Joseph Smith — "I will preach on the one grand key-note of the whole volume of scripture, which …"
I will preach on the one grand key-note of the whole volume of scripture, which is the resurrection of the dead.
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More from Joseph Smith
"I am not afraid to die. I have done nothing to merit death or condemnation."
"If I am to be a martyr, I am willing to be one."
"I am a man of hope, and I will hope in God to the end."
"I am a rough stone, and the sound of the hammer and chisel are continually upon me."
"It is our divine destiny to be heirs of eternal life, to become 'priests and kings . . . [and] gods, even the sons of God . . . [and to] dwell in the presence of God . . . forever and ever.'"
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Joseph Smith declares that the resurrection of the dead is the single unifying thread running through all of scripture — not one doctrine among many, but the master key that gives every other teaching its purpose. Understanding resurrection, in his framing, is essential to understanding why humans exist, what mortality means, and what God's entire plan for humanity is ultimately about. Everything else in scripture points back to this one truth.
Relevance to Joseph Smith
Smith's theology centered on physical resurrection and eternal human progression toward divinity. His 1844 King Follett discourse — delivered weeks before his death — argued God himself was once mortal, making resurrection the mechanism of humanity's divine destiny. This quote reflects his lifelong pattern of unifying seemingly separate doctrines under one radical claim. For Smith, restoring the original Church meant restoring resurrection's central place, which mainstream Protestantism had reduced to a peripheral hope rather than scripture's organizing principle.
The era
Smith preached during America's Second Great Awakening, a period of intense denominational competition over salvation and the afterlife. Millennialist movements expected Christ's literal, imminent return and bodily resurrection of the dead. Simultaneously, Enlightenment rationalism was eroding resurrection belief among educated classes, treating it as metaphor. Smith's insistence on resurrection as scripture's grand keynote was a direct counter to both theological drift and competing revivalists who prioritized conversion experience over doctrinal substance.
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