Sunday, July 26, 2009

"No Man Knoweth the Day.."

Years ago a fellow by the name of Ehat came out with the book, "Words of Joseph Smith". One of my favorites.

It was a major breakthrough for gospel scholars for several reason that I will not go into right now.

Shortly after that, I became familiar with a fellow by the name of Knecht that put together a work named "Restoring the Joseph Smith Discourses".

He got all of the known diary and historical entries of the recollections and notes provided by eye witnesses to the discourses that Joseph gave in Nauvoo and he created an "amalgamated" version of each discourse using the various sources.

It is one of my treasures. There is an amazing storehouse of information pertaining to the doctrinal discourses that Joseph gave during the Nauvoo period.

Today I will share a juicy little item from a sermon he gave on April 6th 1843.

Those of us that are always watching for signs of the last days are always being reminded by the wise among us that "no man knoweth the day or hour when the Son of Man Cometh".

Of course, that scripture doesn't even apply to most of what I write about because I am still waiting the the servants to return and for the Marvelous Work to begin long before I am concerned about his coming in glory... nevertheless, it is really interesting to note from this sermon, that Joseph Smith did not believe the scripture is applicable to those living in the generation in which the Savior comes;

"Go read Mathew chapter twenty four and all the prophets. Christ says: 'No man knoweth the day or the hour when the Son of Man cometh.' This is a sweeping argument for Sectarianism against Latter Day Saintism.

Did Christ speak this as a general principle through all gneerations? Oh No! he spoke in the present tense; no man that was then living upon the footstool of God knew the day or the hour but he did not say that there was not man through all gnerations that should not know the day or the hour.

No! for this would be in flat contradiction with other scriptures, for the prophet says that God will do nothing but what he reveal unto his servants thejprophets;

consequently if it is not made known to the prophets it will not come to pass"

Do you think Joseph was speaking as a prophet or as a man when he made that statement?

Just a little food for thought.

Watcher

5 comments:

Spektator said...

Great question. I can give you my perspective on the topic. Based on my reading of the scriptures, both Nephi and Enoch were able to see the beginning from the end. I have to assume that they knew the day that the Lord would return. Given that they knew, I would see it likely that others who have sought to know the mysteries of God and came to know them all, as described in Alma 12, would have the same information.

Assuming that this is correct, there could be people on the earth today who have the spirit of prophecy and know the timing of the end.

Was Joseph speaking as a man or prophetically? I would say he was speaking with authority on the subject.

NEPT said...

I also have grown very fond of the "Words of Joseph Smith." Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of my own, but I had found a free digital version on BYU's Religous Study Center website. But alas, my PDF version was corrupted, and when I went back to the RSC site to download another copy, I couldn't find it anywhere! Does anybody know where it might have gone? Or maybe some wonderful soul could direct me to another digital copy...

Why would anyone remove such a wonderful resource??!! (rhetorical)

Someone who is watching said...

NEPT

The following sites have every known discourse of JS during the Nauvoo period.

Much of what is on these sites is in Words of JS

http://www.boap.org/LDS/Parallel/1841/
http://www.boap.org/LDS/Parallel/1842/
http://www.boap.org/LDS/Parallel/1843/
http://www.boap.org/LDS/Parallel/1844/

there is some incredible stuff in there.. I'll be taking lots of quotes from there for part 5

TruthSeekerToo said...

I've been reading the stuff on the BOAP website. It really is a wealth of wonderful information! It'll take me awhile to read through it all.

Makes me wish I could listen to JS in person.

NEPT said...

Thanks, Watcher. I owe you one...or two...or maybe twelve!