Why I Believe: Introdcution To "101 Reasons I Believe Joseph Smith Was A Prophet" Evidence One: Warn In Mildness And Meekness

Introduction to a series “101 Reasons Why I Believe Joseph Smith Was A Prophet"© 

Either during or shortly after my Mormon mission to the Eastern Atlantic States (Pa., Md., Del., half of NJ., and parts NY., Va., W. Va., and Ohio) from 1962-64, I read George Edward Clark’s little 1952 book, Why I Believe: 54 Evidences of the Divine Mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith.  (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft.) Many of the things discussed therein bolstered my young and growing faith and testimony.  Over many years of study about Mormonism and its founding prophet I have noted many more evidences that have added to my faith and testimony.  One day it dawned on me that I should write my own book on the subject. This ongoing but intermittent series will be the draft for that project.

Some entries will be nifty little things that surface out of almost nowhere as it were, but when held up and examined in the light of reflection, provide their own evidence of their inspiration, truth and value.  They do not require detailed analysis or lengthy exposition. They are like the description by Hyrum M. Smith and Janne M. Sjodahl, authors of a wonderful little commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants, of the revelations given to Joseph Smith in the year 1831:

“It is like trying to penetrate the infinite depths of space, where the handiworks of God bear witness of His majesty, wisdom, power, and love, and where each glistening spark of light, on close examination, turns out to be a world.” [The Doctrine and Covenants Containing Revelations given to Joseph Smith, Jr., The Prophet with an Introduction and Historical and Exegetical Notes.  Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1927, p. 255.]

Others, will be longer, and because this is a blog they may need to be split up into two or more parts to fit the pattern of blog readership.  Upon reflection, all–long or short–seem to whisper the same message: “How did Joseph Smith–the man who so many critics label an “imposter,” “fraud,” “scoundrel,” “lech,” “parapath,” “blackguard,” “ignorant,” “uneducated,” “country bumpkin,” “autocrat,” “megalomaniac,” “modern Mahomet,” “plagiarizer,” and two dozen more–how did he know that?”  Or, if he was as bad as any one of these words implies, “Why did he do that, or say that, or teach that?”  I will have many occasions to raise such questions during this series.  

I hope you will enjoy it whether it enlightens with some small insight or challenges you to think about something anew.  I invite your feedback, especially your own reasons for believing he was and is a prophet. Joseph Smith put the following words into Mormon scripture: “[L]et your preaching be the warning voice, every man to his neighbor, in mildness and in meekness.”  [Doctrine and Covenants 39:41, emphasis added.]  In considering this topic I will do my level best to follow that directive and will ask others to do so also.

Evidence One:
Warn In Mildness And Meekness

By the way, that passage is the first of my 101 reasons for believing Joseph Smith was a prophet. If he was a “power hungry tyrant,” or “megalomaniac,” or frequently gave way to a monumental temper why would he impose such an ideal upon Mormon ministers and missionaries in the first year of the Church’s life?  For me the answer is that it came from God through Joseph Smith.  Such a teaching, though admittedly not always lived up to by Mormon ministers including Joseph Smith, flies in the face of extremists of all faiths who promote their religion through hate, bigotry, ostracism, war, suppression, conquest, torture, and death. It is a wonderful precept which can be sustained by a host of arguments in its favor.  Not a bad start for a young man of only twenty-five years of age.

Let's think together again, soon.