Joseph F. Smith
The orphan boy who became the sixth president — and saw the redemption of the dead
Formed by Loss
Joseph Fielding Smith was born in 1838 in Far West, Missouri — into the teeth of the Missouri persecutions. His father, Hyrum Smith, was murdered at Carthage Jail when Joseph F. was five years old. His mother, Mary Fielding Smith, crossed the plains to Utah as a widow with her children, defying those who said a woman without a husband couldn’t make it. She did make it, and she died when Joseph F. was thirteen.
He grew up orphaned, formed by the knowledge that the faith had cost his family everything — and that they had paid willingly. That formation did not make him bitter. It made him immovable.
At fifteen he was called as a missionary to Hawaii. He returned, served more missions, and eventually served as an apostle for nearly four decades before becoming the sixth president of the Church in 1901. He led the Church through the height of anti-polygamy prosecutions and federal pressure, the Smoot hearings in the U.S. Senate, and the early twentieth century.
The Vision of the Redemption of the Dead
On October 3, 1918 — just weeks before his death, in the depths of World War I, with his own son Hyrum recently dead at 45 — Joseph F. Smith received one of the most expansive visions in the entire scriptural canon. It is now Doctrine and Covenants Section 138.
He had been pondering the Atonement and the state of the dead when “the eyes of my understanding were opened, and the Spirit of the Lord rested upon me” (D&C 138:11). He saw the world of spirits — the vast host of the dead — and saw Christ visiting them after the crucifixion.
D&C 138:29–30
“And as I wondered, my eyes were opened, and my understanding quickened, and I perceived that the Lord went not in person among the wicked and the disobedient who had rejected the truth, to teach them; But behold, from among the righteous, he organized his forces and appointed messengers, clothed with power and authority, and commissioned them to go forth and carry the light of the gospel to them that were in darkness.”
The vision answered a question that had pressed on the faith since its founding: what of the billions who died without the gospel? The answer was not that God abandoned them — but that He organized a missionary work among the dead, staffed by the righteous departed, carrying light into the spirit world as the living carry it in mortality.
In the vision Joseph F. saw the ancient prophets — Adam, Eve, Abel, Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Elias, Malachi, Elijah — assembled and rejoicing. He saw his father Hyrum, and his uncle Joseph Smith. He saw the women of the scriptures. He saw the whole gathered host of the faithful.
He submitted the vision to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve on October 31, 1918. He died November 19, 1918 — sixteen days later. The last revelation he received was a panoramic view of where all the faithful dead were, and what God was doing for them. It was given to a man who had spent eighty years not knowing what had become of a father murdered when he was five.
What He Teaches Us
Joseph F. Smith teaches that personal loss, rather than being a disqualifier for spiritual leadership, can become its deepest qualification. He understood the world of the dead because he had been losing people to it since childhood. He understood what it meant to not know if those you loved were saved — and he received the revelation that answered it.
D&C 138 is the theological foundation for all Latter-day Saint temple work for the dead. It is why temples are built, why genealogical research is considered sacred, why proxy ordinances are performed. And it was given to an eighty-year-old orphan who had spent his life wondering where his father was.
Key Scripture
- D&C 138 — The Vision of the Redemption of the Dead; the theological foundation for temple work
- D&C 135 — The martyrdom of his father Hyrum, who died before Joseph F. could know him
- 1 Peter 3:18–20 — The scriptural basis Joseph F. was pondering when the vision opened