{"id":44918,"date":"2017-11-16T18:03:26","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T01:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=44918"},"modified":"2017-11-16T18:03:26","modified_gmt":"2017-11-17T01:03:26","slug":"family-think-josephs-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/11\/family-think-josephs-claims.html","title":{"rendered":"What did his family think of Joseph’s claims?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"JS<\/a>
The Joseph Smith Sr. family
(I found this image in my computer files, but have no idea where it came from. I would happily give credit if I knew its source \u2014 and would like to know its source in any case.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

From one of my inchoate manuscripts:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another indication of the Prophet\u2019s sincerity is the striking fact that his own family manifestly believed him.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 \u201cThe parents and all living brothers and sisters of Joseph Smith believed his account of his visions.\u00a0 In fact, the two grandparents still alive in 1830 also believed.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 For example, the Joseph Smith Sr., the Prophet\u2019s father, traveled two hundred miles\u2014a significant and taxing journey in the frontier America of that period\u2014to carry a copy of the Book of Mormon to his own father, Asael Smith, the Prophet\u2019s grandfather, not long before Asael\u2019s death in 1830.\u00a0 On the basis of what he regarded as divine revelation, Asael had long anticipated that some member of his family would be \u201craised up\u201d as a benefit to humankind. In his eighty-eighth year, he recognized Joseph as the fulfillment of his own revelation.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Joseph Smith Sr., as Oliver Huntington later recalled, \u201cleaned and relied upon his son Joseph in all spiritual matters as much as boys generally do upon their parents for temporalities.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> \u201cA prophet will always be held in honour,\u201d said Jesus, with slight but realistic hyperbole, \u201cexcept in his home town, and among his kinsmen and family\u201d (Mark 6:4 [NEB]; compare Matthew 13:57; Luke 4:24; John 4:44).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Anderson, Joseph Smith\u2019s New England Heritage<\/em>, xiv-xv.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Anderson, Joseph Smith\u2019s New England Heritage<\/em>, 148-149; also Black, Stories from the Early Saints<\/em>, 2, where further references are given.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>$ Andrus and Andrus, They Knew the Prophet<\/em>, 71.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way to build a peaceful community is to build men and women who are lovers and makers of peace.\u201d \u00a0(John Andreas Widtsoe [1872-1952], member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always had a particular interest in this subject:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy Does the Book of Mormon Use the Phrase \u2018Secret Combinations?'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

On 16 April 2015, the New York Times<\/em> published an interview with one of the most significant living mathematical physicists, now approaching 94 years of age and retired after having long been associated with Princeton\u2019s Institute for Advanced Studies. \u00a0You might be interested to learn what one of his favorite books is:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFreeman Dyson: By the Book\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I received this important communication from one of my anonymous critics\u00a0at 7:03 PM on 15\u00a0November 2017:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cwhine whine whine.\u00a0\u00a0baby-duffus-panniculus-shill.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s sent me scores and scores of such essays over the past several years. \u00a0Some of them have been obscene and some of them have been less complimentary, but I don\u2019t think that he\u2019s ever before been\u00a0so eloquent or so cogent.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I enjoyed my participation today in the Wheatley Institution\u2019s annual symposium \u201cReason for Hope: Responding to a Secular World,\u201d along with former Relief Society general president Julie Beck, former BYU family studies professor Dr. Jenet Erickson, and retired BYU professor of philosophy C. Terry Warner. \u00a0We each gave our separate presentations and then, at 3 PM, joined as a panel to take questions.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m told that the presentations will all be made available online at some point in the relatively near future. \u00a0I didn\u2019t see a camera working during the Q&A, though, so I doubt that it was recorded.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve ever been puzzled by the failure of the Kirtland Bank and whether or how Joseph Smith was involved in it, you\u2019ll find this 42-minute interview with an expert historian of the episode \u2014 accessible via the website of the Interpreter Foundation \u2014 both interesting and helpful:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kirtland Safety Society,\u201d with Elizabeth Kuehn<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The latest installment of my weekly column in the Deseret News<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInheriting wind \u2014 false accounts of the supposed war between science, religion\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 From one of my inchoate manuscripts: \u00a0 Another indication of the Prophet\u2019s sincerity is the striking fact that his own family manifestly believed him.[1]\u00a0 \u201cThe parents and all living brothers and sisters of Joseph Smith believed his account of his visions.\u00a0 In fact, the two grandparents still alive in 1830 also believed.\u201d[2]\u00a0 For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat did his family think of Joseph's claims?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    From one of my inchoate manuscripts:   Another indication of the Prophet\u2019s sincerity is the striking fact that his own family\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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