Episode 38: D&C 12-13; JS-H 1:66-75

Ben and Shiloh open up an anticipated discussion of John the Baptist’s appearance to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. As Moroni’s thematic message to Joseph set the narrative and stage for what the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (as was discussed in Episode 34), John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus Christ who prepared the minds and hearts of the people to receive him. John the Baptist’s message, especially as contained in Luke 3, is often underutilized in understanding the radical shift the people required to recognizing the true Messiah. Until this time, the people had been expecting a violent, militaristic, and forceful leader to deliver them from their physical captors — the Romans — and to lead them to prosperity and prominence as a great national leader as a new King David. The Messiah that the Jews found in Jesus Christ was nothing at all like what their society anticipated, and the Messiah who will come again will not be anything at all like our own society anticipates. Christ’s forerunner has returned, and it is important for us to begin to ponder what this means. Oliver Cowdery, it very much seems, was able to taste the essence of what this means as expressed by his written testimony at the end of Joseph Smith – History.