Fascinating stuff!:
Did you know:
Joseph Smith was a wrestler and “jumper” of great strength and skill. He was able to walk under a bar set at six feet, “then take a step or two back and proceed to jump over it.” (The Latter-day Prophet: Young People's History of Joseph Smith, p 32)
Did you know:
When Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball met Joseph Smith the very first time, the gift of tongues was given to Brigham, who spoke the Adamic language. This was prior to him being baptized. This was the first time Joseph had ever heard the gift of tongues and he understood everything Brigham had said. (The Latter-day Prophet: Young People's History of Joseph Smith, p 67)
Did you know:
In 1853, the Deseret News ran an editorial essentially telling the Saints how not to become possessed by evil spirits and what type of actions cause possession. (Deseret News, Feb 21, 1853, Vol. 2, No. 8)
Did you know:
After the Prophet Joseph Smith was killed, one of his murderers approached his body with the intent of beheading it when a dazzling light came from heaven and protected Joseph's body.
“The Missourians had offered a large reward for Joseph's head; and the ruffian who had set him against the well curb now approached with a glittering knife for the purpose of severing the head from the body. William M. Daniels who claims to have been an eye-witness to the proceedings says that as he was about to make the awful stroke a vivid light burst from the heavens upon the bloody scene. It passed between Joseph and his murderers, and they were struck with terror. 1 he knife fell from the powerless hand of the ruffian, and he stood transfixed. The muskets dropped from the arms of Williams' four executioners, and they had not the power to move a limb.
Horrified, the mob scattered in all directions. Williams cried to them to come back and carry off the four men who still stood like marble statues, frozen with terror. They obeyed, and these men were lifted into the baggage wagons as inert as corpses.” (The Life of Joseph Smith the Prophet, pp 527-528)
Did you know:
The Savior is mentioned by name or referenced in the Book of Mormon 3925 times and in the Bible 1281 times. After the Savior, the top three subjects discussed in the Book of Mormon are: faith, war, and secret combinations.
Did you know:
The two terms, “gift of discernment” and “spirit of discernment” cannot be found in the scriptures. The correct title is the gift of the “discerning of spirits” (1 Cor 12:10, D&C 46:23).
Did you know:
The number one subject taught by Joseph Smith was the discerning of spirits. “George A. Smith, who
received his endowment with Parley P. Pratt in December 1843, and who also was a witness to all the dimensions of Joseph's teachings on this subject, later said, ‘There was no point upon which the Prophet Joseph dwelt more than the discerning of Spirits’ (Minutes of Meetings held in Provo City, 28 November 1869, Church Archives).” (Words of Joseph Smith, p 21).
Did you know:
The practice of dedicating our homes though the priesthood came from an incident in Commerce, IL, after the Saints were driven from Missouri.
“When the Saints moved to Nauvoo or Commerce, as it was then called, it might be called a deserted town, or partly so at least, as there were many empty houses, mostly built of logs and had stood so long that the mud had fallen from the spaces between them.
“The Saints just driven from Missouri were glad to get such shelter as those old houses would afford, and they were all soon filled, sometimes two and three families in one house. Some houses had no floors, some no doors. Soon the inmates became sick— sickness increased until Joseph began to be alarmed and saw something very unusual in the new affliction. He looked into the matter as only a Seer and Prophet could look. He saw the trouble and where it came from. Those houses had been dens of iniquity. He instituted means to empty them again by moving the people into tents and doubling up families in better houses. My father's family he took into his own house and tent.
“I once heard him say concerning houses that had been inhabited by wicked people that before the Saints moved into them they should be thoroughly cleansed, then fumigated with brimstone and whitewash. Afterward there should be a season of prayer in the house, and it should be dedicated unto the Lord for the use they designed it.
“Those old houses had been owned or occupied by wicked, unprincipled men, gamblers, outlaws, licentious robbers, etc., and those that were of the same stamp had met there for evil practices and criminal purposes and there carried on their orgies. While this was the pastime or work of men and women in bodies, disembodied spirits of the same ilk stood around in highest glee and in various ways manifested to one another their enjoyment of the performance of the vilest of sins.
“When the owners or occupants of the houses were dead, they enjoyed each other's society with their new pals in the spirit state, and when the righteous took possession of their old houses, all combined to kill the new inhabitants, and hence so much sickness—for all evil spirits, whether in the body or out of the body, are opposed to this work and this people, and the spirits in the spirit world have means by which they can affect people on earth, and are as diligent there as here to do good or evil.”
(O. B. Huntington, The Young Woman’s Journal, Jul 1891, p 467)
