Kirtland 1833-a Jack Robertson novel

KIRTLAND-1833

a Jack Robertson novel

by Gary R. Reed

Copyright 2013 Gary R Reed

Smashwords Edition

This book is based on some true events, however, has been fictionalized and all persons appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Who's Table of Contents

Chapter 1..................A Historical Note

Chapter 2..................Joseph the Prophet

Chapter 3.................Courtship of Jenny Graham

Chapter 4..................Sister Susan Jones

Chapter 5.................. Zion's Camp

Chapter 6..................The Lord’s House

Chapter 7..................Kirtland Safety Society

Chapter 8..................Missouri Troubles

Chapter 9..................Haun’s Mill

Chapter 10................Bound for Glory

Chapter 11................King of Beaver Island

Excerpt from The Journals of Jack Robertson Book One 1866

Excerpt from Robertson's War 1914

Excerpt from Sanctuary

Excerpt from If I Ruled the World

About the Author

Chapter One

A Historical Note

(historyofmormonism.com)

Joseph Smith, was 14 years old in the spring of 1820. He had attended the meetings of different churches in Palmyra New York and found that there was considerable confusion among the denominations about basic issues.

He said, How to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.

Later he came across a passage in James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. Joseph Smith said that, It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did.

Joseph Smith’s faith was strong, and he went one day early in the spring of 1820, to pray to know which church he should join.

What happened can best be told in Joseph’s own words:

After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go…I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me…. I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him! I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right and which I should join. I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong;… they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof."

On the night of 21 November, 1823, Joseph knelt to pray in his room. As he prayed, a figure appeared, dressed in a white robe. The being, an angel sent from God, gave his name as Moroni and said that he had been sent to call Joseph to complete a mission for God. He told Joseph that a book, written on golden plates, was deposited in the Hill Cumorah in Palmyra New York. It contained the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as God’s prophets had taught it to the ancient inhabitants of the American continent. Twice more that night the angel appeared and repeated the same message, each time adding something more. He counseled Joseph to be faithful and not to try to use the record for material gain, neither to show it to anyone except those whom God would appoint. Guided by the vision of the hill he had seen in his mind, Joseph found the spot where the records were deposited. He cleared away the dirt around a large box made of stone. The angel reappeared and told him that the time had not come to take the record and translate it. The angel told him to return every year on the 22 of September until the time was right.

Over the next few years, Joseph returned to the hill every year on the same date, but during the rest of the year he continued to work hard both on the family farm and by hiring himself out as a laborer. He continued to be harassed and mocked by the town people because of his visions, but his family stuck by him, knowing that he was always truthful.

That fall on September 22, 1827, Joseph Smith….went to the hill where lay the records engraved on Gold plates. Joseph was given the records by the Angel Moroni, as well as the Urim and Thummim, two stones set in a bow which had been used by ancient prophets for receiving revelations (see Exodus 28:30). This

News that Joseph had records with the appearance of gold spread through the surrounding community, and many people attempted to get the plates from Joseph. Joseph was forced to move several times during the translation process.

At the direction of the angel, Joseph alone was permitted to see and handle the plates, unless God directed otherwise. Finally Joseph got his answer as he translated a passage in Ether 5:3 which states, And in the mouth of three witnesses shall these things be established; and the testimony of three, and this work, in the which shall be shown forth the power of God and also his word, of which the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost bear record—and all this shall stand as a testimony against the world at the last day.

Three men were selected to be these special witnesses of the Book of Mormon: Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and David Whitmer. The four men retired to woods around Fayette and prayed in turn for a manifestation from God. After some time, an angel appeared to the men and showed them the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and other artifacts. The men reported hearing the voice of God commanding them to testify to the world that these things were true. They were permitted to see, touch, and lift the plates. Their testimony is affixed to the beginning of the Book of Mormon as The Testimony of Three Witnesses.

A short time later, Joseph was permitted to show the plates to eight other men: Christian Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, Peter Whitmer, Jr., John Whitmer, Hiram Page, Joseph Smith, Sr., Hyrum Smith, and Samuel Smith. Their testimony is known as the Testimony of Eight Witnesses. None of these eleven men every denied this testimony even though they endured severe hardships and were even threatened with death. Of the eleven, seven died in full fellowship with the Mormon Church and the remaining four, David Whitmer, John Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, and Hiram Page, continued to affirm that the Book of Mormon was true even though disagreements and conflicts drove them out of the Church. After the translation was completed, Joseph Smith returned the gold plates to the angel Moroni, until the time should come that the rest of the record should be translated.

In late March of 1830, the first copies of the Book of Mormon were published, and the first official missionary work began, as Joseph Smith instructed his brother, Samuel Harrison Smith, to take several copies of the book and begin to share the message. With the Book of Mormon published the time had come to organize but the church officially. The Church of Christ, as the Mormon Church was originally called, was organized on April 6, 1830. Over 40 people were present, but six constituted the first members. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were accepted as teachers and elders of the Church. Many others were baptized in that first meeting, including Joseph’s father and mother, and his childhood friend Orrin Porter Rockwell.

The Mormons immediately sent missionaries out into the surrounding regions and found success in Fayette and Colesville, and a few converts came from Palmyra. Most of the early converts came from members’ extended families, as cousins, uncles, and others were baptized and formed branches of the Mormon Church in their own towns.

In the fall of 1830, Joseph Smith received a revelation that missionaries were to preach to the Indians in Missouri. The Mission to the Lamanites, as it was called, sent Peter Whitmer, Parley Pratt, and Ziba Peterson westwards. Parley Pratt, a recent convert from Ohio, had previously been an itinerant preacher for the Campbellites, and as the group journeyed to Missouri, they preached to a Campbellite congregation in Kirtland, Ohio, overseen by an old friend of Pratt’s named Sidney Rigdon. Rigdon, an educated and eloquent minister, soon joined the Mormon Church, and so did hundreds of the Campbellites.

As Joseph prayed to God for guidance in assisting the Mormons, he received a revelation instructing the members to gather to Kirtland, where the Law of the Lord for the Church would be given. Joseph and his family moved once again in January 1831, and resettled in Kirtland, where hundred of converts awaited him. By the summer of 1831, most of the faithful Mormons remaining in New York followed suit.

The Kirtland period is one of the most important periods in Mormon history, because during this time Joseph Smith received several revelations from God inspiring him on doctrine and the fine points of Church organization.

In July of 1831, a revelation commanded Joseph Smith and others to go to Missouri. There the Lord revealed that Jackson County was the center place for the gathering of the Mormon Church. The Church was still small, and gathering together was essential to help sustain the Church as well as its members. Immediately, the Church bought lands in Jackson County, and many Mormons began migrating there.

In Ohio, the Mormons continued to establish homes and businesses. A revelation received in July of 1831, commanded them to build the first Mormon temple, a house of God, in Kirtland. On August 3, 1831, Joseph Smith dedicated the land where the temple was to be built. However, it took another two years before the cornerstones were even laid. Joseph received another revelation from the Lord on June 1, 1833, which reprimanded the Church members for having procrastinated the building of the temple. Joseph and other Church leaders sent out a letter to all Church members requesting each member give all he or she could to the building of the