Joseph Smith — "I calculated to be one of the instruments of setting up the kingdom of Daniel, b…"
I calculated to be one of the instruments of setting up the kingdom of Daniel, by establishing a theocracy.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
The speaker declares his intention to fulfill the biblical prophecy in Daniel 2, where God establishes an indestructible kingdom replacing all earthly governments. He frames himself as one of God's chosen instruments—not a passive believer but an active architect of a literal theocracy, a society where divine law supersedes human law. The word 'calculated' signals deliberate, strategic intent: this was a concrete plan, not merely a spiritual hope.
Relevance to Joseph Smith
Smith founded not just a church but institutions of governance. In 1844 he ran for U.S. President and secretly organized the Council of Fifty, a shadow government meant to administer God's earthly kingdom. He was anointed King in private ceremonies. Nauvoo, Illinois functioned as a quasi-sovereign city-state under his dual authority as mayor and Prophet. His theology explicitly taught that the restored Church would literally govern the earth at Christ's Second Coming.
The era
Uttered in the 1840s during peak American millenarianism, when William Miller's followers expected Christ's literal return in 1844 and Manifest Destiny framed expansion as divine mission. Smith's theocratic ambitions directly challenged Jacksonian democratic norms, alarming Illinois neighbors who feared Mormon bloc voting and the Nauvoo Legion's military power. His presidential campaign and the Council of Fifty were seen as seditious. He was assassinated in June 1844, weeks after voicing this vision.
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