The Prophet Joseph Smith single-handedly changed the theological landscape of the world, said Andrew C. Skinner.

Photo by Sarah Jane Weaver

At the 34th annual Sydney B. Sperry Symposium at BYU, attendees hear scholarly views on contributions and life of Joseph Smith. The well-attended symposium, titled "Joseph Smith and the Doctrinal Restoration," honored the 200th anniversary of his birth.

"It was he who, after a long period of apostasy, reintroduced the world to a true knowledge of God the Father. It was he who made known to the world the full and far-reaching saving potential of Christ's atoning power. It was he who taught the doctrine and put back into operation the powers that enable all who so desire to re-enter the Father's presence."

Brother Skinner, dean of BYU Religious Education, said Latter-day Saints are not the first group of people to comprehend the greatness of Joseph Smith. "From the beginning of time, God and His many prophets have known of and declared the coming of Joseph Smith to inaugurate and establish this, the dispensation of the fulness of times."

It is not surprising that Joseph Smith was personally tutored in mortality by God as well as the many prophets who foreknew of him and his mortal sojourn, he said. "Both Joseph Smith's life and the doctrine he restored show us just how carefully and meticulously the Lord plans events."

Brother Skinner detailed these events this October at the Sydney B. Sperry Symposium, addressing "The Impact of the Doctrinal Restoration: How the World Was Different after Joseph Smith."

Joseph Smith is one who seems to have lived every day of his life guided by the "lodestar of revelation," said Brother Skinner.

"This is impressive enough, but one of the reasons we have come to appreciate Joseph and his ministry so much is the assurance we have received from him that the same principle of revelation by which he lived his life and restored so much truth to the earth is available to each of us."

Perhaps the most important revelation of this "last and greatest dispensation" was Joseph Smith's First Vision of the Father and the Son, he said. When Joseph Smith walked out of the Sacred Grove, at least 14 things were clarified or re-established that had been lost or unknown during the previous 1,700 years.

• God the Father and Jesus Christ are alive and reside in Heaven.

• Their relationship is a familial one — Father to Son.

• They are separate and distinct personages, not one spiritual essence.

• They possess a glory beyond description.

• They look, act, and speak like human beings.

• Humans are created in the image of the Father and the Son.

• The Father and the Son hear and answer prayers.

• The Father and the Son know individuals by name.

• There is an opponent to righteousness; he is real.

• That adversary to righteousness tries to thwart prayer.

• Revelation was a continuing reality 1,700 years after the so-called era of primitive Christianity.

• The Father testifies of His Son, and the Son of God deals directly with humankind.

• There had been an apostasy from Christ's Church.

• None of the churches on the earth in Joseph's day possessed the fulness of Christ's gospel.

"From the moment of his First Vision onward, Joseph could never say his life was his own," said Brother Skinner. "The Sacred Grove inaugurated a lifetime of service to the Lord. Joseph Smith taught us by example as well as precept what it meant to live a consecrated life."