I. Introduction
Good morning! Thank you for being here. Thank you for the goodness and faith that shine in your eyes. I love this campus. I love the sacred spirit I feel every time I come here. I love President and Sister Meredith. And I love you. More important, I know that the Lord and His prophets love you. I pray that what I say today will be helpful to you as you strive toward what President Oaks has said: “Our Heavenly Father wants for each of us—and that is to be or become active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, proceeding forward on the covenant path into the eternities.” [1]
Just forty-six days before he was murdered by a Carthage mob, the Prophet Joseph Smith declared:
“It is the testimony that I want that I am God’s servant, and this people His people … I calculate to be one of the instruments of setting up the kingdom of Daniel by the word of the Lord, and I intend [to] revolutionize the whole world.” [2]
This morning, I hope to highlight the Prophet Joseph’s vision for education—including his vision for your education—in the spirit of such a witness. In both the eloquent scope of the truths he revealed and the staggering power of the doctrine he proclaimed, Joseph was a peerless champion of what President Spencer W. Kimball later called, “Education for Eternity.” [3]
In our time together, I want to explore Joseph’s vision for education under four simple headings:
- Why we learn
- What we learn
- How we learn
- Where we learn
I will conclude with a few reflections about what Joseph’s vision might mean for you—a consummately precious son or daughter of God, a student and a disciple of infinite promise.
II. Why We Learn
Let’s start with why we learn. The Prophet Joseph identified at least three fundamental reasons why we should learn throughout our lives:
First, we learn so that we can become more like our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Joseph’s vision for education begins and ends with a knowledge of God the Eternal Father—His character and His nature, His purpose and His plan. “My first object,” Joseph declared, “is to find out the character of the true God … I want you all to know [God],” he said, “to be familiar with him [and to comprehend the excellencies of his character].” [4]
Joseph taught that before the earth was made—before the Creation or the Fall or even the Council in Heaven—our Heavenly Father surveyed His spirit children and, in an effusion of mercy and grace, resolved to lift us all as high as we might be willing to rise.
“God Himself,” Joseph said, “finding [Himself] in the midst of spirits and glory, because He was [greater], saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like Himself.” [5]
“God is Good,” Joseph taught, “and all his acts are for the benefit of [His children.].” [6]
Nothing, of course, benefits God’s children more than the merciful mission and the infinite Atonement of His Only Begotten Son. “Through the atonement of Christ,” Joseph taught, “and the resurrection, and obedience to the gospel, we shall again be conformed to the image of [God’s] Son, Jesus Christ; then we shall have attained to the image, glory, and character of God.” [7]
For Joseph, education was always—first, midst, last, and without end—education toward the character of Christ.
In perhaps Joseph’s greatest revelation on learning, the Lord underscored a second purpose for our studies, which is to prepare to serve God and His children more effectively. The Lord invites us to “be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you.” [8] Joseph taught that Saints need to learn broadly so we can be prepared to do the Lord’s work in the last days.
Third, and finally, we learn so that we can experience joy as we fulfill the measure of our creation. Joseph believed that learning is part of our nature as intelligent beings and is therefore a source of enduring joy. His teachings are suffused with watchwords such as knowledge, intelligence, light, and truth.
“It is impossible,” Joseph said, “for a man to be saved in ignorance.” [9]
“Knowledge is necessary to life and godliness.” [10]
“The principle of knowledge is the principle of Salvation.” [11]
“The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.” [12]
“Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.” [13]
Intelligence, in Joseph’s theology, meant more than cognitive capacity. It denoted the purpose and potential of all the children of God. “The mind of man,” said Joseph, “is as immortal as God himself.” [14] “All [mind is] susceptible of [improvement] … The relationship we have with God places us in a situation to advance in knowledge.” [15] “This is good doctrine,” he added. “It tastes good.” [16] Joseph loved the taste of truth.
The Prophet promised the faithful: “your minds will expand wider and wider, until you can circumscribe the earth and the heavens, reach forth into eternity [to] contemplate the mighty acts of Jehovah in all their variety and glory.” [17]
“God has created man with a mind capable of instruction,” Joseph taught, “and a faculty which may be enlarged in proportion to the heed and diligence given to the light communicated from heaven to the intellect; and that the nearer man approaches perfection, the [more conspicuous] are his views, and the greater his enjoyments.” [18]
III. What We Learn
Since learning is fundamental to our nature and central to our joy, it shouldn’t surprise us that Joseph’s revelations and teachings envision a sweepingly expansive curriculum. What are we to learn? The short answer seems to be: everything.
Joseph’s revelations commanded the Saints to “seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom;” to “seek learning, even by study and also by faith,” [19] and “to obtain a knowledge of history, and of countries, and of kingdoms, of laws of God and man.” [20]
Saints must “study and learn, and become acquainted with all good books, and with languages, tongues, and people.” [21]
They must teach and learn “of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations.” [22]
Inspired by this stirring revelation, Joseph loved to learn by study and faith. “He loved knowledge for its righteous power,” [23] wrote one early biographer, and he loathed every limit on what we might learn.
“I want to come up into the presence of God,” he said, “and learn all things; but the creeds set up stakes, and say, ‘Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further.’” [24] All his life, Joseph strove resolutely to go further.
“If we have or can receive a portion of knowledge from God by immediate revelation,” he said, “by the same source we can receive all knowledge.” [25]
IV. How We Learn
This last statement points to how we learn. We learn by reason and revelation, inquiry and inspiration, toil and prayer, study and faith.
Joseph taught that the consuming quest for truth was inseparable from the spirit of revelation. “Salvation cannot come without revelation,” he thundered. “It is in vain for anyone to minister without it.” “One truth revealed from heaven,” he added, “is worth all the sectarian notions in existence.” [26]
At the same time, Joseph stressed that the quest for truth demands diligent labor. “The things of God,” he said, “are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind, O man! if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss, and the broad espanse of eternity—thou must commune with God.” [27]
For Joseph, learning from books was necessary but not sufficient. Revelation remained the corollary and capstone of diligent study. “I thank God I have got this old book,” he said, holding up an old, multilingual Bible, “but I thank him more for the gift of the Holy Ghost.” [28]
Joseph prized books, but warned that “reading the experience of others, or the revelations given to them, can never give usa comprehensive view of our condition and true relation to God … Could you gaze into heaven [for] five minutes,” he mused, “you would know more than . . . by reading all that ever was written on the subject.” [29]
And so we read all that we can, studying diligently as we seek wisdom from the best books. And at the same time we earnestly implore the revelations of heaven. “If thou shalt ask,” the Lord promised, “thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.” [30]
V. Where We Learn
I turn next to where we learn. We learn in Zion—in homes and temples and schools.
Joseph declared that education is a central aim of gathering the Lord’s people to Zion. “Intelligence,” he and his counselors wrote, “is the great object of our holy religion.
Intelligence is the result of education, and education can only be obtained by living in compact society … One of the principal objects then of our coming together is to obtain the advantages of education; and in order to do this, compact society is absolutely necessary.” [31]
Joseph’s revelations called for “a school in Zion” [32] and they defined Zion as a covenant community striving to become “pure in heart,” [33] “of one heart and one mind,” and with “no poor among them.” [34]
Such unity, for Joseph, was not just a social aspiration; it was a cosmic decree. “The principle[] by which the world can be governed,” he taught, “is the principle of two or three being united. The sun, moon, and planets roll on that principle. If God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost were to disagree, the worlds would clash together in an instant.” [35]
“If ye are not one,” the Lord warned, “ye are not mine.” [36]
“Unity is power,” [37] the Prophet proclaimed. “By union of feeling we obtain power with God.” [38]
***
For Joseph, education in Zion was grounded in the family and supported by two core institutions: a temple and a school. It required a temple-like school in the shadow of a school-like temple.
The prophetic vision for both institutions was set forth in the same revelation, now Section 88 of the Doctrine and Covenants, which called for a holy house: “A house of prayer … a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.” [39] The temple, of course, must be such a house, but so, I submit, must the school.
Joseph’s own life united temple and school. During the fall of 1835 and the winter of 1836, while engrossed in final preparations for the house of the Lord in Kirtland, Joseph read and studied as never before, including at the Kirtland Hebrew School, where he was a strong and diligent student.
Joseph’s journal for November 11, 1835, records: “Attended school again, during school Hours.” And then: “Returned home and spent the evening, around my fire-side, teaching my family the science of grammar.” [40]
The next day, Joseph instructed Church leaders regarding the endowment of power, the washing of feet, and the solemn assembly. “You need an endowment brethren,” he said, “that you may be prepared and able to overcome all things.” “All who are prepared,” he added, “and are sufficiently pure to abide the presence of the Savior will see him in the solemn assembly.” A staggering promise. Then, the very next day: “Attended school during school hours.” [41]
And so it went throughout that memorable winter—stunning heavenly disclosures and stirring prophetic teachings, interwoven with the joyful labor of language study.
On November 20, 1835, Oliver Cowdery returned to Kirtland from a trip to New York. He brought with him, Joseph recorded, “a quantity of Hebrew books for the benefit of the school, he presented me with a Hebrew Bible, lexicon, and grammar, also a Greek lexicon and Webster’s English lexicon.” [42]
Joseph was delighted. He could hardly wait to dig in. He spent the next day, he said, “examining my books and studying the Hebrew alphabet.” [43] On December 23, Joseph’s 30th birthday, he celebrated “in the forenoon at home studying the Greek language.” [44]
Joseph clearly relished his studies. “My soul delights in reading the word of the Lord in the original,” he enthused, “and I am determined to pursue the study of languages until I shall become master of them, if I am permitted to live long enough.” [45]
When, at last, the day of dedication arrived on March 27, 1836, Joseph offered the prayer whose text he had previously received by revelation. [46] Two days later, Joseph “attended school” for the Hebrew class’s final session. That evening, the Saints gathered in the house of the Lord for sacred ordinances. “The Holy Spirit rested down upon us,” Joseph recorded, “and we continued in the Lord’s house all night, prophesying and giving glory to God.” [47] Five days later, on Easter Sunday, April 3, Joseph and Oliver Cowdery saw the resurrected Savior and received keys of power from Moses, Elias, and Elijah.
All of this points to an intriguing lesson about preparing to receive revelation. Joseph spent his time, not in ascetic contemplation, but in collective learning. He coupled quiet prayer with diligent study. He united temple and school.
***
The celestial outpourings of early 1836 proved prelude to a season of severe trials—an economic panic, the collapse of the Kirtland Safety Society, widespread apostasy, renewed persecution in Missouri, the 1838 “War of Extermination,” the Haun’s Mill massacre, Liberty Jail, and a frozen flight across the Mississippi and into Illinois. Yet Joseph never relinquished the tie between temple and school. And he never abandoned the dream of a great city of Zion crowned by these complementary jewels.
Indeed, that dream grew increasingly ambitious and daring. On January 15, 1841, Joseph and his counselors announced their bold intentions: “The ‘University of the City of Nauvoo,’” they wrote, “will enable us to teach our children wisdom—to instruct them in all the knowledge, and learning, in the Arts, Sciences and Learned Professions. We hope to make this institution one of the great lights of the world, and by and through it, to diffuse that kind of knowledge which will be of practical utility, and for the public good, and also for private and individual happiness.” [48]
Four months later, the First Presidency summoned all Saints to gather to Nauvoo. “Here,” they said, “the Temple must be raised, [and] the University be built.” Both institutions, they explained, were “necessary for the great work of the last days.” [49]
Joseph, of course, never saw Nauvoo’s temple completed or its university built. But the dream of distinctly Restoration institutions of higher education—institutions that might stand worthily alongside the temple of our God—lived on. Indeed, it lives on still—in Rexburg, Laie, Provo, and in the hearts of millions of Saints. May that vision be realized in you.
Conclusion: “Therefore, What?”
In conclusion, let me share three impressions about what Joseph Smith’s vision for education might mean for you.
1. Joseph’s revelations, translations, and teachings provide an inexhaustible fountain of light, truth, intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, guidance, and power. As President Oaks told new mission leaders last June: “Joseph Smith was the prophetic source of an immense stream of bold and new and precious religious ideas.” And again: “The restoration of the fullness of Christian doctrine is a sunburst of light and truth.” [50]
In your efforts to become the person God needs you to be, I invite you to claim your high privilege of drawing upon the full majesty and power of the restored gospel to guide your studies and empower your discipleship.
2. I invite you to more intentionally come unto Christ by studying, savoring, and applying the doctrine of Christ declared in the revelations, translations, and teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. To adapt what President Oaks told new mission leaders: “It is very important that [you students] have a testimony of the divine calling and miraculous work of the Prophet Joseph Smith. That needs to be part of [our] teaching and counseling.”
3. Joseph’s vision for education can help cure the crisis of meaning and the epidemic of loneliness that plague so many in your generation, including too many of you precious BYU-Idaho students. Joseph’s stirring vision provides a powerful sense of identity and a clear sense of purpose. If you can get that vision deep into your heart, it will direct your energies in productive paths.
It will motivate you to treat your time as a stewardship.
It will inspire you to rise up as children of God and to have done with lesser things.
It will help you become the royal generation that will help ring in our Lord’s return.
Twenty-five years ago, as a pre-missionary college freshman, I promised my Heavenly Father that, wherever I went for the rest of my life, I would bear witness to anyone who would listen that I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. I hope to make a partial payment on that promise today. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, the mighty prophet of the Restoration.
My witness echoes President Oaks’s: “I am a product of the teachings of Joseph Smith,” [51] he once said. And more recently: “I feel I know him, and I love him through what he revealed and taught.” [52]
I too am a product of Joseph’s teachings. I too know him and love him through the words he taught and the truths he revealed.
I also love and revere President Oaks, and his counselors, and the Twelve—not least because they are the custodians and heirs of the keys and apostleship that were first restored through Joseph.
“It is my meditation all the day,” Joseph said, “and more than my meat and drink, to know how I shall make the Saints of God to comprehend the visions that roll like an overflowing surge before my mind.” [53]
I bear witness of that beautiful, abundant, sublime, and overflowing surge.
I bear witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, its divine and inexhaustible source—the fount of every blessing and the giver of all good gifts.
I testify that Joseph Smith is God’s prophet, as is President Dallin H. Oaks, and that we are God’s people.
In the unconquerable name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Dallin H. Oaks, “Coming Closer to Jesus Christ,” Brigham Young University Devotional, Feb. 10, 2026, speeches.byu.edu.
[2] Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, 2007, 511-512.
[3] Spencer W. Kimball, “Education for Eternity,” Brigham Young University Devotional, Sep. 12, 1967.
[4] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 40.
[5] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 210.
[6] “Discourse, circa 28 March 1841,” 18, josephsmithpapers.org.
[7] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 52.
[8] Doctrine and Covenants 88:80.
[9] Doctrine and Covenants 131:6.
[10] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 265.
[11] “Discourse, 14 May 1843,” 30, josephsmithpapers.org.
[12] Doctrine and Covenants 93:36.
[13] Doctrine and Covenants 130:18.
[14] “Discourse, 7 April 1844, as Published in Times and Seasons,” 615, josephsmithpapers.org.
[15] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 210.
[16] Joseph Smith, Jr., “The King Follett Sermon,” Ensign, May 1971.
[17] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 333.
[18] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 210-211.
[19] Doctrine and Covenants 88:118.
[20] Doctrine and Covenants 93:53.
[21] Doctrine and Covenants 90:15.
[22] Doctrine and Covenants 88:78-79.
[23] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 261.
[24] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 264.
[25] “Discourse, 21 January 1844,” 181, josephsmithpapers.org.
[26] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 195.
[27] Teachings: Joseph Smith: 267.
[28] Joseph Smith, Jr., “The King Follett Sermon,” Ensign, May 1971.
[29] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 419.
[30] Doctrine and Covenants 42:61.
[31] First Presidency message, “To the Saints Abroad,” Elders’ Journal Vol. 1, no. 4 (August 1838), 53, solomonspalding.com.
[32] Doctrine and Covenants 97:3.
[33] Doctrine and Covenants 97:3.
[34] Moses 7:18.
[35] “Discourse, 11 April 1844-A,” 106, josephsmithpapers.org.
[36] Doctrine and Covenants 38:27.
[37] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 275.
[38] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 394.
[39] Doctrine and Covenants 88:119.
[40] “Journal, 1835-1836,” 30, josephsmithpapers.org.
[41] “Journal, 1835-1863,” 30, josephsmithpapers.org.
[42] “Journal, 1835-1863,” 46, josephsmithpapers.org.
[43] “Journal, 1835-1863,” 46, josephsmitherpapers.org.
[44] “Journal, 1835-1863,” 87, josephsmithpapers.org.
[45] “Journal, 1835-1863,” 156, josephsmithpapers.org.
[46] Doctrine and Covenants 109.
[47] “Journal, 1835-1863,” 187, josephsmithpapers.org.
[48] “Minutes, 7-11 April 1841,” 386, josephsmithpapers.org.
[49] “Letter to the Saints Abroad, 24 May 1841,” 434, josephsmithpapers.org.
[50] Sydney Walker, “Why a testimony of Joseph Smith is vital to missionary work, President Oaks explains to new mission leaders,” Church News, Jun. 21, 2025.
[51] John W. Welch, The Worlds of Joseph Smith: A Bicentennial Conference at the Library of Congress, Jan. 1, 2006, 153.
[52] Sydney Walker, “Why a testimony of Joseph Smith is vital to missionary work, President Oaks explains to new mission leaders,” Church News, Jun. 21, 2025.
[53] Teachings: Joseph Smith, 520.
About Justin Collings
Justin Collings began his career at BYU when he joined the J. Reuben Clark Law School faculty in 2013. He is a former Fulbright Fellow and is the author of two books and various articles on subjects related to constitutional law and constitutional history. He is also the author of a book about divine law in the Doctrine and Covenants, published by BYU's Maxwell Institute.
Justin is a graduate of Brigham Young University, where he double-majored in English and Italian. He is also a graduate of Yale University, where he earned a JD and a PhD in history. Before beginning his teaching career, he worked as a law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In 2022, Justin was appointed BYU’s associate academic vice president for faculty development, and since June 2023, he has served as BYU’s academic vice president.
He is married to the incomparable Lia Collings, and they are the parents of eight children.