Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Mormonism Unmasked/Chapter 3

1. REDIRECTTemplate:Test3

Response to claims made in "Chapter 3: The Making of a Religion"

Chapter 2: The Marketing of an Image

A FAIR Analysis of: Mormonism Unmasked A work by author: R. Philip Roberts

Chapter 4: Polytheism Reborn

Claim
A quote from Joseph Smith is provided:

I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet.

Author's source(s)
History of the Church

Response

Did Joseph Smith 'boast' of keeping the Church intact?

Summary: Joseph Smith is reported as saying: “I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam... Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet.” (History of The Church, 6:408–409). This attitude strikes some as boastful, and unbecoming a prophet. However, Joseph was using a scriptural passage by Paul, and applying it to his own situation--the idea of "boasting" was Paul's, not Joseph's. This statement is also not based on Joseph's own writing; it is an account written after his death. It may not be accurate.

Claim
The author states, “During this time, Joseph and his father became increasingly engaged in folk magic, using magical seer stones and divining rods to look for buried treasure and lost items.”

Author's source(s)
Fawn M. Brodie, ‘’No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet’’ (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971), 6-33. See also Jerald and Sandra Tanner, ‘’Mormonism-Shadow and Reality?’’ (Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1987) 32-49.

Response

Practitioner of occultism and magic?

Summary: It is claimed that Joseph Smith's spiritual experiences began as products of "magic," the "occult," or "treasure seeking," and that only later did Joseph describe his experiences in Christian, religious terms: speaking of God, angels, and prophethood. Joseph Smith and his followers undoubtedly believed in supernatural power. And, they may have had some ideas about how to access that power that now strike us as inaccurate and even strange. This is not surprising, given the two centuries and massive scientific advances which separate our culture from theirs. However, there is no evidence that Joseph and others considered these things to be "magic," or the "occult," nor did they consider "magic" or the "occult" to be positive things.

Claim
The author states, “Due to a tremendous revival in his neighborhood in 1820, Joseph Smith became concerned about which church he should join…”

Author's source(s)
Not provided

Response

• Joseph said that there was an excitement on the subject of religion. He never mentioned the word “revival.” Nevertheless, there is ample evidence of such religious excitement in the Palmyra area in 1820.

Methodist camp meetings in the Palmyra area

Summary: It is claimed that any association Joseph had with Methodism did not occur until the 1824-25 revival in Palmyra, and that his claim that the "unusual excitement" started with the Methodists in 1820 is therefore incorrect. However, the Palmyra Register indicates that the Methodists were holding camp meetings in Palmyra in 1820.

Claim
The author claims that Joseph “did not publish his accont of his first vision until 1842…”

Author's source(s)
Not provided

Response

• Joseph wrote the first known account of his vision in his own hand in 1832.
• Joseph’s journal indicates that he was sharing details of his first vision with non-Mormon visitors by late 1835.

No mention in non-LDS literature before 1843?

Summary: There is no mention of the First Vision in non-Mormon literature before 1843. If the First Vision story had been known by the public before 1840 (when Orson Pratt published his pamphlet) the anti-Mormons “surely” would have seized upon it as an evidence of Joseph Smith’s imposture.

Claim
The author claims that “the revival that Smith described…did not happen until 1824-25, not in the year 1820…”

Author's source(s)
Not provided.

Response

• Joseph never claimed that the “excitement” on the subject of religion was a revival.
• There is evidence of substantial religious activity in the area during 1820.

Methodist camp meetings in the Palmyra area

Summary: It is claimed that any association Joseph had with Methodism did not occur until the 1824-25 revival in Palmyra, and that his claim that the "unusual excitement" started with the Methodists in 1820 is therefore incorrect. However, the Palmyra Register indicates that the Methodists were holding camp meetings in Palmyra in 1820.

Brigham Young University-Idaho Devotional, "The Prophet Joseph Smith"

Elder D. Todd Christofferson,  Brigham Young University-Idaho Devotional, (24 September 2013)

Critics have also claimed that there were no religious revivals in the Palmyra, New York, area in 1820, as Joseph Smith reported in his history. With today’s greater access to original sources, including the Palmyra Register newspaper, there is ample evidence of religious revivals in the area during 1820 and some years prior. It appears that the Methodists had a regularly used camp meeting ground, and that revivals were common enough that often they garnered no coverage in the newspapers unless something out of the ordinary occurred such as a death. (Footnote 12)

Claim
The author states that “as of 1820, Joseph Smith was teaching that the Father and the Son both had physical bodies...”

Author's source(s)
Not provided.

Response

• Joseph Smith wasn’t teaching anything in 1820. He wasn’t teaching anything until the Book of Mormon was translated and published in 1830, ten years later.

Joseph Smith's early conception of God

Summary: It is claimed that Joseph began his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God, and only later developed his theology of the Godhead. However, Joseph and the early Saints were not trinitarian, and understood God's embodiment and the identity of the Father and Son as separate beings very early on. This doctrine is apparent in the Book of Mormon, and in the earliest friendly and non-friendly accounts of such matters from the Saints.

Claim
The author states that the “early documents of Mormonism show that during the 1820s and early 1830s, Smith was teaching there was only one God.”

Author's source(s)
Not provided.

Response

Joseph Smith's early conception of God

Summary: It is claimed that Joseph began his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God, and only later developed his theology of the Godhead. However, Joseph and the early Saints were not trinitarian, and understood God's embodiment and the identity of the Father and Son as separate beings very early on. This doctrine is apparent in the Book of Mormon, and in the earliest friendly and non-friendly accounts of such matters from the Saints.

Claim
The author claims that Joseph Smith’s “plural god doctrine was not put forward until the 1840s in Nauvoo, Illinois.”

Author's source(s)
Doctrine and Covenants (Kirtland, Ohio: F.G. Williams & Co., 1835), 52-58. See also Tanner, ‘’Mormonism-Shadow or Reality?’’ 143-62.

Response

• The Book of Mormon, published in 1830, has many passages which distinguish between God the Father and his son Jesus Christ (just as the Bible does). However, the author here appears to be referring to "gods" other than the Father and the Son. This refers to the King Follett discourse, in which Joseph talked about the nature of God and the existence of other gods.

Ensign (This reprint was taken from the Documentary History of the Church, vol. 6, pages 302–17), "The King Follett Sermon"

Joseph Smith, Jr.,  Ensign (This reprint was taken from the Documentary History of the Church, vol. 6, pages 302–17), (May 1971)

In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the Gods; and they came together and concocted [prepared] a plan to create the world and people it. When we begin to learn this way, we begin to learn the only true God, and what kind of a being we have got to worship. Having a knowledge of God, we begin to know how to approach Him, and how to ask so as to receive an answer.

Claim
In Joseph’s 1832 First Vision account, he said he was fifteen when “the Lord” appeared to him. Not only is his age different, but he described only one being, as opposed to the ‘two personages’ he had previously accounted for, in the vision.”

Author's source(s)
Joseph Smith’s 1832 history

Response

Joseph Smith's 1832 First Vision account states he was 15 years old

Summary: In Joseph Smith's 1832 First Vision recital he said that he was "in the 16th year of [his] age" when the manifestation took place but when he created the 1838 account he changed this information to say that he was "in [his] fifteenth year." However, it is perfectly understandable that since Joseph Smith possessed meager math skills his dating schemes were slightly off when he recorded his reminiscences of the past, many years after-the-fact. There is nothing nefarious in Joseph Smith correcting his own slight mathematical miscalculations. Once the date of the First Vision was correctly established it remained steady throughout many subsequent recitals.

Gospel Topics, located on lds.org., "First Vision Accounts"

Gospel Topics, located on lds.org.

The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story, though naturally they differ in emphasis and detail. Historians expect that when an individual retells an experience in multiple settings to different audiences over many years, each account will emphasize various aspects of the experience and contain unique details. Indeed, differences similar to those in the First Vision accounts exist in the multiple scriptural accounts of Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus and the Apostles’ experience on the Mount of Transfiguration.3 Yet despite the differences, a basic consistency remains across all the accounts of the First Vision. Some have mistakenly argued that any variation in the retelling of the story is evidence of fabrication. To the contrary, the rich historical record enables us to learn more about this remarkable event than we could if it were less well documented.

Claim
In his 1835 First Vision account, Joseph stated the he saw “many angels.”

Author's source(s)
The author's source is assumed to be one of Joseph’s two 1835 journal entries which mention the First Vision. This particular instance would correlate with the 9 November 1835 journal entry.

Response

The "many angels" in Joseph's 9 November 1835 First Vision account.

Summary: The mention of "many angels" in the November 9, 1835 diary entry is a clarifying detail. The appearance of the Father and Son are clearly referenced separately from the mention of the "many angels." Joseph said, "a pillar of fire appeared above my head, it presently rested down upon me head, and filled me with Joy unspeakable, a personage appeard in the midst of this pillar of flame which was spread all around, and yet nothing consumed, another personage soon appeard like unto the first, he said unto me thy sins are forgiven thee, he testified unto me that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; and I saw many angels in this vision I was about 14 years old when I received this first communication;"

Claim
The author states that in the 1832 account, Joseph “mentioned that he had already concluded that all churches were in apostasy before he went into the woods to pray, while the official account of 1842 states that he had not concluded this until God so informed him in the vision.”

Author's source(s)
Joseph Smith’s 1832 history and Joseph Smith-History in the Pearl of Great Price.

Response

Contradiction about knowing all churches were wrong

Summary: In his 1832 account of the First Vision, Joseph Smith said, “I found [by searching the scriptures] that mankind did not come unto the Lord but that they had apostatized from the true and living faith and there was no society or denomination that built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded in the New Testament.” But in the 1835 account he said, “I knew not who [of the denominations] was right or who was wrong.” It is claimed that thus counts as evidence that the First Vision story evolved over time. However, there is no contradiction in the two texts presented in the above argument, only a short-sighted understanding of some isolated sources. The answer to this apparent contradiction lies in a detailed examination of relevant texts. It is important to first compare Joseph Smith’s November 1832 text (which is in his own handwriting) with a newspaper article printed earlier that same year which refers to the Prophet’s inaugural religious experiences.

Claim
The author states that the “earliest publication to print a ‘full history’ of the rise of Mormonism, the ‘’Messenger and Advocate’’, failed to mention Smith’s vision in 1820, starting instead with the angel appearing in Smith’s bedroom in 1823.”

Author's source(s)
Tanner, ‘’Mormonism-Shadow or Reality?’’ 151-52.

Response

• This refers to Oliver Cowdery’s history published in the ‘’Messenger and Advocate” in 1834 and 1835. Oliver begins describing the religious excitement leading up to the First Vision when Joseph was 14 years old. Eight weeks later in the next installment, Oliver states that he made a mistake, changes Joseph’s age to 17, then describes Moroni’s visit without mentioning the First Vision.

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, "The Cowdery Conundrum: Oliver’s Aborted Attempt to Describe Joseph Smith’s First Vision in 1834 and 1835"

Roger Nicholson,  Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, (December 6, 2013)

In 1834, Oliver Cowdery began publishing a history of the Church in installments in the pages of the Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. The first installment talks of the religious excitement and events that ultimately led to Joseph Smith’s First Vision at age 14. However, in the subsequent installment published two months later, Oliver claims that he made a mistake, correcting Joseph’s age from 14 to 17 and failing to make any direct mention of the First Vision. Oliver instead tells the story of Moroni’s visit, thus making it appear that the religious excitement led to Moroni’s visit.

This curious account has been misunderstood by some to be evidence that the “first” vision that Joseph claimed was actually that of the angel Moroni and that Joseph invented the story of the First Vision of the Father and Son at a later time. However, Joseph wrote an account of his First Vision in 1832 in which he stated that he saw the Lord, and there is substantial evidence that Oliver had this document in his possession at the time that he wrote his history of the Church. This essay demonstrates the correlations between Joseph Smith’s 1832 First Vision account, Oliver’s 1834/1835 account, and Joseph’s 1835 journal entry on the same subject. It is clear that not only did Oliver have Joseph’s history in his possession but that he used Joseph’s 1832 account as a basis for his own account. This essay also shows that Oliver knew of the First Vision and attempted to obliquely refer to the event several times in his second installment before continuing with his narrative of Moroni’s visit.

Claim
The author states that Joseph Smith “engaged in folk magic and was occasionally hired to use his magical stone-found in a neighbor’s (Mr. Chase) well-to find buried treasures and lost objects. Since the Lord had so specifically instructed the nation of Israel not to engage in any magical practice, it is hard to believe that God would choose a magician to restore his church.

Author's source(s)
Leviticus 19:26; 20:6, 27; Deuteronomy 18:10; Isaiah 19:3.

Response

• Joseph Smith was not a “magician.”

Magician Walters as a mentor?

Summary: A "vagabond fortune-teller" named Walters became popular in the Palmyra area. When Walters left the area, did "his mantle" fall upon Joseph Smith? The reality is that the idea that Walter's "mantle" fell upon Joseph is the creation of an enemy of Joseph Smith.

{== ==

Matthew B. Brown, "Revised or Unaltered? Joseph Smith’s Foundational Stories"

Matthew B. Brown,  Proceedings of the 2006 FAIR Conference, (August 2006)

Abner Cole wanted to mock the Book of Mormon in his newspaper (The Reflector). He was most probably motivated to do this because he had violated copyright law by printing portions of the Book of Mormon in his paper and the Prophet Joseph Smith forced him to stop his illegal activity. Cole’s mockery text was called the “Book of Pukei.” In this peculiar literary production the editor took many authentic elements of the story of the Book of Mormon’s origin and mixed them together with elements of speculation that had been floating around the community. Cole utilized the dialogue of one of the characters in his mockery text to call Joseph Smith an ignoramus, a criminal, and a servant of Satan. It is in this text that Joseph Smith is first connected with a man from Great Sodus Bay, New York, called “Walters the Magician” (probably Luman Walter).

Claim
The author notes that in 1826 Joseph was charged with being a “disorderly person” and “glass looker.” The author states that “glass looker” means “crystal ball user.”

Author's source(s)
Tanner, ‘’Mormonism-Shadow or Reality?’’ 32-49.

Response

1826 trial for "glasslooking"

Summary: Joseph Smith was brought to trial in 1826 for "glasslooking." Didn't Hugh Nibley claim that if this trial record existed that it would be "the most damning evidence in existence against Joseph Smith?" Nevertheless, the evidence indicates that Joseph Smith was acquitted of the charge. It was likely that the court hearing was initiated not so much from a concern about Joseph being a money digger, as concern that Joseph was having an influence on Josiah Stowell. Josiah Stowell was one of the first believers in Joseph Smith. His nephew was probably very concerned about that and was anxious to disrupt their relationship if possible. He did not succeed. The court hearing failed in its purpose, and was only resurrected decades later to accuse Joseph Smith of different crimes to a different people and culture.

Claim
Regarding the Book of Mormon translation, the author asks, “Did he use the Urim and Thummim, prepared by God and stored with the plates, to translate the record, or did he use the chocolate-colored stone found in Mr. Chase’s well?”

Response
Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery, ‘’Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, Prophet’s Wife, “Elect Lady,” Polygamy’s Foe 1804-1879’’(Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1984); David Whitmer, ‘’An Address to All Belivers in Christ’’ (Richmond, Mo.: David Whitmer, 1887), 12.

• Joseph used both instruments during the translation.

Gospel Topics (lds.org), "Book of Mormon Translation"

Gospel Topics (lds.org), (2013)

These two instruments—the interpreters and the seer stone—were apparently interchangeable and worked in much the same way such that, in the course of time, Joseph Smith and his associates often used the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer to the single stone as well as the interpreters. In ancient times, Israelite priests used the Urim and Thummim to assist in receiving divine communications. Although commentators differ on the nature of the instrument, several ancient sources state that the instrument involved stones that lit up or were divinely illumin[at]ed. Latter-day Saints later understood the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer exclusively to the interpreters. Joseph Smith and others, however, seem to have understood the term more as a descriptive category of instruments for obtaining divine revelations and less as the name of a specific instrument.

Claim
The author claims that Joseph attempted to “join the Methodist Church in 1828, eight years after the Father and Son allegedly told him that all the churches were apostate….Why did he ignore God’s command to ‘join none of them’?”

Author's source(s)
Michael Marquardt and Wesley P. Walters, ‘’Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record’’ (Salt Lake City: Smith Research Associates, 1994), 55, 61, n. 49

Response

Did Joseph join other churches contrary to commandment in vision?

Summary: Critics charge that Joseph Smith joined the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches between 1820 and 1830—despite the claim made in his 1838 history that he was forbidden by Deity (during the 1820 First Vision experience) from joining any denomination. However, 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. Eyewitness reminiscences and contemporary records provide strong evidence that this claim is not valid and, therefore, does not reflect historical reality.

Claim
The author states that “Mormons claim that the early Christian church contained all the same teachings the LDS embrace today.”

Author's source(s)
Not provided.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
The author states that “the LDS concept of a total apostasy contradicts Christ’s promise that ‘I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”

Author's source(s)
Matthew 16:18

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
The author states that the Book of Hebrews “explains that the Aaronic priesthood was brought to an end with the death of Christ and that Christ is our only eternal High Priest ‘after the order of Mechizedek.’”

Author's source(s)
Hebrews 3:1; 4:14-16; 5:1-9; 6:20; 7:11-28.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
The author notes that the Church was originally named “The Church of Christ,” followed by “The Church of the Latter Day Saints,” and then ultimately changed by revelation to “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Author's source(s)
Doctrine and Covenants 115:4.

Response

•   The author got one fact correct:  
  The original name of the Church, and the subsequent name “Church of the Latter Day Saints” were not received by revelation. The name of the Church was ultimately given by revelation to be “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Claim
The author states that Joseph received the promise that a temple in Independence, Missouri would be “reared in this generation,” yet “the LDS Church has not built the temple in Independence.”

Author's source(s)
Doctrine and Covenants 84:3-5

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
The author states that Joseph Smith predicted that the Lord would come within “fifty-six years” and that this “prophecy never came true either.”

Author's source(s)
Joseph Smith, ‘’History of the Church’’, vol. 2 (Salt Lake Cithy: Deseret Book Co., 1978), 182.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
The 1835 edition of the Doctrines and Covenants contained “major revisions to already published revelations, [and] added revelations given since the last printing.”

Author's source(s)
Not provided.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Ensign, "Great and Marvelous Are the Revelations of God"

Gerrit Dirkmaat,  Ensign, (January 2013)

Many Revelations Were Later Revised by Joseph Smith through Inspiration. Over the course of the first five years of the Church, Joseph and others under his direction made changes and corrections to some of the early revelation texts in an attempt to more closely portray the intent of the revelation. Other times, especially as the revelations were being prepared for publication, Joseph was inspired to update the contents of the revelations to reflect a growing Church structure and new circumstances. At times this process resulted in substantial additions to the original text. As early as November 1831, a Church conference resolved that “Joseph Smith Jr. correct those errors or mistakes which he may discover by the Holy Spirit while reviewing the revelations and commandments and also the fullness of the scriptures.”

Claim
The 1835 Doctrine and Covenants included a declaration that “one man should have one wife” in response to accusations of “the crime of fornication, and polygamy.” This was after Joseph began practicing plural marriage in secret.

Author's source(s)
Doctrine and Covenants (Kirtland, Ohio: F.G. Williams & Co., 1835), 251.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
Fanny Alger was one of Joseph’s “earliest plural wives,” but Oliver Cowdery referred to this relationship as a “dirty, nasty, filthy affair of his and Fanny Alger’s.”

Author's source(s)
Tanner, ‘’Mormonism-Shadow or Reality?’’ 203; see also Brodie, ‘’No Man Knows’’, 181-85; Newell and Avery, ‘’Mormon Enigma’’, 66.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
Joseph secretly practiced polygamy “through the rest of his life, always with denials.”

Author's source(s)
Tanner, ‘’Mormonism-Shadow or Reality?’’ 245-48.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
Regarding the Book of Abraham, the author states that “Egyptologist have shown that the papyri Smith supposedly translated date to about the time of Chirst and are standard Egyptian funeral documents, depicting various Egyptian gods and goddesses. Obviously, these papyri do not relate to the Abraham of the Old Testament, as Joseph Smith claimed.”

Author's source(s)
’’Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Though,’’ summer 1968, 68, 98; and autumn 1968, 119-20, 133; Charles M. Larson, ‘’By His Own Hand Upon Papyrs: A New Look At The Joseph Smith Papyri (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Institute for Religious Studies, 1992), 61-111.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
The author states that in 1836, “Smith turned once again to treasure hunting to solve the church’s financial problems” by going to Salem, Massachusetts to look for treasure in the basement of a house there.

Author's source(s)
Doctrine and Covenants 132:19, 20, 52, 61, 62.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
The author claims that Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon created the impression that the Kirtland Safety Society was “created by God, that it had a sacred mission, and thus was invincible.”

Author's source(s)
Van Wagoner, ‘’Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994)’’, 184.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
The author states that “Mormon leaders organized a sort of secret chrch police called the ‘Danites.’”

Author's source(s)
Not provided.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
The author notes that Joseph incorporated many elements of Masonry into the temple endowment ceremony.

Author's source(s)
Not provided.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
The author discusses the Council of Fifty.

Author's source(s)
Fawn Brodie, ‘’Now Man Knows My History’’, 356.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
Joseph Smith talks of the “plurality of Gods.”

Author's source(s)
Smith, ‘’History of the Church’’, vol. 6: 303-5.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
The author notes that “two guns were smuggled” into Carthage Jail and that Joseph and Hyrum “using the guns that had been smuggled in to them….tried to defend themselves against the assailants.’’

Author's source(s)
Smith, ‘’History of the Church’’, vol. 6: 607-621; vol. 7: 102-105.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

Claim
The author states that “nine of the LDS apostles were charged with counterfeiting, and to avoid arrest, the fled in the night.”

Author's source(s)
Tanner, ‘’Mormonism-Shadow or Reality?’’ 537-41.

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources