Joseph Smith/Status in LDS belief/Heber C. Kimball on Joseph as "a god"

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Criticism

Critics claim that Joseph's place in LDS theology is blasphemous and even idolatrous. As evidence for this, they cite Heber C. Kimball's remark that future generations would see Joseph as "a god."

Source(s) of the Criticism

• Richard Abanes, Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism (Harvest House Publishers: 2005). 28. ( Index of claims )

Response

In the wake of difficulty with the US government over the leadership of the Territory of Deseret, Heber C. Kimball said:

You call us fools: but the day will be, gentlemen and ladies, whether you belong to this Church or not, when you will prize brother Joseph Smith as the Prophet of the Living God, and look upon him as a God, and also upon Brigham Young, our Governor in the Territory of Deseret.

Well, I will say there is no other man, except it is his successor in the Priesthood, that will ever rule over me as a Governor.

Kimball's remarks are centered around who would lead the Saints in the territory. He makes clear that Joseph is to be recognized as a prophet of God, and then alludes to the Bible. When Moses, the great prophet and political leader of Israel, was called as a prophet, he was told by God that:

And [Aaron] shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God (emphasis added) (Exodus 4꞉16).

Conclusion

Kimball is not here assigning Joseph divine status, nor he is teaching the doctrine of theosis. Rather, he is using a biblical allusion to insist that Joseph and his heirs to the priesthood have a right to leadership of the Saints in both spiritual and temporal things.

Critics, especially Bible-believing ones, ought to be aware of the allusion, but they omit it from their citation and their interpretation, distorting both.

Endnotes

1. [note]  Heber C. Kimball, "ONENESS OF THE PRIESTHOOD—IMPOSSIBILITY OF OBLITERATING MORMONISM—GOSPEL ORDINANCES—DEPOPULATION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES—THE COMING FAMINE, ETC.," Journal of Discourses, reported by G.D. Watt, J.V. Long, and others, (2 July 1857), Vol. 5 (London: Latter-day Saint's Book Depot, 1858), 88–89.off-site wiki

Further reading

External links

• Stephen R. Gibson, "Can People Go To Heaven Without Joseph Smith's Consent?," in One-Minute Answers to Anti-Mormon Questions (Bountiful, Utah: Horizon Publishers, 2005) ISBN 0882907840. off-site