man, and he
is God. Now that is nota commonly taught thing, certainly not taught
among these various groups that will formtheir own their own following. And so
(35:22):
it may be said of all thosewho will be exalted from this earth who
received their celestial ordination. Brigham knowsthat this is not a popular doctrine.
I know, I know it's acommon doctrine to us today. But there's
a reason why William Law led outwith that in the novel Expositor wasn't just
about plural marriage. It certainly was, But he spends a lot of time
(35:46):
talking about how Joseph is teaching thatGod became God. He's teaching that we
can become like God. That's strikingat the heart of blasphemy to a Christian
questioning the act of God, theself existence of God. Anyway, Brigham
says, we know when we believeabout him, and how we know what
(36:07):
the scriptures say about him. Stilltoo many it grades upon their ears to
say to them that our Father andour God was once really a man as
we are as I am to thinkthat he's from everlasting, ever lasting.
He is, as far as weknow, from all eternity to all eternity.
But there's a great many things thatwe can't comprehend. Yet we are
not capacitated to comprehend them. Ilove that That's how he explains the pre
(36:30):
existent life. Says that you can'tyou aren't capacitated to understand it. So
when you think what doesn't make senseto me, yeah, you can't.
You won't be able to. Ofcourse, one of the major things that
Brigham does is, even though itis not popular, He's going to follow
Joseph Smith's teaching to leave the country. And there are many who wonder whether
(36:53):
or not that's going to happen afterJoseph's murder, brigging me on very quickly
on the begin that process of lookinginto going to the Republic of Texas,
going to Mexico, possibly going tothe Oregon territory that's jointly occupied. In
any case, Brigham's mantra was thathe was going to follow the prophet Joseph
(37:15):
Smith. That jose Smith's murder didnot stop the work that Joseph Smith had
laid out, whether it was templeordinances, whether it was controversial doctrines,
whether it was a massive move acrossa continence. If Joseph Smith taught it,
then Brigham Young was going to endorseit. He saw himself as fulfilling
(37:37):
whatever it is that Joseph taught.And that's the reason why I said,
carrying out Joseph's measures were sweeter thanhoney to me now in closing, because
I know we got to go andI could talk a lot more but I
mean, it's boring enough as itis. I think I'm going to jump
to something that I'd like to sharewith you. We're talking awful lot about
(38:00):
these, um, these various leadersof the church. But at the last
minute, as I was sitting therereading dinner, I felt impressed to add
this story that isn't isn't Brigham's um, and it isn't anyone you've ever heard
(38:20):
of before. I'm I'm in aroom with a bunch of geniuses. So
I guess, okay, a lotof you have probably heard of them before.
But um, this is Emmeline AndersonBottom. She's one of the people,
her and her husband who followed BrighamYoung after Joseph Smith was murder Now,
(38:50):
unlike some people who weren't willing toleave Navu and to go, her
and her family were very willing toleave Navu, but her husband was appointed
and assigned to stay in Navu afterthe main body of the Saints left,
to help take care of the peoplethat were still arriving, to help get
(39:10):
some of the poor, to helpthem get further off, to help sell
some of the properties that they couldsell, and in September of eighteen forty
five, the democratic violence in Illinoisboiled over to the point where a mob
was assembled of hundreds of men whoattacked the remaining Laturday Saints that were there
(39:32):
in Navu mL And. Anderson's husband, William and her fourteen year old son
Augustus were two of the people killedin the Battle of Navu. He said
goodbye to his mom that morning.Augustus did and said, Mom, I'm
going to protect you, and acannon ball killed him. Who were shooting
(39:58):
cannonballs into a How many people doyou think we're arrested for that? How
many people tried? How many peopleconvicted? Nobody? The Saints are driven
and scattered and murdered. And there'sm Line. The reason why she doesn't
(40:23):
have her husband and her son anymore. It's not because she's wicked. It's
not because she didn't have faith.Literally, because they followed the prophet's commandment
to stay. They could have left, but they stayed. So you can
(40:46):
only imagine then that m Line wouldbe bitter and upset everything in this world
taken away from it. To makematters worse, she contracts rheumatoid fever and
is struggling physically, really for theremainder of her life. She has two
young little girls, and that's what'sleft of her family. She writes a
(41:07):
letter in eighteen forty nine. She'sstill not able to make it out west,
but she writes a letter from Iowato her family. Now her family,
you can tell from this letter hascompletely cut her off because she joined
the church. In fact, thefirst few pages of this letter, she's
simply saying, I keep writing toyou, and you don't ever answer her.
(41:30):
You know, I'm hoping that you'llrespond. But to give you an
idea of where she stood in herfaith, I want to read the last
part of this letter. She said, I have not married since the death
of my William, and I donot feel as though I could ever live
(41:50):
live in such a small branch ofthe church, in a little house of
my own, with my two children. We've had to offer many privations,
many many privations in this life.But it will be made up to me
(42:14):
most fortuitously and important request I makeof you, and I beg of you
to grant me this one favor,some one of you to take and to
find out the names of our progenitorsas far back as you can, and
(42:37):
to send these to me in aletter. Do this and God shall reward
you for it. I will writeyou every particular also when I hear from
you, Amlin Anderson. This womanlost everything because she believed. And what
(43:00):
was her request to her family,I need you to send me the genealogy
because we're going to baptize these people. She didn't say that that was the
undercurrent of it. She believed herfaith was not based upon the external events
(43:21):
that sorely affected her life. She'dlost her health, she'd lost her home,
she'd lost her husband, she'd losther son. But she hadn't lost
her faith. And I think that'sone of the things that we forget in
the constant rush to criticize Brigham Youngas a prophet of the church. The
(43:44):
reason why we have a temple ceremonyis because Brigham Young refused to give it
up. The reason why there arewashings and annointings is because Brigham Young refused
to give it up. The reasonwhy we believe an eternal marriage at all
because Brigham Young refused it up.The reason why we believe that the work
(44:07):
for the dead will encompass all ofthe children of our heavenly Father is because
unlike all of these various apostate groups, Brigham Young refused to give up.
Brigham was a man who was devotedto the prophet of the Restoration. As
(44:30):
Brigham said of Joseph, he wasa man, and he had foibles like
all other men, but he wasperhaps the best man who ever lived.
Similarly, Brigham Young has his faults, they are blared from the rooftops.
At the same time, he's thesame man who utterly refused to just leave
(44:52):
the poor behind a nauvoo when allthe rich were begging him to. Brigham
said, we're not going to leaveanyone just because they can't afford to make
the journey. I want to testifyto you that I know that Joseph Smith
was a prophet of God, thathe saw the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.
(45:14):
That is the reason why I believethat Jesus is my savior, because I
know that Joseph Smith saw him.And I know that Joseph Smith received revelations
about the Temple, about doctrines thatare unique to what we believe today.
And we have those because Brigham Youngwas a defender of our faith. He
(45:37):
was not tossed around by every windof doctrine. He was solid and steadfast
and adam and at least, accordingto one source, dies with Joseph's name
on his lips, saying, Joseph, Joseph, Joseph. I am grateful
for the sacrifices of women like Emiland Anderson, so that I have faith
(46:04):
for men like Brigham Young who stayedthe course, for all those saints who
struggled and suffered, so that wecan defend the faith that they gave us.
And I say that in the nameof Jesus christing them. I think
you can understand why we wanted Garrettto speak to us tonight, and I
(46:27):
hope you can understand why we areso committed to a project that defends Brigham
Young. And the twelve is thelegitimate successors to Joseph Smith, the people
who kept it going and who refusedto give it up despite all the pressures
to do that. I want toshare my testimony two those things are true.
Joseph was a prophet of God,and that Brigham Young was his legitimate
(46:47):
and divinely chosen successor. And Isay that in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen. Now, we are sograteful to you that you have come,
and we've asted snow to offer thebenediction tonight, and thank you very
much, and we wish you safetravel back home.
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