Further Light and Knowledge

I see Joseph Smith’s apostasy as strong poetry, a gloriously presumptive and delusional creation from the same climate as Whitman, if not enjoying quite the same air quality. Perhaps Mormonism is not so far from romanticism after all. To claim that it is simply Christian is to fail to grasp its theological, poetic and political audacity. It is much more than mere Christianity. Why are Mormons so keen to conceal their pearl of the greatest price? Why is no one really talking about this? In the context of you-know-who’s presidential bid, people appear to be endlessly talking about Mormonism, but its true theological challenge is entirely absent from the discussion.

An earlier version of this essay referred imprecisely to a doctrine of Mormon theology. While the doctrine holds that some humans might eventually become gods, it does not hold that specific individuals, like the church prophets Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, have attained godhood. (In recent years, church leaders have not emphasized the doctrine.)The essay also misstated one word of the Mormons' ninth Article of Faith. The article states that “We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God" — not "great and important themes."

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That "correction" is bogus. It is Mormon doctrine that Joseph Smith has attained godhood. Why would they retract that?

Where is this stated?

Hail to the Prophet, ascended to heaven,
Traitors and tyrants now fight him in vain,
Mingling with Gods he can plan for his brethren,
Death cannot conquer the hero again.

Joseph Smith holds the keys of this last dispensation, and is now engaged behind the vail in the great work of the last days. I can tell our beloved brother Christians who have slain the Prophets and butchered and otherwise caused the death of thousands of Latter-day Saints, the priests who have thanked God in their prayers and thanksgiving from the pulpit that we have been plundered, driven, and slain, and the deacons under the pulpit, and their brethren and sisters in their closets, who have thanked God, thinking that the Latter-day Saints were wasted away, something that no doubt will mortify them—something that, to say the least, is a matter of deep regret to them—namely, that no man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith. From the day that the Priesthood was taken from the earth to the winding-up scene of all things, every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, junior, as a passport to their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are—I with you and you with me. I cannot go there without his consent. He holds the keys of that kingdom for the last dispensation—the keys to rule in the spirit-world; and he rules there triumphantly, for he gained full power and a glorious victory over the power of Satan while he was yet in the flesh, and was a martyr to his religion and to the name of Christ, which gives him a most perfect victory in the spirit-world. He reigns there as supreme a being in his sphere, capacity, and calling, as God does in heaven. Many will exclaim—"Oh, that is very disagreeable! It is preposterous! We cannot bear the thought!" But it is true. (JOD 7:288-9.)

... I don't really remember being taught JS has already attained godhood, it's a little vague. My first thought was that he hadn't, because he hasn't been resurrected yet. I think I remember dudes like Abraham were already gods....

I was raised in a 1970s Mormonism where it was simply assumed that Joseph Smith had already received his godhood. It was weird to see someone question it, reminding me of how much Mormonism has changed over the past 50 years or so (although I'm not sure why BI asked the question).