‘Some revelations are from God: some revelations are of man; and some revelations are of the devil.’ (Joseph Smith Jr)

I recall hearing this quote from Joseph Smith many years ago. It applies a caution to each of us as we seek – or even receive, as we believe – revelation from God for our lives. What I wasn’t taught at the time, was the context for the quote.

The context is that Joseph had received a revelation that Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery should travel to Canada where they would succeed in selling the copyright for the Book of Mormon for a considerable sum of money. When they returned from Canada empty handed, they asked Joseph how he could have received the revelation of success when that wasn’t what happened. His reply was the quote above.

I find this fascinating, because it suggests Joseph himself saying that this particular revelation hadn’t come from God. I presume he believed it had come from himself rather than from the devil.

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