A classic example can be found in the people of Amulon. Amulon and his followers had lived lavish, idolatrous lives as priests supported by the burdensome taxes imposed by King Noah. When their country was invaded, they abandoned their families to preserve their own lives and then later kidnapped some women from a rival nation to be their new wives. Given the opportunity to oversee a righteous people, Amulon and his followers oppressed the righteous severely and forbid prayer and religious worship. It is easy to think that nothing good could have come from Amulon.
Yet, we read that the righteous oppressed by Amulon actually grew in faith until they were eventually delivered from Amulon's rule altogether (Mosiah 24:12-16). Meanwhile, Amulon and his followers taught the language of the Nephites in every land of the Lamanites, paving the way for Ammon and his brothers to have missionary successes only a few years later (Mosiah 24:4).
When Joseph Smith knelt to pray, he was "siezed upon by some power which entirely overcame [him], and had such an astonishing influence over [him] as to bind [his] tongue so that [he] could not speak." Yet, this attack only led Joseph to exert all his energy to calling upon God and led to not only his deliverance, but his calling as a prophet and the beginning of the restoration of Christ's church and gospel (Joseph Smith-History 1:15-20).
Subsequent offenses from apostates, politicians and mobs had similar results, leading Brigham Young to declare, "Every time you kick [the Church] you kick it upstairs; you never kick it downstairs. The Lord Almighty so orders it" (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A Widtsoe, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1941, p. 351).
The greatest opposition was reserved for the Savior himself. Though he "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38), he was hated by the leaders that claimed to be seeking him and betrayed by one of his own disciples. The people sought to kill him on several occasions and by several means, even setting traps to facilitate his demise, and finally delivered him to the Romans to be crucified. Though the governor could find no fault with him, Christ was nailed to a cross and left to die.
If any act could be perceived to hinder the work of God, killing His chosen son would seem to be it. Yet, even this advanced, rather than hindered, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Isaiah prophesied of Christ:
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised with our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:3-5).
Through the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ, we can be forgiven of our sins, redeemed from death and empowered to act in faith beyond our own ability. As the Lord taught Joseph Smith in the Liberty Jail, no matter the obstacle or the odds, "if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good" (D&C 122:7).
Perhaps some of that experience was reflected in Joseph Smith's letter to Mr. John Wentworth, editor and proprietor of the Chicago Democrat, written three years after his inhumane treatment in Liberty. Declared the prophet:
The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear; till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.
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