Between that crisp spring morning in 1820 when he knelt in prayer in a secluded grove of trees and April 6, 1830, when he organized the Church of Jesus Christ, the youthful Joseph Smith learned how to be a prophet.

In a glorious time of intense preparation and careful instruction, he was taught by the Father and the Son, the Holy Ghost, and angelic messengers from previous gospel dispensations. It was essential that the message of the gospel be learned and lived by the messenger of the gospel.

Drawing upon a fascinating combination of new historical research, scriptural insights, and prophetic statements, historian Richard E. Bennett documents how these early years of the Restoration were a divinely inspired apprenticeship, a careful schooling in matters of deep and lasting importance for the young man called to open the dispensation of the fulness of times.

In School of the Prophet: Joseph Smith Learns the First Principles, Dr. Bennett shows us how Joseph Smith, the first convert and initial student of this “marvelous work and a wonder” (Isaiah 29:14), was taught by heavenly beings, refined in the fires of adversity, and firmly grounded in the saving principles and ordinances of the gospel.
Hard cover.