“In the beginning, Joseph Smith had emphasized the importance of personal revelation for everyone…Quickly, however,
Joseph saw a major drawback to such a policy: if God Spoke directly to all Mormons, who was to say that the truths He
revealed to Joseph had greater validity than contradictory truths…With everybody receiving revelations, the prophet stood to
lose control of his followers….Joseph acted fast to solve this dilemma by announcing in 1830…that God had belatedly given
him another revelation: ‘No one shall be appointed to receive commandments and revelations in this church excepting my
servant Joseph Smith, Jr.” Krakauer, pp. 7879
Revelation and who precisely has access to it is a problem for all revealed religions, i.e. religions like Judaism, Christianity,
Islam and Mormonism where a divine or semidivine
figure reveals the fundamental truth. Is this a unique problem for
Mormons? Krakauer estimates that 200 sects have splintered off from the original religion and the process continues.
