Now, as to Joseph firing his weapon during his murder at Carthage...
Do you equally condemn Peter, the one whom the Savior made his “rock” and built His church upon. He nearly split the head of a Roman in twain with his sword while defending Jesus, but only took off an ear instead. Remember that Joseph had 3 others in the Jail with him. Is he not allowed the same human compassion and love toward his brethren in defending them?
After Hyrum was hit in the head and fell to the floor, crying "I am a dead man", and seeing the immediate demise of the others as well, Joseph then tried to jump into the crowded mob below so that the others would be left alone upstairs. It worked. Joseph was dead from fire below and from the door behind, before he hit the stones below the jail. The others were left behind.
The mob had achieved their aim, or at least thought so. The Church did not disintegrate as hoped, but strengthened in their resolve and efforts. Similarly, the same thing seems to happen on this list day in and day out. You cannot shake the faith when it is given by the Holy Ghost and not Man. All you tend to accomplish is a greater determination to defend and bear testimony of the Truth of Jesus Christ and His restored Gospel.... Something which I guess feeds the FR beast... for lack of a better term.
It would seem the Illinois mob should have hearkened to the words of Gamaliel in Acts 5: Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.
Remember back about the time Howard W. Hunter was the President of the Church? About that time, we lost several of the Twelve. There’s was a pretty high turnover rate for a couple of years.
I remember that there was an editorial in the local paper that essentially said that the LDS Church would collapse from all this; it could never survive the loss of so many of its leaders in such a short time.
Such people as the author of that article, and the members of the mob, just do not understand the fundamental nature of the LDS Church. It is Christ’s -own- Church, -the- organization that He has set up to accomplish His will in preparation for His Second Coming. It will not fall. And a lot of people continue to be disappointed at this fact.
Your prophet will never measure up to The Lord, too much is known about him and his tricks, his long list of wives, many of whom were already married to other men. And we need not go again into Smith's bold and demonically inspired effort to rewrite the Bible inorder to include false prophecies of his advent 'in these latter days'.
Seven,
“Do you equally condemn Peter, the one whom the Savior made his “rock” and built His church upon. He nearly split the head of a Roman in twain with his sword while defending Jesus, but only took off an ear instead. “
First, I do not argue that justice with fairness was
accomplished. I would have preferred him to face a fair
trial.
OK, now to Peter. Yes, Peter was wrong and was corrected
by Jesus (the real One). Peter, was not a martyr in this
instance. History does record his upside down crucifixion,
but does not say he was locked and loaded as it occurred.
So, it seems very different. Since Jesus corrected Peter,
I certainly will not do more.
Beyond that, I posted the facts from Wiki and I know no
more.
best,
ampu