REVELATION FROM JOSEPH SMITH.
[purportedly to Godbe and Harrison, dated October, 1868]

From our standpoint, it appears to us that you are fully sensible of the importance of the work you are called to perform.
We know the difficulties you will have to encounter, the obstacles that will be in your way. They will be great and numerous.
We know the jealousies that will exist and the slurs that will be thrown out against you; yet we see that, in spite of all these,
you will be triumphant, triumphant!

You are instructed and sent on this mission by one that you once knew (referring to Heber C. Kimball), and he sent to you
by others that he never knew (this is, in the flesh), and they by others that they never knew, and so on, link after link,
until we reach the Highest Authority, all saying unto you: "Go and redeem Zion; go and feed the people with the rich, ripe corn
in the kernel, instead of the husks, with which they have so long been fed." Remember this; reflect upon it, and thousands
upon thousands will surround you, and greet you with songs of joy at your entrance to the immortal world, for the work you
have accomplished for suffering humanity.

[[First printed in the Jan. 15, 1870 issue of the "New York Herald" and reprinted in the Jan. 18th "Chicago Tribune" and Jan. 29th "Mormon Tribune."]]

Bet you never heard this one read in EQ meeting, eh?

UD

dalebroadhurst Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> REVELATION FROM JOSEPH SMITH.
> ...

An odd twist in the Godbe-Harrison testimony of January, 1869, came in the form of a purported
"revelation" from the resurrected Jesus, saying that a lithograph possessed by Godbe was a
true portrait from some eighteen and a half centuries prior -- confirmed by Jesus himself -- that
the "likeness is a correct and perfect representation of me..."

The image in Godbe's engraving (commonly sold in English shops during that period) was likely
copied from some depiction first drawn about the same time Raphael was painting similar portraits
in Italy, and could not possibly have dated back to the Palestine of Jesus' day. The presumed iconic
original may have once been an ornament on some Renaissance Pope's jewelry -- or perhaps there
never was such an artifact as the alleged Vatican "Emerald Vernicle."

All of that history and pseudo-history is beside the point, however. The point of the matter
being that the assumed divine portrait was no such thing and even in 1869 Mr. Godbe
might easily have been exposed as a revelation-manufacturing fraud. A self-deluded fraud,
perhaps, and as such a temporary challenger to Brigham Young's Presidency and the
centerpiece of a curious imitation Mormonism that eventually died out, leaving only the
modern day "Salt Lake Tribune" as a lasting legacy.

UD

what does it even mean?

Thanks for sharing, Dale. I was not familiar with this episode in Utah/LDS history.


http://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/g/GODBEITES.html


Here is an interesting excerpt:

[There was also a spiritual, or spiritualist, dimension to their dissent. In October 1868 Godbe and Harrison traveled to New York City, ostensibly for business and recreation. They apparently used the occasion to seek direction from a spiritualist medium, Charles Foster. Fifty seances followed, confirming their religious doubts and mandating a radical restructuring of Mormonism. "The whole superstructure of a grand system of theology was unfolded to our minds," Harrison later wrote. The system included a devaluation of the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, and the rejection of a personal deity, the literal resurrection, and the doctrine of the atonement.]

Facsimile 3 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Here is an interesting excerpt:
>
>The system included a devaluation of the Book of Mormon
>and Doctrine and Covenants, and the rejection of a
>personal deity, the literal resurrection, and the
>doctrine of the atonement.

Given sufficient time and development, Godbe Mormonism
might possibly have evolved into something resembling the
late 20th century RLDS Church -- but it went nowhere.

Godbeite pronouncements and apologetic writings are overflowing
with the word "truth."

Seeking, finding and sharing "the Truth" seems to have
been their primary preoccupation -- so it's really too bad
that the Godbeite leaders resorted to prevarication,
deception and outright lies in order to gather followers.

At one point they claimed that the spirit of the recently
deceased Heber C. Kimball was communicating with them and
guiding them. Given the fact that Kimball had been a major
laughing-stock and object of outraged ridicule in the Gentile
press, it is rather amazing that the deluded (?) Godbeite
leaders invented Kimball's "revelations" to them.

But such is Mormonism. It's hard to construct truth upon
such a blatant foundation of lies.

UD