Category: General Authorities
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JosephsWives.com
Welcome to JosephsWives.com, a page that has been created to help people better understand the truth about the more than thirty wives of Joseph Smith. We invite you to look through the information we have made available here and see that what we are saying is historical fact, not anti-Mormon rhetoric. And please understand what…
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Did Emma Smith Approve of Polygamy?
Some Latter-day Saints may rationalize Smith’s behavior. After all, some might think, his wife Emma must have been a believer in this practice. Actually, Emma Smith approved of plural marriage for only a short time–maybe a few weeks–but she otherwise always despised polygamy and her husband’s involvement with this practice. In their book Mormon Enigma: Emma…
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Which First Vision Account Should We Believe?
According to LDS scripture, when Joseph Smith was a mere boy of 14 years old, he was confused as to which church was true. He claimed this confusion was sparked by an 1820 religious revival in his neighborhood. His heart was powerfully impressed one night when he read James 1:5, and subsequently he went into…
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L. Tom Perry Obituary (1922-2015)
L. Tom Perry (1922-2015). The oldest living apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints died on May 30, 2015 in his Salt Lake City, UT home around 3 p.m. in the afternoon. He was 92 and had been diagnosed with terminal thyroid cancer just the month before. Perry was the second in line…
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Boyd K. Packer Obituary (1924-2015)
Boyd K. Packer (1924-2015), the senior apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, died of old age in Salt Lake City at about 2 p.m. MST on July 3, 2015. He was 90 years old. Packer, who died just 33 days after fellow apostle L. Tom…
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Facing the Judgment (John Widtsoe)
The following is an excerpt from pp. 80-89 of Understandable Religion (circa 1944), by John Widtsoe, Mormon apostle and popular church educator. In it he teaches that getting what we earn is “a universal principle, valid from economics to religion, on earth or in heaven… The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in…
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"Jesus Christ, Literal Son of God," by Joseph F. Smith
James R. Clark in Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, vol. 4, p. 327, wrote: 1914-December 20-The Box Elder News, January 28, 1915. Copy furnished by Thomas Truitt, Salt Lake City, Utah. This sermon and doctrinal discourse on the literalness of the Sonship of Jesus Christ is…
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Instructions to the Saints, January 29, 1860 (Rebuke of Orson Pratt)
From James R. Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965-75), 2:, p. 214-223: 1860-January 29-MS 22:595-600 (September 22, 1860) These Instructions to the Saints of January 29, 1860, the Message of August 23, 1865 (which appears a little later…
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Brigham’s Young 1852 Speech on Slavery
Introduction The following is a speech given by LDS President Brigham Young to the Joint Session of the Legislature in Salt Lake City, on Thursday, February 5, 1852. The following was found under Brigham Young addresses, Ms d 1234, Box 48, folder 3, dated Feb. 5, 1852, located in the LDS Church Historical Department, Salt…
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Fourth of July (1838) Oration by Sidney Rigdon
Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri Friends and Fellow Citizens; By your request, I am called upon to address you this day, under circumstances novel to myself and I presume as much so to the most of you; for however frequently we may have met with our fellow-citizens, in times past, in the places of our…
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Brigham Young’s Test of a Prophet
Brigham Young taught, “[The wicked] found fault with Joseph Smith, and at length killed him, as they have a great many others of the Latter-day Saints. What for? Because of his wickedness? No. But the cry was, ‘Away with him, we cannot do with this man nor with his people.’ Did they hate him for…
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Joseph Smith “Carried Off My Daughter”
Over the years, much has been written about the heartbreak caused by Mormon weddings. The oft-cited cause of this heartbreak is the sacred, exclusive LDS temple wedding that necessarily excludes “unworthy” friends and family from attending. According to Mormonism, marriages must be performed and sealed in a Mormon temple by the proper priesthood authority so…
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How Was Joseph Smith’s Seer Stone Like a Smart Phone?
I know the headline sounds like a lead-in to a joke, but in fact, Mormon apologist Daniel Peterson wrote a “Defending the Faith” column for Deseret News in which he suggested that, though “some critics of Joseph Smith mock the fact that part of the Book of Mormon translation process apparently involved dictating while looking…
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The Virtue of Joseph Smith
Speaking at the general conference last October, Mormon Apostle Neil L. Andersen gave a talk simply titled “Joseph Smith.” Toward the end of his message, Andersen said, “I give you my witness that Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. He chose a holy man, a righteous man, to lead the Restoration of the…
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Joseph Smith’s Grandiloquent Assertion: “I Am the Only Man That Has Ever Been Able To Keep a Whole Church Together”
In 1844, while the Mormon Church was in the middle of a crisis involving dissention in the Church, The Prophet Joseph Smith preached a Sunday morning sermon in which he exclaimed, “In all these affidavits, indictments, it is all of the devil—all corruption. Come on! ye prosecutors! ye false swearers! All hell, boil over! Ye…
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In 1912 Some Mormon Leaders Doubted Both the Content and Reliability of the King Follett Sermon
In 1912 some Mormon leaders doubted both the content and reliability of The King Follett Sermon. Mormon apostle George Albert Smith wrote: “Sometime ago I received an invitation, mailed from the Liahona office, to contribute to a fund for the purpose of mailing copies of King Follet’s[sic] funeral sermon. At the time I was somewhat…
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Book Review: Nauvoo Polygamy
Nauvoo Polygamy: “…But We Called It Celestial Marriage” By George D. Smith Polygamy (or plural marriage as it is also called) was a major issue for the LDS Church in 2014, as three different Gospel Topic essays on this topic were published. For many Latter-day Saints, the information disseminated by the church—including the fact that Joseph Smith…