Joseph Smith the Prophet-Teacher: A Discourse

by B. H. Roberts

THE DOCTRINE OF REVELATION: Against the sectarian dogma of the cessation of revelation, Joseph Smith proclaimed the reopening of the heavens. Against the doctrine that angels would no more visit the earth, he asserted the visitation of angels to him, revealing the existence of the Book of Mormon, a new volume of Scripture. Other angels brought to the Prophet the keys of authority and power held by them in former dispensations. So came John the Baptist with the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood; Peter, James and John, with the keys of the Melchisedek Priesthood; Moses, with the keys of the gathering of Israel, and so following. Against the doctrine of a closed volume of Scripture, Joseph Smith asserted the existence of, and the truth of the American volume of Scripture, the Book of Mormon. Against this whole narrow, bigoted idea of revelation held by the Christian world, he proclaimed a larger view. Instead of holding that a few prophets among the Hebrews had been visited of God and received divine inspiration he represented God as saying:

"Thou fool, that shall say, A Bible, a Bible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible! Have ye obtained a Bible, save it were by the Jews? Know ye not that there are more nations than one; know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men; yea, even upon all the nations of the earth? For I command all men, both in the east and in the west * * * and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them. * * * Behold, I will speak unto the Jews, and they shall write it; and I will also speak unto the Nephites and they shall write it; and I will also speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel, which I have led away, and they shall write it; and I will also speak unto all nations of the earth, and they shall write it."

Joseph Smith also represents one of the Nephite prophets as saying:

"Behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and tongue, to teach his word; yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true."

This doctrine unites in one splendid brotherhood all the Seekers after God, all those who received inspiration from the Most High and were sent forth from the Divine Presence to instruct their fellow men. Joseph Smith, I say, unites their hands in a splendid brotherhood of the God-inspired men of this world. Not that all the prophets among the various races of men were equally inspired; not that all came with a fulness of truth; not that all had the gospel of Jesus Christ. But if they brought not with their message the effulgent brightness of an all-glorious day, they brought something of twilight which dispelled some of the murkiness of the night in which the men of their respective races had walked; and those who have groped in the density of darkness know how grateful is the twilight, how much better it is than darkness. How noble is this view of God's hand-dealings with the children of men in respect of revelation, as compared with that narrow, bigoted view prevailing at the beginning of the nineteenth century, which held that the Hebrew Scriptures contained all the word of God delivered to the inhabitants of the earth!

THE BEING AND KIND OF BEING GOD IS: Against the dogma that God was an incorporeal, immaterial, passionless being, the Prophet announced the splendid doctrine of anthropomorphism—God in the human form, and possessed of human qualities, but sanctified and perfected. In the first great revelation which opened this last dispensation our Prophet beheld Father and Son as separate persons, distinct from each other; persons in the form of men, but more glorious and more splendid, of course, than words could describe them to be. All through the revelations received, and all through his discourses, the Prophet reaffirms the old doctrine of the Scriptures, the doctrine of all the prophets, asserting that man indeed was created in the image of God, and that God possessed human qualities, consciousness, will, love, mercy, justice; together with power and glory—in a word, a Man "exalted and perfected."

CREATION—THE LAW OF SUBSTANCE: In opposition to the doctrine that God had created the universe of nothing, the Prophet asserted the doctrine of the eternity of substance and energy and law, and their infinite extension throughout all space; that creation is but the wisely wrought changes made in the modes of existences, which are themselves—in their essence—eternal, the changes constantly tending to higher developments, from good to better, or else ministering to that end.

OF MAN'S ORIGIN: Against the doctrine which ascribed a merely earthly origin for man, body and spirit; that taught that the intelligent entity in man—the mind—was a created thing—against this, I say, our Prophet taught that "Intelligence is not created or made, neither, indeed, can be." He taught that the intelligent entity in man, which men call "spirit" and sometimes "soul," is a self-existing entity, uncreated and eternal as God is, placed in the way by Higher Intelligences,—and guided by their love and counsels,—of increasing his own intelligence and power and glory and joy. Such he represented man to be, and once more crowned him with the dignity belonging to his Divine and eternal nature.

ELECTION AND REPROBATION: In regard to that monstrous doctrine that God, by the exercise of His sovereign will, had predestined some men and angels unto everlasting life, while others He ordained to everlasting death; and that, not because of the good or the evil they had done or might do, but because he had so willed it by his sovereign will; that "the number of such men and angels thus predestined are so peculiarly and unchangeably known, and their number so certain and definite that it can not be either increased or diminished"—against this monstrous view of the doctrine of salvation for the race of men, our Prophet declared salvation to be free, and every soul of man capable of participating therein, if happily he should seek salvation; and that man could be assured of the help and grace of God to aid him in the attainment of salvation. Commenting on a passage of Scripture supposed to teach the sectarian doctrine of Election and Reprobation, the Prophet said: "Unconditional election of individuals to eternal life was not taught by the Apostles. God did elect, or predestinate, that all those who would be saved should be saved in Christ Jesus, and through obedience to the Gospel"—other than this there was no predestination or election relating to the salvation of individuals.

On the subject of the fate of the uninstructed heathen, as also upon the matter of children dying in infancy, or before arriving at the years of accountability, the doctrine of Joseph Smith held that where no law is given men will be judged without law, but will stand within the circle of the mercy of God, and there is hope, nay, assurance, of ultimate salvation for the heathen. "The heathen nations shall be redeemed, and they that knew no law shall have part in the first resurrection; and it shall be tolerable for them," are the words of the Lord through the Prophet.