King Follett Discourse
Encyclopedia
The King Follett discourse, or King Follett sermon, was an address delivered in Nauvoo
, Illinois
by Joseph Smith
, president and founder of the Latter Day Saint movement
, on April 7, 1844, less than three months before his assassination
. The discourse was presented to a congregation of probably more than twenty thousand Latter Day Saints at a general conference held shortly after the funeral
service of Elder King Follett, who had died on March 9, 1844 of accidental injuries. The sermon is notable for its claim that God was once a man, and that men and women can become gods through salvation and exaltation. These topics were, and are, controversial, and have received varying opinions and interpretations of what Smith meant. Literary critic Harold Bloom
called the sermon "one of the truly remarkable sermons ever preached in America."
(using a type of personal shorthand), William Clayton (writing in longhand), and Willard Richards
(taking "minute"-style notes of major elements of the speech). Wilford Woodruff
also took extensive contemporaneous notes and transferred the notes to his journal with editorializations, but his original notes were not preserved. One author (Searle) estimates that the surviving notes of the sermon contain roughly 30% of the words of the actual address, but that together, they are likely nearly topically complete.
A version reconstructed (by Bullock) from the Bullock and Clayton records was published in the church paper Times and Seasons
of August 15, 1844. A later version resulted from amalgamation of the Richards, Woodruff, Bullock and Clayton texts. This amalgamation was done by church employee Jonathan Grimshaw roughly ten years after Smith's death and is generally regarded as the "official" LDS Church version because it was carefully reviewed, edited, and approved by LDS authorities including Brigham Young
. It contains some text not found in any of the primary sources and contains redundancies resulting from the naïve reconstruction. These redundancies, and the parts added by Grimshaw without support in the contemporaneous notes, were removed in a modern amalgamation by Stan Larson in 1978.
. It was not published in the LDS Church's 1902 History of the Church
because of then-Church President Joseph F. Smith
's discomfort with some ideas in the sermon popularized by the editor of the project, B. H. Roberts of the First Council of the Seventy. By 1950, it was included in the revised edition of History of the Church. In 1971, the sermon was published in the Ensign, an official publication of the LDS Church.
LDS Church President Lorenzo Snow
succinctly summarized a portion of the doctrine explained in this discourse using a couplet
, which is often repeated within the LDS Church:
Smith taught, "You have got to learn to become Gods yourselves, the same as all Gods before you have done."
Regarding his personal religious experiences, Smith stated: "I don't blame anyone for not believing my history. If I had not experienced what I have, I could not have believed it myself." Concerned with difficulties facing the church and threats on his own life, he closed the two hour and fifteen minute address with a plea for peace and invoked God's blessing on the assembled Latter Day Saints.
Although the discourse is considered by Mormon
s to be one of the most important given by Smith on the nature of God
and exaltation, it is not part of the LDS Church's canonized
scriptures. However, some Mormons have called it quasi-canonical.
The topics in the discourse were not new to Smith's preaching Nearly all the subjects treated were continuing threads from earlier sermons. However, this discourse brought these ideas together in one connected narrative, and has had much wider distribution than most of the rest of his public utterances.
Nauvoo, Illinois
Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. Although the population was just 1,063 at the 2000 census, and despite being difficult to reach due to its location in a remote corner of Illinois, Nauvoo attracts large numbers of visitors for its historic importance and its...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
by Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith was founder of what later became known as the Latter Day Saint movement or Mormons.Joseph Smith may also refer to:-Latter Day Saints:* Joseph Smith, Sr. , father of Joseph Smith...
, president and founder of the Latter Day Saint movement
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...
, on April 7, 1844, less than three months before his assassination
Death of Joseph Smith, Jr.
The death of Joseph Smith, Jr. on June 27, 1844 marked a turning point for the Latter Day Saint movement, of which Smith was the founder and leader. When he was attacked and killed by a mob, Smith was the mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, and running for President of the United States...
. The discourse was presented to a congregation of probably more than twenty thousand Latter Day Saints at a general conference held shortly after the funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
service of Elder King Follett, who had died on March 9, 1844 of accidental injuries. The sermon is notable for its claim that God was once a man, and that men and women can become gods through salvation and exaltation. These topics were, and are, controversial, and have received varying opinions and interpretations of what Smith meant. Literary critic Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
called the sermon "one of the truly remarkable sermons ever preached in America."
Text
A full, verbatim account of the speech does not exist, but notes exist, taken contemporaneously, by Thomas BullockThomas Bullock (Mormon)
Thomas Bullock was a Mormon pioneer and a clerk in the Church Historian's Office of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.Bullock was born in Leek, Staffordshire, England...
(using a type of personal shorthand), William Clayton (writing in longhand), and Willard Richards
Willard Richards
Willard Richards was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and served as Second Counselor in the First Presidency to church president Brigham Young in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death.Willard Richards was born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, to...
(taking "minute"-style notes of major elements of the speech). Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff, Sr. was the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1889 until his death...
also took extensive contemporaneous notes and transferred the notes to his journal with editorializations, but his original notes were not preserved. One author (Searle) estimates that the surviving notes of the sermon contain roughly 30% of the words of the actual address, but that together, they are likely nearly topically complete.
A version reconstructed (by Bullock) from the Bullock and Clayton records was published in the church paper Times and Seasons
Times and Seasons
Times and Seasons was a 19th-century Latter Day Saint periodical published monthly or twice-monthly at Nauvoo, Illinois, from November 1839 to February 15, 1846...
of August 15, 1844. A later version resulted from amalgamation of the Richards, Woodruff, Bullock and Clayton texts. This amalgamation was done by church employee Jonathan Grimshaw roughly ten years after Smith's death and is generally regarded as the "official" LDS Church version because it was carefully reviewed, edited, and approved by LDS authorities including Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
. It contains some text not found in any of the primary sources and contains redundancies resulting from the naïve reconstruction. These redundancies, and the parts added by Grimshaw without support in the contemporaneous notes, were removed in a modern amalgamation by Stan Larson in 1978.
Attitude of Latter Day Saint leaders
The sermon was not always viewed in a favorable light by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) or other denominations in the Latter Day Saint movementLatter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...
. It was not published in the LDS Church's 1902 History of the Church
History of the Church
History of the Church is a semi-official history of the early Latter Day Saint movement during the lifetime of founder Joseph...
because of then-Church President Joseph F. Smith
Joseph F. Smith
Joseph Fielding Smith, Sr. was the sixth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
's discomfort with some ideas in the sermon popularized by the editor of the project, B. H. Roberts of the First Council of the Seventy. By 1950, it was included in the revised edition of History of the Church. In 1971, the sermon was published in the Ensign, an official publication of the LDS Church.
LDS Church President Lorenzo Snow
Lorenzo Snow
Lorenzo Snow was the fifth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1898 to his death. Snow was the last president of the LDS Church in the nineteenth century.-Family:...
succinctly summarized a portion of the doctrine explained in this discourse using a couplet
Couplet
A couplet is a pair of lines of meter in poetry. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark out couplets if they do not rhyme. Couplets with a meter of iambic pentameter are called heroic...
, which is often repeated within the LDS Church:
Topics
Doctrinal topics in the sermon include:- the fundamental nature of reality --
- man is not a contingent being, moreover God made the world from preexisting "chaotic matter."
- "I take my ring from my finger and liken it unto the mind of man ... because it has no beginning"
- "The pure principles of element, are principles that can never be destroyed."
- the character and nature of God --
- "It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another."
- "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and ... God ... (were) to make himself visible ... if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form -- like yourselves in all the person, image, and the very form as a man."
- Humanity’s potential to become Gods themselves. --
- Smith discussed the potential of mankind by referencing Romans 8:17, then stating that men may go: "...from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation ... until (they) arrive at the station of a God."
Smith taught, "You have got to learn to become Gods yourselves, the same as all Gods before you have done."
- the tie between the living and their progenitors --
- "Is there nothing to be done? -- no preparation -- no salvation for our fathers and friends who have died without having had the opportunity to obey the decrees of the Son of Man?"
- "God hath made a provision that every spirit in the eternal world can be ... saved unless he has committed (the) unpardonable sin."
Regarding his personal religious experiences, Smith stated: "I don't blame anyone for not believing my history. If I had not experienced what I have, I could not have believed it myself." Concerned with difficulties facing the church and threats on his own life, he closed the two hour and fifteen minute address with a plea for peace and invoked God's blessing on the assembled Latter Day Saints.
Although the discourse is considered by Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
s to be one of the most important given by Smith on the nature of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
and exaltation, it is not part of the LDS Church's canonized
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
scriptures. However, some Mormons have called it quasi-canonical.
The topics in the discourse were not new to Smith's preaching Nearly all the subjects treated were continuing threads from earlier sermons. However, this discourse brought these ideas together in one connected narrative, and has had much wider distribution than most of the rest of his public utterances.
External links
- W. V. Smith, "A parallel account of known texts of the King Follett Discourse," The Parallel Joseph, www.boap.org