The Book of Joseph

My sister asked me a week or so ago if I could come up with a version of Joseph’s history that she could tell her children. Also this week, a lady named Anne over at Times and Seasons anguished over how she could possible discuss Joseph’s actions in restoring the New and Everlasting Covenant with her children.

So the other day when I was interminably delayed on my commute, I started writing. This is a first draft, and I’m open to any comments or suggestions as to how this could be improved. I’m not even sure what to call this (though the name of the post will remain “The Book of Joseph”).

Remember that this is a story to be told to relatively young kids. I am numbering the paragraphs not to be scriptural, but so you can comment with passion about the particular portions of the story you find noteworthy.

The picture is just because it was the best picture I had recently taken that represents love and sweetness and good fruits, even if a bit tart.

The Book of Joseph, or The Plain and Precious Things

1  Once upon a time, Jesus came to the earth. He taught that all individuals are precious in the sight of God, no matter whether they are men or women, free or slave. He also taught that he was the Son of God.

2  The Jewish leaders thought Jesus was a trouble-maker, claiming to be the Son of God. They betrayed Jesus to the Romans, and he was killed.

3  But Jesus had known that even this death was part of God’s plan. Three days after Jesus died, he came alive again. Every Easter we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection.

4  When the resurrected Jesus visited his disciples, He told them that the gospel would be corrupted. But that at some future time, the full gospel would be restored.

5  In the hundreds of years after Jesus was resurrected, the gospel spread. Eventually all the kings and queens of the old world believed in Jesus. But because they were kings and queens, they thought it was their right to change things.

6  A thousand years ago, one queen was afraid her king would be murdered. The old laws about marriage said that if a woman had a baby, the man who was the baby’s father was married to the woman, even if he already had a wife. And a man who agreed to care for a woman whose husband had been murdered would be her new husband, even if he was her step-son.

7.  The King was old, and his son was the same age as Queen Margaret. Queen Margaret loved her old husband and didn’t want someone to kill her old husband and make her marry her husband’s son. But when the law was changed, it also meant that if a baby was born and the father was married to another woman, people pretended the baby had no father. Peole called these sweet babies bastards.

8  Hundreds of years after the kings and queens of the old world changed Christ’s gospel in their many different ways, a baby boy was born to a poor family in America. He was named Joseph Smith.

9  When Joseph Smith was a teenager, lots of preachers came to his town hoping to baptize everyone. But the preachers fought each other, each saying only his version of Jesus’ gospel was true.

10  Joseph was confused. The Bible said anyone who had a question could ask God. So one spring day, Joseph went to the woods near his house and prayed. God and Jesus appeared to Joseph Smith and told him that none of the preachers was teaching the full gospel. And so Joseph waited for the time when someone would come, preaching the true gospel.

11  When Joseph was older, he wanted to find the true gospel. This time he didn’t see God and Jesus, but an angel appeared to him, an angel named Moroni.

12  Moroni told Joseph that the promise Jesus made would be kept. And Moroni said that the hearts of the fathers would turn to the children, and that the hearts of the children would turn to the fathers.

13  Joseph was told about scripture Moroni and his father had created when they were still alive. They had written the scripture about their people on metal plates, using gold as part of the metal to keep the record from rusting and because it is easy to write on thin golden plates. Before Moroni had died, he had hidden the plates and special spiritual tools in a hill.

14  Four years passed before Joseph could take the plates and spiritual tools. His family was poor, and the angel was afraid Joseph would use the plates and tools for money. As the years passed, Joseph’s older brother died, a brother named Alvin. Joseph loved this brother so much that he wanted to name his first child Alvin.

15 Joseph grew old enough to marry. While working to earn money to pay his family’s debts Joseph met Emma Hale. She was beautiful and smart. Joseph was inspired that he would not be given the golden plates unless Emma was with him.

16  But Emma’s father didn’t like Joseph because Joseph was poor and because people made fun of Joseph for saying he’d seen an angel. Emma’s father refused to let Joseph marry Emma. But Joseph thought that Emma could make up her own mind. That winter, Emma agreed to leave her father’s home and marry Joseph.

17  In the fall, Emma went with Joseph to get the gold plates and special stones, the Urim and Thummim. Joseph would look into the Urim and Thummim and tell Emma what the plates said, and Emma would write the words down. In time others helped with the writing, until the entire book was finished. One of Joseph’s friends sold his farm to raise money for the book to be published. The book was called The Book of Mormon, named after Moroni’s father.

18  The Book of Mormon taught Joseph Smith about priesthood power and baptism. And it taught Joseph about the importance of being a good husband. Most of all, the Book of Mormon taught Joseph about Jesus Christ and how important it is for all people to believe in Jesus Christ.

19  When Joseph was twenty-four years old, he organized a Church to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. His brother and friends went into the countryside and taught people about the Book of Mormon, that God’s priesthood was restored, and that Christ wanted all to repent of their sins and be baptized.

20  But Joseph remembered what God and Jesus had said about the other churches and how the preachers argued over what the Bible meant. Joseph thought that if the Urim and Thummim could help him know what the strange writing on the gold plates meant, maybe the Urim and Thummim could help him know what the Bible should mean. And so Joseph began “translating” the Bible by seeking inspiration and using the Urim and Thummim.

21  In Genesis Joseph learned about creation, how precious this world is. He learned about how Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden and became the first man and woman of all mankind. Joseph learned about Zion, a place where the people had pure hearts and shared everything, where no one was poor.

22  The Joseph got to the part where Abraham had a baby with Hagar, the maid of Abraham’s wife, Sarah. This was very confusing to Joseph. Again Joseph went to God and asked how this could be right, for a man to have more than one wife.

23  God explained that men and women could be together forever. This was one of the precious gospel truths that had been lost, the knowledge that marriage didn’t have to end when the husband and wife died. But God also told Joseph that this meant sometimes a man would have more than one wife, like in the days before Queen Margaret changd the law.

24  Joseph knew men who had loved their wife, but then that wife had died. It was typical for the men to marry again. If the man couldn’t be married to both women in eternity, then some of the man’s children would be bastards in eternity.

25  Joseph hated the idea of having more than one wife. He loved Emma and Emma loved him.

26  Joseph was told to build a temple, so God could bless the people. The people who believed in the Book of Mormon worked very hard and build a beautiful temple in Ohio. The temple was dedicated the week before Easter and people saw angels walking back and forth on the roof of the temple, celebrating the goodness of the believers.

27  The next week, Joseph and his friend, Oliver, were praying behind the curtain. To their surprise, Jesus Christ appeared to them, along with the Old Testament prophets. One of these was Elijah, who Moroni had said would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. Elijah gave Joseph the power to bind families together, the power that allows families to be forever.

28  But before Joseph could be sealed to Emma, he was told that he must restore the knowledge that a man could have more than one wife in the eyes of God.

29  A young woman was working for Emma and Joseph. Her name was Fanny. She loved Emma and Emma loved her. Secretly, Joseph and Fanny were married, like how Abraham had married Hagar. But something went wrong. Fanny ended up leaving. Emma was very upset, and Joseph’s friend Oliver, hearing Emma’s sorrow, also became upset.

30  Rumors grew up, saying Joseph had been evil. But Joseph and Emma and Fanny never told what had happened. Fanny’s family trusted Joseph though, and believed in him for the rest of their lives.

31  In those years money lost its value throughout the entire country. But some of the Mormons in Ohio thought it was Joseph’s fault. They thought that if they could get rid of Joseph Smith, everything would get better.

32  The Mormons left Ohio for Missouri. But trouble continued. Like the Jewish leaders betraying Jesus to the Romans, some angry Mormons betrayed Joseph to the Missouri soldiers. For many months, Joseph was locked up in jail. The people in Missouri burned the Mormon homes and bragged about killing Mormon men and boys.

33  The Mormon believers left Missouri and went to a swamp near the Mississippi River. The swamp was named Commerce, but it was mostly known for mosquitos and fever. The man who owned Commerce said he would let Joseph have it if Joseph paid him for many years.

34  Joseph was allowed to escape from the jail. He came to the swamp and renamed it Nauvoo, which was Hebrew for Beautiful City. Joseph blessed the sick and healed them, and the people worked together to turn the swamp into a beautiful city, their own Zion.

35  Then one of Joseph’s friends died. While Joseph was preaching the sermon at the funeral, he read a scripture that said “Else why are they baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?” Joseph wasn’t using the Urim and Thummim at the sermon, but in a flash Joseph understood that Jesus had taught that baptism could be done on behalf of those who died, who had not been able to be baptized during their lifetime.

36  So many people Joseph loved had not been able to be baptized before they died. His brother Alvin was one of these. A widow in the crowd had a teenage son who had died without baptism. Almost everyone in Nauvoo had family that had died without baptism. People were so excited to offer baptism to their dead loved ones that they would go to the river and be baptized.

37  Everyone was full of joy and hope and peace.

38  Three days after the wonderful sermon, a mob snuck into Nauvoo. Like they’d done in Missouri, they set cabins on fire. In one cabin, they found a woman and killed her. Then the mob fled.

39  Joseph was worried. Nauvoo was not an official city. They did not have laws to protect them. And if people knew that a mob had attacked and killed a woman, they would panic. So the attack was not mentioned in the paper.

40  Around the time of the attack, a politician arrived in Nauvoo, named Dr. Bennett. The politician told Joseph he could get protection for Nauvoo. So the politician went and met with the leaders of the state, including Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Bennett explained why the Mormons needed a good city charter, so they could have an army for the city and a university.

41  When Abraham Lincoln and the other leaders of the state approved the city charter, the politician became famous. The Mormons made him mayor of Nauvoo, and he was made a leader in the city’s army. The politician fell in love and planned to marry one of the Mormon women.

42  That winter, Joseph got a letter. The letter said Dr. Bennett was already married, and that he was a bad man. Joseph wasn’t sure he should just believe a letter, so he sent a missionary to investigate. The missionary wrote to Joseph, saying it was all true. Joseph told Dr. Bennett to stop talking to the young woman about marriage.

42  But Joseph didn’t like to shame people, so the politician’s disgrace was kept quiet.

43  Joseph had been ignoring the commandment about marriage, like how Jonah ignored the commandment to preach to Nineva. But finally Joseph obeyed, marrying a woman named Louisa. It was very secret, and Louisa never got pregnant. So maybe Louisa was just going to be Joseph’s wife in eternity.

44  Joseph focused on building the city, including building a new temple, where families could be sealed together forever.

45  But Dr. Bennett was frustrated. He wanted to be able to be with a woman. When a man and woman are married and are together, their children are born into a loving family. But when a man and a woman are together and aren’t married, they usually don’t want to have any children, and their being together is just for making themselves feel good.

46  Dr. Bennett, the politician, liked feeling good more than being good. He convinced a married woman to help him feel good. Then he convinced a widow to help him feel good. When his friends discovered what Bennett was doing, he told them that this was a new teaching, that it was OK to have a good time with any woman, as long as it was kept hidden. Dr. Bennett gave the men medicine so the women wouldn’t get pregnant. Lots of men and women became involved in this secret sin.

47  For many months, Joseph didn’t know about the sins of the politician and his friends. But God knew. And God sent an angel. This same angel had appeared to Joseph two other times, asking him to restore the knowledge that a man could be married to more than one woman, the knowledge that no child had to be a bastard.

48  But this time, God was angry. The politician and his lies would destroy the Church and the gospel. So the angel came this last time with a sword. The angel told Joseph that if he didn’t obey, he would be destroyed and his people would be destroyed.

49  Joseph was confused. He talked with some women he had felt inspired to marry years earlier. They were married to other men now. But they agreed to be Joseph’s wives in eternity.

50  Then Joseph found out about the lies and sins. He was so upset when he first learned about the sins that he kicked a young man out of the Church. But then Joseph began to see that it was more than just that one man. Joseph asked the priesthood holders to visit every home and teach the people their duty. But the men who were sinning were good at keeping secrets, like the Gadianton robbers in the Book of Mormon.

51  Then the wife of a rich merchant had a great idea. Sarah Kimball was a generous woman, and her husband was also generous to the Mormons, even though he didn’t believe. Sarah Kimball thought it would be a great idea to form a society that could sew shirts for the men building the temple, like women had done during the American Revolution.

52  Joseph felt inspired that this society should do more than sew shirts. It should be an organization for the women of the Church to learn the gospel, where they could do good works, and where they could learn to be wary of the evil men.

53  Emma became president of the woman’s group, named Relief Society. Emma and Joseph both preached that woman should be virtuous, no matter who told them it was OK to sin. The Relief Society investigated rumors, asking young women if they knew anything about this so-called “spiritual wifery.”

54  Two months after Relief Society was formed, five brave women came forward. They told the righteous leaders of the Church what had happened. They confessed and were forgiven.

55  Some of the men confessed as well. Even Dr. Bennett confessed. But when Joseph learned all the facts, he figured out that Dr. Bennett had been the one who invented the lies. And so Joseph kicked Dr. Bennett out of the Church and made it so Bennett wasn’t mayor or part of the city’s army.

56  In the months that followed, more women came forward, confessing to being misled. Some of these women gave sworn testimony before the city council. But whenever Joseph could, he protected the women and men from public shame if they repented. For in those days it was a terrible thing to sin in that manner. Joseph knew that some people would never forgive if they knew.

57  As Joseph and Emma taught righteousness, Joseph would also teach the women about God’s teachings about marriage, that marriage could endure into eternity. To show that the women were truly forgiven, Joseph would have them married to him for eternity. Some righteous fathers thought it would be best if their daughters married Joseph in eternity.

58  Dr. Bennett was so angry about being publicly disgraced that he started telling lies about Joseph. He wrote articles for the newspaper, her wrote a book, and he spoke to crowds all over America. Most people though Dr. Bennett’s stories were too crazy to be true. Others thought that if Joseph Smith taught and did the things Dr. Bennett told them about, Joseph Smith deserved to be killed.

59 In Nauvoo, Emma and Joseph thought everything was fixed. To fulfill the commandment from the angel and from God, Emma told Joseph to marry two orphaned women, Emily and Eliza Partridge. But Emily and Eliza had never known about the sins. They thought this marriage would be just like the marriages in the Old Testament, where all the wives had lots of children.

60 Emma didn’t want Emily and Eliza to have children at hat time. Emma thought people would try to kill Joseph if he had children with his other wives. So Emma made sure Emily and Eliza stayed away from Joseph. Emma even told Joseph that she would divorce him if he tried to have children with his other wives. It was a terrible threat in those days to be divorced. Joseph loved Emma, so he agreed with her. And Emma was sealed to Joseph Smith for eternity, as well as being his wife in life.

61 Joseph and Emma went away to visit her sister to be alone together. While they were alone, sheriffs from Missouri captured Joseph. They beat Joseph, hitting him again and again with a pistol. And then they pushed him into a carriage and drove away with him. Emma was very afraid.

62  The people of Nauvoo came to Joseph’s rescue. Joseph was so happy to be free that he threw a big party. And he invited the Missouri sheriffs to be his special guests, feeding them the best food. Because Joseph always wanted to forgive.

63  Emma was mad, though. She didn’t want Joseph to forgive. She didn’t want to be sealed into a great big family that included the men that pistol-whipped her husband. And she was also angry about how dangerous it was for Joseph to be a husband to other women.

64  Joseph’s brother, Hyrum, thought if only Joseph wrote the revelation down, Emma would be happy. But in the revelation, God was stern with Emma, telling her to repent. Emma made Joseph burn the revelation. But someone had made a copy. The revelation that made Emma so mad is now in the Doctrine & Covenants as section 132.

65  Hyrum was really happy about the revelation. Hyrum’s first wife had died, and he had remarried. So Hyrum taught how the New and Everlasting Covenant allowed families to be together forever even when a man had been married to more than one woman, how even those who had sinned could be cleansed and sealed into the great family of mankind.

66  But some didn’t want to repent. Joseph wouldn’t let people be sealed until they repented. William Law decided to kill Joseph rather than repent. William Law gathered hundreds of men and made they swear an oath to kill Joseph and lie to protect one another. Two young men refused to swear the oath, and secretly told Joseph everything. Joseph knew if the hundreds of men knew the young men had talked to Joseph, the young men would be murdered. So he commanded the young men to tell no one for at least twenty years.

67 Joseph gathered the apostles and ordained them with the sealing power and all the keys of the restored gospel. This way, he told them, the gospel would not be lost even if Joseph was killed.

68  William Law and his hundreds of men used a newspaper to accuse Joseph of horrible things. People outside of Nauvoo encouraged people to make things right with their guns. Joseph was attacked by men who screamed they would see Joseph shot.

69  It was a scary time, and a decision was made to destroy the Nauvoo newspaper William Law had created. But in America, freedom of the press is considered important. Even though people had destroyed Mormon printing presses and burned cabins and killed Mormons without being punished, this time the government decided it was a terrible thing that Joseph destroyed a printing press.

70 Joseph was taken to the county jail at Carthage. But before a trial could be held, a mob attacked the jail and shot Joseph and Hyrum.

71  The people were afraid the Mormons would take revenge. But the Mormons stayed in Nauvoo and mourned for Joseph. Stories were told about how the Mormons were killing the people in Carthage, but when the governor came to visit, he learned the stories were lies.

72  All the people who loved Joseph were shocked and afraid. They didn’t know who would lead them, now that Joseph was dead.

73  Brigham Young announced that there would be a meeting where the people would decide. At the meeting, on older friend of Joseph talked for a long time about how he should be in charge of th Church. People got bored. Then Brigham spoke. The people felt like Brigham spoke like Joseph had spoken. Some wrote it was like Joseph was back with them again.

74 Once Brigham Young and the apostles were in charge of the Church, Brigham had to figure out how to care for the many women who had covenanted with Joseph. None of the women had gotten pregnant during Joseph’s lifetime except Emma. Brigham knew that it was a terrible thing for a woman to not have children. So he told the women it was time for them to have children.

75  Joseph’s plural wives married men like te apostles, who promised to be good and protect the women. These women were good friends to each other and honored Emma. The women had lots of children and they taught the children the gospel and that Joseph Smith was a great prophet. Brigham Young asked the women to have Relief Society again, Joseph’s plural wife Eliza R. Snow was called to be Relief Society president. When Eliza died, Joseph’s plural wife Zina Diantha Huntington was called to be Relief Society president in Eliza’s place.

76  Through the beginning of the new century, all the prophets and Relief Society presidents were people who had learned from Joseph Smith about the New and Everlasting Covenant that let families be together forever. All of them would have loved to have Emma come west as well.

77  But Emma Smith decided to stay near Nauvoo, where Joseph’s body was buried. She paid the money Joseph owed for buying the swamp that became Nauvoo. Emm raised Joseph’s children to honor their father as a good man. For many years Joseph’s sons told Brigham Young and the Mountain Mormons that they were wrong to let more than one woman be married to a man, and said their father wouldnever had taught such a thing.

78  Hyrum’s son believed what Joseph Smith taught about families being together forever. He wanted to prove his cousins were wrong. Hyrum’s son and others asked the women to write about being sealed to Joseph. The cousins fought in court about who was right and many people told the judge about Joseph teaching about how families can be together forever, even when a man had more than one wife. But they didn’t talk about Dr. Bennett and the many people who had sinned.

79  After everyone was had lived in Nauvoo was dead, a young woman decided to write about Joseph Smith. Her name was Fawn Brodie, and her uncle was an apostle. But she had decided that God wasn’t real. Fawn read all about Joseph teaching about the New and Everlasting Covenant, and she also came across the stories about the evil men. Fawn thought it would make a great story to say Joseph was doing the same thing that the evil men were doing. Fawn sold a lot of books and became famous.

80 Many people read Fawn Brodie’s book and decided Joseph was a terrible man who deserved to die. But the didn’t know that Emma and Joseph were trying to stop the evil men who made themselves feel good with women without any marriage.

81  The Mormon prophets after Joseph Smith taught the people that Joseph Smith was a good man. Because they were good people raised by good mothers, they weren’t taught about the evil men who did terrible things in Nauvoo. But they believed Joseph was good because God told them Joseph was good, the same way God had told Joseph about the gospel when Joseph prayed as a young boy.

82. Then computers and the internet made it so everyone could learn about evil things. They read about Fawn Brodie and how she said Joseph Smith was evil. And they learned about all the women who were sealed to Joseph. But they didn’t know about the evil men. So the people who believed the internet more than God decided Mormons were stupid. They mocked the Mormons who still believed Joseph Smith was good.

83. And then God inspired people to find all the records of Nauvoo, not just the stories Fawn Brodie told. And when all the stories were put together, the stories about the evil men were discovered again. And now the Mormons began to understand why Joseph wanted to protect women and teach them about how families can be together forever.

84.  Most people on the internet still believe Fawn Brodie. They want to think Mormons are stupid. They want to believe the internet more than God.

85.  But God loves all his children. And so He asks those who believe in Him to pray for those children of God who do not believe. He asks those who believe to be baptized for those who die without baptism. He asks us to forgive, the way Christ forgave. And He asks us to be families and love one another and turn our hearts to our fathers and when we are mothers and fathers, to turn our hearts to our children.

86. Above all, God wants His children to accept the salvation of Christ, so that we can return to God in Heaven. In heaven we can be with our mothers and our fathers, our sisters and our brothers, and we can be together with the person we marry in the temple and the children who were born to us. And in this way, all the people of the earth can be joined together in one great family, where everyone is loved and everyone belongs.

Amen.