Location of Sacred Grove a Mystery

01 February

Sacred Grove; “Joseph Smith’s family moved away from this farm in 1830. …The exact location of Joseph Smith’s First Vision is unknown, but it occurred somewhere within a 10-acre forest on the western boundaries of the farm. This forest has been referred to as the Sacred Grove since 1906.”

1 Timothy 4:7; “But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.”

About a month ago, I came across a quick statement someone made that gave me pause. They briefly pointed out the Church wasn’t sure about the exact location of the all important ‘Sacred Grove’, which is where the Mormon god personally appeared to Joseph Smith.

Since that time I’ve half-heartedly attempted to look for more info, and today’s post is on my findings. Woo-hoo!

In 2014 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published ‘Life on the Smith Farm’, a website filled with top notch images of Joseph Smith’s boyhood life in Palmyra, New York. Short stories under wood-cut images and photos include descriptions of what he, and his family ‘suffered through’ in the early nineteenth century. They’re obviously trying to tug at the heartstrings of church members.

Still searching for my info, I came upon another link (Journey to the Sacred Grove) where videos of Mormons shared how their faith was strengthened by visiting the place where Joe Smith prayed. After moseying around the parent webpage, LDS Historic Sites, I finally landed on a site (Sacred Grove) fessin’ up to how the Church doesn’t know the exact location of where God appeared to Smith.

Long story short, the whole thing is reminiscent of an onion. You have to keep peeling back layer after layer, before you get to the center of their ‘story’ and unfortunately, this is all it is. A story.

The Church has spent untold amounts of money on producing a feel-good idea of this self-proclaimed prophet of God. Millions flock to the ‘sacred grove’ in hopes of having the same experience ol’ Joe did almost 200 years ago.

Making matters worse is the fact of how highly unlikely it is Smith was even living in Palmyra on the dates he provided. In H. Michael Marquardt and Wesley P. Walters’ book, ‘Inventing Mormonism’, they looked closely at the timeline which revealed Smith wasn’t living there on the dates specified. According to their records, Smith’s accounts were off by two years. See Inventing Mormonism, chapter 1 for more info.

If there’s a lesson to be learned in Mormonism it’s this –

No matter how bad the news seems to be, it can and will most definitely be, worse than you thought.

Thinking  about those who ‘testified’ in the video series mentioned above, breaks my heart. How sad it is they’ve invested so much faith into a man who every time he opened his mouth, lied.

Please, pray for the Lord to open the minds of those who continue to believe all these lies!

With Love in Christ;

Michelle

1 Cor 1:18

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