Later Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ...

[_Joe Geisner]

I just received my copy of Mike Marquardt's Later Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and am completely blown away at the quality of this book. This may be more superior than the first volume.

I am quite shocked that there has been very little discussion on the Internet about this latest Smith-Pettit book. This has to be the most significant documentary book to come out in 2012. The number of blessings and the time covered is amazing. Mike's introduction may be the best introduction to any book I have ever read. His work is amazing. I absolutely love Irene Bates and Gary Smith's book Lost Legacy, but this introduction may even be more important when it comes to the office of Patriarch. I know Irene would be pleased with Mike's work. She is not reading much any more since her eye sight is limited and her heath is also fragile. But I am sure she would be very pleased to see how her work is continuing on and touching historians lives.

Mike has worked on this and the previous volume for over twenty years. A number of people have been very dependent on Mike's work with Patriarchal Blessings, including Gary and Gordon Shepherd's recent Binding Earth and Heaven: Patriarchal Blessings in the Prophetic Development of Early Mormonism.

http://www.amazon.com/Binding-Earth-Hea ... +blessings

Here is the press release on Mike's book.

http://signaturebooks.com/2012/11/book- ... published/

[_Madison54]

Hi Joe!
Thanks for posting about this. From what you wrote, it sounds like a fascinating book....I'm off to follow your links and read more about it!!

[_Joe Geisner]

Hi Joe!
Thanks for posting about this. From what you wrote, it sounds like a fascinating book....I'm off to follow your links and read more about it!!

Hi Madison,

Thanks. I cannot praise this book enough. Mike has done a great service in putting together 1500 blessing with both books. He has found additional Joseph Smith senior and Hyrum Smith blessings that are not included in the first two blessing books. Most likely these blessing were recorded on the spot for the recipient and no copy was made for the Church record. This is a great service to all historians.

The book is massive and is helping me build up my muscle strength since having surgery. The book has blessings from every presiding Patriarch. This is quite an accomplishment. But the real gold mine is the documents created by General Authorities about the office of Patriarch. Having these in one place like this is a wonderful gift.

Thanks for posting about the Bishop exercising unrighteous dominion over the young man. I hope he can see the nonsense of this Bishop and tell him where to stick his office of Bishop. I do not understand why Stake Presidents or others do not step in on these situations and slap the hands of these zealots. I made sure my children were never allowed to be with a Bishop by themselves when they were minors. As adults, I have told them to hold Bishop's advice in no higher esteem as they would any other person they receive advice from. These guys have little to no counseling ability, so why would anyone respect their advice over someone who is met on the street?

[_Fence Sitter]

Thanks Joe,

Interesting as usual.

I hope your recovery is going well.