Thomas Bullock: King Follet Sermon Witness

Following my last post, today we examine another first-hand account of Joseph Smith's famous sermon given at the funeral of King Follet on Sunday the 7th of April, 1844. (This took my quite some time to format as the transcript was largely in an condensed form.)

It was a windy afternoon and many in the audience were perhaps unable to hear all of the prophet's words, which may have been the case with George Laub who recorded considerably less than another early Mormon in attendance, Thomas Bullock. Per his notes, we learn that the sermon took roughly two hours to deliver.

What follows are Thomas Bullock's notes from the meeting, which also read very much like a transcript of the prophet's speech. All grammar, spelling, and clarifying inserts have been added by me with scriptural quotations or allusions also inserted for readability:

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The President having arrived—the Choir sung a hymn and Elder Amasa Lyman prayed.

The Prophet:

"While I address you on the subject that was contemplated in the fore part of the Conference, the wind blows very hard and it will be hardly possible for me to make you all hear! This subject is of the greatest importance and the most solemn of any that could occupy our attention, and that is the subject of the dead, which subject I have chosen on the decease of our Brother Follet who was crushed to death in a well. And inasmuch as there are a great many in this congregation who live in this city who have lost friends, I shall speak in general and offer you my ideas so far as I have ability and so far as I shall be inspired by the Holy Spirit to dwell on this subject.

"I want your prayers of faith for the inspiration of the Almighty God that I might say things that are true and that shall carry my testimony to your hearts. And pray that he may strengthen my lungs and stay the winds. Let the prayer of the Saints to heaven appear, for the prayer of the righteous 'availeth much' (James 5:16), and I verily believe that your prayers shall be heard.

"Before I enter in this investigation fully of the subject that is lying before us I wish to make a few preliminaries in order that you may understand when I come to it that I do not calculate to please your ears with oratory or with much language, but I calculate to edify you with simple truths from Heaven.

"I wish to go back to the beginning of creation—it is necessary to know the mind, the decree, and the ordination of the great Eloi beginning at the creation—it is necessary for us to have un understanding of God in the beginning. If we start right it is very easy for us to go right all the time; but, if we start wrong, it is hard to get right.

"There are very few who understand rightly the character of God—they do not comprehend any thing that which is past or that which is to come, and they comprehend but little more than the brute beast. If a man learns...nothing more than to eat, drink, and sleep, and he does not comprehend any of the designs of God, then the beast comprehends the same thing—it eats, drinks, sleeps—and knows nothing more. And how are we to learn more? By no other way than the inspiration of Almighty God.

"I want to go back to the beginning and so get you into a more lofty sphere than what the human being generally understands. I want to ask this congregation—every man, and woman, and child to answer the question in their own heart—what kind of a being is God? I again repeat the question: what kind of a being is God? Does any man or woman know? Have any of you seen him, heard him, or communed with him? Here is the question that will peradventure from this time henceforth occupy your attention.

"The Apostle says,

"'This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent' (John 17:3).

"That is eternal life. If any man enquires what kind of a being is God and if he will search diligently his own heart, he will find that unless he knows God he has not eternal life. My first object is to find out the character of the true God. And if I should be the man to comprehend the true God and I communicate the truth to your heart, let every man and woman henceforth shut their mouths and never say anything against the man of God; and If I do not do it, I have no right to revelation and inspiration. If all are ignorant to the true God, they will all be as bad off as I am.

"Then they will all say I ought to be damned. There is not a man or woman who would not breath out an anathema on my head—and some would feel authorized to take away my life! If any man is authorized to take away my life who say I am a false teacher, then I should have the same right to all false teachers. Where would be the end of the shedding of blood? There is no law in the heart of God that would allow anyone to interfere with the rights of man—every man has the right to be a false as well as a true prophet. If there was such a law, and if I show verily that I have the truth of God and that 99 of 100 are false prophets, it would deluge the whole world with blood.

"I want you all to know God—to be familiar with him—and if I can bring you to him, all persecution against me will cease, and God would let you know that I am his servant for I speak as 'one having authority' and not as a scribe (Matt. 7:29). Therefore open your ears and eyes, all ye ends of the earth, and hear! I am going to prove it to you with the Bible, and I am going to tell you the designs of God pertaining to the human race and why he interferes with the affairs of man:

"God himself, who sits enthroned in yonder heavens, is a man like unto one of yourselves. He who holds this world in its orbit and upholds all things by his power—if you were to see him today, you would see him a man! For Adam was a man like in fashion and image like unto him. Adam walked, talked, and conversed with him as one man talks and communicates with another. Now, in order to speak for the consolation of those who mourn for the loss of their friends, it is necessary to understand the character and being of God. Therefor I am going to tell you what sort of a being...God is. We think he was God from the beginning of all eternity, and there is not truth if I do not refute it. Truth is the touchstone.

"They are the simple, first principles of truth to know for a certainty the character of God and that we may converse with him same as a man. And God himself—the father of us all—dwelt on a earth same as Jesus himself did, and I will shew it from the Bible. (I wish I had the trump of an Arch Angel, then I could tell the story in such a manner that persecution against me should cease forever.) Jesus said,

"'The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.... As the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself' (John 5:19, 26)

"What did the Father do? That answer is obvious in a manner: to lay down his body and take it up. Jesus what did you do?—I did as my Father who laid down his body and took it up again. If you don't believe it, you don't believe the Bible! The Scriptures say it—and I defy all hell, all learning, wisdom, and the records of hell together to refute it. Again:

"'This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God' (John 17:3).

"You have got to learn how to be a God yourself—and be a King and Priest to God—the same as all before have done: by going from a small capacity to another, from grace to grace...to sit in everlasting power as they who have gone before. And God, in the last days while certain individuals are proclaiming his name, is not trifling with us.

"How consoling to the mourner—when they are called to part with a wife, mother, father, or dear relative—to know that all earthly tabernacles though they shall be dissolved...shall be 'heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ' (Romans 8:17) to inherit the same power and exaltation until you ascend the throne of eternal power, the same as those who are gone before. It is what Jesus did: 'I do the things I saw my Father do before worlds came rolling into existence; I saw my Father work out his Kingdom with fear and trembling and I must do the same when I shall give my Kingdom to the Father so that he obtains Kingdom rolling upon Kingdom.' So...Jesus treads in the Father's tracks as he had gone before.

"It is plain beyond comprehension and you thus learn the first principles of the Gospel. When you climb a ladder you must begin at the bottom rung until you learn the last principle of the gospel; for it is a great thing to learn salvation beyond the grave and it is not all to be comprehended in this world.

"I suppose I am not allowed to go into investigation but what is contained in the Bible, and as I think there are so many wise men around who would put me to death for treason if I did not use the Bible I shall turn commentator today. I shall go to the first Hebrew word in the Bible, the 1st sentence: 'In the beginning'—בראשית bereshith: 'In, by, through' and everything else. ראשית -reshith: 'the head.' When the Inspired man wrote it he did not put the 1st part to it, ב be-. A man, a Jew without any authority, thought it too bad to begin to talk about the 'head' of any God. It should read, 'The Head one of the Gods brought forth the Gods.' This is the true meaning of the wording. If you do not believe it you do not believe the learned man of God. No man can tell you more than I do.... 'The Head God brought forth the Gods in the Head council'—I want to bring it to English. O, ye lawyers, ye doctors: I want to let you know that the Holy Ghost knows something as well as you do. 'The Head God called together the Gods and sat in Grand Council.' (And when I say a 'lawyer' I mean a lawyer of the Scriptures; I have done so hither, to let the lawyers flutter and let everybody laugh at them.)

"Some learned doctor might take a notion to say, 'thus and so...are not to be altered!' But I am going to shew you an error I have an old book. I have the Bible in the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and German, and I have been reading the German; I find it to be the most correct that I have found and it corresponds the nearest to the revelations that I have given the last 16 years. It tells about 'Jachabod', which means Jacob—but in the English we read James! And you may talk about James through all Eternity in the 21st verse of the 4th chapter of Matthew, where it gives the testament, it says that it is to Jacob!

"'And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, [Jacob] the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and Jesus called them' (Matt. 4:21).

"How can we escape the damnation of hell without God to reveal the truth to us? The Latin says that 'Jackobus' means Jacob, Hebrew says...Jacob, Greek says Jacob, and German says Jacob! Thank God I have got this book—and I thank him more for the gift of the Holy Ghost. I have all four testaments. Come here ye learned men and read if you can. (I should not have brought up this word only to shew that I am right; when we begin to learn this way, we begin to learn the only true God, and when we begin to know how to come to him, he begins to unfold the heavens to us and tell us all about it before our prayers get to his ears.)

"Now I ask all the learned men who hear me:... do they who are preaching Salvation say that God created the Heavens and the Earth out of nothing?... The reason they preach this is that they are unlearned.... I know more than all the world put together because...the Holy Ghost in me comprehends more than all the world. I will associate with it. What does ברא Bara mean? It means 'to organize' same as you would organize a ship. God himself had materials to organize the world out of chaos, which is element, and in which dwells all the glory, which nothing can destroy. Elements never can have an ending; they coexist with God eternally (see D&C 93:33).

"I have another topic to dwell on, and it is impossible for me to say much but to touch upon it for time will not permit me to say all. So I come to the resurrection of the dead. The soul, the inner Spirit of God, man says it was created in the beginning. The very idea lessens man in my idea—I don't believe the doctrine. Hear it, all ye ends of the world! For God has told me and so I am going to tell of things more noble.

"We say that God himself is a self-existing God. Who told you so? How did it get it into your head? Who told you that man did not exist in like manner? How does it read in the Hebrew?...

"'The LORD God formed [וייצר wayatsar, "to mold into a form"] man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath [נשמת neshamah, "spirit"] of life; and man became a living soul' (Gen. 2:7).

"The mind of man is as immortal as God himself. Hence while I talk to these mourners, their dead are only separated from their bodies for a short period for their spirits coexisted with God—as Adam's spirit did—and now converse with one another the same as we do! Does not this give your satisfaction? I want to reason more on the Spirit of Man, for I am dwelling on the body of man—on the subject of the dead. I take ring from my finger and liken it unto the mind of man, the immortal spirit, because like my ring it has no beginning. Suppose you cut it in two, then as the devil lives there would be an end. All the fools and wise men from the beginning of creation who say that man had beginning also say they must have an end, and then the doctrine of annihilation would be true. But if I am right, I might with boldness proclaim from the housetop that God never had power to create the Spirit of Man at all. God himself could not create himself. Intelligence is self-existent—it is a spirit from age to age, and there is no creation about it.

"The first principles of man are self-existent with God. He finds himself in the midst of Spirits and, because he saw proper to institute laws for those who were less intelligent—that they might have one glory upon another in all knowledge, power, and glory—so God took it in hand to save the world of spirits. You say honey is Sweet and so do I. I can also taste the spirit of eternal life—I know it is good! And when I tell you of these things that were given me by inspiration of the Holy Spirit you are bound to receive it as sweet, and I rejoice more and more....

"I will open your eyes in relation to your dead. All things which God of his infinite reason has seen fit to reveal to us in our mortal state in regard to our mortal bodies are revealed to us as if we had no bodies; and those revelations which will save our dead will save our bodies. God reveals them to us in the view of no eternal dissolution of the body. Hence the awful responsibility that rests upon us for our dead; for all the spirits must either obey the gospel or be damned. Solemn thought! Dreadful thought! Is there nothing to be done for those who have gone before us without obeying the decrees of God? (Would to God that I had 40 days and nights to tell you all, to let you know I am not a 'fallen prophet.') What kind of characters are those who can be saved although their bodies are decaying in the grave? The greatest responsibility that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead. The apostle says, 'they without us should not be made perfect' (Heb. 11:40). Now, speaking of the dead, I say to you Paul: you can't be perfect without us either. Those that are gone before, and those who come after, must be made perfect. And God has made it obligatory to man to accomplish it, for God said,

"'Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse' (Mal. 4:5 – 6).

"I have a declaration to make as to the provision which God made from before the foundation of the world. What has Jesus said?

"'Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come' (Matt 12:31 – 32).

"For all sins and all blasphemies—every transgression that man may be guilty of—there is a salvation for him now or in the world to come. Every spirit in the eternal world can be ferreted out and saved unless he has committed that sin which can't be remitted to him. God has wrought out salvation for all men unless they have committed a certain sin. A living friend who has got a friend in the world of spirit can save him, unless he has committed the unpardonable sin. And so you can see how far you can be savior.

"There is no way that a man can commit the unpardonable sin after the dissolution of the body. There is always a way possible for escape from damnation.... Those that are without wisdom cannot be damned until they get exalted to wisdom. A sinner has his own mind and it is his own condemner. The torment of the mind of man is as exquisite as a 'lake which burneth with fire and brimstone' (Rev 21:8). I know the Scriptures, I understand them. No man can commit the unpardonable sin after the dissolution of the body, but they must do it in this world. Hence the Salvation of Jesus Christ was wrought out for all men to triumph over the devil, for the devil stood up for a Savior before this world was rolled into existence.

"Jesus contended that there would be certain souls that would be condemned, and the devil said he could save them all. As the grand council gave in for Jesus Christ so the devil fell and all who put up their heads for him. Hence all sin shall be forgiven except the sin against the Holy Ghost, for he has got to say that the Sun does not shine while he sees it—he has got to deny Jesus Christ whom the grand council selected when the heavens are open to him by the Holy Ghost. And from that time they begin to be enemies (like many of the apostates of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). When a man begins to be an enemy, he hunts me—for he has the same spirit that they had who crucified the Lord of life, the same spirit that sinned against the Holy Ghost.

"I advise all to be careful what you do. Stay—do not give way. By and by you may find that someone has laid a snare for you. Be cautious. Await. When you find a spirit that wants bloodshed know that murder...is not of God but is of the devil. 'Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh' (Matt. 12:34)—hence the man that tells you words of life is the man that can save you. I warn you against all evil characters who sin against the Holy Ghost, for there is no redemption for them in this world nor in the world to come.

"I can enter into the mysteries—I can enter largely into the eternal worlds—for Jesus said 'In my Father’s house are many mansions' (John 14:2).... There is one mansion or world with the glory of the moon, another of the sun, and another of the stars, and we have...reason to have the greatest hope and consolation for our dead for we have aided them in the 1st principles of the Gospel—we have seen them walk in the midst of truth and sink asleep in the arms of Jesus, and hence is the glory of the Sun. You mourners have occasion to rejoice! For your husband has gone to wait until the redemption, and your expectations and hope are far above what man can conceive. For why has God revealed to us (and I am authorized to say by the authority of the Holy Ghost) that you have no occasion to fear? For he is gone to the home of the just. Don't mourn! Don't weep! I know it by the testimony of the Holy Ghost that is within me. Rejoice, O Israel! Your friends shall triumph gloriously, while their murderers shall welter for years. I say for the benefit of strangers: I have had a father, brother, and friends who are gone to a world of spirits. They are absent for a moment—they are in the Spirit. Then shall we hail our mothers, fathers, friends, and all with no fear of mobs...but all one eternity of felicity.

"Mothers, you shall have your children for they shall have redemption for their debt is paid. There is no damnation that awaits them for they are in the spirit. 'In the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be' (Ecc. 11:3); as the child dies, so shall it rise from the dead. And then it shall be living in the burning of God. It shall be the child as it was before it died out of your arms. Children dwell and exercise power in the same bodily form as they laid them down in death.

"For all others, the baptism of water with the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost attending it are necessary.

"'Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God' (John 3:5)

"And in the German the text bears me out same as the revelations which I have given for the past 14 years. I have the testimony to put in their teeth; that my testimony has been true all the time. You will find it in the declaration of John the Baptist (reads from the German)—John says, 'I baptize you with Water but when Jesus comes who has the power he shall administer the baptism of Fire and the Holy Ghost' (see Matt 3:11) Great God! Now where is all the Sectarian world? And if this is true, they are all damned as clearly as any anathema ever was. I know the text is true. I call upon all to say aye (shouts of 'aye'). Alex Campbell, how are you going to save them with water for John said his baptism was nothing without the baptism of Jesus Christ?

"'But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him' (1 Cor. 8:6).

"One God, the Father; one Jesus, the hope of our calling; and one baptism—all three baptisms make one. I have the truth and I am at the defiance of the world to contradict it.

"I have preached with Latin, Hebrew, Greek, and German, and I have fulfilled all. I am not so big a fool as many have taken me for. The Germans know that I read the German correctly. Hear it, all ye Ends of the Earth—all ye Sinners Repent! Repent! Turn to God, for your religion won't save you and ye will be damned, though I do not say how long. But those who sin against the Holy Ghost cannot be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come but they shall die the 2nd death.... As they concoct scenes of bloodshed in this world so they shall rise to that resurrection which is as the lake of fire and brimstone. Some shall rise to the everlasting burning of God, and some shall rise to the damnation of their own filthiness—which is the same as the lake of fire and brimstone.

"I have intended my remarks to all—to all rich and poor, bond and free, great and small. I have no enmity against any man. I love you all. I am their best friend, and if persons miss their mark it is their own fault. If I reprove a man and he hate me, he is a fool. For I love all men, especially these my brethren and sisters. I rejoice in hearing the testimony of my aged friends. But you never knew my heart. No man knows my history. I can not do it—I shall never undertake to retell it all. If I had not experienced what I have, I should not have known it myself. I never did harm any man since I have been born in the world. My voice is always for peace. I cannot lie down until my work is finished. I never think evil nor think any thing to the harm of my fellow man, and when I am called at the trump and weighed in the balance you will know me then. I add no more.

"God bless you. Amen."

The choir sung a hymn at 1/2 past 5.