Newel Knight

Go ahead and take this.

All right, so this is the possession of Newell Knight.

This one's a good one.

There's a couple of different possession stories.

Have we tested all the A.V.? Because if we start an event and there's an A.V. problem, my boss will sit there and like look at us like you didn't do it.

All right.

So the possession of Newell Knight.

So April 1830 up in Colesville, New York.

Joseph Smith's father.

who's already had section four received on his behalf, and Joseph Knight, who we talked a little bit about earlier when we discussed Doctrine and Covenants 12, which was given to Joseph Knight.

A kind of short section that has some very, you know, one to two verse items of counsel to each of these good men and some interesting kind of hints at what the future is for each of them.

Yeah, so it makes sense to consolidate these, right? Because like you said, it's one or two verses each.

That's to Joseph Smith Sr.

He gets a verse.

And then verse 6 and 7, to cap it off, goes to Joseph Knight Sr.

So just shorties but goodies.

They're still in harmony, but by the end of August, the 25th through the 31st, Joseph and Emma lived just across the street from her parents.

Isaac Hale had 150 acres, and the best 13 and a half acres, according to Mark Staker, were allowed for Joseph and Emma to buy them and Emma's older brother had purchased them before but from 1827 to 1830 that was their home and Joseph had added on the separate little place for Emma to run her business with the cheese making but they leave this beautiful home in August thanks to Newell Knight's help to move them up to Fayette and so they leave the beautiful Susquehanna and move north Starting in section 27, we have a reference to the last days and the second coming.

And I'm fascinated with this idea that eschatology or the study of the last times saturated the second great awakening.

It saturated American religious thought.

He actually started a university in Bethany, West Virginia.

And they grew not only through Alexander's work, but his father Thomas's work as well.

But how does all this now relate to Joseph Smith's work in the Doctrine and Covenants? I was interested to see that even in section 27, historically, the background here is Sally and Newell Knight and Emma have all been baptized, but not confirmed because of the persecution that surrounded them up in Colesville.

And so in August, they are trying to get together to have a confirmation meeting, and they want to have the sacrament at the same time.

Yep.

Joseph Smith performed an exorcism on a guy named Newel Knight.

Joseph had given Newel Knight instruction to go out into the woods and go pray and spend some time studying the Book of Mormon out there, and Newel Knight came back feeling not quite himself.

I think it's because he probably had some sacrament in the woods and then-

[laughs]

... suddenly started convulsing and writhing on the floor, and his wife, terrified as of what was going on and his convulsions, went and got the prophet, who exorcized the demon, and Newel Knight said that he saw the, a black furry creature scuttle out of him and run under the table.

Um, but there's legendary folklore that he was floating up in the rafters and banging his head on them, and there was, there's...

Uh, it, it was a convulsive ep- episode.

And the church isn't that big to begin with during this time.

starts receiving revelations and the revelations joseph mentions were at variance with the order of god's house as laid down in the new testament contradicts the new testament and he said it contradicts our own late revelations as well and i want to add in here too the third family in the church this is the knight family also picks up on this this is from newell knight and his history he says oliver cowdery and the whitmer family had given heed to these revelations although they were in contradiction to the new testament and the revelations of these last days here was a chance for satan to work among the little flock and he sought by this means to accomplish what persecution had failed to do joseph was perplexed and scarcely knew how to meet this new exigency So the Knights pick up on it and it seems like both Joseph Smith and Newell Knight hone in on the fact that these revelations that Hiram Bage is receiving contradict the scriptures and the revelations they've already received.

So we've done a discussion on, on three lenses to find truth.

One is the scriptures.

One is the Holy Ghost.

And this one's running into problems because what Hiram had received was contradicting the scriptures.

Yeah, and Newell Knight says that it wasn't just a couple.

He said he, quote, he had quite a roll of papers full of these revelations, and many in the church were led astray by them.

Yeah, so imagine you've grown up in New York your whole life, right? You're in Colesville or Palmyra or Fayette area.

You're part of one of those three groupings of the early church members.

Your whole life you've lived there.

And now you're being asked to leave with very little explanation.

In section 37 where he said, because of the enemy, that's why I'm asking you to leave.

Apparently, this is an elaboration on that.

There are people plotting to take the lives of some of these church members or at least bring about their destruction, which sounds like, you know.

You can interpret that how you want, but we never find out anything about what plots were being laid or anything like that because most of the saints are going to be obedient and leave here.