I wasn’t planning on making this a series, but recent experiences in my life have spurred me to say a few more words about Joseph Smith and about servants of God, in general.
One of the things a servant of God can pretty much count on is to be misunderstood by others. To the degree that he/she is like God, anyone less like God will misunderstand his/her thoughts, feelings, and actions. This implies a continuum on which every individual can be found, and because most human beings do not like to see themselves in a negative light, they will typically and incorrectly assume that anyone different than the way they are is less like God than they are. They will assume and believe the worst things about an individual before they even take a moment to honestly investigate the possibility of the other individual’s greater likeness to God.
Living in the Bible Belt, I have had the very sad experience of seeing many people reject the Book of Mormon out of hand. With that comes the rejection of Joseph Smith as a prophet of God and all the slander and defamation of his character that accompanies that rejection.
Even sadder has been the observation of people who once claimed (or still claim) to believe in the Book of Mormon and who also defame the character of Joseph Smith to justify their unbelief in any or all of his other teachings. Quite a travesty.
Servants of God are sent by God to help us aim better—to teach us more of reality and of God’s character so that we may become more like Him. Joseph Smith is not an exception.
What prompted my last blogpost was a realization of just how critical some of Joseph Smith’s teachings are to understanding parts of the Law of Moses. The feasts and sacrifices, in particular, are designed to teach us about aspects of reality, and there are things that Joseph Smith taught that are preliminary and foundational to understanding things that were given to the Israelites through Moses, such as the Day of Atonement and the sacrifice of the Red Heifer.
Mark my words. In the future, people will be surprised by the correct meaning of these things because they will have refused to believe other, more foundational, ideas based solely on the fact that Joseph Smith taught them.
Sprinkling, indeed.