View source for Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Becoming Gods/Chapter 1

{{Main Page}}  
{{H1
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Becoming Gods/Chapter 1
|H=Response to claims made in "Chapter 1: God's Latter-Day Prophet"
|T=[[../../|Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism]]
|A=Richard Abanes
|<=[[../Preface|Preface]]
|>=[[../Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
}}
{{ChartBecomingGodsCh1}}
<onlyinclude>
{{H2
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Becoming Gods/Chapter 1
|H=Response to claims made in Becoming Gods, "Chapter 1: God's Latter-Day Prophet"
|S=
|L1=Response to claim: 24 - Joseph's family survived by "money digging"
|L2=Response to claim: 24 - Joseph was adept at "occult ritual"
|L3=Response to claim: 24 - Joseph's neighbors thought that he was "an imposter, hypocrite and liar"
|L4=Response to claim: 26 - During the First Vision, Joseph was told that "all Christian creeds" were an abomination and that "all Christian teachers" were corrupt
|L5=Response to claim: 26 - Many Mormons believe that "their salvation, to a limited degree, rests upon Smith"
|L6=Response to claim: 26 - Bruce R. McConkie said that "we must turn to Joseph Smith to gain salvation"
|L7=Response to claim: 26 - Dallin Oaks said that "I have built my life on the testimony and mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith."
|L8=Response to claim: 27 - Joseph Smith was "harsh and violent"
|L9=Response to claim: 27 - James E. Faust said that Joseph Smith "was the greatest prophet who ever lived upon the earth"
|L10=Response to claim: 28 - Joseph Smith may have been a "pious fraud," who believed that he had been called of God while perpetrating fraud
|L11=Response to claim: 28 - Polygamy was practiced in secret and denied publicly
|L12=Response to claim: 28 - Heber C. Kimball predicted that the world would someday see Joseph Smith as "a god"
|L13=Response to claim: 28 - Brigham Young applied 1 John 4:3 to Joseph Smith
|L14=Response to claim: 29 - LDS claim that Joseph Smith "told but one" First Vision
|L15=Response to claim: 30 - The 1832 account of the First Vision states that Joseph was in his "sixteenth year," and that he "probably meant when he was 16 years old"
|L16=Response to claim: 30 - The 1832 account does not mention two personages
|L17=Response to claim: 30 - The 1832 account does not mention that "all the churches in Joseph's day were false"
|L18=Response to claim: 31 - Joseph claimed that he learned about the errors in Christendom through personal Bible study several years before the First Vision
|L19=Response to claim: 31 - Orson Pratt said that the two personages "declared themselves to be angels"
|L20=Response to claim: 31 - Church historian Andrew Jenson said that "The angel again forbade Joseph to join any of these churches"
|L21=Response to claim: 31 - Joseph dictated the 1838 account of the First Vision to counter the leadership crisis in Kirtland
|L22=Response to claim: 34 - "Not a single piece" of literature published in the 1830's mentions a visit by the Father and the Son
|L23=Response to claim: 34 - Joseph's mother said that the First Vision was of an angel
|L24=Response to claim: 34 - Joseph privately began reworking the story of seeing an angel into a vision of Christ
|L25=Response to claim: 34 - Without "Mormonism's so-called" Melchizedek Priesthood, no man can see God and live
|L26=Response to claim: 34 - Nobody knows "when or how" the Joseph received the Melchizedek Priesthood
|L27=Response to claim: 34 - Joseph "had to backdate" the First Vision to 1820 in response to a leadership crisis
|L28=Response to claim: 35 - The First Vision originally stated that the personages were angels
|L29=Response to claim: 35 - There was no 1820 revival in Palmyra that converted "great multitudes" of people
|L30=Response to claim: 35, 342n78, 348n130 - Joseph Smith is claimed to have joined other churches after having been told that churches were wrong
|L31=Response to claim: 35, 342n79-80 - Newspapers reported in 1829 that Joseph Smith had a dream in 1827 about a spirit visiting him three times in one night
|L32=Response to claim: 35-36, 343n83 - Joseph Smiths First Vision may have been a dream of a "bloody ghost dressed as a Spaniard
|L33=Response to claim: 36, 343n85 - Joseph Smith was an "occultist"
|L34=Response to claim: 36 - Early Mormons believed in "witchcraft"
|L35=Response to claim: 36 - Joseph's mother talked about "magic circles" and the "faculty of Abrac"
|L36=Response to claim: 37, 344n93 - Joseph's family had a "magick dagger" that was owned by Hyrum Smith
|L37=Response to claim: 37, 344n94 - Joseph's family had "three magick parchments." One of these was owned by Hyrum Smith
|L38=Response to claim: 37, 344n95 - Joseph had a "Jupiter talisman" with him the day he died
|L39=Response to claim: 38 - "Researchers of Mormonism" now believe that Joseph was influenced by "Jewish kabbalism"
|L40=Response to claim: 38 - Joseph considered the date April 6th to have "astrological significance"
|L41=Response to claim: 38-39, 346 n. 104-109 - Joseph was arrested in 1826 for being a "disorderly person and an imposter"
|L42=Response to claim: 39 - No "statements of repentance by Smith" for money digging have ever been found
|L43=Response to claim: 40, 348n123 - Gordon B. Hinckley cited false documentation to support the story of an 1820 revival
|L44=Response to claim: 42, 349n126 - There is no evidence that Joseph Smith was "persecuted" for telling the story of his vision between 1820 and 1824
|L45=Response to claim: 42, 43 (sidebar) - Contradictions in the stories of Paul's vision were "long ago resolved by scholars analyzing the Greek texts"
|L46=Response to claim: 42 - Brodie's idea that the First Vision may have been "the elaboration of some half-remembered dream stimulated by the early revival excitement" is a satisfactory way to "explain things"
|L47=Response to claim: 44 - Brodie's idea that the First Vision may have been "created some time after 1830 when the need arose for a magnificent tradition to cancel out the stories of his fortune-telling and money-digging" "further weakens" Mormon claims
|L48=Response to claim: 45, 351 n. 144 - Joseph "continued practicing magick, divination, astrology, and soothsaying long after the LDS Church was founded in 1830"
|L49=Response to claim: 46 - Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball were given divining rods by Joseph Smith
|L50=Response to claim: 46 - Joseph received a revelation praising Oliver's gift of using his divining talents
|L51=Response to claim: 48 - Joseph "never stopped being" an occultist
|L52=Response to claim: 49 - The activities of Joseph's family may have been "satanic"
}}
</onlyinclude>

==Response to claim: 24 - Joseph's family survived by "money digging"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph's family survived by "money digging."
|authorsources=<br>
#{{CriticalWork:Persuitte:Origins|pages=35}}
}}
{{propaganda|The author wishes to make it sound as if "money digging" was the Smith family's profession. Joseph's family survived by a variety of means, such as making and selling maple syrup. "Money digging" was an activity, but it was not the family's source of income.
}}
{{:Question: Was "money digging" Joseph Smith, Jr's primary source of income during his early years?}}

==Response to claim: 24 - Joseph was adept at "occult ritual"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph was adept at "occult ritual."
|authorsources=<br>
#No actual reference given by the author: The note simply says "Smith was well-known as a money-digger throughout western New York and northern Pennsylvania."
}}
{{propaganda|The author is simply making this up.
}}
{{:Question: Were Joseph Smith's spiritual experiences originally products of magic and the occult?}}

==Response to claim: 24 - Joseph's neighbors thought that he was "an imposter, hypocrite and liar"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph's neighbors thought that he was "an imposter, hypocrite and liar."
|authorsources=<br>
#{{CriticalWork:Howe:Mormonism Unvailed|pages=}}
}}
{{propaganda|The affidavits against Joseph's character were gathered by an enemy of Joseph: Doctor Philastus Hurbut, three years after the publication of the Book of Mormon and the organization of the Church. They were then published in the anti-Mormon book ''Mormonism Unvailed''.
}}
{{:Question: What are the Hurlbut affidavits?}}

==Response to claim: 26 - During the First Vision, Joseph was told that "all Christian creeds" were an abomination and that "all Christian teachers" were corrupt==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
During the First Vision, Joseph was told that "all Christian creeds" were an abomination and that "all Christian teachers" were corrupt.
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.	
}}
{{propaganda|The author deliberately inserts the word "Christian" in these phrases in order to negatively influence the reader. Given that it was Jesus Christ who uttered these phrases during the First Vision, this is simply an attempt by the author to make Joseph appear "anti-Christian."
}}
{{CrossRef:Abanes:One Nation|chapter=17|pages=377, n8(PB)}}
{{:Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe that no genuine Christians exist outside of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?}}

==Response to claim: 26 - Many Mormons believe that "their salvation, to a limited degree, rests upon Smith"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Many Mormons believe that "their salvation, to a limited degree, rests upon Smith."
|authorsources=<br>
*In a note on page 332, the author says "I do not mean to say the Mormons hold Joseph Smith on an equal par with Jesus Christ. Smith holds a place just below Christ." 
*{{CriticalWork:Tanner:Case Against|pages=vol. 1, p. 75}}
*Joseph Fielding Smith, ''Doctrines of Salvation'', p. 302
}}
{{disinformation|The gift of salvation is given only by Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith would participate in the final judgement of those of this dispensation, just as other prophets will participate in the judgement of their respective dispensations. I all cases, however, Jesus Christ is the ultimate judge and arbiter.
}}
{{:Question: Do Mormons believe that Joseph Smith must approve whether or not they get into heaven?}}
{{:Question: What is the origin of the idea that Joseph Smith will participate in the final judgement?}}

==Response to claim: 26 - Bruce R. McConkie said that "we must turn to Joseph Smith to gain salvation"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Bruce R. McConkie said that "we must turn to Joseph Smith to gain salvation."
|authorsources=<br>
#{{MillennialMessiah1 |start=334}}
}}
{{misinformation|The author has seriously distorted Elder McConkie's statement. Elder McConkie's intent is clear—salvation is only through Christ, and Christ can only be known through prophets, including Joseph Smith
}}
{{:Question: Did Bruce R. McConkie state that we must turn to Joseph Smith to gain salvation?}}

==Response to claim: 26 - Dallin Oaks said that "I have built my life on the testimony and mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith."==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Dallin Oaks said that "I have built my life on the testimony and mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith."
|authorsources=<br>
#{{Ensign1|author=Dallin Oaks|article=Joseph, the Man and the Prophet|date=May 1996|start=71}} {{link|url=https://www.lds.org/ensign/1996/05/joseph-the-man-and-the-prophet?lang=eng}}
}}
{{misinformation|The author omits Elder Oaks' very next words:
<blockquote>
In all of my reading and original research, I have never been dissuaded from my testimony of his prophetic calling and of the gospel and priesthood restoration the Lord initiated through him. I solemnly affirm the testimony Joseph Smith expressed in the famous Wentworth letter of 1842:

<blockquote>
“… 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” (''Times and Seasons'', 1 March 1842, 709; quoted in Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., ''Encyclopedia of Mormonism'', 5 vols. [1992], 4:1754).
</blockquote>

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
</blockquote>
}}

==Response to claim: 27 - Joseph Smith was "harsh and violent"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph Smith was "harsh and violent."
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|Joseph Smith was human, and subject to human passions. Nevertheless, there is no evidence that he was "harsh and violent."	
}}
{{:Question: Do Joseph Smith's personality and temperament indicate that he was not a true prophet of God?}}
{{:Source:Webb:BYUS:2011:18:Joseph Smith's doctrine and character demand our amazement}}

==Response to claim: 27 - James E. Faust said that Joseph Smith "was the greatest prophet who ever lived upon the earth"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
James E. Faust said that Joseph Smith "was the greatest prophet who ever lived upon the earth."
|authorsources=<br>
#James E. Faust, [https://www.lds.org/ensign/1997/03/the-importance-of-bearing-testimony "The Importance of Bearing Testimony,"] ''Liahona'', Mar. 1997, p.3.
}}
{{misinformation|Note that the author carefully removes all the surrounding text which discusses Jesus Christ (italic text is quoted by author; bold for emphasis):
<blockquote>
As one of the '''special witnesses of the Lord''', I desire to declare my testimony to you. I am grateful that I have always had a testimony of the gospel. I cannot remember when I did not believe. I have not always understood everything and do not claim to do so now, but through thousands and thousands of spiritual confirmations throughout my life, including my calling to the holy apostleship, I can declare my testimony to you that '''Jesus is the Christ. With every fiber and cell of my being, I know that He is our Savior and Redeemer'''. I testify that Joseph Smith ''was the greatest prophet who ever lived upon the earth'' and of great importance to the '''Savior in the work of God''' on the earth. I know this to be true.<ref>James E. Faust, [https://www.lds.org/ensign/1997/03/the-importance-of-bearing-testimony "The Importance of Bearing Testimony,"] ''Liahona'', Mar. 1997</ref>
</blockquote>
}}

==Response to claim: 28 - Joseph Smith may have been a "pious fraud," who believed that he had been called of God while perpetrating fraud==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph Smith may have been a "pious fraud," who believed that he had been called of God while perpetrating fraud. 
|authorsources=<br>
#Dan Vogel in Waterman, p. 50
}}
{{propaganda|This is the [[Logical fallacies#Appeal to probability|fallacy of probability]]. The claim is nonsense.
}}
{{:Question: Is it possible to deduce Joseph Smith's thoughts and dreams years after his death?}}
<!-- ====28====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title={{check}}
|claim=Joseph Smith and other church leaders "often used deception to conceal their activities."
}}
*[[Joseph Smith/Personality and temperament]]
|authorsources=<br>
# No source provided.	
}} -->

==Response to claim: 28 - Polygamy was practiced in secret and denied publicly==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Polygamy was practiced in secret and denied publicly.
|authorsources=<br>
#''Times and Seasons'', Mar 15, 1843, vol. 4, no. 9, p. 143
}}
{{information|This is correct. Plural marriage was practiced in secret in Nauvoo.
}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith ever publicly attempt to teach the doctrine of plural marriage?}}
{{:Question: Why did Joseph keep the doctrine of plural marriage private?}}
{{:Question: Why did Joseph Smith say "I had not been married scarcely five minutes...before it was reported that I had seven wives"?}}

==Response to claim: 28 - Heber C. Kimball predicted that the world would someday see Joseph Smith as "a god"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Heber C. Kimball predicted that the world would someday see Joseph Smith as "a god."
|authorsources=<br>
#Heber C. Kimball, [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Journal_of_Discourses/Volume_5/Oneness_of_the_Priesthood,_etc. ''Journal of Discourses'', 5:88].
}}
{{misinformation|Kimball is not here assigning Joseph divine status, nor he is teaching the doctrine of theosis. Rather, he is using a biblical allusion to insist that Joseph and his heirs to the priesthood have a right to leadership of the Saints in both spiritual and temporal things.
}}
{{:Question: Did Heber C. Kimball say that future generations would view Joseph Smith as "a god"?}}

==Response to claim: 28 - Brigham Young applied 1 John 4:3 to Joseph Smith==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Brigham Young applied 1 John 4:3 to Joseph Smith.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{JDfairwiki|author=Brigham Young|vol=8|disc=46|start=176}}
}}
{{information|The scripture in 1 John applies to Joseph because Joseph is a prophet—and prophets testify of Christ. To reject Christ's prophets is to reject him.
}}
{{:Question: Did Brigham Young commit blasphemy by applying 1 John 4:3 to Joseph Smith?}}

==Response to claim: 29 - LDS claim that Joseph Smith "told but one" First Vision==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
LDS claim that Joseph Smith "told but one" First Vision.
|authorsources=<br>
#Preston Nibley, ''Joseph Smith the Prophet'' (SLC: Deseret News, 1944), p. 30.
}}
{{misinformation|Church publications have long described the multiple accounts of the First Vision.
}}
{{:Source:Gospel Topics:The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story}}
{{:Church History Seminary Teacher Manual:2013:Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts}}
{{:Source:Backman:Ensign:January 1985:On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts}}
{{:Allen:Improvement Era:April 1970:he continued to do so in varying detail until the year of his death}}
{{:Neuenschwander:Ensign:January 2009:Joseph's vision was at first an intensely personal experience...it became the founding revelation of the Restoration}}
{{:Hinckley:Ensign:October 1984:I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision}}

==Response to claim: 30 - The 1832 account of the First Vision states that Joseph was in his "sixteenth year," and that he "probably meant when he was 16 years old"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
The 1832 account of the First Vision states that Joseph was in his "sixteenth year," and that he "probably meant when he was 16 years old.
|authorsources=<br>
#Dan Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'', 1:28
}}
{{information|This is correct.
}}
{{:Question: Why does Joseph Smith state in his 1832 First Vision account that he was in his "16th year" of age?}}

==Response to claim: 30 - The 1832 account does not mention two personages==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
The 1832 account does not mention two personages.
|authorsources=<br>
#Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 1:28
}}
{{information|The 1832 account mentions "the Lord," but does not mention the other personage.
}}
{{:Question: Why does Joseph Smith's 1832 account of the First Vision not mention two personages?}}

==Response to claim: 30 - The 1832 account does not mention that "all the churches in Joseph's day were false"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
The 1832 account does not mention that "all the churches in Joseph's day were false."
|authorsources=<br>
#Dan Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'', 1:28
}}
{{misinformation|Jesus Christ informed Joseph in the 1832 account that "they draw near to me with their lips while their hears are far from me."
}}
{{:Question: Does the 1832 account of the First Vision not prohibit Joseph from joining any church?}}

==Response to claim: 31 - Joseph claimed that he learned about the errors in Christendom through personal Bible study several years before the First Vision==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph claimed that he learned about the errors in Christendom through personal Bible study several years before the First Vision.
|authorsources=<br>
#Dan Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'', 1:27
}}
{{information|If you had come to the conclusion that mankind has apostatized from the true faith, and you suddenly found Jesus standing in front of you, wouldn't you ask Him if any of those churches was the correct one?
}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith decide that all churches were wrong before he received the First Vision?}}

==Response to claim: 31 - Orson Pratt said that the two personages "declared themselves to be angels"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Orson Pratt said that the two personages "declared themselves to be angels."
|authorsources=<br>
#Pratt in "Biography and Journal of William I. Appleby, Elder in the Church of Latter Day Saints," 1848 reprinted in Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'', vol. 1, pp. 146-147.
}}
{{disinformation|In no account of the First Vision did the personages declare themselves to be angels. Some of the accounts talk of additional angels appearing, and Joseph himself referred to the First Vision as the "first visitation of angels."
}}
{{:Question: Did Orson Pratt state that it was an angel that appeared during the First Vision?}}
{{:Question: What did Orson Pratt state about Joseph Smith's First Vision?}}

==Response to claim: 31 - Church historian Andrew Jenson said that "The angel again forbade Joseph to join any of these churches"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Church historian Andrew Jenson said that "The angel again forbade Joseph to join any of these churches."
|authorsources=<br>
#Andrew Jenson, "Joseph Smith, The Prophet," Jan. 1888, vol. 3, nos. 1-3, p. 355.
}}
{{misinformation|Andrew Jenson is quoting - at length - from the official 1838 Church history account of the First Vision. He was aware that one personage had declared the other as his "beloved Son." Jenson deliberately referred to Jesus Christ as "the angel."
}}
{{:Question: Who was the "angel" in the First Vision that Andrew Jenson was referring to?}}

==Response to claim: 31 - Joseph dictated the 1838 account of the First Vision to counter the leadership crisis in Kirtland==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph dictated the 1838 account of the First Vision to counter the leadership crisis in Kirtland.	
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|This is pure speculation on the part of the author.
}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith revise his account of the First Vision in 1838 to respond to a leadership crisis?}}
<!-- ====31====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title={{check}}
|claim=The visit of Moroni was confused with the First Vision, and "was probably the real first vision."
}}
*[[First Vision/Fabricated to give "Godly authority"]]
|authorsources=<br>
# No source provided.	
}} -->

==Response to claim: 34 - "Not a single piece" of literature published in the 1830's mentions a visit by the Father and the Son==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
"Not a single piece" of literature published in the 1830's mentions a visit by the Father and the Son.	
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{misinformation|There are several significant references to the First Vision in published documents from the 1830s.
}}
{{:Question: What references to the First Vision exist in published documents from the 1830s?}}

==Response to claim: 34 - Joseph's mother said that the First Vision was of an angel==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph's mother said that the First Vision was of an angel.
|authorsources=<br>
#Lucy Mack Smith, letter to Solomon Mack Jr., Jan. 6, 1831, reprinted in Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'', vol. 1, p. 216.
}}
{{misinformation|Lucy Mack Smith's 1831 letter does NOT say that her son's first heavenly visitation was from an angel: Her letter contains an easily recognizable First Vision storyline fragment.
}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith's mother say that the First Vision was of an "angel"?}}

==Response to claim: 34 - Joseph privately began reworking the story of seeing an angel into a vision of Christ==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph privately began reworking the story of seeing an angel into a vision of Christ.
|authorsources=<br>
#Oliver Cowdery, ''Messenger and Advocate'', Feb. 1835, vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 77-80.
}}
{{disinformation|This is nonsense. Oliver Cowdery's history of the Church began talking of the religious excitement leading up to the First Vision, but in the next installment, published two months later, Oliver advances Joseph's age from 14 to 17 and skips the First Vision. He instead describes the visit of the angel Moroni. Critics of the Church conflate the two installments to infer that the First Vision was of an angel.
}}
{{:Question: Did Oliver Cowdery state that Joseph did not know if a "supreme being" existed in 1823?}}
{{:Question: What criticisms are related to Oliver Cowdery's 1834-1835 history of the Church?}}

==Response to claim: 34 - Without "Mormonism's so-called" Melchizedek Priesthood, no man can see God and live==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Without "Mormonism's so-called" Melchizedek Priesthood, no man can see God and live.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{s||D&C|84|21-22}}
}}
{{misinformation|The author misinterprets D&C 84:21-22.
}}
{{:Question: Does Doctrine and Covenants 84 say that one cannot see God without holding the priesthood?}}

==Response to claim: 34 - Nobody knows "when or how" the Joseph received the Melchizedek Priesthood==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Nobody knows "when or how" the Joseph received the Melchizedek Priesthood.
|authorsources=<br>
#Online reference to anti-Mormon site "lds-mormon.com"
}}
{{disinformation|Oliver Cowdery knew how the priesthood was restored, and he talked about it.
}}
{{:Question: In what manner was the Melchizedek Priesthood restored?}}
{{:Question: What is the date of the restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood?}}
{{:Question: Where was the Melchizedek Priesthood restored?}}

==Response to claim: 34 - Joseph "had to backdate" the First Vision to 1820 in response to a leadership crisis==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph "had to backdate" the First Vision to 1820 in response to a leadership crisis.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{CriticalWork:Palmer:Insider|pages=251}}
}}
{{propaganda|There is no evidence to support this, and Joseph's journal indicates that he was sharing the details of his First Vision with visitors to his home in 1835, three years before the "leadership crisis."
}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith revise his account of the First Vision in 1838 to respond to a leadership crisis?}}

==Response to claim: 35 - The First Vision originally stated that the personages were angels==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
The First Vision originally stated that the personages were angels.
|authorsources=<br>
*William Smith, Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'', vol. 1, p. 495.
*George A. Smith
*Lucy Smith
*{{JDfairwiki|author=Brigham Young|vol=2|disc=31|start=171}}
*John Taylor, ''Journal of Discourses'' vol. ?, p. 167.
*{{JDfairwiki|author=Heber C. Kimball|vol=6|disc=4|start=29}}
}}
{{disinformation|This is false. The 1832 account spoke of "the Lord."
}}
{{:Question: What are the two 1835 First Vision accounts that refer to angels?}}

==Response to claim: 35 - There was no 1820 revival in Palmyra that converted "great multitudes" of people==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
There was no 1820 revival in Palmyra that converted "great multitudes" of people.
|authorsources=<br>
#Oliver Cowdery, ''Messenger and Advocate'', Feb. 1835, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 42.
}}
{{misinformation|Methodist camp meetings were being held in Palmyra in 1820.
}}
{{:Question: What religious excitement was occurring in Palmyra in 1820?}}

==Response to claim: 35, 342n78, 348n130 - Joseph Smith is claimed to have joined other churches after having been told that churches were wrong==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=<br>
*Joseph Smith is claimed to have joined other churches after having been told that churches were wrong.
*Joseph is claimed to have become a member of the Baptist Church after his First Vision.
*Joseph is claimed to have become an "exhorter" for the Methodists after his First Vision.
|authorsources=<br>
*Fayette Lapham, "Interview," pp. 305-306, reprinted in Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'' 1:458.
*Mitchell Bronk, "The Baptist Church at Manchester," ''The Chronicle: A Baptist Historical Quarterly'' [January 1948], vol. 11, pp. 23-24.
*Orasmus Turner, ''Lockport Daily Courier'', May 5, 1854.
*Sophia Lewis, ''Susquehanna Register'', May 1, 1834 reprinted in {{CriticalWork:Howe:Mormonism Unvailed|pages=269}}
}}
{{misinformation|Nobody who has charged Joseph Smith with joining a church between 1820 and 1830 has ever produced any authentic denominational membership record that would substantiate such a claim.
}}
{{CrossRef:Abanes:One Nation|chapter=1|pages=18, 487n62-63 (PB)}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith join the Methodist, Presbyterian, or Baptist churches between 1820 and 1830 despite the claim made in his 1838 history that he was forbidden by Deity from joining any denomination?}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith become a baptized member of the Baptist Church in 1822?}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith become a member of the Methodist Church while he was translating the Book of Mormon?}}
{{:Questions: Are there contemporary witnesses that confirm that Joseph Smith didn't join any church after the First Vision?}}

==Response to claim: 35, 342n79-80 - Newspapers reported in 1829 that Joseph Smith had a dream in 1827 about a spirit visiting him three times in one night==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Newspapers reported in 1829 that Joseph Smith had a dream in 1827 about a spirit visiting him three times in one night.
|authorsources=<br>
*From the 'Palmyra Freeman: Golden Bible, ''Niagara Courier'', Aug. 27, 1829, vol. 2, no. 18.
*"The Gold Bible," ''Rochester Advertiser and Telegraph'', Aug. 31, 1829.
}}
{{misinformation|The author of the newspaper article obviously does not believe Joseph's story, and so characterizes his experience as "a dream," rather than a vision.
}}
{{:Question: Did the story of Moroni's visit to Joseph Smith evolve from that of a magical spiritual treasure guardian to an "angel"?}}

==Response to claim: 35-36, 343n83 - Joseph Smiths First Vision may have been a dream of a "bloody ghost dressed as a Spaniard==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph Smiths First Vision may have been a dream of a "bloody ghost dressed as a Spaniard.
|authorsources=<br>
*Hiel Lewis, letter to James T. Cobb, ''Amboy Journal'', Apr. 30, 1879, reprinted in Wyl, pp. 79-80
*Fayette Lapham [May 1870], in {{EarlyMormonDocs1|vol=1|start=459}}
*{{CitationError}}: the reference to the dream and bloody clothes is on p. 458.
}}
{{propaganda|These supposed "early" accounts comes from hostile statements made forty to fifty years later! The 1870 account from Lapham says only that "a man" with "bloody clothes" appeared in a dream. (He also says this is what Joseph Jr. told his father, so this is hearsay.)
}}
**{{FR-18-1-5}}
**{{FR-17-1-4}}

==Response to claim: 36, 343n85 - Joseph Smith was an "occultist"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph Smith was an "occultist."
|authorsources=<br>
#Lance S. Owens, "Joseph Smith: America's Hermetic Prophet," ''Gnosis'', Spring 1995, no. 35, p. 60
}}
{{propaganda|The author is using loaded language. Joseph was never an "occultist."
}}
{{:Question: Were Joseph Smith's spiritual experiences originally products of magic and the occult?}}

==Response to claim: 36 - Early Mormons believed in "witchcraft"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Early Mormons believed in "witchcraft."
|authorsources=<br>
#John L. Brooke, ''The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology'', 1644-1844, pp. 71-72.
}}
{{propaganda|While some members may have believed in witchcraft, all the scriptural and primary evidence portrays their opinion of such things as negative, not positive
}}
{{:Question: Did early members of the Church believe in witchcraft?}}

==Response to claim: 36 - Joseph's mother talked about "magic circles" and the "faculty of Abrac"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph's mother talked about "magic circles" and the "faculty of Abrac."
|authorsources=<br>
#Dan Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'', vol. 1, p. 285.
}}
{{misinformation|Lucy is actually ''denying'' that her family was involved in these things.
}}
{{:Question: Does Lucy Mack Smith's mention of the "faculty of Abrac" and "magic circles" evidence that "magick" played a strong role in the Smith family's early life?}}

==Response to claim: 37, 344n93 - Joseph's family had a "magick dagger" that was owned by Hyrum Smith==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph's family had a "magick dagger" that was owned by Hyrum Smith.
|authorsources=<br>
*No source given. 
*The endnote describes the dagger and its alleged importance to Joseph without acknowledging the source of the information.
}}
{{propaganda|Everyone in the nineteenth-century frontier had at least one dagger, and this one was not designed for ceremonial magic or treasure hunting.
}}
*{{CrossRef:Abanes:One Nation|chapter=5|pages=89}}
{{:Question: Was a "magic dagger" once owned by Hyrum Smith?}}

==Response to claim: 37, 344n94 - Joseph's family had "three magick parchments." One of these was owned by Hyrum Smith==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph's family had "three magick parchments." One of these was owned by Hyrum Smith.
|authorsources=<br>
*No source given. 
*The endnote mentions the ""Holiness to the Lord,"" the ""Saint Peter Bind Them,"" and the ""Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah"" parchments without showing how they are related to the Smith family. 
*An indirect reference is made to the book ''Occult Sciences''."
}}
{{propaganda|There is no evidence that Joseph knew of, possessed, or used magical parchments.
}}
*{{CrossRef:Abanes:One Nation|chapter=5|pages=89-90, 519n53-57}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith's family own "magic parchments" which suggest their involvement in the "occult"?}}
{{:Question: What is the probability that Joseph Smith possessed items related to "magic"?}}

==Response to claim: 37, 344n95 - Joseph had a "Jupiter talisman" with him the day he died==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph had a "Jupiter talisman" with him the day he died.
|authorsources=<br>
*No source given. 
*The endnote simply states the date of Joseph's death.
}}
{{misinformation|There is no contemporary evidence that the talisman was on Joseph when he died.
}}
*{{CrossRef:Abanes:One Nation|chapter=5|pages=89}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith have a Jupiter talisman on his person at the time of his death?}}
{{:Question: What is the source of the story about Joseph Smith possessing a Jupiter talisman?}}
{{:Question: Could the list of items on Joseph's person at the time of his death have been incomplete?}}
{{:Source:Stephen Robinson:BYUS 27:4:1987:In the case of the Jupiter coin, this same extrapolation error is compounded with a very uncritical acceptance of the artifact in the first place}}

==Response to claim: 38 - "Researchers of Mormonism" now believe that Joseph was influenced by "Jewish kabbalism"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
"Researchers of Mormonism" now believe that Joseph was influenced by "Jewish kabbalism."	
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|This is speculation without evidence.
}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith derive his religious ideas in part from a mysticism called Kabbalah?}}

==Response to claim: 38 - Joseph considered the date April 6th to have "astrological significance"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph considered the date April 6th to have "astrological significance."
|authorsources=<br>
#{{CriticalWork:Quinn:Magic World View|pages=76-79, 278-280}}
}}
{{disinformation|The author provides no evidence for what Joseph believed about April 6. He fails to mention the one bit of evidence that we ''do'' have for what Joseph may have thought: {{s||D&C|20|1}} suggests that April 6 was seen as the date of Christ's birth.<ref>{{EoM1|vol=1|article=April 6|start=61|end=62|author=John Franklin Hall}}</ref> The author fails to cite D&C 20.
}}

==Response to claim: 38-39, 346 n. 104-109 - Joseph was arrested in 1826 for being a "disorderly person and an imposter"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph was arrested in 1826 for being a "disorderly person and an imposter."
|authorsources=<br>
#Dan Vogel, "Rethinking the 1826 Judicial Decision," Mormon Scripture Studies: An E-Journal of Critical Thought.
}}
{{propaganda|Joseph was indeed brought before a judge in a court hearing on charges of being a disorderly person, however, the issue never went to trial, and Joseph was dismissed without being fined. The only charges were for the Judge's time spent hearing the evidence.
}}
{{:Question: What is Joseph Smith's 1826 Bainbridge "trial" for "glasslooking"?}}
{{:Question: What events resulted in Joseph Smith's 1826 court appearance in Bainbridge?}}
{{:Question: Why was Joseph fined if he wasn't guilty?}}

==Response to claim: 39 - No "statements of repentance by Smith" for money digging have ever been found==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
No "statements of repentance by Smith" for money digging have ever been found.
|authorsources=<br>
#Sam Katich, "Joseph Smith," {{fairlink|url=http://www.fairlds.org/apol/morm201/m20117b.html}}
}}
{{misinformation|In the quoted article, Martin Harris reported that Joseph had told him that the angel Moroni instructed him "...he must quit the company of the money-diggers. That there were wicked men among them. He must have no more to do with them."<ref>Katich cites {{BeginningsofMormonism1 |start=74}}</ref> In Joseph's time and place, there was nothing shameful or disgraceful about money digging ''per se''&mdash;it was the fact that some were wicked that was the problem.
}}

==Response to claim: 40, 348n123 - Gordon B. Hinckley cited false documentation to support the story of an 1820 revival==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Gordon B. Hinckley cited false documentation to support the story of an 1820 revival.
|authorsources=<br>
#Gordon B. Hinckley, ''Truth Restored'', pp. 1-2.
}}
{{misinformation|There was a miscitation, but it wasn't done by Gordon B. Hinckley. Hinckley (1947) quoted a line from Nibley (1946), who was quoting from Bean (1938) that was in error. The material from 1947 was later reprinted as ''Truth Restored''. There was no malice on the part of Hinckley when he used that quote.
}}
{{:Question: Did Gordon B. Hinckley cite false information regarding an 1820 Palmyra revival in a book called Truth Restored?}}

==Response to claim: 42, 349n126 - There is no evidence that Joseph Smith was "persecuted" for telling the story of his vision between 1820 and 1824==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
There is no evidence that Joseph Smith was "persecuted" for telling the story of his vision between 1820 and 1824.
|authorsources=<br>
#Dan Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'', vol. 1, p. 29, 46-47.
}}
{{propaganda|What kind of evidence does the author think exists that a 14-year-old boy was persecuted for relating that he had seen a vision of God?
}}
{{:Question: Does Joseph Smith's 1832 account of the First Vision not mention that he was persecuted for telling others about the vision?}}

==Response to claim: 42, 43 (sidebar) - Contradictions in the stories of Paul's vision were "long ago resolved by scholars analyzing the Greek texts"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Contradictions in the stories of Paul's vision were "long ago resolved by scholars analyzing the Greek texts. The discrepancies in Paul's account involve modern ignorance of the Greek wording used."
|authorsources=<br>
#W.E. Vine, ''Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words'', p. 544.
}}
{{misinformation|Modern scholars disagree with the author's resolution, and the rule which he appeals to is broken by the NT text more than it is observed.  Even Acts violates the author's claimed 'solution' three times!
}}
{{:Question: Do Greek scholars solve the discrepancies in Paul's vision accounts?}}

==Response to claim: 42 - Brodie's idea that the First Vision may have been "the elaboration of some half-remembered dream stimulated by the early revival excitement" is a satisfactory way to "explain things"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Brodie's idea that the First Vision may have been "the elaboration of some half-remembered dream stimulated by the early revival excitement" is a satisfactory way to "explain things."
|authorsources=<br>
#{{CriticalWork:Brodie:No Man Knows|pages=25}}
}}
{{propaganda|The author is quoting another author's opinion as if it were fact.
}}
{{:Question: Is it possible to deduce Joseph Smith's thoughts and dreams years after his death?}}

==Response to claim: 44 - Brodie's idea that the First Vision may have been "created some time after 1830 when the need arose for a magnificent tradition to cancel out the stories of his fortune-telling and money-digging" "further weakens" Mormon claims==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Brodie's idea that the First Vision may have been "created some time after 1830 when the need arose for a magnificent tradition to cancel out the stories of his fortune-telling and money-digging" "further weakens" Mormon claims.
|authorsources=<br>
#{{CriticalWork:Brodie:No Man Knows|pages=25}}
}}
{{propaganda|The author is simply making Fawn Brodie's speculation hiw own. Elements of the First Vision were being taught by LDS missionaries in 1830 (see [[First Vision/No reference to First Vision in 1830s publications]]).
}}

==Response to claim: 45, 351 n. 144 - Joseph "continued practicing magick, divination, astrology, and soothsaying long after the LDS Church was founded in 1830"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph "continued practicing magick, divination, astrology, and soothsaying long after the LDS Church was founded in 1830."
|authorsources=<br>
#No specific reference is provided. 
}}
{{disinformation|The note simply mentions that seer stones continued to be used after the Church was organized in 1830&mdash;a fact that could be easily deduced from reading the Doctrine and Covenants.
}}
<!-- ====46====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title={{check}}
|claim=Brigham Young used Oliver Cowdery's divining rod to point out the location where the temple would be built in Salt Lake City.
}}
*[[One Nation Under Gods/Use of sources/Divining rods to Kimball and Young]]
|authorsources=<br>
#''Anthon H. Lund Journal'', under July 5, 1901.
*"The Psychological Needs of Mormon Women," ''Sunstone'', volume 6, number 2, page 67.
*{{CriticalWork:Quinn:Magic World View|pages=206}}
}} -->

==Response to claim: 46 - Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball were given divining rods by Joseph Smith==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball were given divining rods by Joseph Smith.
|authorsources=<br>
*''Anthon H. Lund Journal'', under July 5, 1901.
*"The Psychological Needs of Mormon Women," ''Sunstone'', volume 6, number 2, page 67.
*{{CriticalWork:Quinn:Magic World View|pages=206}}
}}
{{misinformation|Heber C. Kimball is describing a dream, not an actual event.
}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith give Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball divining rods "as a symbol of gratitude for their loyalty"?}}

==Response to claim: 46 - Joseph received a revelation praising Oliver's gift of using his divining talents==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph received a revelation praising Oliver's gift of using his divining talents.	
|authorsources=<br>
#}}
{{information|This is correct. As noted on the official Church history website ''Revelations in Context'': "Many Christians in Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery's day similarly believed in divining rods as an instrument for revelation."
}}
{{:Source:Revelations in Context on history.lds.org:Oliver Cowdery's Gift:Cowdery was among those who believed in and used a divining rod}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith attempt to "cover up" Oliver Cowdery's work with a divining rod by changing this revelation?}}
{{:Question: How was the wording of the "rod of nature" revelation that became Doctrine and Coveants 8:6–8 altered over time?}}
<!-- ====48====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title={{check}}
|claim=Joseph continued to discover and use new seer stones.
}}
*[[Joseph Smith/Seer stones]] {{nw}}
|authorsources=<br>
#{{CriticalWork:Quinn:Magic World View|pages=200}}
}} -->

==Response to claim: 48 - Joseph "never stopped being" an occultist==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
Joseph "never stopped being" an occultist.
|authorsources=<br>
#Author's conclusion.
}}
{{propaganda|This is simply nonsense.
}}

==Response to claim: 49 - The activities of Joseph's family may have been "satanic"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=Becoming Gods
|claim=
The activities of Joseph's family may have been "satanic."
|authorsources=<br>
#Author's conclusion.
}}
{{propaganda|This is utter nonsense.
}}

{{endnotes sources}}



<!-- PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->