Joseph Smith - Prophet? Part 1

 I’m going to rerun another series from over eleven years ago so new audiences can read them. This series will be examining Joseph Smith as a prophet.

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Joseph Fielding Smith stated, "Mormonism, as it is called, must stand or fall on the story of Joseph Smith.  He was either a prophet of God, divinely called, properly appointed and commissioned, or he was one of the biggest frauds this world has ever seen.  There is no middle ground.  If Joseph Smith was a deceiver, who willfully attempted to mislead the people, then he should be exposed, his claims should be refuted, and his doctrines shown to be false, for the doctrines of an impostor cannot be made to harmonize in all particulars with divine truth....  The doctrines of false teachers will not stand the test when tried by the accepted standards of measurement, the scriptures...."

The purpose of this series will be to determine whether Joseph Smith was a prophet of God according to the test of Scripture and, if not, to expose him.

The claim for Joseph Smith's position as prophet is made in D&C 21 (April 6, 1830): 1. Behold, there shall be a record kept among you; and in it thou shalt be called a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle of Jesus Christ, an elder of the church through the will of God the Father, and the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ, 2. Being inspired of the Holy Ghost to lay the foundation thereof, and to build it up unto the most holy faith.  3. Which church was organized and established in the year of your Lord eighteen hundred and thirty, in the fourth month, and on the sixth day of the month which is called April.  4. Wherefore, meaning the church, thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me; 5. For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.  ... 9. For, behold, I will bless all those who labor in my vineyard with a mighty blessing, and they shall believe on his words, which are given him through me by the Comforter... 

Notice that this says Joseph is titled by God as a seer and prophet.  God says the church is to "give heed unto all his words and commandments", that these are to be received as if from God's own mouth, and that the words are given to him through the Comforter.  By Biblical standards Joseph could make no mistake of prophecy or as a seer because he is supposedly provided with what to say directly from God.

Brigham Young stated, "Every intelligent person under the heavens that does not, when informed, acknowledge that Joseph Smith, jun., is a Prophet of God, is in darkness, and is opposed to us and to Jesus and his kingdom on the earth."  Journal of Discourses, Vol. 8, p. 223

These statements are very straight-forward: They claim that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.  So does he pass the test of Scripture?  Deuteronomy 18:20-22 makes it plain that the prophet of God can make no false prophecy.  Even the LDS newspaper Evening and Morning Star, Vol.2, p.105, July 1833, stated, "When therefore, any man, no matter who, or how high his standing may be, utters or publishes anything that afterwards proves to be untrue, he is a false prophet."

Statements about prophecies:

Even though D&C 21 says God is directing all his words, Joseph made the statement that, "A prophet is a prophet only when he is acting as such."  (History of the Church, vol. 5, p.265)  Where is the Biblical support for this?  And how would one know when he was not “acting as such”?

In regards to a failed revelation sending Oliver Cowdery and Hiram Page to go to Canada for a man to pay to print the Book of Mormon, Smith said, "Some revelations are of God: some revelations are of man: and some revelations are of the devil.... When a man enquires of the Lord concerning a matter, if he is deceived by his own carnal desires, and is in error, he will receive an answer according to his erring heart, but it will not be a revelation from the Lord."  David Whitmer recorded this on p. 31 of his Address to All Believers in Christ.  Where is the Biblical support for this?  How does this correlate with D&C 21?

Joseph made the following statement on April 7, 1844, as recorded by Willard Richards: "Every man has a right to be a false prophet as well as a true prophet." There is no Biblical support for this claim.

So before we examine Smith’s prophecies, we already see some biblical problems with his claim to be a prophet.  D&C 21 says that God directed ALL Smith’s words, and yet contradicting this prophecy are statements that gave Smith an “out” if the prophecies failed.  This in and of itself should be grounds for dismissing him as a prophet of God.

In my next post I will begin examining various prophecies made by Joseph Smith to see if they did indeed come from God.

Brigham Young vs Adam

You believe Adam was made of the dust of this earth. This I do not believe, though it is supposed that it is so written in the Bible; but it is not, to my understanding. You can write that information to the States, if you please—that I have publicly declared that I do not believe that portion of the Bible as the Christian world do. I never did, and I never want to. What is the reason I do not? Because I have come to understanding, and banished from my mind all the baby stories my mother taught me when I was a child.

Brigham Young, 23 October 1853, Journal of Discourses 2:6

Young says Adam being made from the dust of the ground is “supposed” in the Bible and then says to his understanding it isn’t there! Let’s see what the Bible says (KJV—that’s the one LDS approves).

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul. 

So immediately we see that Young was lying because the Bible does indeed say Adam was made of the “dust of the ground.”  He calls the idea of Adam being made from dust a “baby” story such as his mother taught him. Perhaps if he had paid attention to what his mother taught he would have learned the truth instead of becoming involved with a religion based on heresy, blasphemy, racism, and sexual immorality.

What About the Book of Mormon Witnesses?

I’m rerunning this article I wrote in 2014 so new readers can read and think about the truth here.

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Having done some reading about the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, here are some thoughts about how trustworthy these witnesses were.

David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris were finally chosen to be witnesses to the Book of Mormon plates' existence.  The four went to the woods to pray, but time passed with no action.  Harris felt ill and stated he was the reason for no word and then he left.  Immediately an angel appeared with the plates in his hands.  He demonstrated turning gold leaves and stated that God permitted the translation.  Joseph ran for Martin, who was kneeling elsewhere in prayer and he also saw the vision. Joseph then wrote up a "testimony" for them to sign and had it published at the end of the Book of Mormon.

The local press claimed that three original witnesses all told different versions of their experience with seeing the plates.  

Martin Harris told a lawyer that he saw the plates "with the eye of faith; I saw them just as distinctly as I see anything around me - though at the time they were covered with a cloth".

Whitmer said that Joseph led them to an open field where the plates were lying on the ground.

The testimony of the eight witnesses is even more suspect, since four of them were Whitmers, three were from Joseph's family and the eighth was Hiram Page, who married a Whitmer daughter. 

Witnesses were:

Christian Whitmer   

Jacob Whitmer 

Peter Whitmer, Jr.

John Whitmer

Hiram Page

Joseph Smith, Sr

Hyrum Smith

Samuel H. Smith

Illinois Governor Thomas Ford knew several of Joseph’s key men after they left the church.  They told Ford that the witnesses were "set to continual prayer, and other spiritual exercises," then Smith "assembled them in a room, and produced a box, which he said contained the precious treasure.  The lid was opened; the witnesses peeped into it, but making no discovery, for the box was empty, they said, 'Brother Joseph, we do not see the plates.'  The prophet answered them, 'O ye of little faith! how long will God bear with this wicked and perverse generation?  Down on your knees, brethren, every one of you, and pray God for the forgive-ness of your sins, and for a holy and living faith which cometh down from heaven.'  The disciples dropped to their knees, and began to pray in the fervency of their spirit, supplicating God for more than two hours with fanatical earnestness; at the end of which time, looking again into the box, they were now persuaded that they saw the plates."

Martin Harris:  Had been a Quaker, then a Universalist, then a Restorationist.  Fawn Brodie says the following on p.81 of her book, No Man Knows My History (about events leading up to the publishing of the Book of Mormon): Martin Harris had been an embarrassingly zealous proselyter who advertised his own visionary experiences as freely as those of Joseph.  He had seen Jesus in the shape of a deer, he said, and had walked with Him two or three miles, talking with Him as familiarly as one man talks with another.  The devil, he said, resembled a jackass, with very short, smooth hair similar to that of a mouse.  He prophesied that Palmyra would be destroyed by 1836, and that by 1838 Joseph's church would be so large that there would be no need for a president of the United States.  Publicly Harris met with amused tolerance and only occasional bitter scorn.  Privately Palmyra gossiped about his scandalous conduct with his neighbor Haggard's wife.  Harris later left his wife.  In 1837 he followed a young girl seer when the church split, and later followed James Strange to Wisconsin.  He returned to Utah in his old age.

Oliver Cowdery was excommunicated in October 1834, but was restored to the church later.  In 1837 he followed the girl seer in the church split and then returned again the following year in Missouri.  In June 1838 he dissented and Danites forced his family from their home.  Oliver left the church.  In 1843 he joined the Methodist church, but returned in 1848 to the Mormons.

David Whitmer also followed the girl seer in 1837 and later returned to the fold.

If these witnesses truly saw what they did, would any of them doubt the faith to the point they departed the LDS church?  Does the character of any of these witnesses lead one to trust what they said about the Book of Mormon?

I doubt if any of the testimony of these witnesses would stand up in a court of law, and yet hundreds of thousands of people have been led to believe that the Book of Mormon is true based initially on the basis of the testimony of these  witnesses who, in my mind, have no credibility.

Questions Regarding the Book of Mormon - Part 4

This is my last post for now on the Book of Mormon.  I will finish with questions from 3 Nephi, Mormon, Ether and Moroni.  This series hasn’t included all my questions, but are those that immediately came to mind when I last read through the Book of Mormon.  I have started a collection of other questions, but those are for another time.  So now lets look at my questions.  Some of the last ones are statements about being plagiarisms from the KJV.

1.  3 Nephi 9:18 uses the Greek words "alpha" and "omega".  Wouldn’t the “reformed Egyptian” alphabet have different letters at the beginning and the end?  Why didn’t Smith translate to the English alphabet?  

2.  3 Nephi 11:17 uses the Hebrew "Hosanna" ("save us").  Again, why translate into Hebrew instead of English?

3.  3 Nephi 11:33-34 is almost a direct quotation from Mark 16:16.  Modern Greek scholars have determined that Mark 16:16 of the King James version was a translational error and wasn't in the original manuscript.  So how did it end up in the Book of Mormon?

4.  3 Nephi 12:3-48 is KJV Matthew 5, with problems as previously noted when copying from KJV.  Verse 22 leaves in the word "Raca", which is Aramaic for "empty-head".  Why is Aramaic in an English translation of “reformed Egyptian?”

5.  3 Nephi 13 is Matthew 6 KJV with the normal problems, including the use of the Greek word hypocrite (meaning "actor").  In verse 23 Smith uses the Jewish evil eye idea, which Nephites would not know!  And why are they using the cubit for measure (vs27)?

6.  3 Nephi 14 is KJV Matthew 7, with the usual problems.  Along with chapters 12 and 13, these were supposedly words spoken by Jesus during his visit to America in A.D. 34, whereas the words in Matthew are part of the Sermon on the Mount. Would Jesus have repeated himself word for word like that, speaking in a different language  to a different audience at a different time and place?  And if he did, would a translation from Reformed Egyptian come out to be identical with a translation from Greek manuscripts, which in turn were a translation of the Aramaic words Jesus used with his Jewish audience?

7.  3 Nephi 15:17 and 21 are both KJV John 10:16! How?

8.  3 Nephi 16:18-20 is Isaiah 52:8-10, but is not identical with Mosiah 15:29-31. Why?

9.  3 Nephi 18:29 is copied from I Corinthians 11:27.  Why was Jesus not so specific with the Jews in Israel?

10.  3 Nephi 19:4 has the Greek name Timothy. How?

11.  In the 3rd chapter of Acts, Peter's sermon at Pentecost paraphrases Deuteronomy 18:15-19.  While in the process of writing 3 Nephi 20 (which is KJV Acts 3:23-26), Joseph Smith puts Peter's paraphrase in the mouth of Jesus when he was allegedly preaching to the Nephites. Joseph overlooked the fact that at the time that Christ was allegedly preaching His sermon, the sermon itself had not yet been preached by Peter! How can this be?

12.  3 Nephi 20:31-45 are KJV Isaiah 52:1-15 with the verses somewhat out of order.  Chapter 21:8 is Isaiah 52:15 KJV.

13.  3 Nephi 22 is KJV Isaiah 54 with the usual problems.

14.  3 Nephi 24 is KJV Malachi 3, while chapter 25 is Malachi 4, with the usual problems.

15.  3 Nephi 27:29 is KJV Matthew 7:7.

16.  Mormon 9:22 ends with KJV Mark 16:15, while 9:23-24 is Mark 16:16-18.

17.  Ether 2:3 has bees in the New World yet they were not brought over until the Spanish explorers came in the 16th century.  How is this accounted for?

18.  Ether 2:20.  Doesn't God know which end is up?

19.  Ether 5:18 is again KJV Mark 16:16-17

20.  Ether 6:5,11  tells us that a "furious" wind propelled the "vessels or barges" (which were they?) to the Promised Land.  It took the furious wind 344 days to blow the barges to the New World.  Even if the furious wind could only push the barges at 10 mph, the distance traveled would have been 82,560 miles - three times around the globe.  Is this reasonable?

21.  Ether 10:5 again tells us polygamy is not right in God's sight.  Again, how does this relate to D&C 132?

22.  Ether 15:31 tells of a fight to the death between Coriantumr and Shiz.  Shiz gets his head cut off, after he had already fainted from loss of blood, and then raises up on his hands before falling back, while struggling for breath!  This defies all medical knowledge.  (no, it is not analogous with the reflexes of a chicken’s body with the head chopped off)

23.  Moroni 7:45,46 is KJV 1 Corin. 13:4 on.

24.  Moroni 10:9-16 is basically KJV I Cor. 12:8-11.

24.  The last great battle at Hill Cumorah in A.D. 385 killed about 500,000 people with all manner of weapons of war, yet no archaeological evidence can be found for this battle.  Why?

Explain how an inspired translation from Reformed Egyptian directly to the English language of 1830 becomes virtually word-for-word identical with the 1611 English translation from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek; how do the words become the same?  (Especially explain how the italicized words in the KJV - those not in the original but put there by the translators to help make sense - are included in the Book of Mormon.)  

The text shown to Smith on his seer stone in his hat over his face would not move until the scribe copied everything accurately - so why have there been over 4000 changes to the text since 1830?

Last, but not least, the Lamanites are supposed to be descendants of Jewish people — Semites — and the American Indian is descended from the Lamanites.  Anthropologists state that the American Indian is Mongoloid — descended from Asian peoples who crossed the Bering Strait.  This has been demonstrated conclusively by recent DNA studies.

"The nature of the message in the Book Of Mormon is such, that if true, no one can possibly be saved and reject it; if false, no one can possibly be saved and receive it."  Orson Pratt.

Questions Regarding the Book of Mormon - Part 3

This time I’ll address problems with Jacob, Mosiah, Alma, and Helaman.  I want to note that in these postings, I have read many — if not most — of the typical LDS responses.  I just want to challenge any Mormon to give me a response and see if it can hold water.  So let’s look at today’s list of problems in the Book of Mormon.

1.  Jacob 1:15 calls polygamy a wicked practice, yet God later gave Joseph Smith the revelation approving it.  Is God inconsistent? 

2.  Jacob 2:24, 27 also vilify polygamy.  Jacob 3:5 again reiterates the command.  How does this square with D&C 132?

3.  Jacob 4:1 tells us that only a little of the words can be written because of the difficulty of engraving the plates.  Why then are the Nephite prophets so wordy?  There are numerous examples; many sentences are 200 to 300 words long, there are 2000 "and it came to pass" phrases, and in 4 Nephi 1:6 there are 57 words just to say 59 years passed by.  Alma 13:7 even has the phrase, "or in other words," a phrase that should have been left out of difficult writing.

4.  Jacob 7:27 ends with the French word "adieu"!  Why would God have Smith translate suddenly into French?

5.  Mosiah 2:3 says, "And they also took of the firstlings of their flocks, that they might offer sacrifice and burnt offerings according to the law of Moses."  According to the law of Moses the firstlings of their flocks were never offered as burnt offerings or sacrifices.  All firstlings belonged to the Lord and could not be counted as a man's personal property - whereas all burnt offerings, or sacrifices for sin of every kind, must be selected from the man's own personal property, or be purchased with his own money for that purpose, while all firstlings of the flock, as the Lord's property, came into the hands of the high priest, and by him could be offered up as a peace offering, not as a burnt offering or a sin offering, himself and family eating the flesh.  This error in Mosiah proves that the Book Of Mormon could not have come from God.

6.  Mosiah 13:12-24 is Exodus 20:5-17 KJV, including the error of "kill" for "murder".  Why wouldn’t God have had Smith translate the word to “murder” rather than follow KJV?

7.  Mosiah 14 is Isaiah 53 KJV with the usual problems.  Mosiah 15:14-17 is Isaiah 52:7-10 and Mosiah 15:29-31 is Isaiah 52:8-10.

8.  Mosiah 21:28, in the original 1830 version, stated that King Benjamin had a gift from God, corrected to King Mosiah in later versions.  If Joseph dictated from what he was seeing translated by a gift of God, how did he make this error?

9.  Mosiah 27:13. The use of the word "Church" throughout this book is anachronistic, but this verse in particular contradicts Matthew 16:18.

10.  Why does Alma 7:10 says that Jesus will be born in Jerusalem when the Bible says Bethlehem? 

11.  Alma 10:3 says that Nephi and Lehi were descendants of Manasseh, yet in Mosiah 2:3 we found them offering sacrifices according to the law of Moses.  The Bible says only the descendants of Aaron can offer these sacrifices (Ex. 28:40-43; Num. 3:3-10; 1 Chron. 23:13; 2 Chron. 26:18; Heb. 7:12-14).  How is this contradiction explained?

12.  Alma 13:15.  "...tithes of one-tenth part..."  Tithe means one tenth; did God not know that?

13.  In the book of Alma 28:14-29:1-11, more than 30 changes have been made from the 1830 edition, and page 303 of the original edition had the statement, "Yea, decree unto them that decrees which are unalterable" (Alma 29:4), which has been deleted.  Why has this been removed?

14.  Alma 46:15 tells us there were people called Christians in 73 BC.  The Bible tells us the first use of the word "Christian" was in Antioch.  Which is correct?

15.  Alma 54:4 uses the Greek word "epistle", which means "letter".  This word continues to be used throughout the text.  Why would God have Smith translate Egyptian into a Greek word when he could have just used “letter”?

16.  Helaman 8:20 talks of Ezias and Isaiah.  Ezias is Greek for Isaiah - they are the same person. Did God not know this?

17.  Helaman 9:6 says, "Now, immediately when the judge had been murdered - he being stabbed by his brother by a garb of secrecy."  "Garb" is a piece of clothing; how do you stab with clothing?

18.  Helaman 12:25-26:  What was Helaman reading when he quotes John 5:29?  John wasn't written for at least another 90 years.

19.  Helaman 14:20,27 says the earth would be darkened for three days at Jesus' death.  The Bible says the darkness lasted three hours.  Which is correct?

 These are not insignificant problems!!