Who Is Joseph Smith?
Many people who know very little about the Mormon church have still heard about Joseph Smith, an American man who was born in Vermont in 1805 and died in Illinois in 1844.
Depiction of Joseph Smith Reading Bible
As a 14-year-old, Joseph lived in a time and place in which lots of different religions (mostly Christian) were seeking followers. Different members of Joseph’s family favored one church or the other, but he was confused about which church was the right one to follow. One day he was reading the Bible in James 1:5-6, which states:
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
He describes his reaction to reading these verses this way:
Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different [churches] understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.
So Joseph went one morning into the woods to pray. He described what happened in these words:
After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction. But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction–not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being–just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other–This is My Beloved Son.
Joseph was visited by God the Father and Jesus Christ.
No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the [religions] was right…and which I should join…I was answered that I must join none of them…many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time.
Depiction of Joseph Smith's Visit from God and Jesus
Joseph was told that these other churches contained part of the truth, but none of them contained a fulness of the truth. Important truths, as well as proper authority had been lost from the earth after the death of Christ’s apostles (e.g. Peter, James, John) and the resulting apostasy.
Prophets are called of God to relay important messages to people on the earth. Several prophets like Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Isaiah, and Paul, received messages from heavenly messengers so they could tell people God’s will in ancient days. Similarly, Joseph was asked to deliver messages to the world and reestablish the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth.
During the next 25 years, Joseph Smith led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the “Mormon church”), which grew to have tens of thousands of followers (and now has millions).
Joseph was assassinated in Carthage, Illinois in 1844 by a mob. John Taylor, one of Joseph’s successors as leader of the church, stated the following about Joseph’s contribution:
Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth…revelations and commandments…and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands…founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood (Doctrine & Covenants 135:3)
Below are depictions of what Joseph Smith and his wife Emma looked like.
Joseph Smith
Emma Smith
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