Joseph Smith, the Prophet

Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it.

Doctrine and Covenants 135:3

This is a bold statement. It is scripture. It is true. How can it be true? What about Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Peter, Paul, or Isaiah? Aren’t these prophets greater than Joseph Smith? No. I think it is essential to understand what Joseph Smith did. He did the work of God. If he did more for the salvation of mankind than anyone except Jesus, then what, exactly, did he do? 

• Joseph Smith restored the option of eternal life to the earth, the greatest of all the gifts of God. 
• Because of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, everyone has the ability to choose life or death. 
• He set up the Kingdom of God on the earth that will fill the whole earth and never go away. 
• He restored the priesthood to the earth, which is now available to everyone. 
• He prepared the way for the coming of Jesus Christ to the earth by building Zion. 
• He built temples where the fullness of the priesthood can take place for everyone who ever lived. 
• He restored the knowledge of the celestial glory to the earth.

Jesus taught all these things to His apostles, but that was lost for many centuries. For a long time, the keys to the kingdom of God were not found anywhere on the earth. 

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

Amos 8:11-12

The path to eternal life was not found anywhere. The religions of the world didn’t even know it existed. They had a concept of heaven and hell -- if you’re good you go to heaven, and if your bad you go to hell. Their concept of heaven is being with Jesus, while hell is suffering for your sins. This is true, but it is only part of the picture. These represent the terrestrial and telestial kingdoms, respectively, but where was the “glory of the sun?” (1 Corinthians 15:41) nobody knew. It was gone. People denied the need for baptism because they didn’t know why it was necessary. People denied the priesthood because they didn’t think they needed it. The priesthood and the ordinances thereof are ONLY for the celestial glory and they didn’t know about the celestial glory, so these things seemed irrelevant -- and indeed they were. Most Christian religions still deny the need for the priesthood authority and the need for the ordinances, and continue to be ignorant of the celestial “glory of the sun.”  

This is not a minor issue. Indeed, the very purpose of our existence, and the work of God, the reason He created everything is to give His children eternal life. 

For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Moses 1:39)

But the option was nowhere to be found on the earth. It was around briefly after Jesus organized His church, but after the apostles all died, it was lost. 

Over a thousand years later, enter Joseph Smith, Jr., a young lad with no formal training in religion or anything. He prayed to find out which church was true, and was visited by God the Father and Jesus Christ. He was told that he should join none of them, and that he would have the work of restoring the truth. What did he restore? In a nutshell, he restored all that was needed to obtain eternal life, and put it into an organization to administer these things, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is no other place to go for eternal life. There is nobody else on the earth who even claims to have the authority (besides splinter groups of the Church). 

All that was lost was restored, but not just for our time, it is now offered to everyone who ever lived, or ever will live. Now, the ordinances in the house of the Lord, the path of eternal life, is available to all the earth from every time. This will never be taken away again. This is the most important time when all things are brought together. Everyone will choose what they want, either to choose God, or not -- either to choose life and salvation, or not. The whole world is now able to choose. 

For the time cometh, saith the Lamb of God, that I will work a great and a marvelous work among the children of men; a work which shall be everlasting, either on the one hand or on the other—either to the convincing of them unto peace and life eternal, or unto the deliverance of them to the hardness of their hearts and the blindness of their minds unto their being brought down into captivity, and also into destruction, both temporally and spiritually, according to the captivity of the devil, of which I have spoken.

1 Nephi 14:7

This is the time. Now is that time that was predicted over two thousand years before Joseph Smith. He did that work. It is a great, meaning huge, and marvelous work. The marvel is that everyone can now choose. Before, people lived and died without any information on which to choose their eternal existence. Only a select few ever even learned about eternal life. Most people had to go to “spirit prison” and wait to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ to be taught to them. Now, everyone has the information to decide. This is the work that determines where each person goes; people can choose to be celestial, terrestrial, or telestial -- or have none of these, to be cast out of any kingdom of glory and live with Satan and his angels for eternity. This is the work that is everlasting; the choices made now are forever. This is a unique dispensation in all of history. Before this time, only a few had these options; only few could choose to seek eternal life because not everyone had the ordinances available to them. Now literally everyone in the world has access to the gospel. This is the marvelous work. It is wondrous. It is the work of God, brought about by Joseph Smith, the prophet. 

Now, it’s easy to see why the scripture says that “Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it.” It is obvious. Gods work is “to bring to pass the... eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39) Jesus makes it all possible. Joseph Smith set it up. He did this “great and marvelous” work for the Lord. No other prophet has been the prophet of the whole world for all time. No other prophet has made eternal life available to everyone, living or dead. This work is amazing!