Joseph the Seer

Joseph the Seer

By Dr. George H. Brimliall, President of the Brigham Young University

"For Joseph" [who was sold into Egypt] "truly testified saying: A choice seer will I raise up, out of the fruit of thy loins." * * * "Behold that seer will the Lord bless and they that seek to destroy him shall be confounded." * * * "And his name shall be called after me, and it shall be after the name of his father. And he shall be like unto me, for the thing which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand, by the power of the Lord, shall bring my people unto salvation." Book of Mormon, II Nephi 3. Joseph Smith was more than an ordinary seer; he was a choice seer, a seer of promise. The promise of his coming was given as long before Christ as the discovery of America was after Christ.To his premortal training and foreordination were added earthly environment, in- struction, and experience, and he received from on high the pow- er and privilege of viewing the field of truth to the extent of ob- taining knowledge of "things as they are, as they were, and as they are to come." He saw God the Father, in person; also his Son, the resur- rected Redeemer, one hundred years ago in the sacred grove at Palmyra. From the time of his first vision, until his death, he was at intervals privileged to be in the presence of the Savior of the world. He enjoyed the personal companionship of the re- embodied messenger from heaven, Moroni, the custodian of the sacred records. He saw John the Baptist and also the resurrected apostles, Peter, James and John, and from them received authority to act for God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ in the name of the latter. He communed with Adam or with Michael, and other messengers from heaven. He received the keys of the gathering of Israel from the great dispensator Moses, and from Elijah the keys of the Sealing and other temple ordinances. Doc. and Cov. Sec. 110. He had a clear vision of the object of our existence here, and he revealed it in the following language: "We came to this earth that we might have a body and present it pure before God, in the celestial kingdom." * * * "All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not. The devil has no power over us only as we permit him. The moment we revolt at anything which comes from God, the devil takes power." See Compendium, page 288.