Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Becoming Gods/Chapter 3

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Contents

Response to claims made in "Chapter 3: Thus Saith Joseph"


Chapter 2
A work by author: Richard Abanes
 Chapter 4

84, 370n9-11

Claim
The revelations in the Book of Commandments were modified because they were "showing their age," "contained outdated information," "included erroneous statements" and "abandoned doctrines." Some of the revelations "revealed too much information about LDS beliefs."

Author's source(s)

  • Karl F. Best, "Changes in the Revelations, 1833-1835," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (Spring 1992), vol. 25, no. 1, p. 90.
  • H. Michael Marquardt, The Joseph Smith Revelations: Text & Commentary, p. 17.

Response


85, 371n14 - Mormons view divine truth as "not absolute or fixed; it is changeable, flexible"

The author(s) of Becoming Gods make(s) the following claim:

Mormons view divine truth as "not absolute or fixed; it is changeable, flexible."

Author's sources: Richard N. and Joan K. Ostling, Mormon America: The Power and the Promise, (New York:HarperCollins Publishers, 2000), 249. ( Index of claims )

FAIR's Response

87, 370n23 - Joseph received a "false revelation" through his seer stone to go to Toronto, Canada to sell the Book of Mormon copyright

The author(s) of Becoming Gods make(s) the following claim:

Joseph received a "false revelation" through his seer stone to go to Toronto, Canada to sell the Book of Mormon copyright.

Author's sources: David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ.

FAIR's Response

Question: After receiving the revelation to attempt to sell the Book of Mormon copyright in Canada, did Joseph Smith later claim that the revelation was false?

Book of Mormon Central, KnoWhy #556: Why Did Joseph Smith Attempt to Secure the Book of Mormon Copyright in Canada? (Video)

David Whitmer, years after he left the Church, claimed that Joseph said that the revelation did not come from God

David Whitmer claimed that Joseph Smith received a revelation and prophesied that Oliver Cowdery and Hiram Page should go to Canada where they would find a man willing to buy the copyright to the Book of Mormon. When they failed to sell the copyright, Whitmer states that Joseph admitted that the revelation had not come from God.

David Whitmer was not a participant in the trip to Canada

The primary evidence supporting the negative aspects of the Canadian Mission story comes from David Whitmer, who was not a participant in the event, and who had left the church many years before. With the discovery of the Hiram Page letter of 1848 showing that the actual participants involved in the trip felt that Joseph Smith delivered an accurate revelation of what would transpire on the Mission, and in fact even found the event uplifting rather than negative, it is evident that no individual contemporary to the event felt that this represented a false prophecy by Joseph Smith. What we do see is excellent evidence in fulfillment of the teachings of Deuteronomy 12 and 18 that Joseph Smith was perceived as a true prophet of God by those involved in the Mission to Canada in early 1830.


87, 371n25

Claim
Some of the modified revelations had their meanings "reversed."

Author's source(s)

Response


89, 372n28

Claim
Joseph modified the revelation now found in D&C 5:4 to add additional gifts. After translating the Book of Mormon he was not supposed to become a prophet or organize a Church.

Author's source(s)

  • Karl F. Best, "Changes in the Revelations, 1833-1835," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (Spring 1992), vol. 25, no.1, p. 98.

Response


89, 372n29-30 - Joseph modified what is now D&C 8:6-9 to hide Oliver Cowdery's use of a divining rod

The author(s) of Becoming Gods make(s) the following claim:

Joseph modified what is now D&C 8:6-9 to hide Oliver Cowdery's use of a divining rod.

Author's sources:

FAIR's Response

Revelations in Context on history.lds.org: "Cowdery was among those who believed in and used a divining rod"

Revelations in Context on history.lds.org:

Oliver Cowdery lived in a culture steeped in biblical ideas, language and practices. The revelation’s reference to Moses likely resonated with him. The Old Testament account of Moses and his brother Aaron recounted several instances of using rods to manifest God’s will (see Ex. 7:9-12; Num. 17:8). Many Christians in Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery's day similarly believed in divining rods as an instrument for revelation. Cowdery was among those who believed in and used a divining rod.[1]


Question: Did Joseph Smith attempt to "cover up" Oliver Cowdery's work with a divining rod by changing the wording of the revelation that became Doctrine and Covenants 8:6–8?

The edits to this portion of the revelation were actually performed by Sidney Rigdon, likely with Joseph's approval

A revelation received by Joseph praised Oliver Cowdery's gift of using divining talents. The revelation was published in the Book of Commandments in its original form, then subsequently modified in the Doctrine and Covenants. We do not know why Sidney Rigdon chose to alter the wording of the revelation, but he is the one that actually changed the wording to "rod of nature."

We know based upon the text of the revelation that Oliver possessed a gift of working with something alternately referred to as a "sprout," "thing of nature," or "rod of nature." We also know that the Lord approved of Oliver's use of this gift. The reference was later changed to the "gift of Aaron," but we can only speculate as to the exact reason why. According to the Church History website, the "rod" referred to by Sidney Rigdon when he edited the revelation was likely a divining rod. It is possible that "gift of Aaron" was substituted as the revelatory device because if carried fewer negative connotations than "divining rod." However, a "cover up" is not usually done by committee, and it is clear that multiple individuals assisted in editing the revelations before they were to be published in the Doctrine and Covenants. It is also difficult to claim a "cover up" since "rod of nature" was to be published in the Book of Commandments in 1833, only two years before change to "gift of Aaron" was published in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants.

We do know that Oliver's gift had to do with receiving revelation, and that Oliver attempted to employ it during the period in which the Book of Mormon was being translated. We also know that Oliver's experience in attempting to translate produced one of the lasting lessons which continues to be taught in Church even today—the knowledge that one must study things out in their mind in order to know the truth of something.


Question: How was the wording of the "rod of nature" revelation that became Doctrine and Covenants 8:6–8 altered over time?

The revelation was edited by several individuals, including Sidney Rigdon

The original wording of the revelation along with revisions performed by Oliver Cowdery, William W. Phelps, Sidney Rigdon, Joseph Smith, John Whitmer, and another unidentified editor is recorded in the REVELATION BOOK 1 (April 1829-B [D&C 8]). The original revelation reads as follows:

...remember this is thy gift now this is not all for thou hast another gift which is the gift of working with the sprout Behold it hath told you things Behold there is no other power save God that can cause this thing of Nature to work in your hands. [2]

Sidney Rigdon edited the passage to read like this:

...remember this is your gift now this is not all for you have another gift which is the gift of working with the rod Behold it has told you things Behold there is no other power save God that can cause this rod to work in your hands. (emphasis added)

In the Book of Commandments (the predecessor to the Doctrine and Covenants), the revelation underwent an additional revision by a publication committee of the First Presidency (Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and Frederick G. Williams). The Book of Commandments stated:

Chapter 7:3—Now this is not all, for you have another gift, which is the gift of working with the rod: behold it has told you things: behold there is no other power save God, that can cause this rod of nature, to work in your hands, for it is the work of God. (emphasis added)

In the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants, this was revised to read:

D&C 8:6–8—Now this is not all thy gift; for you have another gift, which is the gift of Aaron; behold, it has told you many things; Behold, there is no other power, save the power of God, that can cause this gift of Aaron to be with you. Therefore, doubt not, for it is the gift of God; and you shall hold it in your hands, and do marvelous works; and no power shall be able to take it away out of your hands, for it is the work of God. (1921 edition, 8:6–8.) (emphasis added)

Thus, "working with the sprout" and the "thing of Nature" were changed to "the gift of working with the rod," which was again later revised to "the gift of Aaron." It has been assumed on the basis of this that Oliver Cowdery was a "rodsman," or someone who used a divining rod to search for treasure, water, or other things hidden.

Evidence used to support this assertion is the fact that in 1801, a religious sect led by the Wood family enjoyed a brief popularity, and they sought for treasure with divining rods. [3] The Wood group was reportedly taught this skill by a counterfeiter/forger named either Winchell or Wingate. Winchell/Wingate had been a guest at the home of Oliver's father, William. Attempts have been made to tie William Cowdery to the Wood group, but there is no evidence that he had any connection with them aside from knowing Winchell/Wingate. As Richard L. Anderson observed:

An 1828 newspaper history of the Wood episode refers to neither the mysterious counterfeiter nor Cowdery. The main group of Middletown survivors of the 1800 period--"more than thirty men and women"--were interviewed up to 1860, and they said nothing of a counterfeiter or of Cowdery. The 1867 recollections of a minister who visited the group in the final weeks of their movement include mention of the counterfeiter but not Cowdery--when a disciple was asked where the criminal stayed, he answered: "He keeps himself secreted in the woods." Frisbie's own claims about the Cowdery connection to the Wood group are both unclear and unsupported. This is the patchwork of folklore, not tightly woven history. [4]

It is therefore not clear whether Oliver used a rod for treasure seeking. The critical association of Oliver's possible use of a rod with the activities of local "rodsmen" seeking treasure is used to imply that Oliver was also a treasure seeker.


90, 372n34, 375n35 - Apostle William E. McLellin left the Church because he was "shaken by the changes made in the revelations"

The author(s) of Becoming Gods make(s) the following claim:

Apostle William E. McLellin left the Church because he was "shaken by the changes made in the revelations."

Author's sources:
  • "The Early History of the Saints and Their Enemies," Sept. 28, 1875, Salt Lake Daily Tribune, Dec. 5, 1878
  • William McLellin, Saint's Herald, vol. 17, pp. 556-557.

FAIR's Response

This explanation (as shown by the dates of the material cited) came long after the fact. The author does not tell us that McLellin said at his excommunication hearing that:

he said he had no confidence in the presidency of the Church; consequently, he had quit praying and keeping the commandments of the Lord, and indulged himself in his sinful lusts. It was from what he had heard that he believed the presidency had got out of the way, and not from anything that he had seen himself.[5]

McLellin had previously been excommunicated for spending time with "a certain harlot" while on a mission.[6] He had also been out of fellowship for "writing a letter which "cast…censure upon the [first] presidency."[5]

90

Claim
Mormons claim that Biblical writers modified revelations, but cannot provide data to support this. This is an "argument from silence."

Author's source(s)

  • Stephen W. Gibson, One-Minute Answers to Anti-Mormon Question, p. 82

Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources


94

Claim
Joseph Smith turned the "Book of Breathings" into the "Book of Abraham." Joseph claimed that the "Book of the Dead" had been written by Joseph of Egypt.

Author's source(s)

  • No source provided.

Response


94-98

Claim
The restoration of the missing portions of Facsimile 1 were "terribly wrong."

Author's source(s)

  • Charles M. Larson, By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus: A New Look at the Joseph Smith Papyri, 2nd ed., (Grand Rapids, MI: Institute for Religious Research, 1992), .

Response


99 - LDS apologists' main purpose is to explain away "any and all criticisms that might damage the validity of Smith's writings"

The author(s) of Becoming Gods make(s) the following claim:

LDS apologists' main purpose is to explain away "any and all criticisms that might damage the validity of Smith's writings."

Author's sources: Author's opinion.

FAIR's Response

100 - One or two words in Egyptian were expanded to entire paragraphs in English

The author(s) of Becoming Gods make(s) the following claim:

Documents show how the hieroglyphs from the papyri were matched to the Book of Abraham text. One or two words in Egyptian were expanded to entire paragraphs in English.

Author's sources: Richard L. Bushman, "Joseph Smith as Translator, in Waterman, p. 81.

FAIR's Response

Question: In the Kirtland Egyptian Papers, why is each Egyptian character matched to an entire paragraph of English text?

The KEP may have been an attempt to "reverse engineer" the Book of Abraham translation against the Egyptian papyri

Once the Book of Abraham translation was complete, a unique opportunity existed to use the completed translation in an attempt to match it against the Egyptian characters on the papyri and produce a correlation between English and Egyptian. The Church addresses this possibility on LDS.org:

Some evidence suggests that Joseph studied the characters on the Egyptian papyri and attempted to learn the Egyptian language. His history reports that, in July 1835, he was “continually engaged in translating an alphabet to the Book of Abraham, and arrangeing a grammar of the Egyptian language as practiced by the ancients.” This “grammar,” as it was called, consisted of columns of hieroglyphic characters followed by English translations recorded in a large notebook by Joseph’s scribe, William W. Phelps. Another manuscript, written by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, has Egyptian characters followed by explanations.[7]

The reverse engineering hypothesis gains traction once we see that the translation of the Book of Abraham (as some have supposed are demonstrated by the characters in the margins of the translation manuscripts) and the characters in the GAEL:

Yet some have supposed that the Egyptian Alphabet was the tool used to create the translation. In order to assess whether this could be the case or not, I conducted research to test the assumption. First, I located all of the phrases in the Egyptian Alphabet that also appear in the Book of Abraham. I then compared the Egyptian characters next to those phrases to the Egyptian characters adjacent to the matching lines in the early Book of Abraham manuscripts. Of the twenty-one times I found text in the Egyptian Alphabet that matched text in the Book of Abraham, I found only one time that the corresponding Egyptian characters matched, four times when part of the characters matched, and sixteen times in which there was no match whatsoever. Clearly the Egyptian alphabet was not used to translate the papyri, nor is there any demonstrable relationship between the characters on the papyri and the text of the Book of Abraham. This is not surprising since the characters come from fragments of papyri that eyewitnesses noted were not the source of the Book of Abraham.[8]

Even further evidence of this is the presence of Hebrew in the GAEL. This is further explicated by Jeff Lindsay[9]


Notes

  1. ↑ Jeffrey G. Cannon, "Oliver Cowdery's Gift," Revelations in Context on history.lds.org
  2. ↑ Revelation, April 1829–B [D&C 8], in Robin Scott Jensen, Robert J. Woodford, and Stephen C. Harper, eds., Manuscript Revelation Books, vol. 1 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, ed. Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2009), 17. (emphasis added)
  3. ↑ Dan Vogel (editor), Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1996–2003), 5 vols, 1:599–621.
  4. ↑ Richard L. Anderson, "The Mature Joseph Smith and Treasure Searching," Brigham Young University Studies 24 no. 4 (1984). PDF link
    Caution: this article was published before Mark Hofmann's forgeries were discovered. It may treat fraudulent documents as genuine. Click for list of known forged documents.
    Discusses money-digging; Salem treasure hunting episode; fraudulent 1838 Missouri treasure hunting revelation; Wood Scrape; “gift of Aaron”; “wand or rod”; Heber C. Kimball rod and prayer; magic; occult; divining lost objects; seerstone; parchments; talisman
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "History of William E. McLellin," Millennial Star 26 (1864), 808.; see also Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 3:31. Volume 3 link
  6. ↑ D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Signature Books, 1994), 44.
  7. ↑ "Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham," Gospel Topics (8 July 2014).
  8. ↑ Kerry Muhelstein, '"The Explanation Defying Book of Abraham" in A Reason For Faith: Navigating LDS Doctrine and Church History (ed.) Laura Harris Hales (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2016) 85.
  9. ↑ Jeff Lindsay, “A Precious Resource With Some Gaps” Interpreter: a Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 33-2 (2019) pp. 35-58 off-site
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