Speeches by Topic Topics | Joseph Smith
In 1823 the 17-year-old Joseph Smith was visited by the angel Moroni, who declared“that [Joseph’s] name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken among all people” (Joseph Smith—History 1:33).Nowadays nearly 20 million internet references to the Prophet verify Moroni’s prophecy: Some claim, often with vitriol, that he was a racketeer, a false teacher, an ignoble man. Others honor, defend, and praise him as the founder of their faith, the translator of the Book of Mormon, a prophet especially sent by God to usher in these, the latter days. Still others, says Terryl Givens, including “secular scholars, and Christians, Hindus, Muslims, and presumed atheists—in many nations and in many tongues—speak good of Joseph’s name.”Joseph’s life was short but remarkable. Born in 1805, he spent most of his youth in Palmyra, New York, then a place of great religious fervor. In 1820 such community fervor caused the 14-year-old Joseph to think deeply about his state before God. While praying out loud for the first time, he experienced what is now known as “The First Vision,” where the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, visited him. In 1830, ten years later, he formally organized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, becoming its first president. He was martyred in 1844 at only 38 years old. Though his life was short, he had a profound impact on Christianity. His translation and publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830 has been a source of debate for centuries but, if true, lends further credence to his role as prophet of God.Who was this Joseph Smith, and why is there such intense interest 200 years later? You’ll find that our rich collection on the Prophet features more than a half century of exploration by professors, philosophers, and prophets about many facets of Joseph’s life and teachings, from his theological enlightenment on the problem of evil to his role as Jesus Christ’s chosen prophet and seer—and even a bit about his humor. This is great material for those seeking inspiration—and answers.
Brothers and sisters, it is a surreal experience to be standing here talking to you today. Forty-eight years ago I first set foot on this campus as a seventeen-year-old freshman. I remember attending BYU devotionals in the Smith Fieldhouse (because there was no Marriott Center yet), listening to speakers just like you are doing.
Things have changed a lot since then. The female students were not allowed to wear pants on campus—yes, we were cold all winter long. We whitewashed the Y on the mountain every year with a very long bucket brigade, and the Y was lit with real fire. David O. M
In my young years growing up in Logan, Utah, I was part of a musical family. My grandfather, Francis H. Baugh Jr., affectionately known in the community as Frank Baugh, was the director of music for nearly thirty years in the Logan City School District, where he directed the high school choral groups and musical productions in addition to supervising music education in the junior high and elementary schools. He was Logan’s own music man.
By the time I was in elementary school he had retired from teaching in the public system, leaving him time to teach my siblings and me the piano. No
My beloved young friends, it is a thrill for Sister Holland and for me to be with you tonight for this worldwide satellite broadcast. It’s always a thrill to be in the Marriott Center. I wish it were possible for us to be in each of your individual locations, seeing you personally and being able to shake your hands. We haven’t figured out a way to do that yet, but we send our love and greeting to all of you wherever you are in the world. In spite of the vastness of our global audience, we hope all of you are individually able to feel the love we have for you tonight and that each of you can
Several weeks ago I received an e-mail from someone who identified himself as a BYU student doing a research paper on the Prophet Joseph Smith. He asked, “Would you be kind enough to share with me what you feel the impact of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon on the world has been?”
This was an important question, so I took time framing my reply. I wrote, “It was big.”
However, upon reflection, I decided against sending that e-mail. I didn’t want to do most of his work for him. I thought perhaps I would now revisit th
It is a wonderful thing we do in honoring the memory of President Joseph F. Smith as we dedicate the magnificent new building that carries his name.
He was the sixth president of the Church. I am the 15th, and I feel like a pygmy when I think of standing in the same circle with him. I have felt to talk about him in this gathering with the hope that each one here might profit from his life and words. Much of what I say will be familiar to many of you, but it bears repeating.
He was the last president of the Church who was personally acquainted with the Prophet Joseph. He was, o
Once again it is an exciting and anticipatory pleasure for Sister Samuelson and me to welcome each of you to a new school year. I am confident we will have a special and enlightening series of devotional and forum assemblies this semester that will complement, supplement, and, we hope, enrich what will also be a very productive period in your classrooms, laboratories, and libraries. We look forward to being with you each Tuesday at this same time and hope that you will regularly attend and bring your friends and associates with you. As I have said before, a large part of what constitutes th
I am grateful for the honor and the privilege of participating with you in this devotional as we commence this wonderful week of education. I am particularly grateful for the theme of this conference: The Prophet Joseph Smith: “Whom I Did Call upon . . . to Bring Forth My Work” (D&C 136:37). My hope and prayers would be that from my message, above all else, you will understand that I have a great love for the Prophet and an unwavering testimony of his divine calling and mission.
A recent article from the Washington Pos
I am grateful, with Sister Samuelson, to be with you as we begin a new year and a new semester. I hope you share my enthusiasm for our opportunities and prospects in 2005. I also hope you have not yet broken all of your New Year’s resolutions!
As you know, the year 2005 is the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith. During this year, throughout the Church and here at BYU, we will hear much and be reminded frequently of the life and mission of our Prophet of the Restoration. I am grateful to be able
The day was June 27, 1844. The place, Carthage, Illinois. In the early evening Willard Richards, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, dispatched sobering news to the Saints in Nauvoo: “Joseph and Hyrum are dead. Taylor wounded, not very badly. I am well. . . . The job was done in an instant” (HC 6:621–22).
A cortege left the hostile county seat of Carthage early the next morning and arrived in Nauvoo just after three in the afternoon. The mourners were waiting in the streets for the return of their prophet-le
I have entitled my discussion with you today “But for Joseph,” which is appropriate since on this day, the 27th of June, we commemorate each year the end of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s earthly mission. However, let me preface my remarks with a little background information.
First, I must say that I’ll never again complain about being given an assigned topic for a talk. Any restrictiveness is far outweighed by the overwhelming feeling of having the entire universe of gospel subjects laid out before you. When I heard the date of
Nothing challenges the rationality of our belief in God or tests our trust in Him more severely than human suffering and wickedness. Both are pervasive in our common experience. If this is not immediately evident, a glance at the morning paper or the evening news will make it so. On the larger scale and at the moment, names like Oklahoma City, Columbine, Kosovo, and Turkey evoke image upon image of unspeakable human cruelty or grief. But Auschwitz and Belsen still haunt our memories. Closer to home, who can fathom the anguish of family members in West Valley when they discovered their preci
I had some difficulty deciding on what ought to be the title and theme of my remarks today. I finally settled on “Powerful Truths That Make a Difference in Our Lives.”
We are all grieving today because of the senseless acts of violence that took the life of Elder MacKintosh and seriously injured Elder Borden in Ufa, Russia. Reportedly, the terrible crime was committed by an individual, or individuals, in a drunken condition.
Have you ever given much thought to how dramatically the world would be changed for the better if just one of the truths revealed to the Prophet
We experienced a special day in our family on January 4, 1997. My brother organized a party honoring the 200th birthday of Gustavus Adolphus Perry. I am certain we were the only family holding a party for one born 200 years ago. Gustavus Perry was an important member of our family tree. He was baptized in 1832 and became the first of our family to embrace the gospel. The Perry family history records this remarkable event:
On a beautiful farm in the state of New York, Gustavus Adolphus Perry and his good wife, Eunice Wing, with their three sons, Orrin Alonzo, Lorenzo, and Henry Eli
In late May the Mississippi River runs swift and high, sparkling and bubbling in the midday sunlight. Birds sing; the air is redolent with fragrances; distantly you can hear a soft Sabbath bell toll; the earth and all about is richly abundant with life.
Some eleven miles to the east, across the farmlands away from the great Mississippi, stands the small town of Carthage, Illinois. On Sunday, May 21, of this year, my family and I solemnly walked the paths of Carthage and examined anew the momentous events of that place.
I could not help but look toward today’s assignment, knowi
Sister Ballard and I appreciate, more than words can express, being here with all of you tonight. Please know of our love and concern for each one of you. It’s a wonderful thing to reach across the footprint of the satellite and gather close to the young adults of the Church. I pray that the Lord will bless me that I may have his spirit with me tonight. I have worked hard on the preparation for what I’d like to say to you. If we have the spirit of the Lord with us, perhaps we will all learn something that is worthwhile.
During this past year I was privileged to have two special exper
I am aware that my wise and gentle friend Elder David B. Haight spoke about the Prophet Joseph a month ago. Please bear with me, therefore, as I seek to place the spotlight on the Seer in yet a different way on this Easter Sunday, during which our rejoicing is made more resplendent by the revelations and translations concerning Jesus that came to us through Joseph.
My appreciation is expressed to President Jeffrey Holland, Dean Robert Matthews, Professors Hugh Nibley, Jack Welch, Truman Madsen, Richard Anderson, Dean Jessee,
As I look out into the faces of you precious young sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and sense your unlimited potential to “do good unto all men” (Galatians 6:10), I pray tonight that each of you—and that I—will be blessed with the Spirit of the Lord, that what I testify of will strengthen your faith and desire to personally live and be faithful to all the true principles of God’s eternal plan of salvation—those keys and powers that have been conferred upon all men during these latter days, a fulfillment of the declaration of Paul to the Ephesians “that in the dispensation of the fu
Where is the clear voice of authority on right and wrong? Divided and drifting churches supply religious philosophers but not prophets. Yet Latter-day Saints testify that Joseph Smith and his successors were called to rescue a world adrift in its own conceits and problems. Such a claim can be tested by the Bible, the record of prior prophets.
Would you assist me in making an important point? I would like to report accurately your awareness of the Bible, but remember that the value of the result depends upon your strict honest
I would like to say first that it is a very genuine pleasure to be with you tonight. It is always an inspiration to come to these firesides. I do not know why we call them firesides. The word connotes a small group of friends sitting about the hearth where a warm fire burns, talking with one another in an informal way. Tonight you are numbered in the thousands, and we have neither hearth nor fire; but I hope we can speak together as friends, and in a rather informal manner. I seek the direction of the Holy Spirit, because I wish for nothing more than to say to you those things which will ad
It is certainly a great privilege and a greater inspiration to be here in your presence. I think that I have never seen this many people in this building before, and to know that you are all here worshipping God and wanting to hear more about his work makes me feel very humble before you.
But I want you to know that I am grateful for the privilege of being here; I am grateful for the inspiration you are to me; I am grateful for this great University and for the marvelous work that it is doing, not only on this campus but in many parts of the world as your groups travel from place to
I devoutly and sincerely hope that we may have a rich outpouring of the Holy Spirit, for two reasons: first, so that I may say what the Lord wants said and what he would say if he personally were here; and secondly, so that those words will sink into your hearts and you will know of a surety that they are true. I shall take as a subject, “Joseph Smith: A Revealer of Christ.”
I have chosen as a text statement these words, prepared and published by the First Presidency of the Church in 1935 on the occasion of the one hund
At Nauvoo in the early 1840s (the date is not certain) the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a great discourse on the temple. He said, among other things: “Now, brethren, I obligate myself to build as great a temple as ever Solomon did, if the Church will back me up.” He closed by saying: “And if it should be the will of God that I might live to behold that temple completed and finished from the foundation to the top stone, I will say, ‘Oh, Lord, it is enough. Let thy servant depart in peace,’ which is my earnest prayer in the name of the L
The martyrdom of a prophet:
It is winter 1844, and the Prophet Joseph Smith is Lieutenant General of the Nauvoo Legion, mayor of the city which has become the largest and most flourishing in all of Illinois, and revelator to the Saints. But he is a man whose time is running out. To Elizabeth Rollins he had confided in the spring of 1844, “I must seal my testimony with my blood.”1 The testament is of no force, Paul said, until the death of the testator.2 The depth of that doctrine is beyond me—why death s
This lecture begins with a glimpse of three principles of teaching that are discernible in practice in the School of the Prophets. Even before the completion and dedication of the Kirtland Temple, the Lord commanded that a teacher be appointed for that school and then gave specific instructions on who should be admitted to the school, where they should meet, how they should greet each other as they entered the school, and precisely how they should conduct themselves.1 The spirit of those counsels, I believe, should apply to every gathering of Latter-day Saints. We cannot always d
How early in the Prophet’s consciousness did the idea germinate that God would require the building and dedicating of temples and would reveal his ordinances to be performed in them? One way of reading our history is that the first and last revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants that Joseph received concerned the temple, though at first he may not have fully understood this. When the promise about priesthood which is part of section 2 of the Doctrine and Covenants1 began to be fulfilled through John the Baptist’s confe
We have three classic scriptural statements about spiritual gifts: what they are, where they come from, and the spirit in which they are to be sought and manifested. Those three sources are Doctrine and Covenants 46, Moroni 10, which is also the last chapter in the Book of Mormon, and Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 12. These three are interrelated and can be studied profitably by comparison.Lecture 1
Years ago I prepared a paper titled “Joseph Smith Among the Prophets.”1 It attempted to present ten characterizations of prophets that are typical in Judeo-Christian literature. For instance, a prophet is a foreteller; he has prophetic access to the future. Also, prophets have been called “forth-tellers,” meaning that they speak forth boldly in judgment and in recommendation as to their own time. A prophet too is a man who has authority, who speaks with more than human sanction. He is a recoverer or discoverer of truth. H
My young brethren and sisters of this great school, I am delighted to greet you this very first day you’re back to school from your holidays. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are on the road to a successful and happy New Year.
This is such a special time of the year—this holiday—Christmas and New Year. I trust we have been greatly blessed by the spirit of Christmas and the Christ child and that we may have that spirit to be with us and bless us in our lives all the year.
It would be interesting to know what your resolutions are in the New Year; and although one sho
My beloved brethren and sisters, this is a humbling moment. I have been very much touched and impressed by the singing of this beautiful chorale, by the inspiring and moving prayer by Brother Porter. In fact, coming at the end of the trail, as it were, as far as campus activities are concerned, I seem to have the yearning of the poet, somewhat paraphrased:
Backward, turn backward, oh time, in thy flight.
Make me a freshman again—just for tonight.
[Elisabeth Akers Allen, “Rock Me to Sleep”]
Brothers and sisters, I sincerely pray that the Spirit of the
This morning I should like to say a few words about things we have found in the documents in the Church Archives that bear on the life and character of Joseph Smith. During the past two years I have had the opportunity of going through the diaries, letters, and histories of the Prophet and of those associated with him. This has given me an added appreciation of Joseph Smith as a person and leader.
With respect to his life as a boy, the evidence accumulated by Richard Anderson, Marvin Hill, Dean Jessee, Ivan Barrett, and other
I do not know whether it is fair to have a wonderful chorus sing before a speaker speaks. The contrast is too marked. I have often wished that in speaking, we could express ourselves as beautifully as a chorus can express itself as it sings to us.
As I look at this audience this morning and contemplate why you are here, my mind goes back to my first trip to the nation’s capital in 1951. I was impressed on that occasion with the halls of Congress, with the beauties of the White House, with the many monuments that adorn buildings and grounds in that great city; but I recall this mornin
I should like to dispense with all formality, if I may, and address both faculty and students as my brothers and sisters. I adopt that form of salutation for several reasons: first, practically all who are here are members of the Church that established and maintains this university; second, I believe in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man; and third, I do not intend to give a lecture, certainly not an oration or even a sermon, but simply wish to bear my testimony to my brothers and sisters.
I should like to be for a few minutes a witness in support of the proposition th
