Praise to the Man

Praise to the Man - Joseph Smith, Jr.
Prophet, Seer, and Revelator

23 December 1805 - 27 June 1844

All Joseph had to do was deny what had happened to him and he would have gone down as a madman or lunatic. His name would have been forgotten, but the work would go on. He was told that he had been chosen to usher in this the last dispensation, but if he had refused the Lord would have found another. Heavenly Father's work will not be halted and will go on.


Many felt that upon the death of Joseph Smith, the members of the church would scatter and the church itself would falter and dissipate into nothing. Little did they know that it was not Joseph Smith's church, but the Lord's church. It would go on to fill the earth as a stone cut without hands 'til it fills the entire earth. We are witnessing that today.

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Elder Jeffrey R Holland
Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

"As one of a thousand elements of my own testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon, I submit this as yet one more evidence of its truthfulness. In this their greatest—and last—hour of need, I ask you: would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for eternal salvation on a book (and by implication a church and a ministry) they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth?

Never mind that their wives are about to be
widows and their children fatherless. Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be “houseless, friendless and homeless” and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor.⁹ Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon."                 
                                                      Elder Jeffrey R Holland - General Conference Oct 2009
                                                            (click on this link to listen or read this tesitmony)
 

To this I would like to add my own testimony:

I know that Jesus Christ lives and that He died for me; through him, and only him, I can return to live with my Heavenly Father. Through Christ's atonement, he offers me the opportunity for repentance and eternal life with my Father-in-Heaven, Christ and my earthly family.  He will stand as my advocate with the Father at the time of my judgment if I will use his atonement in my life.


We are blessed to have a living prophet today, in President Thomas S. Monson. Heavenly Father never intended to leave us alone with revelation halted, but instead gives us a prophet today who receives revelation and guidence for us as a church in this the latter-days. We need not follow blindly, but pray and gain our own testimony of the words we hear from the General Authorities of the church.  Receiving personal revelation for our daily lives is our privilege as children of God.


I know that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God. Not by him, but through him the gospel was restored in our time.  Joseph's life was devoted to restoring the Gospel of Jesus Christ in it's fulness, as it existed at the time Christ lived here on the earth.

The Book of Mormon is the Word of God and was translated by Joseph Smith. It stands as a second witness to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.  I know that because I have read it.  I was taught by my parents, but was told by my father, that I would not be able to live on his testimony, I needed to gain my own.  That I have done.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.