Calling Dan Vogel. Dan, please pick up line 3.

[_Holy Ghost]

Hey, Dan, I'm curious what you think about the suggestion that Joseph Smith might have been losing his grip on the Saints during the last year of his life. What with the General Conference assembly voting against Smith in October 1843, to retain Sidney Rigdon in the FP, Walmart and Jane Law polygamy proposition fiasco, Emma publishing the screed against polygamy in March 1844 for the Women's Relief Society, the secretive Council of the Fifty, the Maid of Iowa sermon of May 26, 1844, the Nauvoo Expositor, fleeing to Montrose, Iowa, etc.

[_jfro18]

Hey, Dan, I'm curious what you think about the suggestion that Joseph Smith might have been losing his grip on the Saints during the last year of his life. What with the General Conference assembly voting against Smith in October 1843, to retain Sidney Rigdon in the FP, Walmart and Jane Law polygamy proposition fiasco, Emma publishing the screed against polygamy in March 1844 for the Women's Relief Society, the secretive Council of the Fifty, the Maid of Iowa sermon of May 26, 1844, the Nauvoo Expositor, fleeing to Montrose, Iowa, etc.

Dan can speak to this so much better than I can, but I don't think Mormonism survives had Joseph Smith not been killed.

He was going more and more out on a limb, and eventually it was going to catch up with him whether it was the Book of Abraham being a proven fraud, polygamy getting out, or his upcoming revelations to continue expanding on the church's theology. He was already losing his grip, so he would've kept expanding to try and keep people in obedience to the church.

The best thing for Mormonism's future was Joseph being killed, and I wish so much that he hadn't been.

[_graey]

Dan can speak to this so much better than I can, but I don't think Mormonism survives had Joseph Smith not been killed.

...

The best thing for Mormonism's future was Joseph being killed, and I wish so much that he hadn't been.

I think I agree with this. But then again, he survived the Kirtland fiasco and his complete failures of prophecy in Missouri. I'm hesitant to discount his ability to call upon charisma and revelation to get himself out of a pinch with those who already believed he was a prophet, though certainly many would have seen through his facade.

I once had a dream that Joseph Smith came back as a resurrected being only to declare that the church had gone astray and was completely off the rails. Rather than pull up roots to follow the one-and-only-returned prophet of God, the modern leaders planted their stakes and declared him a false resurrected prophet. In my dream version of reality most member just walked away from it all at that point, kind of like the people walking away from Nephi after he reveals the chief judge's murderer. None of it made sense, but the dream got me through the night.

[_Dan Vogel]

We can only speculate about things that didn’t happen. What if Lincoln or JFK weren’t assassinated? Historians don’t like to answer such questions. Joseph Smith was definitely in trouble legally. Without his habeas corpus law in the Nauvoo charter, he would not have been able to evade prosecution in Illinois and may have been extradited to Missouri. Nevertheless, I don’t think we should forget the resilience of the true believer. Joseph Smith the prophet was partly their own creation to serve their needs and they would be loath to give that up no matter what was revealed.

[_Holy Ghost]

Joseph Smith the prophet was partly their own creation to serve their needs and they would be loath to give that up no matter what was revealed.

Seems to yet be the case with current TBMs.