Read four takeaways from the Legal Records series on Joseph Smith, including when he broke tradition to let a woman testify.
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With all the buzz about the Kirtland Temple, here are the newly acquired fascinating artifacts you might have missed.
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Moses, Nephi, and Joseph Smith are all names on the page for us today. But their struggles and faith were real. And we can learn from their lessons.
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Joseph and Emma’s time in the home was longer than they lived anywhere else together before Joseph was killed in 1844.
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To commemorate the martyrdom of Joseph Smith on June 27, here are some powerful quotes about him from every modern-day prophet from President Brigham Young to President Russell M. Nelson.
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Editor's note: This article was originally published in 2019.
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Here are some details leading up to Joseph Smith’s martyrdom that aren’t widely known.
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The inability to convey his ideas in writing was one of the horns of Joseph’s dilemma. The other was that he had been commanded to convey his ideas in writing.
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A recent article compares Joseph’s experience to some early American conversion narratives and concludes that Joseph’s accounts lack the angst and the typical “transformations of the heart.”
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The poem was signed with a rhyme: “And so forthwith, remember Joseph Smith.”
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A statuary hall in India has installed a statue of Joseph Smith, honored as one who promoted world peace.
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“O brethren, let us be thankful that it is as well with us as it is, and we are yet alive and peradventure, God hath laid up in store great good for us in this generation, and may grant that we may yet glorify his name,”
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Joseph Smith and others once visited Salem, Massachusetts, and took interest in the Salem witch trials. Here’s what they had to say about it.
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“It’s overly simplistic to say that the Presbyterian God abhorred people and the Methodist God didn’t, but the contrast helps us see a difference that meant a lot to Joseph.”
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Lachlan Mackay was anticipating a variety of responses when he and his uncle, Daniel Larsen, released a new daguerreotype last week that they believe is Joseph Smith after keeping it a secret for two years.
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Joseph Smith’s great-great grandson recently found a daguerreotype inside an old family locket—and he believes it’s a photo the Prophet himself.
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Joseph and Hyrum’s martyrdom made headlines all across the country—with most sources condemned the act as murder and a scandal.
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For Latter-day Saints today, the Pittsburgh Gazette interview is most notable for providing us with a detailed account of Joseph Smith’s First Vision.
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On the 216th anniversary of his birth, see the Prophet drawn as a comic book character, sculpted in a cookie, and captured in an antique “portrait.”
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All seven episodes of “Joseph: A guided journey to coming to know the prophet” hosted by Heidi Swinton are available now!
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This week, as we study the sections of the Doctrine and Covenants that originate in Liberty Jail for Come, Follow Me, we asked an expert to share with us the context of these chapters.
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From listening to her grandmother tell stories about the Prophet to teaching about his life for over three decades, Black has many reasons why she considers Joseph to be a phenomenal man.
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Through his paintings, Walter Rane has brought new life to religious art for Latter-day Saints and invited countless viewers to deepen their faith.
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Mauli Junior Bonner says when he first learned about enslaved pioneers, it strengthened him—he wanted to learn more about them, why they stayed, and what their experience had been like.
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Notwithstanding all Joseph Smith went through, he never turned against God and never denied his testimony that God and Christ had spoken to him.
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This excerpt originally ran on LDS Living in December 2019 and is being shared again in honor of Joseph Smith's birthday.
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You may have never heard of Topsfield, Massachusetts, but the small town of 6,500 residents now has a historic marker that honors the family of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
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Documents, Volume 11 of The Joseph Smith Papers covers a dynamic period in Joseph Smith’s life. At the outset of the volume, in September 1842, Joseph Smith was a hunted man and had to spend months in hiding avoiding arrest and extradition to Missouri. By February 1843, at the close of the volume, Joseph had experienced one of his greatest legal victories and was optimistically planning for additional growth and settlement in Nauvoo and the surrounding area. Throughout it all he remained energetically engaged in teaching the Saints and supporting the Church. Here are five surprising things we learn about Joseph Smith and Nauvoo in this volume of The Joseph Smith Papers.
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This article was originally published by LDS Living in August 2018 and is being shared again in recognition of the anniversary of the day Joseph Smith received the gold plates.
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A special episode of the Book of Mormon Videos series has been published to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the first appearance of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, to Joseph Smith, prophet and first president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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Editor's note: Our bi-weekly Friday column, “Found in the footnotes,” explores some of the footnotes from remarks given by General Authorities and General Officers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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In May 1829, Hyrum Smith traveled 160 miles from Palmyra, New York, to visit Joseph and Emma in Harmony, Pennsylvania, eager to learn more about Joseph's recent work and revelations as prophet. During Hyrum's stay, Joseph received a revelation for his brother, which is now known as section 11 in the Doctrine and Covenants.
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The Prophet Joseph Smith was the recipient of divine tutoring in remarkable ways.
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Find out what happened to each of the Smith children and where the surviving ones ended up in their adult years.
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In a new series on the Church History website, the consultation team at the Church History Library is sharing some of the most frequently asked questions received through its “Ask Us” service.
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On August 8, 1842, Thomas King arrested Joseph Smith. Soon after—perhaps even the same day—Thomas King helped Joseph avoid arrest. Two different individuals with the same name, Thomas King, played entirely different roles in Missouri’s second attempt to extradite Joseph Smith. Their stories are captured in the newest addition to the Joseph Smith Papers: Documents, Volume 10.
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For Latter-day Saints, the Gold Plates are immediately associated with the translation of the Book of Mormon, but when someone asks, “What are the Gold Plates?” or “What is the significance of this ancient record?” how do you respond?
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This was Christopher Creek’s first attempted sculpting with this tasty medium.
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Editor's note: The Power of Stillness is the LDS Living Book Club's book of the month. Join the conversation on the LDS Living Book Club's Instagram.
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Editor’s note: Most of us are familiar with the story of the First Vision. Some might even have the account from Joseph Smith—History memorized. But that account is not the only time Joseph Smith shared his miraculous experience. Using nine different accounts, Muhlestein shares one harmonized story of the First Vision, including what led up to it and what Joseph learned from it, in his new book, I Saw the Lord. This excerpt offers an idea of what it might have been like for Joseph to have overwhelming, hopeless darkness dissipated by intense light as he first saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
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Joseph Smith was a teenager when he was seeking to find the truth. As teenagers often struggle with their faith today, we can let them find the answers as he did.
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A Case for the Book of Mormon by Brother Tad R. Callister hit shelves almost a year ago. In the book, Brother Callister addresses and refutes counter-arguments and presents both physical and spiritual evidence to support that the Book of Mormon is true.
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This story was originally published on LDS Living in February 2018.
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Many Church members are familiar with the account of the First Vision contained in the Pearl of Great Price, but not all members are familiar with a version that combines all nine surviving accounts into one.
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A new video released by the Church answers questions as to whether the Prophet Joseph Smith was a mason and how masonry is connected to temple worship in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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August 15 marks the anniversary of the Prophet Joseph Smith's first public announcement of the beautiful doctrine of baptism for the dead.
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Among the most laughably improbable prophecies recorded by the Prophet Joseph Smith is Moroni’s prediction that, in the Prophet’s words, “My name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people” (see Joseph Smith-History 1:33).
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As the Second World War was raging across the globe and the U.S. was getting sucked into the conflict, artist Norman Rockwell petitioned The Saturday Evening Post for a commission to paint visual representations of four ideals. These fundamental freedoms were identified by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as basic human rights in a speech he delivered to Congress in 1941. He called them the four freedoms: the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear.
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In honor of the 175th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, LDS Living is sharing a series of articles about early Church history. The following article originally ran on LDS Living in June 2016.
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In honor of the 175th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, LDS Living is sharing a series of articles about early Church history. The following is an excerpt from the second edition of Witness to the Martyrdom: John Taylor’s Personal Account of the Last Days of the Prophet Joseph Smith. John Taylor’s narrative is the only eyewitness account of these events in Church history. After the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, John Taylor became “a living martyr” and wrote a personal account of the events. He served as the third president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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One of President M. Russell Ballard's most spiritual moments came as he spoke of two special ancestors.
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