Joseph's Persecution

One of the themes that we see in the Joseph Smith History account in the Pearl of Great Price is that of persecution that Joseph and the Church faced.  The first verse gives as reason for the document “the many reports which have been put in circulation by evil-disposed and designing persons,” highlighting the great persecution that had accompanied the Church since its inception (v1).  After telling the story of the First Vision, Joseph told us that “opposition and persecution” rose against him (v20).  He found that telling the story of the First Vision “was the cause of great persecution” and that there was “bitter persecution” by those preachers who “united to persecute” Joseph (v22).  Between the First Vision in 1820 and the visit of Moroni in 1823 he faced “the most bitter persecution and reviling” (v23).  Joseph testified that he could stand like Paul who, though “all the persecution under heaven” came it could not change the reality of the vision.  “Why persecute me for telling the truth?” he questioned (v24).  Clearly the amount of persecution that came directly after the First Vision was a great source of pain and struggle for young Joseph. 

                The persecution did not stop as Joseph got older.  He wrote that he was “all the time suffering severe persecution at the hands of all classes of men” when in 1823 he had the visit from the angel Moroni (v27).  Moroni’s very first message to Joseph after stating that God had a mission for him to do was that his “name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues,” a warning of the kind of opposition he would face going forward (v33).   After his marriage in 1827 he commented, “Persecution still followed me,” and once he got the plates “the persecution became more bitter and severe than before” (v58, 60).   He said that the “persecution, however, became so intolerable” that he had to move away from it down to Harmony (v61).  As part of that translation he wrote about “a spirit of persecution which surrounded them. As Joseph would later write about all of the difficulty and opposition that he faced, “Deep water is what I am wont to swim in” (D&C 127:2).  From the time he stepped out of the grove until the time he was killed, the persecution followed him.                                           

                Joseph started writing the account we have in the Pearl of Great Price in 1838, a short period between the fleeing of Kirtland and the arrest that sent him to Liberty Jail.  I have to think that writing this history was a time for him to reflect and also prepare for what was ahead.  Not long after he wrote these words he had some of his darkest days as he suffered in prison even more “bitter and severe” than he had ever faced.  Perhaps the writing of his history helped him to put the persecution in perspective and put his trust in God.  He made it through the days in the prison and five more years after that amidst great challenges and persecution.  But despite all of his struggles he stayed true throughout his life, and ultimately did “triumph over all [his] enemies” (D&C 127:2).