False Prophecies of Joseph Smith

20 October

Destruction of the Earth

D&C 88:87; For not many days hence and the earth shall tremble and reel to and fro as a drunken man; and the sun shall hide his face, and shall refuse to give light; and the moon shall be bathed in blood; and the stars shall become exceedingly angry, and shall cast themselves down as a fig that falleth from off a fig-tree.

Deuteronomy 18:20-22; But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.

21 And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?

22 When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

This was a prophecy given by Joseph Smith on December 27, 1832.  You can also find it in History of the Church 1:302-312.

The problem with this prophecy is obvious to all I’m sure!  None of the things Smith prophesied took place!  As of today’s date (October 20, 2011) it’s been 178 years, 297 days.  That means 65,267 days have passed by since that revelation, so my next question should be obvious as well.  What’s the meaning of “not many days”?

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3 Responses to “False Prophecies of Joseph Smith”

  1. Rebekah October 20, 2011 at 10:09 pm #

    False prophecy? You know this sounds exactly like your grasping at straws.Be fair, similar prophsies are given in The Book of Revelations. According to some scholars many Christians at one time were pretty sure that Nero was the Anti-Christ and that Christ would be coming soon. I wonder what happened?

    For starters what is a day or a generation in scriptural terminology?

    Does it mean overnight? A hundred years from now? two hundred years from now?

    Are you forgetting what Christ prophesied in Luke 21
    25 ¶ And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
    26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
    27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
    28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
    29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;
    30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.
    31 So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.
    32 Verily I say unto you, This GENERATION shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.

    So I ask you again? What is a Generation? If we go by a generation as a generation of 25 years or so than, Christ blew it. He failed in coming again and your warning Deuteronomy 18:20-22, could apply. But since I am assuming that you believe Christ’s coming has yet to come then trying to claim Joseph Smith’s prophecy is false seems a bit off considering the fact that a generation is more than just a short span of time and a few days is more than just that.

    • discoveringgrace October 21, 2011 at 5:12 pm #

      Rebekah, I think it’s more than obvious when you read the words of Jesus in context that he’s not talking about the “generation” he’s speaking to face to face, but the generation that’s going to be around when all the things he’s referring to starts happening. Notice how he talks about the things that will happen giving the example of the fig tree then says “this generation”?

      Please tell me you’re not lumping Jesus in with Smith, suggesting that Jesus gave a false prophesy. Smith was notorious for false prophesy’s, he loved giving these grandiose sermons yet as we see from the quote above had no clue as to what he was talking about.

      – Melissa Grimes

  2. CamdenC October 27, 2011 at 2:44 am #

    I would be careful about saying or even hinting (even to try and prove a point) that Christ “blew it”. I am pretty sure you were being facetious and you know that Jesus is God and knows everything, beginning to end.

    Consider this, the time span of a generation is generally regarded as either 40 years or 80 years (and some put Biblical generations around 100 years). Now in reference to the fig tree, we know that the nation of Israel is represented by the fig tree; so when Jesus was talking about seeing the fig tree start to shoot (or bring forth it’s fruit) He was referring to the future event, also prophesied in Ezekial, about the Jewish peoples returning to the Promised Land and becoming a Nation once again. Bible prophecy (especially Revelation) wasn’t really talked about or studied with any urgency because until the Israel Nation could be formed again in the Holy Land, the things that Jesus talked about and even John in Rev wouldn’t come to pass. The Arabs had been holding the land commonly called Palestine for 100’s of years and there was no way anybody thought that the Jews could get back in. Sure there were small settlements of Jews in and around the area, but they had no “legal” claim to the area, escpecially Jerusalem.

    So in 1948, the “world” once again recognized the Jewish peoples as a Nation with land (probably out of pity for what happened to them during WW2). Fast forward to 1967 and the Jews fought with several Arab nations for land that was rightfully theirs. Given to Abraham and settled by Joshua and the nation after fleeing the Egyptian captivity. The land, Jerusalem, the Temple, etc. was lost to the Romans in 70 A.D. A Roman ruler destroyed the Temple and dispersed the Jews… and they stayed scattered for close to 1,900 years. (You probably have heard a lot about the “pre 1967 borders” recently spoken of by Obama) Anyways, where I am going with this is that we should all be looking up for our redemption draws near…

    Enough of the history lesson, let’s talk about the false prophecy. We can argue the time span of days considered in the text above. We can also discuss the early church believing that Nero was the Anti-Christ and Jesus was coming back very soon (even though both Jesus and Paul made it very clear that no one knows the day or the hour of His second coming… or wait. Nobody knows the day or hour of the Rapture, because Revelation says that 3.5 years into the 7 year treaty the Anti-Christ makes with Israel, he will break the treaty by demanding the Jews worship him as Messiah. Another 3.5 years or 42 months and Jesus returns. So really we know when Jesus will put His foot on the Mount of Olives. We don’t know when “the dead shall rise first, then we who remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air”. Paul made it very clear in Thesselonians about that event and Jesus said that He will come like a thief in the night. Also the parable of the 5 wise and 5 foolish virgins not knowing when the bridegroom was coming. Which is why I find it odd the early church thought Nero was Anti-Christ, since the Rapture hadn’t happened yet…)

    But I digress, Since we don’t really know what was meant by “not many days hence”, let’s look at any of the other false prophecies uttered by J.Smith… It only takes one not coming true to brand someone a false prophet.

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