Robin's Great Coloring Pages: The Story of Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Welcome to my free coloring pages blog.

Today I will tell you some of the story of the Restoration of the

Gospel of Jesus Christ in these, the latter-days.

Today's NEW drawing will be included after the first couple of drawings.

This story starts around 1820. Joseph Smith was a boy of only 14 years of age when there was a big religious movement in his area of the United States of America. He lived in what is called upstate New York. He was a farm boy from a poor, but hard-working farming family.

Members of Joseph's own family had joined different protestant churches. Joseph wanted to know which church was true. He wanted to know if one of the churches was God's true church. One night he was reading in the Holy Bible and he read in James, Chapter 1, verse 5:

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not

and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting..."

Joseph felt the Holy Spirit very strongly at that moment. He kept thinking about it and finally decided to go pray to ask God his question about which church he, Joseph, should join.

So Joseph went to a nearby grove of trees near his father's farm. It was early in the spring and he went out early in the morning. He knelt down and began to pray when the powers of darkness tried to stop him. Joseph was scared but he just prayed harder.

Then Joseph saw a bright light and the dark power left and Joseph tells us what happened next. He, Joseph, said,
"I saw a pillar of light, exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me, I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said, pointing to the other, "This is my Beloved Son, hear Him." -This quote is from The Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith, History

When Joseph was able to finally speak he asked Jesus Christ which church he, Joseph should join. He was told to join none of the churches. And Joseph was told that at a later date he, Joseph would be instrumental in restoring the true Gospel and church of Jesus Christ to the Earth.

Joseph Smith told some other people about his vision. Many people persecuted him and said that it was all of the devil or accused Joseph of lying. These people did not believe that God could talk to a mortal in modern days. I think this was because we all lived before we came to Earth. We lived with our Heavenly Parents as spirits. Jesus was there as well as Satan or Lucifer. Lucifer rebelled against our Heavenly Father so he, Lucifer was cast down to Earth to be the devil... along with his followers. These spirits did not go through the veil of forgetfulness that we mortals have passed through when we were born. So, we all were in this premortal as spirit children of God. So Satan and his followers knew who Joseph Smith was. So they (the devils) encouraged people to persecute Joseph Smith.

It is remarkable and seems to be the only answer for why learned men of religion etc. would go out of their way to persecute Joseph Smith. Satan must have known that Joseph was a great spirit in the pre-mortal life and Satan wanted to stop Joseph from restoring truth and God's Priesthood Power to the Earth.

A few years later Joseph was praying in his room when an angel appeared to him and told him about the Golden Plates that held the record of God's people in the New World. A few years later Joseph was instructed to take and translate the plates. Joseph had only a 3rd-grade education. Joseph Smith knew nothing about ancient languages, but he was able to translate the plates by the Gift and Power of God. That translation was published as The Book Of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ.

During the translation process, Joseph and his scribe (a school teacher named Oliver Cowdery) were visited by John the Baptist who conferred the Aaronic Priesthood upon them and John instructed them to go baptize each other. Later Oliver and Joseph were visited by the resurrected Peter, James, and John who restored the Melchizadek Priesthood. Then Joseph and Oliver could confer the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

Joseph, under God's direction, restored the true church with proper Priesthood Authority. This restoration took place when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was established on April 6, 1830.

Later the sealing power of God was restored when Elijah appeared to Joseph and Oliver in the Kirtland Temple in Kirtland, Ohio. This sealing power made it possible for spouses and families to be sealed together for time and all eternity. We members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints believe that if we receive the ordinances of salvation, are kind and serve each other, and if we keep God's commandments, AND if we have faith and repent of our sins so that the Atonement of Jesus Christ can cleanse us...we can live together for time and all eternity in the Celestial Kingdom of God. We can dwell there with our spouse, our children, and our righteous friends. But WE have to be good ourselves as well. We MUST serve others. The Book of Mormon teaches that the way we serve God is to serve our fellow beings.

Back to the history of the Saints... The persecution, incited by Satan, fell upon Joseph Smith AND the members of the Church. My own great great great grandfather (Edward Partridge) was tarred and feathered, as was Joseph Smith. The governor of Missouri ordered that all "Mormons" (the name given to the church members by their enemies) should be chased out of the state or exterminated. The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints were chased from Ohio, then Missouri, and to Illinois.

In Nauvoo, Illinois the sealing power was used to seal and marry couples together for time and all eternity. My own great-great-grandfather (Amasa Mason Lyman) performed marriages and sealings before the saints were chased out of Nauvoo, Illinois.

Joseph was jailed on trumpeted up charges several times. He finally was martyred in Carthage, Illinois. . . by a mob with painted faces. His brother Hyrum was also killed by the mob.

But the authority to act in God's name remained with the 12 Apostles, (they were not killed). They moved the saints and the church clear across the prairie to the mountains of the Intermountain West. The new prophet and chief apostle was Brigham Young. He led the saints to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. That is where I was born, (over a century later).

If you feel the Spirit of God while you read this then contact the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. If you read the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, then you can pray and ask God if it is true. The book has a promise that says, to ask God if it is true. Even those of us born into this church have to find that out for ourselves.

Here are the illustrations that go with what I have written. Some of these drawings were done several years ago and quite honestly, I have become a more skillful artist since then. By the way, the drawings can be found by clicking on the Religious button and scrolling down to the Restoration section. The newest drawings are at the bottom of the list of printable drawings. Again, click on the button labeled . . . . . . . Religious.