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Statements made by Joseph Smith about himself
- "I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam...Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him, but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet" (History of the Church, vol. 6, p.408-409).
- "If you tell them that God made the world out of something, they will call you a fool. But I am learned, and know more than all the world put together" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.350-352).
- "...how very strange it was that an obscure boy, of a little over fourteen years of age...should be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the great ones of the most popular sects of the day, and in a manner to create in them a spirit of the most bitter persecution and reviling. But strange or not, so it was...I have thought since that I felt much like Paul" (from Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith-History 1:23-24).
- "God made Aaron to be the mouthpiece for the children of Israel, and He will make me be god to you in His stead...and if you don't like it, you must lump it!" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.363).
- "I will prove that the world is wrong, by showing what God is...God himself was once as we are now and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret...I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.345)