Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Smith’s mother, records that Joseph was “a remarkably quiet, well-disposed child” (67). An alert and reverent child must have been as unusual in those days as it is in ours. We first meet Mormon as a young boy of ten as he is visited by the prophet Ammaron, who perceives that Mormon is a “sober child” and “quick to observe” (Mormon 1:2). He was a type for the Prophet Joseph-foreshadowing Joseph’s life and important mission. Perhaps no other prophet personifies the preparation and achievements of Joseph Smith better than the prophet Mormon. This paper examines and compares Mormon as an “author” and Joseph Smith as a “finisher” of the Book of Mormon. In the Church we speak of Jesus Christ as the author and finisher of our faith (Moroni 6:4 Heb. And I would like to draw parallels between the lives of Joseph Smith and the prophet Mormon.

Pratt equated Joseph with John the Baptist as an Elias (80–82). Gibbons, in a recent general conference address, reiterated John Taylor’s famous statement found in D&C 135:3 that Joseph Smith did more than anyone else except the Savior Jesus Christ “for the salvation of men in this world” (32–33). Joseph Smith has been compared to many prophets and leaders, and only One surpassed him. I approach the Prophet Joseph Smith as a believer I am one who has benefited from the positive impact he has had upon the world.

To those who have read the Book of Mormon and have a testimony of it, Joseph Smith is a prophet, seer, revelator, and translator (see D&C 21:1). Many people outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints view Joseph Smith as a charlatan, a lunatic, a fanatic, or at very best a mystic. With more than 20,000 books and pamphlets referring to the Prophet Joseph Smith in the library of the Church (Benson, Teachings 103), Moroni’s prophecy has undeniably come to pass. Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, is a name that has been “had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues,” as foretold by the angel Moroni in 1823 (JS-H 1:33). Butler was a PhD candidate at the University of Virginia when this was published.

The finisher book