One in a continuing series:

Me: Can you cite the scriptural prophecy that says Joseph Smith would be murdered?
TBM: You are referring to the Prophet's statement, when he was returning to Nauvoo to face arrest, that he was "going like a lamb to the slaughter."
Me: No, since that prophecy is not scriptural. There is a scripture that prophesied it. Don't you know it? It's in the Doctrine and Covenants.
TBM: Hmm... I can't think of it.
Me: It's D&C 3:4.
TBM: I'm trying to remember what that passage says.
Me: It says: "For although a man may have many revelations, and have power to do many mighty works, yet if he boasts in his own strength, and sets at naught the counsels of God, and follows after the dictates of his own will and carnal desires, he must fall and incur the vengeance of a just God upon him."
TBM: But that is not a prophecy about Joseph Smith!
Me: I think that it is. It is one of the few prophecies of his that were actually fulfilled.

On May 26, 1844, Joseph Smith made the following statement in a public sermon: "Come on, ye persecutors! ye false swearers! All hell, boil over! Ye burning mountains, roll down your lava! For I will come out on the top at last. 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. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet." (History of the Church 6:408-9)

At the time he made this boast, he was secretly married polygamously to over 30 women, some of them wives of men still living. Many who knew of these secret marriages accused him of changing the doctrine of the church to satisfy his own carnal desires, in violation of the Book of Mormon (Jacob 2:23-29, 3:5) and D&C 49:16.

Almost exactly one month after this boast, on June 27, 1844, he was killed by his enemies in a gun battle at Carthage Jail, thus fulfilling the prophecy.

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Previous posts in the series:

#1: Baptism wording: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1013735
#2: "sun" vs. "son": http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1089659
#3: Name of church 1834-1838: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1102694
#4: Bible prophecies: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1121855
#5: Languages in the pre-existence: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1127558
#6: What is doctrine? http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1135995
#7: Worshiping Jesus: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1187412
#8: Priesthood: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1218790

Very nice Richard. I hadn't realized it was just a month after that when Joseph was killed.

Wonderful. These posts have been useful in stumping the Mormons in my life, that's for sure!

I love this Stump the Mormon series. It's almost like it was written by a lawyer. . . .oh wait, it was!


I remember the uproar in my Mormon town when John Lennon joked that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. It would be fun to bring that up and then segue into this quote from Joseph Smith.

Thanks for posting. I enjoy these.

He saw the end... He just didn't see it coming!