Item Detail
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26350
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3
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60
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English
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"There's the Boy I Can Trust" : Dennison Lott Harris' First-Person Account of the Conspiracy of Nauvoo and Events Surrounding Joseph Smith's "Last Charge" to the Twelve Apostles
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Interpreter : A Journal of Mormon Scripture
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21
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Orem, UT
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The Interpreter Foundation
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23-117
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A well-known account from early Church history describes how, in the spring of 1844, two young men, Dennison Lott Harris and Robert Scott, helped protect Joseph Smith from dissidents plotting against his life. Almost completely unknown, however, is Dennison's account of his subsequent role as a firsthand witness to events that appear to have taken place on the morning of 26 March 1844, just prior to the meeting in which Joseph Smith gave his "Last Charge" to the Quorum of the Twelve and "roll[ed] the kingdom off [his] shoulders" onto theirs in the presence of the Council of Fifty. This article provides the background necessary to understand all these events and publishes for the first time a complete, annotated transcript of Dennison's 1881 verbal statement to First Presidency counselor Joseph F. Smith. In addition, the article includes a discussion of the significance of apostolic succession then and now, drawing in part on the encounters of Catholic scholars John M. Reiner and Stephen H. Webb with Mormonism. In the Appendix, I reproduce an 1884 article from The Contributor that gives a secondhand version of Dennison's account of the conspiracy of Nauvoo.
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Now That We Have the Words of Joseph Smith, How Shall We Begin to Understand Them? Illustrations of Selected Challenges within the 21 May 1843 Discourse on 2 Peter 1
The Council of Fifty, Orson Hyde, and the “Last Charge”: A Re-evaluation
"To Seek the Law of the Lord": Essays in Honor of John W. Welch -
1844 : The Prophet's Final Charge to the Twelve
A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
"A World in Darkness" : Early Latter-day Saint Understanding of the Apostasy, 1830-1834
Blood Atonement and the Origin of Plural Marriage : A Discussion
Brigham Young : American Moses
Carthage Conspiracy : The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith
Catholic and Mormon : A Theological Conversation
Doctrines of the Kingdom
Essentials in Church History
Excavating Early Mormon History : The 1878 History Fact-Finding Mission of Apostles Joseph F. Smith and Orson Pratt
From Orphaned Boy to Prophet of God : The Story of Joseph F. Smith
History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Period I : History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, by Himself
"I Consider the Proper Authority Rests Among the Mormons" : Oran Brownson to Orestes Brownson on Oran's Conversion to Mormonism
'It Seems Like Heaven Began on Earth' : Joseph Smith and the Constitution of the Kingdom of God
Jesus Christ, Eternal God : Heavenly Flesh and the Metaphysics of Matter
Joseph, Brigham and the Twelve : A Succession of Continuity
Joseph F. Smith and the Origins of the Church Historic Sites Program
Joseph F. Smith : Portrait of a Prophet
Joseph Smith : Candidate for President of the United States
Joseph Smith's Introduction of Temple Ordinances and the 1844 Mormon Succession Question
Joseph Smith's Mission and Timetable : 'God Will Protect Me until My Work Is Done'
Joseph Smith's Polygamy
Joseph Smith's Quorum of the Anointed, 1842-1845
Joseph Smith the Prophet
Journals, Volume 3 : May 1843-June 1844
Junius and Joseph : Presidential Politics and the Assassination of the First Mormon Prophet
King Ratbod's Dilemma : Apostasy and Restoration in the Sixteenth and Twenty-First Centuries
Legally Suppressing the Nauvoo Expositor in 1844
Life of Joseph F. Smith, Sixth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Mormon Christianity : What Other Christians can learn from the Latter-day Saints
Murder of the Mormon Prophet : the Political Prelude to the Death of Joseph Smith
Nauvoo : A Place of Peace, a People of Promise
Now That We Have the Words of Joseph Smith, How Shall We Begin to Understand Them? Illustrations of Selected Challenges within the 21 May 1843 Discourse on 2 Peter 1
Origin of the 'Reorganized' Church and the Question of Succession
Prophets, Priesthood Keys, and Succession
Quest for Refuge : The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism
Remembering Joseph : Personal Recollections of Those Who Knew the Prophet Joseph Smith
Serving as Guardian under the Lawrence Estate, 1842-1844
Stephen H. Webb (1961-2016) : Universal Scholar and Personal Friend
Succession in the Church
Sustaining the Law : Joseph Smith's Legal Encounters
The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt
The Campaign and the Kingdom : The Activities of the Electioneers in Joseph Smith's Presidential Campaign
The Inevitable Apostasy and the Promised Restoration
The Life of Orson F. Whitney : Historian, Poet, Apostle as Recorded in His Daily Journals
The Martin Harris Story
The Mormon Hierarchy : Origins of Power
The Nauvoo Diaries of William Clayton, 1842-1846, Abridged
The Nauvoo Endowment Companies, 1845-1846 : A Documentary History
The Quest for Religious Authority and the Rise of Mormonism
The Restored Church
The Sacred Departments for Temple Work in Nauvoo : The Assembly Room and the Council Chamber
The Whore of Babylon and the Abomination of Abominations : Nineteenth-Century Catholic and Mormon Mutual Perceptions and Religious Identity
The Words of Joseph Smith : The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph
"This Is My Testimony, Spoken by Myself into a Talking Machine" : Wilford Woodruff's 1897 Statement in Stereo
Through Memory's Halls : The Life Story of Orson F. Whitney
Who's Who In the Doctrine and Covenants
Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints : History of His Life and Labors As Recorded in His Daily Journals
Wilford Woodruff's 1897 Testimony