Why Did Joseph Smith Really Kill The Masons?

When the name John Smith is mentioned, people of all ages are familiar with it and could tell a lot about him. Why is this? How is it that a man who lived over 400 years ago still so popular today, more specifically to our children? The answer to that question is because John Smith can be viewed as one of America’s earliest heroes. His leadership was vital to the survival of the Jamestown colony. Most people are familiar with his famous quote, “he that will not work shall not eat.” He carried all the qualities of an influential leader, and even had a mystical legend with Pocahontas, in which no one truly knows what happened. His leadership characteristics and qualities possessed hard work, grit, and determination. He was an individualist that had an “American” dream. However, during his time, the colonists did not look at it as an “American” dream. Without him and his leadership, America may not be what it is today.

Smith was badly burned in 1606 from a gunpowder explosion and forced to return back to England. In 1614 he returned with an expedition to map the New England coastline. He would never return to Virginia again after this. He would from then on only promote colonizing the New England area. His efforts to promote colonizing were blocked by weather, pirates and lack of funding. He then resorted to writing about colonization. In his writing he elaborated about how wonderful it was in the new world. He would say that the fish practically jump into your boat when you go fishing and things such as that. He made the new world seem better than it really was so people would want to travel here and settle in it. His plan worked because year after year more and more people flocked to the New England hoping to colonize and not have to worry about running out

Moving to Palmyra, New York in 1816 with his parents and seven siblings, Joseph Smith and his family found themselves confused and troubled by the opposing churches in the area. His family tried to associate themselves with the Presbyterian Church for a time. Then his father shifted his interest to Methodism, but none of the churches suited their needs.

While many cannot picture Smith in any context other than with Pocahontas, he had a very active life before he even met her. As stated by Woolf, prior to even meeting Pocahontas Smith had been “in an army fighting the Ottoman Turks in central Europe, during which he went through several escapes, was seriously wounded, taken into slavery, after which he murdered his slave-master and escaped, along with being shipwrecked twice.”1 All of these exploits happened before Smith ended up in Virginia at the Jamestown colony, and met Pocahontas, the narrative of which most Americans are intimately familiar with or so they think.

John Smith and William Bradford use divine guidance as an explanation for the reasons of

Mason was licensed and ordained in 1891 at Preston, Arkansas, but held back from full-time ministry to marry Alice Saxton, the beautiful daughter of his

1. Ben Franklin, pointing to the sun carved on the back of the presiding officer's chair, remarked; "Throughout the days we have been laboring here, I have observed that sun, and wondered whether it was a rising sun or a setting sun. Now I know it was a rising sun."1 Throughout our lives we have been told of how our country was formed. I am here to tell you about the things the history books and teachers don’t tell you about the freemasons and there shaping of the United States of America. We will start with freemasons an agency that has been shaping history since the building of King Solomon’s temple.

Mormonism was founded by Joseph Smith, a man who came from a family of poor New York state farmers that were involved in occult practices according to Malise Ruthven and Peggy Fletcher Stack. He claimed to have been visited by the angel Moroni after attending a revival in the New York area. During his visitation, he was given spiritual revelation from God, which Joseph claimed were written on “golden plates”, which he then translated using sacred stones . His translation of these golden plates was printed in 1830 with financial aid from a farmer by the name of Martin Harris who obtained a loan for the publication fees. Criticism of the book of Mormon was almost immediate, the Wayne Sentinel declared that “most people entertain an idea that the

Mormonism was founded in the 1820s’ by Joseph Smith. Smith, wanting to expand his religious following migrated to Illinois where he established a settlement that included a temple of worship and a village (Green 57). In Illinois the Mormon peoples’ were met with threats, violence, and occasionally they were even killed. This was the case for their leader Joseph Smith; Smith was met with disgust from non-mormons when he attempted to run for presidency and his church riddled with scandal when the word of polygamy got out. With his tarnished reputation, Smith was ultimately murdered by an outraged mob, who then threatened other Mormons that if they did not leave they would be met with the same fate (Mormons into the West). With that warning, the Mormons picked a new leader, Brigham Young, who wanted to flee the American Border. Young set for travel with his new followers to the Great Salt Lake, which at the time was located in Mexico.

The simple fact is, John Smith helped the Jamestown settlers tremendously and made them stronger as a result. He achieved this through his excellent leadership skills, knowledge of survival and ability to maintain peace. He even strengthened the colonist relationship with Native Americans during their time of struggle. During this time many tribes welcomed the English with opened arms, but some pushed them away in distrust. This may be due to previous encounters with Europeans. This event can be liked with the development of our nation as we know it today, without these individuals coming to North America during this time the United States may not have become a nation.

John Smith was vital to the survival of Virginia, if it were not for him the settlement would have not survived. Thanks to Smith’s earlier experiences travelling all of Europe, and fighting in the war against the Turks he was considered to be resourceful leader, who brought some discipline to the settlement. Although his relationships with the other members of the governing council were not the best, he eventually was left in charge after the other members died of disease or went back to England. Smith was able to successfully build alliances and trading relationships with the Indians and thus was able to feed the people of Jamestown. He also established the work or starve rule which basically said if they didn’t work, they didn’t eat which

If this quote had been written by one of Smith's fellow settlers, we may regard it as substantial evidence. However, it was written by Smith, so he seems to be boasting about his selflessness and leadership ability. Furthermore, according to Egloff and Chief Crazy Horse, Smith did not even mention his attempted murder to his fellow settlers when he returned to the fort after the Indians released him. Furthermore, he did not include the incident in an account of his captivity, which he wrote immediately following his period of captivity (Vincent 1; Chief Crazy Horse 1). Thus, Smith's General History is not reliable.

Even though these later versions differed substantially from Joseph Smith’s own writing of his first vision Joseph never felt it necessary to explain the differences or even admit to them. Yet from the time Joseph F. Smith became president of the Mormon Church Oct 17, 1901 the first vision became of primary

The year 1838 was momentous to Joseph Smith. John Whitmer and David Whitmer were excommunicated from the church. Joseph Smith said God told him to change the name of the church from The Church of the Latter-day Saints to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Three more official histories of Joseph Smith’s first vision are published. John Whitmer refuses to give up his written documents regarding the history of the church.

Around the 1730's when established religion started to loose its glow, more people started to turn to science, which they saw as the "newer, truer, wisdom." (Doyle 1989, 65). While looking ahead, they found freemasonry as a royal art, which caused them to start building masonry lodges where freemasonry could be practiced. Between 800 and 900 Masonic lodges were founded in France between 1732 and 1793, two-thirds of them after 1760. "Between 1773 and 1779 well over 20,000 members were recruited. Few towns of any consequence were without one of mote lodges by the 1780's, and despite several papal condemnation of deistic cult that had originated in Protestant England, the Elite of society flocked to join." (Doyle 1989, 65). As masonry was replenished with hierarchy, the women of the world were once again left out in the cold. "Men tended to join the lodges where they would find their social peers, and were innumerable grades of perfection through which adepts could pass" (Doyle 1989, 65). Even though the lodges were known as to be equal or fair, they exclude women from