Future Generations

[Anonymous]

I’ve been wondering something and I guess I’ll be bold enough to ask. I understand these topics have probably been discussed. Also, I don’t mean any disrespect to traditional church history.

If you were going to share with future generations the history of Joseph Smith according to your personal studies and spiritual witnesses what would you say about the following areas?

1. The first vision – (What did Joseph see? Was it a dream, etc)

2. The gold plates – (Did they exist? Did Joseph acquire them as is taught in the church? etc)

3. The Book of Mormon – (Did Joseph translate plates? Did he use other books, events, names familiar to his area to help him write the BOM?, etc)

4. Does God recognize the LDS church as His only true church with authority?

How or would your story be different than what we learn in the church? Would it be similar?

Just wondering…

[Anonymous]

Haven this is an off the top of my head guess.

I would probably list Joseph Smith as a mystic. A man inspired by visions he had. I would probably say the books he worked on were guided by God and hold many spiritual, human truths. I don’t have a guess for the rest of the questions. I think the answers may be subject to what is relevant for the future generations. The early Saints didn’t have a first vision story to begin with, the Book of Mormon was not as central to them as it is to us – there was different focus. Our generation has the Golden Plates thing, the Books and Angels focus. Joseph did, said, taught a lot. Josephs entire story and the focus of Mormonism could change and still be anchored in the man, the events, and the legacy that began on a spring day in upstate New York.

[Anonymous]

Interesting question–for me it’s because we have grandchildren now, and some are in LDS-active families and some are not. So I wonder how to address them all in some kind of a biography. My more obvious question is, who wlll want to read anything I write??

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure if you’re talking about now, that is how I would teach my own children or grandchildren, or if you’re asking if I could put something in a time capsule to be opened in 200 years or something.

I’m not one who has ever been about damaging or destroying another’s faith or who believes that everyone needs to understand things the same way I do. That’s why I’m fine with the church teaching Joseph translated the BoM by the “gift and power of God” but I don’t like that the video “The Restoration” shows him reading from the plates. The first is vague and open to interpretation and nuance while the second is promulgating a falsehood. I want my own children, and I suppose my own grandchildren (I don’t have any yet), to realize what truth is for themselves, and while I am certainly willing to guide them I’m not about to point them to an anti site to learn that Joseph mostly translated without the plates even present and with his face in a hat. That’s why I’m glad for the essays – they’re telling us things that previously were mostly found only on anti sites. I am not about to stand up in front of a ward or family gathering and say “What you all believe about Joseph Smith and the gold plates is false, the church has purposely led you astray, and here’s the truth.” I would (and do) in fact use phrases like “the gift and power of God” to teach these principles

So would I approach that differently if I were writing in a journal that I thought was only going to be read in a couple hundred years by progeny that might or might not know that great-great-grandpa Jedi was a Mormon doubter? Or perhaps it would be read by those who don’t know about me at all. I might approach that differently but because I think everyone’s understanding will be different by then. Were we to bring a Kirtland, Nauvoo, or Utah pioneer to a modern meeting I think they may not recognize what we have become. Not that I think the church is “false” or led astray but because our thinking and knowledge and theocracy have evolved.

Were I to speak my mind with no reservations about what my progeny thought and not protecting them, I would say that Joseph had a vision (sort of an awake dream) and that while I believe he saw God and Jesus in the vision, they were not physically present in the grove. I actually say that now. I don’t know about the gold plates, I have questions and doubts about them. If there were gold plates, I think it’s possible Joseph translated them by the gift and power of God, mostly using a seer stone in the hat (which the church does now acknowledge but I think is not widely known – perhaps in 50 or 100 years it will be). I am not at all sure that this is the only true church and/or that God takes any ownership of it.

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