About Joseph Smith the Prophet

The Prophet Joseph Smith is one of the most charismatic and influential religious figures in American history. Joseph Smith acquired many followers throughout his life, but also many opponents because his teachings were not welcomed by most people in the existing Christian community. For many of them, the doctrines he taught were nothing more than blasphemy and contrary to their interpretation of the Bible.

Joseph Smith's ancestors were ordinary New England farm people who emigrated from England to America in the seventeenth century and settled in Massachusetts. Joseph Smith was born on December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont, the son of Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith.

Impressing the Stranger

(Joseph Smith an American Prophet by J. Evans)

One day, in the early summer of 1844, Josiah Quincy, the sophisticated mayor of Boston, with his cousin, Charles Francis Adams, visited Nauvoo, Illinois. Nauvoo was then the largest town in the state. It had been built on a bog by the Mormons, and was at this time occupied by some twenty-five thousand of them. The famous visitors were shown the sights by Joseph Smith himself, who also explained to them the Mormon faith.

Quincy observed the Prophet closely. He noted his size and looks, his dress, his language, his mannerisms, the play of his features as he talked, his way with people, how these regarded him, his ideas on religion and public questions-everything, in short, that an educated observer of men would be likely to notice in one of whom he had heard strange things. He even fished out of a waste-paper basket some letters from English converts-which he read.

From that interview Josiah Quincy went home and wrote an essay on the Mormon prophet, which he later published in his book, Figures of the Past. The beginning and the end of this paper are interesting as showing the impression made by Joseph Smith on one who was an adept at sizing up his contemporaries.

"It is by no means improbable," he begins, "that some future text-book for the use of generations yet unborn will contain a question something like this: 'What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen?' And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written: 'Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet.' And the reply, absurd as it doubtless seems to most men now living, may be an obvious commonplace to their descendants. History deals in surprises and paradoxes quite as startling as this."

More about Joseph Smith:

JOSEPH SMITH Mormon Prophet – The First Vision

The Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith was only fourteen years old when he experienced what few boys or men have. Known as the first vision, where young Joseph Smith was visited by God the Father and Jesus Christ, there has never been an event more glorious or controversial. It has been described as possibly being the most singular event to ever occur on the earth since the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is hard to believe for some and it is hard for some to explain. However, the events that have happened since that year in 1820 to this young boy of fourteen, is astounding. (Read more)

Translation of the Book of Mormon

The exact process by which the Book of Mormon was translated is known only to Joseph Smith.  He described it only as through the "gift and power of God."  There are several theories from non-believers about how he was able to write it himself; and several more from believers considering whether it was more a dictation of the Lord's will, or if Joseph had some leeway in interpreting what he saw in the Urim and Thummim. (Read more)

Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the Priesthood

The priesthood is given by God to man, so that they may have the authority to act in His name. Christ gave the priesthood to the Twelve Apostles, but after the ascension of Christ, as the Apostles died or were killed the authority of the priesthood was lost. (Read more)