As some of you may recall, Daniel Peterson decided to tackle this stinky turd almost 8 years ago now in a piece he penned for the Deseret News. https://www.deseret.com/2014/9/4/205477 ... r-boastful
Paul boasted. True enough. But in quite different ways and contexts than did Joseph Smith. Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 11:10 "As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia." In 2 Cor. 11:16-17 "I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting." In 2 Cor. 12:9-11, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing."Daniel Peterson wrote:First, the context: Joseph was applying a passage from the apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 11-12) to his own perilous situation. The idea of “boasting” wasn't Joseph’s; it was Paul’s. The critics typically forget that.
Paul boasted of Christ, not after the Lord, glorying in that "the power of Christ may rest upon" Paul, taking pleasure in his own distresses "for Christ's sake:... ." Joseph Smith arrogated and elevated his 'achievement' over even that of Jesus: that he, Smith, had done what 'Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did...The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet." (Never mind that 8 months earlier, at the October 1843 general conference, the Saints rebuffed Joseph Smith's request of them to boot Sidney Rigdon out of the First Presidency.)
Never mind, huh, Daniel, the sentences from the History of the Church, "I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I." He was claiming that the Saints stood by him, but Joseph Smith was boasting that as his accomplishment, and juxtaposing that against Jesus.Daniel Peterson wrote:Second, Joseph seems actually to be praising his followers’ faithfulness, not himself.
How does Daniel know that the May 26, 1844 sermon was not supervised or approved by Joseph Smith in the month from May 26, 1844 until he died on June 27, 1844? This is a very detailed account, and Jesus was likely no minor character to be inserted willy-nilly by Smith's scribes.Daniel Peterson wrote:Third, Joseph didn’t write the quotation; it was reconstructed after his death. Thus, it almost certainly doesn’t represent his precise words. Even “History of the Church” (often called the “Documentary History”) says that it rests upon a "synopsis" by Thomas Bullock.
Joseph delivered the sermon on May 26, 1844. A month later, he was dead. So did he supervise or approve this entry? No. Entries in the “History of the Church” for at least his last five years were actually made by others, after his assassination.
Daniel had to dig back from May 1844 twelve years, to June 1832 to find a quote that showed Smith wanted to do the Lord's will as some kind of impeachment against what his self-aggrandizing statement made in May 1844?Daniel Peterson wrote:Fourth, Joseph’s authenticated personal statements plainly reveal him to have been a humble and sincere man, struggling to do the will of God as he understood it — and this particular statement should be placed in the context of his overall life and behavior. (See Mark McConkie’s “Remembering Joseph: Personal Recollections of Those Who Knew the Prophet Joseph Smith.”)
Consider, for example, the following excerpt from a private letter Joseph wrote to his wife, Emma, in June 1832: “I will try to be contented with my lot, knowing that God is my friend. In him I shall find comfort. I have given my life into his hands. I am prepared to go at his call. I desire to be with Christ. I count not my life dear to me (except) to do his will.”
These are scarcely the words of a man who believed himself better than Christ. Nor are these, which are taken from “History of the Church” (5:401):
“I do not think there have been many good men on the earth since the days of Adam; but there was one good man and his name was Jesus. Many persons think a prophet must be a great deal better than anybody else. … I do not want you to think that I am very righteous, for I am not.”
This is one of those examples where critics' statements got Peterson's goat but he'd have been better off just leaving this one alone.