Was Joseph Smith in error?

[Ahab]

I then said that the passage was so controversial because it says that in order to qualify for baptism, a person has to first "truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins."

Oliver Cowdery, et al, believed that it was through baptism that one obtained a remission of their sins, and hence thought Joseph Smith in error on the subject.

You and Oliver are both right, and in agreement with Joseph.

All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church.

The key to resolving what seems to be a conflict is in correctly understanding what the Lord meant by "unto".

[consiglieri]

The key to resolving what seems to be a conflict is in correctly understanding what the Lord meant by "unto".

So it does depend on what the meaning of "is" is.

Groovy.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[why me]

The ancient Apostles were not always in total agreement either. See how Peter was the one to receive the vision of circumsion and about partaking food with the Gentiles. It was at that time the Holy Spirit descended upon the Gentiles Peter was teaching, much to the surprise of the Jewish converts who were with Peter and witnessed this. Up until that point they thought that Christ belonged only to the Hebrew. The Apostles and other members of the Church who were not with Peter at that time needed to be taught by Peter when he returned to Jerusalem. So, we can see that not everyone received knowledge from the Holy Spirit at the same time. The same is true today. The Holy Spirit isn't revealing different truth to different people; they receive knowledge as they are prepared to accept and understand it. And some truths they accept on faith while other truths are manifested to them personally by the Holy Spirit.

God bless,

jo

This is all true. And needs to be noted. However, when it comes to Oliver and Joseph, if both were fraudsters and helped write the book of mormon, I think that their discussion would have a different tone and a different understanding. What their disagreement does seem to show is how Oliver and joseph tried to work out what was correct or wrong based on their understanding of god and their experiences with the supernatural.

The same can be said about the apostles you mentioned in your post.