A thought experiment in Time Travel
 

Say you could time travel, and you went back to Carthage with an M-16, and you picked off the mob, and thereby saved Joseph Smith from death, in what would be described as a miraculous deliverance (you do not reveal yourself).

What happens next in Mormon history?

Sounds like Mike is about to wade into the waters of LDS fiction writing.

"M-16's Among the Danites"

Are we assuming that we spared just Joseph's life? Or was Hyrum spared as well?

Assume what you want, this is a thought experiment. What would have been the course of Mormon history if Joseph had survived the mob.

Joseph Smith lives to be 80 and the Second Coming occurs 125 years ago. BYU football, the "mtn" and the BCS never existed.

I would say that the mobs would persist.

I don't think that Joseph would live that far beyond the Carthage time. I suspect that Joseph would remain in Nauvoo with a small group of members while Hyrum lead the church out west.

Eventually, Hyrum would become prophet because the mobs and the tension would remain and ultimately cause joseph his life.

If Hyrum had lived and become prophet, perhaps the RLDS would've never happened.

And you would all be cheering for Hyrum Smith University.

The Mormon church what it is today is probably 50/50 weight between the visions and revelation of Joseph and the exodus to the west and the Brigham Young era.

I can't imagine what it would be like had Joseph lived to an old age. The church would be completely different today.

So would you intervene and save his life, under the theory that the church would be better off with Joseph surviving?

WHich of course could lead to a change that would make your existence impossible so you would 'poof' disappear and then what would happen to your effort to change time? This is why I really dislike this sort of plot device.

Well if it is a novel then God has come in and given me a special dispensation to survive any time-travel paradox. Of course Joe, the mean guy in Junior High, will be a victim of the paradox.