How Liberty Jail Affected Joseph Smith

Just as a little forenote. To anyone who reads this, these posts are on assignment from my professor at BYU, but to be honest, they would make no sense to anyone who is not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and so, don't even worry about it. This is not where you should start... Go to lds.org or mormon.org. Those are the places to be.

Anyway, on with my prompt for the week. The time Joseph Smith spent in Liberty Jail was a defining time for both him and the church as a whole. During his incarceration, the saints were virtually all expelled from Missouri under the auspices of the Extermination Order, and went to Illinois, where a new temple was eventually built, and the final pieces of the temple ordinances were restored. Joseph's time in Liberty changed him, for the better, but it was very difficult for him.

Joseph was not a short man. He was 6'2'' if I remember correctly. The jail cell (really a basement) he and his companions were kept in was not that tall. He and his equally tall brother could not stand up straight for the many months they were kept locked up. There was only a bucket for a bathroom, and dirty straw to sleep on. A far cry from modern American prisons, for sure. Cut off from their families and friends for the most part, it was a lonely, depressing time for Smith.

He had plenty of time to think, ponder and pray. He had little else to do, in that tiny hole of a prison. No room to get out and walk, even. And so he pondered, and prayed, and thought about the gospel, and his commitment to it. He despaired at some points, leading to one of the most poignant passages of scripture. "Oh God, where is the pavilion of thy hiding place?" Joseph Smith felt alone, and perhaps betrayed. But God reassured him. "Peace be unto thy soul, Joseph." Joseph, in perhaps his hardest time, was comforted and was blessed to know that God was always with him, even when it was hard. This confidence would serve him well in the coming months.

Perhaps it was this confidence that changed his preaching style. Before, others would take the most prominent speaking roles: Oliver Cowdry, Parly Pratt, Sidney Rigdon and others. But after this transformative experience, Joseph became a powerful public speaker. Before, we have many recorded revelations. After, we have records of his mighty sermons. This was one of the biggest changes in him - he became a more powerful speaker.

D&C 137 and the Doctrine of Salvation of the Dead

In my not-so-humble opinion, the doctrines found in section 137 are among the most important in the Gospel. In fact, just last night, I was talking to a roommate of mine about this idea. One of the axioms of Christian religion is that God is perfect, i.e. fair and just and merciful. All of our beliefs must measure up to that standard, or need to be very closely examined. God's fairness is an incredibly base belief of Christianity.

However, many, or even most, mainstream Christian belief systems present beliefs that deny this basic principle. For instance, Calvanism, though not a large church in America, teaches that some are predestined to be saved or damned. How is this fair? Was it based on something we did or did not do in the pre-existence, which they deny the existence of in any case? No, it's just essentially random, with nothing we can do about it. Many other religions, in official doctrine, such as the Catholic church, Anglican Church, and many other protestant denominations, claim that without baptism, one will be damned. Ok, fine, but what about all those that never had a chance to be baptized, especially if not into your church? Well... According to official doctrine, they are damned too. That just doesn't seem fair to me. Is one person cast off simply because he was born in the wrong place? Am I to be lost for something that was no one's choice? This a conflict in these religions. How to reconcile?

However, most, or at least many, members of these churches don't believe the official dogma of their religions. They will instead say that there are many paths to heaven. It seems they do this in response to the feeling they have that God must be fair, that if he wasn't, he wouldn't be God. And in the absence of doctrine teaching about a chance after this life, and vicarious baptism, they must accept this. There is a spectrum of this attitude, from evangelical "just believe in Christ," to an even more open "all religions lead to God." But all try to reconcile God's fairness with a need for judgement. But few, if any, other than the LDS church, has a doctrinal stance that allows the church to be both authoritative and have a fair God.

The answer is that all will have a chance to repent, in this life or the next. Black, white, red, yellow or other, everyone will be given this chance. And baptism is still vital. You must be baptized. But, at the same time, if you never had a chance, you can be baptized after this life, vicariously. God can be both fair, and demand justice. Amazing, isn't it? The Gordian Knot has been unraveled.

The BYU Special Collections

This last Wednesday, our Doctrine and Covenants class went to the BYU library's special collection for a presentation on the collection. And it was pretty sweet. Old books have fascinated me since... well, ever I guess, but especially since I spent a few hours in an antique book store in Serbia while I was living there. There I saw a 200 year old pop up book about Christopher Columbus, among other things. But I digress. The special collection at BYU is almost unique among such collections in that they actually allow undergraduates to look at the books in the collection, albeit with supervision. But these books are incredibly valuable, so the fact they even let us breathe in their general direction is impressive.

Really, the presentation was a brief history of book and paper making. I got to handle papyrus, which was new to me. I was surprised that they would make rolls of papyrus. Even the new stuff seemed too stiff to be able to roll without damaging it, but I didn't really try too hard, so who knows.

My favorite part was the illumination of texts they showed us. I had read some about the making of it in a fantasy series called Inkheart, and so was really excited to see some very high quality work. It was just as beautiful as he described. The painting was just so incredibly detailed. There were lines so fine, they must have been painted by a single hair, and they seem too thin even for that. It reminded me of how I fold cranes so small, I can't even really fit my fingers where they need to go, I just have to bend the paper JUST right so that it will do it for me. The color were also a lot more vibrant than we often want to give credit to ancients. They weren't dumb. They just didn't quite have the technology yet. Astounding.

I also go to hold type that is based on that which Gutenberg used with his revolutionary press. It was a good exercise for me in order to see how it could have been made, produced, and used. It makes more sense, though I still don't know quite how they made the molds. But That looks like something doable, given a certain amount of know how. Made me think of what would happen if technology had to start over. Because, given just the sum total of the world's knowledge, but no tools, how do you start over? Who makes the tools to make the tools? It would take a long time unless we had the right people all ready.

The lengths the ancients would go to to record their texts shows what great importance they placed on the written word. Amazing. It was a fascinating presentation.

Suffering

Suffering sucks. I'm not going to lie. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something. But there is a purpose to it. How can one know who he is until a certain amount of pressure has been faced? If I'm always nice to everyone because everyone is always nice to me, am I a nice person? Maybe, but it's impossible to tell. Struggling is where your true self comes out.

Another part of this puzzle is patience. Patience is an important Christ-like attribute, but one must be have something to be patient over in order to get it. As my dad always said, "Be careful praying for patience, God might just decide to give you some." This life is supposed to be a time of learning, and sometimes God gives you some struggle so you can learn how to live in tough times. Sometimes it is just the free will of others, but often it is from God.

Which brings me to my next point - making others suffer is a horrible, horrible thing. It's like a rowboat. Sure you can row it over to a drowning sinner, and then use the oar to beat him into the water, but that's not really what we should be doing... Helping, not "helping" via patience giving, is our real goal here. God loves all and helps all, even those that hate him, and that should be our goal too.