———FR’s spellcheck don’t seem to like your wording——
Mine does.
I suppose yours is not up to date
Joseph Smith, Jr.’s statement that he was ”the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam.” was made on Sunday, May 26, 1844.
It’s found in the History of the Church Vol. 6, p. 408-412.
By Mary 26, 1844, the 'church' had alREADY split into..
the Pure Church of Christ (1831),
the Independent Church (1832),
the Church of Christ (Boothite) (1836),
the Church of Christ (Parrishite) (1837),
the Alston Church (1839),
the Church of Christ (Chubbyite) (late 1830s),
the Church of Jesus Christ, the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife (1840),
and the Church of Christ (Pageite) (1842),
had already split from Joseph Smith’s Church (which was known as the Church of Christ from 1830 to 1834, the Church of the Latter Day Saints (no hyphen) from 1834 to 1838, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (no hyphen) until 1844).
I don’t understand how that is ‘keep[ing] a whole church together.”
Ironically, the May 26, 1844, is the speech Joseph Smith. Jr. gave after William Law testified before a grand jury that Smith was committing polygamy. Law also claimed that Smith had made several proposals to Law’s wife Jane, under the premise that Jane Law would enter a polyandrous marriage with Smith. In his May 25, 1844 speech, Smith also said “What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one.” At the time he claimed to have but one wife, Smith had at least 34 wives.
Of course, Law was excommunicated from the Church and eventually was a publisher of the Nauvoo Expositor, which publicly accused Smith of
(a) corrupting young women by coercing them into plural marriage,
(b) being a fallen prophet by engaging in polygamy, and
(c) desiring to establish a theocracy.
Smith’s order that the Nauvoo printing press be destroyed and the type be pied eventually led to his arrest and death in Carthage (the charge of treason against Smith was unrelated to destruction of the newspaper and arose from Smith declaring martial law and calling out his personal militia, the Nauvoo Legion).
Amazing. At the time he made that statement, a lot of sub-cults had already broken away. And he made that statement during the same speech when he lied about having more than one wife - the speech that set William Law on his course to publishing the Nauvoo Expositor . . . and Smith on his course to his death, firing that pepperbox pistol and killing two