Joseph Smith Jr. was born Dec. 23, 1805 — 218 years ago. The anniversary of his birth today may be lost in preparing for Christmas — something that professor Daniel Peterson, professor emeritus of Arabic and Islamic studies at BYU, suggested was by no means inappropriate, since Latter-day Saints worship Jesus Christ, not Joseph, “and don’t want to suggest otherwise.” Joseph Smith by age 24 had published the Book of Mormon, and organized what Latter-day Saints consider to be a restoration of Christ’s ancient church.
Joseph Smith Jr. was born Dec. 23, 1805 — 218 years ago. The anniversary of his birth today may be lost in preparing for Christmas — something that professor Daniel Peterson, professor emeritus of Arabic and Islamic studies at BYU, suggested was by no means inappropriate, since Latter-day Saints worship Jesus Christ, not Joseph, “and don’t want to suggest otherwise.” Joseph Smith by age 24 had published the Book of Mormon, and organized what Latter-day Saints consider to be a restoration of Christ’s ancient church.
Latter-day Saints don’t have to be ‘nervous’ about their history, Richard Bushman and other scholars say on the anniversary of Joseph Smith’s birth, and in the wake of over 18,000 pages of primary source documents about Joseph Smith being made freely available online.
For the past 22 years, a team of historians has dedicated themselves to an unprecedented study of every historical document produced under the direction of Joseph Smith, the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This documentary is an insightful look at the scope of this project and an opportunity to understand the man whose legacy continues to influence millions of people worldwide.