FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 2
Claims made in "Chapter 2: Moroni, Magic, and Masonry"
Page | Claim | Response | Author's sources |
---|---|---|---|
23 | The author claims that "LDS documents are strangely silent about their prophet's activities during the three years immediately following his 1820 First Vision." | Absurd claims |
|
25 | The angel was originally named "Nephi" instead of "Moroni." | Nephi or Moroni |
|
26, 492 n.19-20 | Oliver Cowdery said that the First Vision took place in 1823 when Joseph was in his 17th year. | Oliver Cowdery not aware of First Vision in 1834-35 |
|
26, 492 n.21 | Joseph's brother William associates Moroni's visit with a revival. | William Smith said First Vision was an "angel"? |
|
27, 493 n.23 | George A. Smith merged the First Vision and Moroni's visit. | George A. Smith said First Vision was an "angel" |
|
27, 493 n.24 | Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph's mother, said that the First Vision was of the angel in 1823. | Prophet's mother said First Vision was of an "angel" |
|
27 | Joseph engaged in "ritual magic and divination." | Joseph Smith and the occult |
|
28 | Joseph was a "money digger" | Joseph Smith and money digging |
|
28 | Joseph used a "peep stone" to search for treasure. | Joseph Smith and seer stones |
|
29, 494 n.30 | Joseph's father was "a firm believer in witchcraft and other supernatural things; and had brought up his family in the same beief." |
| |
29, 494-5 n.33-34 | Martin Harris said that Joseph was associated with a company of money diggers. | Joseph Smith and money digging |
|
29, 495 n.36 | Joshua Stafford said that Joseph's family "told marvelous stories about ghosts, hob-goblins, caverns, and verious other mysterious matters." | The Hurlbut affidavits—Joshua Stafford |
|
29-30, 495 n.37 | "Most of the residents" of Palmyra and Manchester considered the Smith family a "close-knit clan of occultists." | Joseph Smith and the occult |
|
30, 495 n.38 | William Stafford stated that Joseph used a seer stone to see "the spirits in whose charge these treasures were, clotehd in ancient dress." | The Hurlbut affidavits—William Stafford |
|
30, 495 n.40 | Joseph Capron stated that Joseph encouraged others to participate in money digging in order to obtain wealth. | The Hurlbut affidavits—Joseph Capron |
|
31, 495 n.41 | Rev. John Sherer said that Joseph Smith was a "juggler" (i.e. a "con-man") |
| |
31, 495 n.42 | William Stafford stated that Joseph believed that the state of the moon determined the best time to obtain treasures. | The Hurlbut affidavits—William Stafford |
|
31, 495 n.43 | Joseph Smith made animal sacrifices to "appease whatever spirits might be guarding the buried treasure." |
| |
31, 496 n.44 | Hiel Lewis claimed that dogs, cats and other animals were sacrificed. |
| |
33, 495 n.48 | Joshua Stafford said that Joseph showed him a piece of wood from a box of money that had "mysteriously moved back into the hill." | The Hurlbut affidavits—Joshua Stafford |
|
36, 497 n.63 | LDS historian Reed C. Durham stated that "virtually all aspects of the Royal Arch Freemasonry legend of Enoch 'seem transformed into the history of Joseph Smith, so much that even it appears to be a kind of symbolic acting out of Masonic lore.'" |
| |
36 | Joseph Smith adapted Masonic rituals for the temple endowment. | Temple endowment and Freemasonry | |
40 | The Book of Mormon denounces Freemasonry by condemning "secret combinations," "secret signs," and "secret oaths." |