“Hell may pour forth its rage like the burning lava of mount Vesuvius, or of Etna, or of the most terrible of the burning mountains; and yet shall ‘Mormonism’ stand. Water, fire, truth and God are all realities. Truth is ‘Mormonism.’ God is the author of it. He is our shield. It is by Him we received our birth. It was by His voice that we were called to a dispensation of His Gospel in the beginning of the fullness of times. It was by Him we received the Book of Mormon; and it is by Him that we remain unto this day; and by Him we shall remain, if it shall be for our glory; and in His almighty name we are determined to endure tribulation as good soldiers unto the end.” Joseph Smith, Liberty Jail, Missouri – March 25, 1839
By this point in Joseph Smith’s life he’d been ridiculed and persecuted by the preacher of the church he’d attended prior to The First Vision, he’d been pursued, beaten, tarred and feather a number of times, lost children to natural death and death by mob, he’d suffered being driven from place to place, numerous false imprisonments and betrayal by friends. And yet, through all of this, he never denied what he’d seen in that sacred grove in the early spring of 1820. Regardless of the pain, suffering, sorrow and unbelievable weight of the world upon his shoulders, Brother Joseph never faltered in standing for truth and righteousness and rolling forth the complete restoration of the Lord’s gospel, bestowed on the early saints from 30 A.D. to 33 A.D. by the Savior Himself.
In 1842, Joseph said:
“Persecution has not stopped the progress of truth, but has only added fuel to the flame, it has spread with increasing rapidity. . . . No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” Joseph Smith, Jr., Nauvoo, Illinois – March 1, 1842
So we stand today, beneficiaries of all that have gone before us and what they’ve bestowed on this generation. In the Christian market, any writer, composer, singer or artist identified as LDS will no longer be welcomed on the shelves and walls of Christian bookstores. They’ve decided we are not Christian. We most certainly are and have developed our own market for the promotion of the work of Latter-day Saint artisans.
Corporate promotions, business loans, business itself is affected when one of the partners or employees is identified as LDS – little matter, multi-million and billion dollar corporations now exist without restriction on race, religion or creed.
Despite these circumstances, as unfair as they might be, the truth must roll forth. We have life relatively easy, comparatively speaking to the saints of the 1800’s and early 1900’s. We can let no one convince us that we are less than we are, for we are followers of Jesus Christ. We can not falter in the understanding that Jesus Christ is God the Son, our Savior and Redeemer. We must, under all circumstances, stand with Him, Joseph Smith and our forebears for truth and righteousness, letting nothing entice us away. We have such a rich heritage, can we do less?