FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Question: Is Joseph Smith Sr.'s promise in a father's blessing to Joseph Smith Jr. that he would continue in the Priest's office until Christ comes a false prophecy?
This article is a draft. FairMormon editors are currently editing it. We welcome your suggestions on improving the content.
Criticism
Critics claim that the father's blessing given to Joseph Smith, Jr., in which Joseph Sr. "declar[ed] that I should continue in the Priest's office until Christ comes," is an example of a false prophecy.
Source(s) of the criticism
Response
When Joseph Smith was ordained to "the highest and holiest order of the Priesthood" on 28 September 1843,[1] he became "a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek" (Psalms 110:4)[2]
Joseph Smith will, therefore, continue to hold the status of "Priest" at the time of the Second Coming. If this father's blessing was a "prophecy," then it was fulfilled.
Endnotes
- [note] Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 655 nt. 49.
- [note] Compare this well-known Old Testament scripture with a statement by Elder Orson Hyde on the fulness of the priesthood and becoming a "priest" in the Millennial Star vol. 9 (15 January 1847): 23-24.