Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 5

1. REDIRECTTemplate:Test3

Claims made in "Chapter 4: Smith's Golden Book"

A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books A work by author: Richard Abanes

Claims made in "Chapter 6: No rest for the Righteous"

Claims made in "Chapter 5: People of Zion"

Mormon high priests possessed the authority to bestow salvation. Such authority had always been viewed by Christians as belonging to God alone.
—One Nation Under Gods, p. 99.

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Claim

• The book states that the "Mormon church" was formally organized in New York.

Author's source(s)

• N/A

Response

• There is no church called the "Mormon Church." "The Church of Christ" was formally organized in New York by Joseph Smith.
• Name of the Church

Claim

• The official name of the Church's changed from The Church of Christ to The Church of the Latter Day Saints and then to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Author's source(s)

• No source provided. (Marquardt source refers to the location of the church organization)

Response

• This is correct. See: Name of the Church

Claim

• Did "anti-Christendom" become a "defining feature of Mormonism?"
• Did the Church denounce Christianity as "satanic?"

Author's source(s)

• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 5:73..
• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 5:229..
• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 8:171..
• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 8:199..
• John Taylor, Journal of Discourses 6:25..
• John Taylor, Journal of Discourses 6:167..
• John Taylor, Journal of Discourses 13:225..

Response

•  Misrepresentation of source
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Use of sources/Christianity is satanic
• Did early LDS leaders denounce Christianity?
• This claim is also made in Becoming Gods, p. 255

Claim

• Does the Church continue to teach that "all Christian churches are corrupt?"
• Does the Church teach that "Satan sits in the place of God in Christianity?"

Author's source(s)

• Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine (1958; second edition, 1966), p. 132.
• Kent P. Jackson, "Early Signs of the Apostasy," Ensign, December 1984, 9.

Response

•  Misrepresentation of source
• Apostasy/Individual versus organizational
• Use of sources: Christianity corrupt and Satan replaces God

Claim

•  Author's quote: "Smith's long association with occultism also helped draw spiritual 'seekers' into Mormonism because his affinity for the paranormal enabled other occultists to easily identify with him."

Author's source(s)

• D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), xxiii ( Index of claims )

Response

• The author is repeating Quinn's opinion.
• Loaded and prejudicial language

Claim

• The book claims that "many" of the early members of the Church used seer stones. Among these are mentioned "Jacob and David Whitmer, Hiram Page, Philo Dibble, W.W. Phelps, Lucy Mack Smith, and Elizabeth Ann Whitney."

Author's source(s)

• D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 247-258 ( Index of claims )
• Ogden Kraut, Seers and Seer Stones, 55.
• Samantha Payne, Affidavit, June 29, 1881, Ontario County Clerk's Office, Canandaigua, New york, published in Ontario County Times, July 27, 1881, 3, photocopy in fd 31, box 149, Marquardt papers, Marriott Library.

Response

•  ^{[needs work]}

Claim

• Were seer stones used by Latter-day Saints "well into the late 1800s" because Joseph didn't "condemn them?" The book then supports this claim by stating the Joseph "did the very opposite" by showing one of his seer stones to the Quorum of the Twelve on Dec. 27, 1841.

Author's source(s)

• Kraut, 62.
• D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 250 ( Index of claims )

Response

•  ^{[needs work]}

Claim

• Was a revelation changed to conceal Oliver Cowdery's use of a divining rod?

Author's source(s)

• Book of Commandments (VII:3), 19.

Response

• Doctrine and Covenants/Oliver Cowdery and the "rod of nature"
• This claim is also made in Becoming Gods, p. 46

Claim

• Did Joseph give Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball divining rods "as a symbol of gratitude for their loyalty."

Author's source(s)

• Stanley B. Kimball, Heber C. Kimball: Mormon Patriarch and Pioneer, 248-249.
• Anthon H. Lund, Anthon H. Lund Journal, under July 5, 1901 quoted in D. Michael Quinn, BYU Studies, Fall 1978, vol. 18, 82, cited in Jerald and Sandra Tanner, The Changing World of Mormonism (Moody Press, 1979), 87.( Index of claims ).

Response

•  Misrepresentation of source
• Use of sources: Divining rods to Kimball and Young

Claim

• Did Joseph's family own a "magic dagger?"

Author's source(s)

• No source given.

Response

• Note: In Becoming Gods, the author calls this a "magick dagger."
• Mars dagger
• This claim is also made in Becoming Gods, p. 37, 344n93
• William J. Hamblin, "That Old Black Magic (Review of Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, by D. Michael Quinn)," FARMS Review of Books 12/2 (2000): 225–394. [{{{url}}} off-site]

Claim

• Did Joseph's family own "three homemade magical parchments?"

Author's source(s)

• D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 104-115 ( Index of claims )
• Note: the main text (paperback edition) has the citations in the following order: 56, 57, 54, 55, 53.

Response

• Note: In Becoming Gods, the author calls these "magick parchments."
• The text 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.
• Magick parchments
• William J. Hamblin, "That Old Black Magic (Review of Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, by D. Michael Quinn)," FARMS Review of Books 12/2 (2000): 225–394. [{{{url}}} off-site]
• This claim is also made in Becoming Gods, p. 37, 344n94

Claim

• Did Joseph have a "Jupiter talisman" with him the day he died?

Author's source(s)

• No source given.

Response

• Joseph Smith/Occultism and magic/Jupiter talisman
• This claim is also made in Becoming Gods, p. 37, 344n95

Claim

• The author states: [I]n 1998, Apostle David B. Haight "reinvoked the astrological principle that people should 'do nothing without the assistance of the moon'" (Quinn, Early Mormonism, 291).

Author's source(s)

• D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, revised and enlarged edition, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 291 ( Index of claims )

Response
 ^{[needs work]}

• The author does not include Quinn's primary source for this statement from Elder Haight.
• Quinn's statement from Mormonism and the Magic World View (p.291):

"Without mentioning astrology Apostle David B. Haight in 1998 reinvoked the astrological principle that people should 'do nothing without the assistance of the Moon'. (See ch 3)" (Endnote 412)

Quinn's endote, however, says nothing about Elder Haight:

Endnote 412: "Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, 279:Barrett, The Magus, 1:148; also Patrick Curry, Prophecy, and Power: Astrology in Early Modern England (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Press 1989),11"

• From the author's later book Becoming Gods p. 352, endnote 155:

"Haight's remark 'do nothing without the assistance of the moon was made during his lecture at the 168th Annual General Conference. But when the transcribed text of the speech was made available online through the LDS Church's official Internet site, the phrase had been deleted."

• Most significantly, the phrase is not in the recording of the talk either. See: Non-existent quotes/Haight: assistance of the moon

Claim

•  Author's quote: "There is no question that [Mormonism] began as a doomsday sect led by an end-time prophet."

Author's source(s)

• Author's opinion.

Response

• Loaded and prejudicial language

Claim

• Did Martin Harris claim that "all temporal and spiritual power would be given over to The Prophet Joseph Smith?"

Author's source(s)

• Chandler, reprinted in Dan Vogel (editor), Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1996–2003), 5 vols, 3:222–223.

Response

• Those Power-Hungry Mormons

Claim

• The author states that Joseph claimed that his revision of the Bible "not only deleted mistakes in the Bible's first book, but also re-inserted a great deal of material that supposedly had been excised from it by corrupt and evil men."

Author's source(s)

• No reference is provided for the claim that Joseph said that information he was adding was originally removed by "corrupt and evil men."

Response

• The endnote does not provide a reference for this claim—it simply states that the text is now included in the Pearl of Great Price as the Book of Moses.

Claim

•  Author's quote: "Mormon high priests possessed the authority to bestow salvation. Such authority had always been viewed by Christians as belonging to God alone."

Author's source(s)

• Joseph Smith, Far West Record, October 25, 1831. Quoted in Lauritz G. Peterson, "The Kirtland Temple," BYU Studies (Summer 1972), vol 12, 401; cf. Brooke, 193-194.

Response

•  The author's claim is false
• Latter-day Saints have always believed that salvation can only be obtained through Jesus Christ.

Further reading

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