Will the Real Joseph Smith Please Stand Up

25 January

Joseph Smith’s Character

Will the Real Joseph Smith Please Stand Up?

 By Mark Grote 2004

 Born on December 23, 1805, Joseph Smith could run faster, throw farther and jump higher than the other kids in Sharon, Vermont. If you tour the sites in Nauvoo, IL., the place of his death, that’s what you’ll hear of Joseph Smith as you move about the historical landmarks.

 But if you are interested in facts, instead of legends, you might find yourself questioning whether it’s a good idea to put your eternity in the hands and beliefs of this man.

 Born to Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Smith Jr. grew up on a series of tenant farms in Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York. Though in his youth Joseph was largely deprived of a formal education, he was adequately “instructed in reading, writing, and the ground rules of arithmetic.” 1 Joseph’s mother said that he was often “given to meditation and deep study.” 2 It also widely known that Joseph Smith was “nimble-witted, ambitious, and gifted with a boundless imagination, he dreamed of escape into an illustrious and affluent future.”  3 Joseph Smith could always tell stories with amazing detail of ancient civilizations.

According to the church, affected by the the religious movement taking place around his home in Manchester, New York, in 1820, fourteen-year-old Joseph (depending on which account you believe) was determined to know which of the many religions he should join. He encountered a passage in the Bible instructing any who lacked wisdom to “ask of God” (James 1:5).

Early one morning in the spring of 1820, it said that Joseph went to secluded woods to ask God which church he should join. According to his account, while praying Joseph claims he was visited by two “personages” who identified themselves as God the Father and Jesus Christ.

He was told not to join any of the churches. “Oddly enough, there is no mention of this “vision” in the early Mormon church records and the Improvement Era admits: “Joseph Smith’s ‘official’ account of his first vision and the visits of the angel Moroni was…first published in the Times and Seasons in 1842.”4 For such a dramatic event such as this in one’s life, you would think the person would be changed profoundly by the events and that they would be in the forefront of his mind. But Joseph Smith didn’t give an account of the vision before 1842.  Why not?

 Jesus said in the Bible that He would only return in the fullness of Glory that would be visible from one end of the sky to the other, and God told Moses that “no one can see Him and live” [italics added], indicates more biblical evidence that Joseph Smith lied about this encounter with God, because God is unchanging and not a liar.  Either Joseph Smith lied or God did.  Who do you believe?

Despite the obvious differences with scripture, people still wanted to believe Joseph Smith because they wanted to know God was real. It is no surprise that, in 1823, that Joseph Smith was visited by another spirit, this time by an angel named Moroni (some accounts say THIS was Joseph’s first vision), who told him of an ancient record containing God’s dealings with the former inhabitants of the American continent that just happened to be buried a short walk from his home in Palmyra, NY. In 1827, Joseph supposedly retrieved this record, inscribed on thin golden plates, although weighing in excess of 250 pounds each, and shortly afterward began translating its words by the “gift of God.”4

A gift so great, that it contained many grammatical errors.  Apparently, God was so busy creating the earth in six days, He didn’t have time to brush up on his grammar skills.  The resulting manuscript, the Book of Mormon, was published in March 1830. On April 6, 1830, Joseph Smith organized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and became its first president and High Priest of the Melchizedek.

Now, if you read Mormon literature, you’ll read “Joseph married Emma Hale on January 18, 1827, and was described as a loving and devoted husband. They had eleven children (two adopted), only five of whom lived past infancy. During the thirty-nine years of his life, Joseph established thriving cities in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois; produced volumes of scripture; sent missionaries throughout the world; orchestrated the building of temples; served as mayor of Nauvoo, one of the largest cities in Illinois, and as general of its militia, the Nauvoo Legion; and was a candidate for the presidency of the United States.” Wow! That’s very impressive.

You won’t read, however, that Joseph Smith was also into mysticisms and Masonic practices, was a reader of seer stones, and was a money-digger who engaged in fortune telling. In addition to the militia he formed, what you won’t hear that it was against the law.  You won’t hear that he destroyed a printing press. You won’t hear that he burned down the building that it was in.  You won’t hear that he shot and killed two men with a gun he had smuggled into the jail. And you won’t hear that he had more than 30 wives.

Smith was a controversial figure in American history because of his bizarre and unbiblical interpretations such as polygamy— and was as much beloved by his followers as he was hated by his detractors. One thing that Mormons do not talk much about are the facts surrounding Joseph Smith’s arrest. In what some would call terrorism today, Joseph Smith destroyed a printing press and burned down the building around it after some of Smith’s critics printed things about Smith and the Church in a publication called the Nauvoo ExpositorApparently, the truth hurts. As one might expect, Joseph was persecuted much of his adult life for his unbiblical beliefs and was killed along with his brother Hyrum by a mob in Carthage, Illinois, on June 27, 1844, following the uprising surrounding the destruction of the press, the destruction of the building and, candidly speaking, the destruction of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.

Now, considering the monument events of above, you would think that they would profoundly impact a person for every thought, action or plan that one might endeavor to take on.  Not so for Joseph Smith.  Consider these facts:

Mormon apostle and leader, David O. McKay once stated: “The appearing of the Father and Son to Joseph Smith is the foundation of the church.” Got that?  The foundation of the church.

According to John Widstoe, another Mormon apostle, The First vision of 1820 is of first importance in the history of Joseph Smith. Upon its reality rests the trust and value of the his subsequent work.”

Let’s examine these dates of significance in light of the above quotes.

 1820 – The Mormon Church’s official date when Joseph Smith supposedly had his first vision.  He was 14. His vision was a visit of the Father and Son together, separate, standing in the air, talking to him.

1829 – The Book of Mormon is published.
1829
– Joseph Smith enters the priesthood when he and Oliver Cowdery are visited, this time by James, Peter and John.
1830 – The Mormon Church is established.
1832 – Joseph Smith gives prophecy that no man can see the face of God without being in the priesthood.  So how did he see the Father in 1820 when, by his own admission, he was not in the priesthood?  Or is the “Priesthood” prophesy false?  Which is it?
1834 – Oliver Cowdery, assisted by Joseph Smith, recounts in the Messenger and Advocate, published in Sept. 1834, that the first vision actually came in 1823.  Joseph Smith would have been 17 instead of 14 as told by the church.
1842*
– Joseph Smith publishes his ‘official’ account  of his first vision in the publication Times and Seasons.
1844 – Brigham Young takes over control of the Mormom Church after the murder of Joseph Smith.  Young had 363 sermons published in the inspired Journal of Discourses.  Never once does he mention the first vision upon which the foundation of the church is set.
1820-1850 Numerous publications describe the first vision as Joseph being visited by the angel, Moroni.
1851 Mormon publication of the first edition of the Pearl of Great Price reveals it was actually the angel, Nephi, that Joseph Smith actually saw in 1820, contrary to all other Mormon publications that previously said it was Moroni.  This is quite troubling.  Was is it God the Father and Son, the angel Moroni or the Angel Nephi?  And how did we get from two visitors to one?
1853 – Joseph Smith’s mother, after Smith’s death, wrote in her biographical Sketches, confirming it was, Nephi, that Joseph Smith saw.

The book of Mormon is published in 1830, 10 years after the so-called First Vision, yet the 1820 vision upon which the Church if founded is not officially given until 1842?

Only one conclusion can be drawn from these events, which are backed up by facts and reliable sources including the Mormon Church’s own historical records, and that is that Joseph Smith was a false prophet, money-digger and lying manipulator of people of the worst kind.  Please, do not put your trust and eternity into the hands of Joseph Smith.  Jesus Christ said, “I am the truth, the way and the life, no man goes to the Father but by way of the Son.”   Jesus is all you need.  No church, belief in no prophet is required.

Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today you’ll be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43). Instant, FULL Salvation!  No works, no church, no baptism, nothing but faith.6 The Greek word for “paradise,” that Jesus uses in Luke 23:43, is paradeisos, the same word in the Greek that Paul uses in 2 Cor. 12:4 to describe the third heaven that Mormons use to explain the “three degrees of glory” doctrine.  Paul says in 2 Cor. 12:2-4:

I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

 You can see that Paul refers to the third heaven as “paradise.”  Closer examination of the word, paradeisos, the same word that Jesus said to the thief.  How can you reconcile this, my Mormon friends? This passage clearly contradicts Mormon teachings about heaven and how to get there. Paul goes on in the passage to reveal that it was himself who was caught up into paradise, the  third heaven, where Jesus took the saved thief.

Even if one was to put the “three degrees of glory” doctrine aside, the thief is still a problem for Mormon apologists.  There simply is not enough exegesis (reading out of the bible) to explain the Mormon position that the thief, a lying cheat and swindler who lived a life of reprobate, could never be in the third heaven with Jesus. By the Mormon Church’s own doctrine and admission, you need to be a member of the “true church,” their church, be baptized and married and having performed many works (how many?…no Mormon for nearly 200 years can tell you), in order to go to the third heaven after you die.  Yet, here we see Jesus and Paul, clearly describing the same heaven in the bible’s original language, paradeisos (meaning no misinterpretations here), the same heaven that will have the thief there.  You see my Mormon friends, there is but one way to heaven, and that is Jesus.  Confess your sins to Him, pray to Him, read His word, the holy bible, and KNOW you are saved (1 John 5:13).

* Note: 22 years went by before Joseph Smith published his account of the first vision upon which, according to McKay, “is the foundation of the church.”  If it was so significant, why did it not appear in the Book of Mormon?

 Footnotes

1.       History of Joseph Smith, Jr., by himself, in Joseph Smith’s Letter Book at Kirtland, November 27, 1832 to August 4, 1835 (Church Historian’s Library, Salt Lake City, Utah).
2.    History of the Prophet Joseph, Improvement Era, vol. 5, p. 257.
3.    No Man Knows My History, The Life of Joseph Smith. 1971, 1973. New York. p. 18
4.    God’s Word, Final, Infallible and Forever. 1985. Grand Rapids, MI. p. 24
5.    Book of Mormon, title page.
6.    God’s Word, Final, Infallible and Forever. 1985. Grand Rapids, MI. p. 162

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9 Responses to “Will the Real Joseph Smith Please Stand Up”

  1. Wendy April 9, 2011 at 5:57 am #

    Banned Utah Humor !

    (1) Three levels of LDS heaven: celestial, terrestrial, cholesterol !
    (2) LDS houses are painted by Ladder-Day Saints.
    (3) Brigham Young, when looking down on the Salt Lake Valley, said “This is the place.” How come so many folks settled in that valley if he looked down on it?
    (4) Did Adam Swapp get his wives at a Swapp meet?
    (5) New Mormon cat food: 9 Wives !
    (6) What’s a plastic covered Indian? A laminated Lamanite. Of course I’ve known this since I was Nephite to a grasshopper.
    (7) Mormon: Someone who is more man than woman. Is “Mormon” short for “More Money”?
    (8) Mormonism teaches that we can know truth if there is a “burning in the bosom.” Joseph Smith was the first Mormon who had a bosom below his belt !
    (9) Brigham lived in the Lion House which helped him to keep on Lion.
    (10) Utah is the only state where you can spell “Moron” with two m’s. And it’s the only state where the sheep take care of the cattle !

    (Glenn Beck, Jon Huntsman Jr., Warren Jeffs, Thomas Monson, and Mitt Romney did not approve of the above humor.)

    [above humor seen on the internet! Wendy]

    • kitty chemist December 23, 2016 at 8:24 pm #

      Joseph Smith the Prophet, was a very handsome man, beautiful, kind blue eyes, wavy blondish/red then later in life brown hair, and strong build with a kind smile. My husband Dr Hunter looks similar. That’s because Joseph Smith is my husband’s g+ grandfather. We have copies of journals and other histories. You and the rest of the hateful anti mormon community, like any bigot (I’m ashkenazi(Jewish) and Hitler loved to tear apart the ashkenazi physical appearance to dehumanize us) have not a clue of what you speak of. These are various artist renditions, first of all. In addition, he was handsome, but even if he were not, it wouldn’t change the fact that he IS a Prophet of God. If you truly want to know. Please do as James 1:5 directs: ask of God, the Eternal Father if Joseph Smith is a Prophet and if the Gospel of Jesus Christ is restored for the final time on the earth. The Holy Ghost will manifest the truth unto you. It is by the power of the Holy Ghost that you may know the truth concerning these things or any other truth in the Universe.

  2. asdfgghgfksdj October 17, 2011 at 11:04 pm #

    To you are saying that Jesus being perfect needed baptism but you don’t? At least to me that doesn’t add up.

  3. CamdenC November 15, 2011 at 3:59 am #

    John’s baptism was by water, but Jesus’ baptism (what all followers of Jesus should do, if they have the chance) was by fire and the Holy Spirit. Before His resurection it was commonly practiced as a symbol of repentence. That is what John was preaching, “repent, make straight the paths…” We as believers should follow Jesus, therefore, we should be baptized… but our salvation doesn’t rely on it.

    Paul describes baptism in Romans Chapter 6 as a symbol of our “death to the old life” (being buried under the water to symbolize the grave) then being raised up new in Christ. I had a conversion and turned away from my old life the moment I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. I “confessed with my mouth and believed in my heart…” and I was saved, and filled with the Holy Spirit.

    The thief on the cross was still under the law (only after the debt for our sins had been paid by His death, burial, and resurection, were we under G.R.A.C.E. “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense”)
    Think about “the hall of faith” in Hebrews… The thief on the cross believed that Jesus was Lord and Savior, and (quoting from Hebrews) “it was acredited to him as righteousness”

    Jesus was asked in the Gospels, “What must we do to do the works of God?” Jesus replied, “Believe in the One that God has sent”. It’s all about believing and following Him. Putting your trust in Him and making Him the Lord of your life.

    Love Him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength… and love your neighbor as yourself.

  4. mormon mom February 13, 2015 at 3:06 am #

    Hi! I was born into the LDS Church, but went inactive for about ten years before coming back to the church. I can assure you that many of the claims – yes, claims, because that is all they are – above, are untrue.

    Firstly, with the photograph up top. The image on the right is not a photograph. Obviously.

    Second, you claim that nobody knew of Joseph’s first vision, because it wasn’t printed. There are actually numerous diaries of early members that Joseph publically testified that he saw God and Jesus Christ. He was not hiding anything. Immediately after the first vision, in fact, he told all of his family.

    Thirdly, you say that the Church backpeddled and said that Joseph actually saw Nephi, not Moroni. The mormon church has always taught that it was Moroni that Joseph Smith saw in 1823, appearing by his bedside.

    Fourth, many members of the church are in fact aware that Joseph Smith was a free mason. Many Masonic symbols are similar to those of Mormon symbols. I was taught in a class at the LDS institute of religion that Joseph Smith searched for gold, because God told him where he might find it. Treasure-digging was not uncommon in that time.

    Fifth, there is not proof that Joseph Smith shot anyone. Just the testimonies of those who hated him, which are not all reliable.

    Sixth, almost every Mormon is aware of the fact that Joseph Smith had over forty wives.

    Lastly, it is not taught in the LDS church that in order to make it into the Celestial Kingdom (The third degree of heaven) you have to do works and get married in the temple in this life, or else you’re done for. It is taught that everyone will have a chance for repentance and mercy in the next life. What you do in this life isn’t the end result, you will have a chance to learn and accept the gospel in the next life, and that choice affects where you end up.

    I should also note that Jesus Christ is the center of the LDS faith, not Joseph Smith. We, as members of the church, do not believe Joseph Smith to be a perfect man or an angel whom we worship. We believe that through Christ, all mankind may be saved, in this life or the next.

  5. Noah Pickering February 11, 2016 at 8:00 pm #

    Joseph Smith was handed a gun shortly before his death in Carthage Jail. I forgot the name of the man who gave it to him look it up. However, during the attack on Joseph, Hyrum, Williard Richards, and John Taylor, Joseph ran to the door with the pistol, cracked the door, stuck his hand (gun) through the crack and fired 3-4 bullets. I forgot the exact amount. However if you read the witnesses reports, Joseph missed 2 of the shots and the other one only wounded a guy. The man never died due to the wound Joseph gave him. Honestly though, your saying if a mob of around 2oo men tried to kill you, your brother and friends and you had the chance to stop some of them you wouldn’t? Cause if you say yes to that your lying. Joseph was not a perfect man, everyone know that. But who is? I am a Mormon and proud of it. Everyone bashes on other religions, but I won’t let you make up lies about it. He never killed any guys. He had wives yes, but never had sexual content with them. Only a few. They however either were divorced and died early in the marriage. Why would you even waste the time to hate on a religion if your not even gonna do research on it and tell the truth? Wow it is kinda said that you would do this in your time. Are you proud of this? That you go bashing on other religions? I bet your some little immature man who thinks he knows everything, but will be sorry when the truth comes out. I pray you find the truth and the gospel. Pick up a book and do research next time you write a false blog on a religion or anything for that matter.

    • kitty chemist December 23, 2016 at 8:28 pm #

      Hey “cousin” 🙂 Pickering is in my family line! I loved your comments. Pickerings are awesome!! My husband is related to the Prophet Joseph Smith. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the real deal as you know. Anyone can pray and know for themselves as James 1:5 directs. These anti mormons are like cockroaches, they hate the light and run in packs. They are hateful. Most bigots physically attack the race, gender or group they want to dehumanize. Anti mormons are no different with the Prophet Joseph, My husband, who looks quite a bit like him, is VERY handsome, piercing blue eyes, kind smile and great temperament etc Thanks again Bro Pickering for your comment!!

    • Anonymous October 22, 2017 at 8:54 pm #

      While antiMormon teachings may be incorrect and made to lead people away from the gospel, we should still try to not start arguments. Even if they are teaching against the church and consequently not loving their neighbors, we don’t have to bicker with them.

  6. kitty chemist December 23, 2016 at 8:31 pm #

    My husband is related to the Prophet Joseph. You are incorrect on your “facts.” Joseph Smith was a very handsome man. He is described by other anti mormons and non members as well as members and artists renditions. Either way handsome or not, He is a Prophet of God, You and all the anti mormons in the world can not change truth.

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