Transcription
Joseph Smith told William Marks that he practiced polygamy. Well, you mean he told him that he was deceived. So let's look into that.
3 weeks before his death, Joseph Smith met brother Marks in the street and told him, "We are a ruined people. This doctrine of polygamy or spiritual wife system that has been taught and practiced among us will prove our destruction and overthrow. I have been deceived." Who is overthrowing who? If Joseph is the one teaching it, why would he say overthrow? He, of course, again says that is wrong and that it needs to be put down, just like he had been doing for years, but especially the last few months before this, when they went around preaching to thousands of Relief Society members. The speech called "The Voice of Innocence." And it continues, "Brother Marks, you have not received this doctrine, and how glad I am. I want you to go to the High Council, and I will have charges preferred against all who practice this doctrine, and I want you to try them by the laws of the church and cut them off."
So he's telling brother Marks that he knows of men in the church who are practicing this doctrine, and he's going to press charges against them according to the laws of the church, meaning it is against the laws of the church, against what he has been teaching. If they will not repent and cease the practice of this doctrine, "I will go to the stand and preach against it with all my might, and in this way, we may rid the Church of this damnable heresy." Now, you might think that this here says hearsay, but in fact, it says heresy. A heresy is a teaching that goes against the orthodox doctrine of religion. So here we have Joseph telling brother Marks that he's going to press charges against the men practicing polygamy because it's a damnable heresy. It goes against the teachings of his church, and the laws of the church condemn it.
But it doesn't end there, because it says that they were putting a plan in place to be able to press charges against these men in the church, but before that plan could go into effect, the mob was gathering, and they had to change their attention to that. This confusion was clarified in 1860 when Edmund Briggs interviewed William Marks. He asked him, "Did you, when you had that conversation with Brother Joseph, think that he had been in any way mixed up in polygamy or had favored it?" He replied, "No. I had more confidence in him at that time than I ever had in all my life before, and I was satisfied that he was pure from that gross crime." Continues, "I had been troubled over the condition of the church for some time and had been fearful that Joseph did not bring the pressure against some men in the church that he should have done, but I thought that he had been deceived in some of the men and elders of the church and had too much confidence in some of them."
And you just have to think, if this really was a confession, he realized everything was wrong. 3 weeks before he died, the mobs were coming. He would not have gone to his death still saying, "I've been faithful my whole life." He would be so repentant and telling everyone, and all the mobs coming, "You're right, you're right, I was wrong, I'm sorry, everyone should stop doing this, I was wrong." But instead, he cracked down on the fact that the men practicing it were the deceivers, that they were practicing it, and it was against the laws of the church. There's also no buildup or supporting evidence that this would have been a confession by Joseph. Just think about like, what would have had to happen for him to tell brother Marks that he was deceived in teaching and practicing polygamy? He was under no imminent pressure to admit something like that at that time. Just think of a prophet like Warren Jeffs. He held fast to his teachings and his role as prophet for so long until finally he was arrested and taken to jail. At that point, he broke down, and Warren Jeffs admitted, "I'm not a real prophet." Joseph was under no pressure or any sort of influence like that that would have warranted a confession.
You see, it just doesn't end there. This happened 3 weeks before Joseph's death, and within those the next couple of weeks, Catherine Smith has this very interesting quote from the last sermon that Joseph gave 4 days before he died. Joseph spoke at the pulpit saying that he knew that there were men standing behind him in the stand who were planning to betray him and were conspiring to take his life. He turned and stood facing some of the high priests and elders sitting there, church dignitaries who were seated on the platform behind him, and told them that they were seated on the speaker stand behind him, those who were conspiring to deliver him up to the enemy to take his life, and who would be responsible for his death. He said, "There are those among you who will betray me soon. In fact, you have plotted to deliver me up to the enemy to be slain." The truth of this prophecy is of history. He was betrayed, and by his own alleged best friends. These same fellows attempted to assume the reins of the church at his death.
Don't you see the correlation here? Joseph tells William Marks that there are men in the church who deceived him, who are practicing polygamy. A couple of weeks later, he speaks publicly from the pulpit saying that he knows that there are men sitting behind him on the stand who are planning his death and betraying him. So I hope that we can agree that with the context in all of this quote from William Marks and with the followup interview, I think that we can conclude that this was not a confession from Joseph saying that he was deceived in believing in the practice of polygamy. Rather, he was deceived by men he trusted who were practicing it secretly behind his back.