Posted on 12/17/2013 10:12:02 AM PST by Colofornian
66 years ago today (Dec. 17, 1947), an Old Testament "scholar" for BYU gave the annual "Joseph Smith Memorial Fireside" message in Logan Utah at the Lds Institute for Religion.
The Institute, geared to be a spiritual hub for Utah State University Mormon students, has grown from 114 students to it being perhaps the "second largest" LDS Institute of Religion in the world with over 7,000 students. See Perry honors 75 years of Logan Institute
The Logan Institute has made a significant "contribution" to the Mormon celebration of "Smithmas" by developing "Joseph Smith Memorial firesides" that "began in 1944 and have been held each year since, as close as possible to December 23, Joseph Smith’s birthday."
Source: “Praise To The Man”: A Review Of The Annual Joseph Smith Memorial Sermons
The Institute indeed held all but the initial fireside in December closest to Joseph Smith's Dec. 23 birthday from 1944-1973. At that time, it seemingly became difficult to garner December dates from Lds general authorities who served as speakers (perhaps they were protecting family time). And it was moved to January dates (and even many February ones) to accommodate these General Authorities of the church.
Lds "prophet" Joseph F. Smith -- Joseph Smith's nephew -- had suggested such birthday veneration toward Smith during the 50th anniversary year of Joseph Smith's death:
"I should like to see introduced among the Latter-day Saints...the practice of celebrating or commemorating the birthday of the Prophet Joseph Smith..." said Joseph F. Smith.
Source: MormonHeritage.com: ANSWER to FIRST DAY of Christmas Past
The suggestion wasn't seemingly widely accepted right away, but since the Sabbath falls just as often on Dec. 23 (Smith's birthday) as it does Jesus' celebrated birthday (Dec. 25), Joseph Smith essentially gets just as much "billboard time" at Lds wards across the world.
What do I mean? Well, take 1894 when Joseph F. Smith said Mormons should celebrate Joseph Smith's birthday: This was recommended on a Sabbath -- Dec. 23, 1894.
You see, Mormonism doesn't offer "special" Christmas Eve or Christmas Day services to celebrate that incarnational event unless it happens to fall on a Sunday -- Sabbath day.
So, over the past 187 years of the existence of the Mormon Church, that Sabbath winds up falling on either Jesus' birthday -- or Joseph Smith's. And as to which Historic person gets more attention that year could depend upon whose birthday falls closest to that fourth Sunday in December!
According to this BYU article: “Praise To The Man”: A Review Of The Annual Joseph Smith Memorial Sermons, what Sperry spoke about on this 17th of December in 1947 was the so-called Mormon "First Vision" and Mormonism's concept of God:
"The primary role of the First Vision in the Restoration leads us to what Sidney B. Sperry called 'the first and in many respects, the most important contribution of Joseph Smith in this realm . . . his concept of God,'”
Perhaps few citations size up the "Smithmasizing" occurring at regular interventions in the Mormon Church than to pluck a citation from a 1938 Relief Society Magazine article published by the Mormon Church.
As Mormons came off their centennial celebration of its church in 1930, and began ramping up for the centennial recognition of Joseph Smith's death (1944), Joseph Fielding Smith, the great nephew of Joseph Smith, compiled the "teachings" of Joseph Smith in a book published in 1938 under Deseret News Press called Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
That same year, Louise Y. Robison wrote a piece in the November Relief Society Magazine which seems to capture the very essence of the Mormon church:
"To know positively that our Father and His Son Jesus Christ did visit the earth and restore the Gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith...--this knowledge is more precious than life." (p. 768)
Yet, in all frankness, didn't Jesus Christ "visit the earth" via His embodiment as a babe in Bethlehem? Given that He stayed here a full 33 years -- verses the unnamed entities Joseph Smith said visited him briefly one day as a 14 or 15 year-old boy -- wasn't that 33-year visit "more precious than life" to the "Joy to the World" recipients?
You see, the following is often one of the missing keys re: any attempt to understand Mormonism. Mark it well:
In fact Bethlehem is so snubbed from the very roots of Mormonism that Joseph Smith even inserted "Jerusalem" as Jesus' place of birth in the Book of Mormon (see Alma 7:14)!
The book of Colossians in the Bible is at the heart of the Christian Gospel:
Jesus is HIMSELF the embodied deity, the One who came and dwelled bodily, "pitching an incarnational tent" among us...even making Himself common by appearing to people in general during His three-year public ministry (aged 30-33). This time frame of The Gospels featured Him feeding the 5,000, healing some in public throngs, and giving "Sermons on the Mount" along with other messages.
Yet at the 125th anniversary of Joseph Smith's death -- just nine days prior to Smith's birthday (Dec. 14) -- 44 years ago...during the 1969 Lds "Smithmasfest"...Lds "apostle" Mark E. Petersen proclaimed just how badly Mormon leaders have tanked Jesus' bodily incarnation:
Petersen announced then that "At NO TIME has God made himself common by appearing to people in general...but always in the past He has restored the true knowledge of himself by appearing to divinely chosen instruments on the earth...Their testimonies then would become a basis for a proper and intelligent worship of the Deity and through that worship, with proper obedience, mankind could be saved. This is why...Joseph Smith was permitted to see the Father and the Son."
Source: BYU article: “Praise To The Man”: A Review Of The Annual Joseph Smith Memorial Sermons
What? Had this Mormon "apostle" never studied Colossians 2:9 or the Gospels about how Jesus -- God Himself in the flesh -- appeared to people in general in the very PERSON of Jesus Christ? [Note: Petersen was of THE worst Lds "apostles" in history by way of his racism revealed through his article entitled "Race problems as they effect the Church" (August 1954)" Some Mormon general authorities have been denser than others]
And here the BYU Religious Studies Center thought this Petersen quote was THE highlight of Petersen's entire 1969 message @ the Joseph Smith Memorial Fireside?
The apostle Paul brings this out in Colossians 1:15. Paul is summing up that Jesus Christ is God Himself appearing in Human flesh. The deity from eternal past -- appearing for the very first time -- in bodily form of man. Yet, the typical Mormon looks @ this passage -- and at 2 Corinthians 4:4 -- and thinks the essence of it is to convey that Heavenly Father somehow has a physical body just like Jesus' and was a man who grew up into the god job.
(2 Corinthians 4:4: "4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.")
Mormons are indeed "believers"...but "believers" in what? (Many gods -- none of which are THE ULTIMATE GOD)
When the apostle Paul writes about "the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" -- he is highlighting not only...
...Colossians 2:9 "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form..."
...but EVERYTHING the Son of God Jesus said about His in-person PERSONAL REVELATION of who God is.
It's NOT seeing the Mormon "first vision" through the eyes of teen Joseph Smith that is "believing"; it's believing Jesus Christ Himself is the embodiment of God and is HIMSELF the Glad Tidings of Great Joy which is indeed seeing!
What did Jesus and the New Testament writers say about this?
* Believing Jesus is believing God (see John 12:44; John 14:1)
* Receiving Jesus is receiving God (see Mark 9:33)
* Seeing Jesus is seeing God (see John 12:45; John 14:9)
* Knowing Jesus was knowing God (see John 8:19, 24; John 14:7)
* Honoring Jesus is honoring God (see John 5:23)
* Hating Jesus is hating God (see John 15:23)
* He who denies the Son, will be denied before the Father (see Matthew 10:33)
* He who confesses the Son, is confessed before the Father (see Matthew 10:32)
* To have God is to have the doctrine of Christ (2 John v. 9)
* 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. (Hebrews 1:3)
Well, guess what, "Brother Sperry"? Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as the Manifested Living Word, already accomplished that!!!
In essence, Joseph Smith, and all ensuing Mormon leaders, somehow claimed or at least assume that Jesus Christ failed in that mission outlined in those Biblical verses cited above...That Jesus somehow failed to HIMSELF BE the perfect vision of the Father for people to believe, receive, see, know, honor, and confess in embracing the doctrine of Christ Himself!
Hence, they prop up a few-minutes of unnamed entities appearing to Smith (For example, read Joseph Smith History 1 in the Pearl of Great Price and you will see no proper names given...no mention of God, Jesus Christ, Son of God...just one generic reference to a "son" portending to be the son of the other unnamed guy).
Heber C. Kimball was one of the top three hierarchists in the Mormon Church during Brigham Young's reign. In 1857 he claimed that to know the Lds First Presidents was "the way" to know God/Jesus Christ, when Jesus Himself claimed to be the Only Way:
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except by Me." (John 14:6)
Kimball's version of that?
"Did you actually know Joseph Smith? No. Do you know Brother Brigham? No. Do you know brother Heber? No, you do not. Do you know the Twelve? you do not, if you did, you would begin to know God, and learn that those men who are chosen to direct and counsel you are near kindred to God and to Jesus Christ, for the keys, power, and authority of the kingdom of God are in that lineage."
Source: Journal of Discourses: Volume 4, March 1, 1857
Mormons, this Christmas: Please, reconsider the stumbling blocks you are placing in others' spiritual pathways: Jesus Christ, the embodied divinity, is the lone way back to God.
Even the Book of Mormon declares Jesus as the only way (Alma 38:9)
Even some of female Mormons occasionally get that right:
* "There is only one way, and Jesus is that way." (Man, Woman, and Deity, Bookcraft, 1991, p. 43)
* "Christ must be at the forefront of ALL our teaching, as well as the pattern for our daily life." (Margaret D. Nadauld, BYU Speeches, Nov. 2, 1997, p. 12)
* "...coming unto Christ means walking away from the world. It means placing Christ AND CHRIST ONLY at the center of our lives so that the vanities and philosophies of men lose their addictive appeal." (Sheri L. Dew, CEO/President of Deseret Book Co., as quoted in Ensign, Nov. 1999, p. 98)
Hey, all I did was ask if you were sure.
I understand as an observant Jew Saturday is important is important to you.
Ok, sorry i gave you more than what you ask for.
Good catch...I had the right chapter (Alma 7)...but wrong verse...it's verse 10...
Dude, proof read
Close enough for Government work...
Speaking of verses; I wonder why the BoM has them??
Chapters and verses were NOT part of Scripture until http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapters_and_verses_of_the_Bible
That Moroni dude was WAY ahead of his(?) time!
Yes, agreed. (Thanks for your commitment to accuracy)
A person would think that our FR Mormons would be thankful for accuracy as well; but they seem to rather do the TarBaby routine with peripheral matters.
I wonder how accurate THIS prophecy is going to be??
"Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned;
and I will go still further and say, take this revelation, or any other revelation that the Lord has given,
and deny it in your feelings, and I promise that you will be damned.
Brigham Young - JoD 3:266 (July 14, 1855)
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