LDS leader writes of Joseph Smith

President Gordon B. Hinckley, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, writes in a church message this month about Joseph Smith:

"That baby boy born 200 years ago this month in humble circumstances in rural Vermont was foreordained to become a great leader in the fulfilling of our Father's plan for His children on Earth.

"We do not worship the prophet. We worship God our Eternal Father and the risen Lord Jesus Christ. But we acknowledge the prophet; we proclaim him; we respect him; we reverence him as an instrument in the hands of the Almighty in restoring to the Earth the ancient truths of the divine gospel, together with the priesthood through which the authority of God is exercised in the affairs of His church and for the blessing of His people.

"The story of Joseph's life is the story of a miracle. He was born in poverty. He was reared in adversity. He was driven from place to place, falsely accused, and illegally imprisoned. He was murdered at the age of 38. Yet in the brief space of 20 years preceding his death, he accomplished what none other has accomplished in an entire lifetime. He translated and published the Book of Mormon, a volume which has since been retranslated into scores of languages and which is accepted by millions across the Earth as the word of God. The revelations he received and other writings he produced are likewise scripture to these millions. The total in book pages constitutes approximately twice the volume of the entire New Testament of the Bible, and it all came through one man in the space of a few years.

"In this same period he established an organization which for 175 years has withstood every adversity and challenge and is as effective today in governing a worldwide membership of some 12 million as it was in governing a membership of 300 in 1830. There are those doubters who have strained to explain this remarkable organization as the product of the times in which he lived. That organization, I submit, was as peculiar, as unique, and as remarkable then as it is today. It was not a product of the times. It came as a revelation from God." — From the Ensign, December 2005