JSDI 1: The Last Charge & Transfiguration || epub ebook

While Joseph Smith's Last Charge stands as one of Mormonism's most monumental events, access to the original accounts and pioneer perspectives has been difficult to come by. The Last Charge & Transfiguration presents over seventy separate accounts of the Last Charge and challenges modern approaches to understanding this "event." It wasn't simply a one-time, secretive discourse given to the Council of Fifty. Evidence shows that Joseph publicly repeated this injunction “more than one score of times” in front of “hundreds” or “thousands” of saints. It was a campaign, not a sidebar.

With that understanding, our perspective of the 1844 succession crisis dramatically changes. Rather than viewing Brigham Young's transfiguration speech as a desperate, last-minute effort to convince the saints to follow the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, we see Brigham Young deftly reminding the saints of what Joseph had been teaching before his martyrdom. Indeed, one account suggests that Brigham Young quoted the Last Charge as part of his speech. With roughly one-hundred first-hand accounts of Brigham's transfiguration, this event is documented better than ever before and offers a fresh perspective in light of these new understandings.

Complete with an index of speakers as well as a topical index, The Last Charge & Transfiguration promises to be both a useful resource and an instant Mormon history classic.

Though I put this (A must-have for Church history scholars) as the lead title for this post, the book should indeed be on the must-read short list for LDS members, as well as all those of any form of Mormonism. With so many people today succumbing to the weak arguments against Joseph Smith and his successors, the book serves to bolster the claims made by the restoration of the gospel. And it does so by specifically NOT trying to be persuasive, but by presenting facts and history, and allowing conclusions to be drawn from the accounts.

Well worth the money AND the time spent in the company of this book and it's spirit.

David Dye on Amazon

This is one of the hardest hitting books on the true aspects of the last charge and the transfer of authority to Brigham Young. Never has another book presented so much material on the elusive last charge like Drew did here. A must read for anyone interested in Joseph's teachings and the direction he wanted the church to go. Thank you Drew for a wonderful piece of restoration history.

J. Mariano on Amazon

I have long suspected that the popular version of Joseph Smith giving ecclesiastical authority to the council of 50 was wrong. Wrong in so many ways, but particularly in the way it has been used by some to deliver special blessings and authority to Benjamin F. Johnson; the last living member present at that highly questionable council of 50 meeting.

The transfiguration is another one of those Mormon ‘faith promoting’ stories that grew and grew. I have wanted to investigate every plausible testimony to that event. Mr. Briney has brought together most of these accounts into one easily searched volume. As an Ex Mormon, I will never have the access that he had to those accounts.

When I heard that the book would be available on December 23, I immediately pre-ordered the Kindle version. True to the promise, It was available when I checked about 1 AM that morning. I read it immediately and was delighted with all the references and footnotes.

I highly recommend it to anyone who wishes to investigate these two early Mormon stories and how they became so important to the present system of Prophet, Seer, and Revelator succession in the LDS Church.

DeWayne H. on Amazon