The Papers
Browse the PapersDocumentsJournalsAdministrative RecordsRevelations and TranslationsHistoriesLegal RecordsFinancial RecordsOther Contemporary Papers
Reference
PeoplePlacesEventsGlossaryLegal GlossaryFinancial GlossaryCalendar of DocumentsWorks CitedFeatured TopicsLesson PlansRelated Publications
Media
VideosPhotographsIllustrationsChartsMapsPodcasts
News
Current NewsArchiveNewsletterSubscribeJSP Conferences
About
About the ProjectJoseph Smith and His PapersFAQAwardsEndorsementsReviewsEditorial MethodNote on TranscriptionsNote on Images of People and PlacesReferencing the ProjectCiting This WebsiteProject TeamContact Us
Published Volumes
  1. Home > 
  2. The Papers > 

Questions and Answers, 8 May 1838

Source Note

JS, Questions and Answers,
Far West

Originally called Shoal Creek. Located fifty-five miles northeast of Independence. Surveyed 1823; first settled by whites, 1831. Site purchased, 8 Aug. 1836, before Caldwell Co. was organized for Latter-day Saints in Missouri. William W. Phelps and John Whitmer...

More Info
, Caldwell Co., MO, 8 May 1838. Featured version published in Elders’ Journal, July 1838, pp. 42–44. For more complete source information, see the source note for Elders’ Journal, Oct. 1837.

Historical Introduction

On 8 May 1838, JS prepared responses to a collection of questions he and other church leaders were asked approximately six months earlier while traveling from
Kirtland

Located ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Latter-day Saint missionaries visited township, early Nov. 1830; many residents joined Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and...

More Info
, Ohio, to
Far West

Originally called Shoal Creek. Located fifty-five miles northeast of Independence. Surveyed 1823; first settled by whites, 1831. Site purchased, 8 Aug. 1836, before Caldwell Co. was organized for Latter-day Saints in Missouri. William W. Phelps and John Whitmer...

More Info
, Missouri. The leaders had embarked on the trip in September 1837 in order to locate new gathering places for the
Saints

The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...

View Glossary
and to organize church affairs in Far West. JS explained that on the journey, they held public meetings and were asked questions “daily and hourly . . . by all classes of people.” Upon his return, JS prepared a list of twenty questions—ranging from how the gold plates were discovered to whether the church practiced polygamy—and then published the list in the November 1837 issue of the Elders’ Journal, promising that the next issue would include answers to the queries.
1

Travel Account and Questions, Nov. 1837.


The next issue was not published until July 1838, after JS relocated from
Ohio

French explored and claimed area, 1669. British took possession following French and Indian War, 1763. Ceded to U.S., 1783. First permanent white settlement established, 1788. Northeastern portion maintained as part of Connecticut, 1786, and called Connecticut...

More Info
to
Missouri

Area acquired by U.S. in Louisiana Purchase, 1803, and established as territory, 1812. Missouri Compromise, 1820, admitted Missouri as slave state, 1821. Population in 1830 about 140,000; in 1836 about 240,000; and in 1840 about 380,000. Latter-day Saint ...

More Info
and the periodical was reestablished in Far West.
2

See Prospectus for Elders’ Journal, 30 Apr. 1838.


JS’s journal entry for 8 May 1838 notes that he spent “the after part of the day, in answering the questions proposed.”
3

JS, Journal, 8 May 1838.


He may have begun developing answers at the time the questions were asked in late 1837, perhaps in the public meetings the church leaders held in towns and villages in
Ohio

French explored and claimed area, 1669. British took possession following French and Indian War, 1763. Ceded to U.S., 1783. First permanent white settlement established, 1788. Northeastern portion maintained as part of Connecticut, 1786, and called Connecticut...

More Info
,
Indiana

First settled by French at Vincennes, early 1700s. Acquired by England in French and Indian War, 1763. U.S. took possession of area following American Revolution, 1783. Area became part of Northwest Territory, 1787. Partitioned off of Northwest Territory ...

More Info
, and
Missouri

Area acquired by U.S. in Louisiana Purchase, 1803, and established as territory, 1812. Missouri Compromise, 1820, admitted Missouri as slave state, 1821. Population in 1830 about 140,000; in 1836 about 240,000; and in 1840 about 380,000. Latter-day Saint ...

More Info
along the way to
Far West

Originally called Shoal Creek. Located fifty-five miles northeast of Independence. Surveyed 1823; first settled by whites, 1831. Site purchased, 8 Aug. 1836, before Caldwell Co. was organized for Latter-day Saints in Missouri. William W. Phelps and John Whitmer...

More Info
. JS noted that the meetings “were tended with good success and generally allayed the prejudice and feeling of the people, as we judge from the treatment we received, being kindly and hospitably entertained.”
4

Travel Account and Questions, Nov. 1837.


Whatever the tone of JS’s initial oral responses to interested non-Mormons, he adopted a playful attitude in his written answers for the Latter-day Saint audience of the July 1838 issue of the Elders’ Journal. It is unknown whether JS or others continued working on the answers after 8 May 1838. Because the original document is apparently not extant, it remains unclear whether JS wrote the answers himself or relied on a scribe.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Travel Account and Questions, Nov. 1837.

  2. [2]

    See Prospectus for Elders’ Journal, 30 Apr. 1838.

  3. [3]

    JS, Journal, 8 May 1838.

  4. [4]

    Travel Account and Questions, Nov. 1837.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Questions and Answers, 8 May 1838
Elders’ Journal, July 1838 History, 1838–1856, volume B-1 [1 September 1834–2 November 1838] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page 42

In obedience to our promise, we give the following answers to questions, which were asked in the last number of the Journal.
1

See Travel Account and Questions, Nov. 1837.


Question 1st. Do you believe the b[i]ble?
Answer. If we do, we are the only people under heaven that does. For there are none of the religious sects of the day that do.
Question 2nd. Wherein do you differ from other sects?
Answer. Because we believe the bible, and all other sects profess to believe their interpretations of the bible, and their creeds.
2

In the antebellum United States, many Americans believed that creeds, or statements of official denominational belief, constricted rather than illuminated interpretation of the Bible. JS employed anticreedal rhetoric in an 1835 letter to Latter-day Saint elders, arguing that creeds impeded true understanding of scripture. Around the time that JS prepared the answers featured here, he described in his history the confusion he experienced as a teenager because “the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passage of Scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.” JS recalled that after praying for guidance, he received a visitation from God the Father and Jesus Christ in 1820, during which Christ stated that the creeds of contemporary churches “were an abomination in his sight.” (Hatch, Democratization of American Christianity, 81, 169, 215; Letter to the Elders of the Church, 30 Nov.–1 Dec. 1835; JS History, vol. A-1, 2–3; see also Welch, “All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,” 228–249.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Hatch, Nathan O. The Democratization of American Christianity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.

Welch, John W. “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination’: A Brief Look at Creeds as Part of the Apostasy.” In Prelude to the Restoration: From Apostasy to the Restored Church: The 33rd Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, 228–249. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.

Question 3rd. Will every body be damned but Mormons?
Answer. Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent and work righteousness.
3

In November 1831, JS dictated a revelation declaring that “this Church . . . [is] the only true & living Church upon the face of the whole Earth with which I the Lord am well pleased.” Baptism by the proper authority was required for membership in the church. The Book of Mormon also used the phrase “repent and work righteousness” to refer to those who entered into the “high priesthood.” (Revelation, 1 Nov. 1831–B [D&C 1:30]; Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 259 [Alma 13:10].)


Question 4th. How, and where did you obtain the book of Mormon?
Answer. Moroni, the person who deposited the
plates

A record engraved on gold plates, which JS translated and published as the Book of Mormon. The text explained that the plates were an abridgment of other ancient records and were written by an American prophet named Mormon and his son Moroni. The plates were...

View Glossary
, from whence the book of Mormon [p. 42]
View entire transcript

|

Cite this page

Source Note

Document Transcript

Page 42

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Questions and Answers, 8 May 1838
ID #
405
Total Pages
3
Print Volume Location
JSP, D6:139–145
Handwriting on This Page
  • Printed text

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See Travel Account and Questions, Nov. 1837.

  2. [2]

    In the antebellum United States, many Americans believed that creeds, or statements of official denominational belief, constricted rather than illuminated interpretation of the Bible. JS employed anticreedal rhetoric in an 1835 letter to Latter-day Saint elders, arguing that creeds impeded true understanding of scripture. Around the time that JS prepared the answers featured here, he described in his history the confusion he experienced as a teenager because “the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passage of Scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.” JS recalled that after praying for guidance, he received a visitation from God the Father and Jesus Christ in 1820, during which Christ stated that the creeds of contemporary churches “were an abomination in his sight.” (Hatch, Democratization of American Christianity, 81, 169, 215; Letter to the Elders of the Church, 30 Nov.–1 Dec. 1835; JS History, vol. A-1, 2–3; see also Welch, “All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,” 228–249.)

    Hatch, Nathan O. The Democratization of American Christianity. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.

    Welch, John W. “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination’: A Brief Look at Creeds as Part of the Apostasy.” In Prelude to the Restoration: From Apostasy to the Restored Church: The 33rd Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, 228–249. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004.

  3. [3]

    In November 1831, JS dictated a revelation declaring that “this Church . . . [is] the only true & living Church upon the face of the whole Earth with which I the Lord am well pleased.” Baptism by the proper authority was required for membership in the church. The Book of Mormon also used the phrase “repent and work righteousness” to refer to those who entered into the “high priesthood.” (Revelation, 1 Nov. 1831–B [D&C 1:30]; Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 259 [Alma 13:10].)

© 2024 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.Terms of UseUpdated 2021-04-13Privacy NoticeUpdated 2021-04-06