After the martyrdom

2/28 Class by Laurel Lawrence

Read January Ensign, Miraculous Mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith

It’s good to take our families to the Church History Museum so that the things we tell them become more real.

During his ministry, Joseph Smith was taken to court and acquitted over 220 times! Eventually he became his own lawyer and was very good at it.

(The first governor of California was one of Joseph’s lawyers and said that he was such a good man!)

John Taylor and Willard Richards were he only apostles in town for Joseph’s funeral. John Taylor was severely wounded, so no idea if he was able to attend. All other apostles were away on missions, but after they heard about Joseph’s death, each remembered the day and that they had felt a great sadness on that day without knowing why. Orson Hyde remembered breaking out in tears and feeling so sad and didn’t know why. George Albert Smith couldn’t sleep and was depressed. He eventually read about it in the newspapers and didn’t believe it at first. Parley P Pratt was on a steamboat and heard new passengers talking about it and also didn’t believe it. Then other passengers began to taunt him saying, “Now what’s going to happen to your Church? How are you going to keep it together without him?” He reminded them that Jesus was also killed but His Church continued. He was very sad but received a message from God to tell the saints to continue faithful. He went back to Nauvoo. 

Everyone was very happy to see him. One of the things he taught was to not seek revenge. All the apostles knew that they needed to wait until all of them had returned before trying to reorganize the Church leadership. In the meantime the saints were instructed to keep working on the temple.  The saints needed this leadership because without Joseph, they felt like sheep without a shepherd.

Then Brigham Young remembered that the keys were there; Joseph had bestowed all the keys on the apostles before he left for Carthage. The saints were so happy to see all the apostles return.

Back when the saints moved from Kirtland to Nauvoo, Sydney Rigdon didn’t to with them. He went to Pennsylvania. He was unhappy with Joseph because of polygamy.

D&C 124 God tells him to go where they were commanded and that even now if he will obey he will be blessed. But he didn’t want to obey.  After Joseph Smith died, Syndey went to Nauvoo and announced that he had received a revelation that he  should be the new “guardian” of the Church. Sydney knew what it was like to receive a revelation because he had received D&C 76 with Joseph Smith. But Satan can counterfeit revelations and many other things:

God’s                                                    Satan’s counterfeit

Love                                                     Lust

Priesthood                                             Priestcraft for money and glory

Miracles                                                sorcery

Marriage between man and woman         Gay marriage

Prophets                                                psychics

Patriarch                                               fortune teller

Law of consecration                                communism

Eternal progression                                 reincarnation

Seer stone                                              crystal ball

Six weeks after Joseph was killed, the apostles held a solemn assembly to let the saints choose who should replace Joseph. First Syndey Rigdon spoke for 1 ½ hours. Nobody was moved or felt anything. . Then Brigham Young spoke  and talked about Joseph Smith. As he spoke people heard the voice of Joseph, with his manner of speaking with a whistle because of the chipped tooth from when he was tarred and feathered.  They thought he looked like Joseph in his looks, attitude, dress, appearance, and manner and that he had the mantle of Joseph Smith. There were over 1,000 who testified of that.

In the afternoon Brigham Young spoke again and testified of himself – that he had never faltered (like so many apostates and Sydney Rigdon) Then they had a vote to have the 12 apostles lead the Church with the president of the quorum of the twelve to govern. The vote was unanimous.

19 times during his life Joseph Smith told the people that he wouldn’t live to 40. He had carefully trained the 12 before he left for Carthage. He met with them every day before they all left on their last mission. He also gave them the endowments and gave the sealing powers to Brigham Young.

Sydney Rigdon was excommunicated and was furious and returned to Pittsburgh and started his own church called the Church of Christ, organized on April 6. He had a handful of believers “Rigdonites” who eventually all left him.

Another apostate, James Strang came forward saying he had a letter from Joseph Smith that said the saints should follow him and gather in Wisconsin. He took some saints “Strangites” and they struggled for a while and in 1856 was murdered by one of his followers.

From then on they followed the apostolic succession from President of the 12 to President of the 12.

How to remember the succession of presidents:

Never               Nelson

Order                Oaks

Big                    Ballard

Hamburgers       Holland

Except               Eyring

Under               Uchdorf

Bitter                Bednar

Cold                 Cook    

Conditions         Christofferson

And                  Anderson

Rather               Rasband

Severe               Stevenson

Rainstorms        Renlund

Get                   Gong

Soup                 Soares

The first priority for the saints was to finish the temple. They completed one ordinance at a time so that they could do that ordinance while building the next ordinance room. So the first done was the baptistery.

They continued to send out missionaries and created the quorum of 70. People were called as 70s to go on missions.

The difference between an Area Seventy and a General Authority Seventy:

An Area Seventy lives at home, continues with his job, and serves by traveling around his area completing assignments from the Quorum of the Twelve. It is a part time calling, but they are ordained Seventies. There are 210 area seventies in the world. They serve about 5 years. When they are released, they aren’t emeritus or anything. They just go back to work.

A General Authority Seventy is a full time calling. They leave their home, job, and go with their family to wherever they are assigned. They are ordained Seventy if they weren’t already, and then set apart as General Authority Seventy. There are 90 General Authority Seventies in the world. They are called to serve until they turn 70. They are replaced in the April Conference of the year they turn 70, and serve until October. When they are released they are emeritus status.

They used to call a bunch of assistants for the Quorum of the Twelve and when Kimball was president, he told them that is what seventies are, so they called 70s to do that instead of “assistants” to the twelve.

Brigham renamed Nauvoo to City of Joseph. The saints settled and more arrived daily but the persecution also grew. A year later, there was a trial for 9 leaders of the mob that killed Joseph, but they were all acquitted because they argued that what they did was the popular will of the people.

They couldn’t have any police or militia in Nauvoo, so Brigham organized the young boys, ages 9-13 to protect the safety of the citizens. They were taught to whittle and whistle. They spread all over the city and whenever they saw someone who looked or was acting superstitious, they would begin to whistle with the whistle they had whittled. They would just follow the guy around whistling, which would bring the other boys and soon the man would be surrounded by young boys, whistling. It was so annoying that they would leave. It was highly effective and was a great way to keep the young boys involved in a good cause. Plus they had all loved Joseph and wanted to do their part. There is an article in the Friend about them.

Once when Joseph was in hiding, he passed a school and was going to say hi to the kids but saw them all praying for him. He commended them and told them that God always hears the prayers of the children.

In the temple they focused on getting endowments. Brigham would work until 3am and only sleep 4 hours at night to do as many as possible. Having the ordinances was a huge help to the saints when they crossed the plains. None of the endowed members left the church and of the worst apostates, none had been endowed.