2
Ne 3:6 a choice seer unto the fruit of my loins
This
choice seer is obviously Joseph Smith. The fact that he was raised up as a
prophet for ¡°the fruit of my loins¡± means that through his work the gospel
would be preached to the Lamanites and that many of the early members of the
church were actually part of scattered Israel, particularly of the tribe of
Joseph.
That
Joseph Smith was a descendant of Joseph of Egypt is clear from verse 7 as well
as the teachings of the prophet himself. Joseph Smith taught that the
patriarchal authority belonged to the blood of Joseph and he established his
father, Joseph Smith, Sr. as the patriarch of the church. In a prophecy about
his father, Joseph pronounced the same blessings on his father that Jacob had
on Joseph, ¡°he shall be as a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bought by a well
whose branches run over the wall, and his seed shall abide in strength¡± (Teachings
of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 39, 151).
Brigham
Young
¡°It
was decreed in the counsels of eternity, long before the foundations of the
earth were laid, that he, Joseph Smith, should be the man, in the last
dispensation of this world, to bring forth the word of God to the people, and
receive the fullness of the keys and power of the Priesthood of the Son of God.
The Lord had his eyes upon him, and upon his father, and upon his father¡¯s
father, and upon their progenitors clear back to Abraham, and from Abraham to
the flood, from the flood to Enoch, and from Enoch to Adam. He has watched that
family and that blood as it has circulated from its fountain to the birth of
that man. He was fore-ordained in eternity to preside over this last
dispensation.¡± (Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 108 as taken from Latter-day
Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p.94)