INTRODUCTION

The Book of Mormon is the foundational book of scripture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (abbreviated as LDS); hence their members being given the nickname of "Mormons."

The story is that an angel named Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith and showed him where some gold plates had been buried nearby. Smith claimed that these plates contained the historical record of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and that he had been chosen to translate them, by the power of God, from the reformed Egyptian language. His translation became known as the Book of Mormon.

He also maintained that God had revealed to him that the Christian church had gone into total apostasy after the death of Christ's apostles, that their teachings were an abomination in His sight, that the Bible was unreliable as it had been corrupted due to incorrect translation, and that important doctrines on salvation had been removed. On the other hand, the Book of Mormon was the most accurate book on earth. Not only did it contain the fullness of the everlasting gospel, but it was also another witness of Jesus Christ. Upon these claims he founded the LDS church as the only true church on earth, and declared himself to be their prophet.



VERIFYING THE BOOK OF MORMON AS TRUTH

The logical way to determine the legitimacy of any claim of the magnitude of Joseph Smith's story would be to firstly research his background to establish whether he was a person of integrity, whose word could be trusted. Then one would need to verify whether or not the content of the Book of Mormon is what it is alleged to be. And because Smith's story includes the claim that the Christian church had gone into total apostasy, that the Bible is unreliable due to corruption and that important doctrines on salvation had been removed, one would need to be especially vigilant about the distinct possibility of spiritual deception.



THE ORIGIN OF THE BOOK OF MORMON

Mormonism is a fairly recent religion, relatively speaking, and so it hasn't been too difficult to piece together the sequence of events that led to the Book of Mormon coming into existence. And in so doing we have discovered the following:

1. Joseph Smith's family were occultists, and he had been personally involved in both the occult and necromancy from his youth. There is consistent evidence in this regard, including affidavits signed by neighbours that verify amongst other things, his participation in occultic animal sacrifice and contact with the dead. LDS seminary teacher Grant Palmer documented the occultic beliefs and practices of the Smith family in his book, "An Insider's View of Mormon Origins" (SLC, Signature Books, 2002, pages 175 to 195). Ed Howe mentions in his book, "Mormonism Unvailed," that sixty‑two residents of Palmyra, New York, had signed affidavits reflecting negatively on the Smith family, their reputation, character, occupation and habits. And Joseph admitted to having been a "money digger," which was the designation used for a person who claimed to have the ability to locate the whereabouts of buried treasure through psychic means (History of the Church, Volume 3, page 29).

2. In his pre-LDS days, Joseph had earned his living as a confidence trickster. Charges were laid against him by folk who had paid him to locate hidden treasure that had never materialized. On the 20th March, 1826, he was arrested, brought before a Judge, and charged under the Vagrant Act with being a glass-looker and a disorderly person. A glass-looker was a con man who claimed that he could see into the future and locate buried treasure by looking into a piece of glass or a stone. And the Vagrant Act defined a disorderly person as one who claimed to have skill in the areas of palmistry, telling fortunes or discovering where lost goods may be found, also for the purpose of making money.

On page 74 of their book, "Inventing Mormonism," (Signature Books Inc., Salt Lake City) H. Michael Marquardt and Wesley P. Walters indicate that after hearing Joseph Smith's case Justice Neely determined that there was sufficient evidence to prove his guilt, and ordered Constable Philip De Zeng to notify two other justices and to prepare for trial.

The following two links lead to photocopies of bills submitted by Justice Albert Neely for his costs, and by Constable Philip De Zeng, indicating that a warrant of arrest had been issued for Joseph Smith.

Justice Albert Neely's Bill

Constable De Zeng's Bill

The common consensus of the many books and articles that have been written on the origins of Mormonism and the history of its founder, is that Joseph Smith was found guilty at his subsequent trial. However, due to his age at the time (he was twenty) and the fact that he was a first time offender, he was not given a sentence and was released with a caution.

3. In his youth Joseph had belonged to the local juvenile debating club, and was a persuasive and convincing orator. (History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, 1851, page 214).

4. He also had a vivid and seemingly boundless imagination, which made him an exceptionally good story teller. In her book, "Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations," published by Orson Pratt in Liverpool in 1853, his mother, Lucy Mack Smith, relates that Joseph would spend hours on end regaling the family with stories about the imaginary early inhabitants of the Americas:

"He would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of traveling, and the animals upon which they rode; their cities, their buildings, with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life with them." (Italics inserted by editor.)
[c/f Page 243, "Studies of the Book of Mormon," by B. H. Roberts; Dan Vogel (editor); "Early Mormon Documents" (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1996-2003), 5 vols, 1:296.]

His mother's revelations of his habit of inventing stories about the history of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas raises doubts about the validity of Joseph's later claim regarding both the origin and the content of the Book of Mormon, which he maintained was the true history of the early inhabitants of the Americas. This is too much of a coincidence to be credible.

The LDS is well known for their practice of sanitizing their history in any area where their church may be projected in a bad light. And in this case it was no different. Second LDS President, Brigham Young, recalled all the available copies of the 1853 edition of Lucy Smith's book. After editing it, the LDS released a new, sanitized version.

5. In chapter 14, pages 58 to 59 of the same book, Joseph's mother also tells us, in great detail, about an interesting dream had by her husband, Joseph's father. And in 1 Nephi chapter 8 of the Book of Mormon, Joseph relates a vision of Lehi that is virtually identical to this dream that his own father had. Two coincidences of this magnitude are just too much for us to swallow.

6. The scribes who wrote down the translation of the Book of Mormon as it was dictated by Joseph Smith, testified that he did not ever look at the golden plates during his "translation," and that nobody else saw them either, as they were always covered over or hidden away. Instead he put his occultic stone into the crown of his hat, placed his face over it and read out the words that he said emanated from his stone. So the Book of Mormon either came into being through occultic revelations, or else it was nothing more than just another one of the stories that he was so good at inventing. Either way, the evidence indicates that he deliberately lied when he said he had translated the book from reformed Egyptian that had been inscribed on gold plates. How could he possibly have "translated" the script on these plates without ever looking at them? And why would God have sent an angel to give him the gold plates to translate, then forbid him on fear of death from looking at them?

7. There are two sets of testimonies by witnesses to the existence of these golden plates, that have been printed in the front of the Book of Mormon. But these so-called witnesses were reluctant to sign their testimonies, that had been composed by Joseph Smith, as they felt that they gave the wrong impression. They had to be persuaded by Smith to do so, and freely admitted that they had not actually seen the golden plates with their physical eyes, but only in a spiritual way, in a type of vision. So the truth is that nobody ever saw the elusive golden plates. And the testimonies of the witnesses in the front of the Book of Mormon aren't worth the paper they're written on.(See the article, The Book of Mormon Witnesses Who Never Saw the Gold Plates.)

As Smith's story is that the angel took the golden plates back again after he'd finished writing the Book of Mormon, there's no evidence at all that they had ever existed other than as a figment of his own very vivid imagination. This is beginning to sound like a long, tall tale.

8. Still on the subject of the integrity of Joseph Smith, there are presently nine known differing and contradictory versions of his supposed first vision. (See Joseph Smith's First Vision and the Controversy Surrounding It .) Each time he related the story, he changed it. This indicates firstly that he was not telling the truth, and secondly that it is most unlikely that he'd ever had a vision at all. If he'd genuinely had this incredible vision, it would have been indelibly printed on his mind. For instance, he wouldn't have been confused as to whether it was a single angel who had appeared to him, or whether both God the Father and His Son had appeared to him together, and so on. Nor would he have been confused as to whether he'd had the vision in his bedroom or in a grove. This appears to be a classic case of deception, as when one delves a little deeper, it becomes apparent that he had been accommodating his story about the vision to fit in with both the changing circumstances and with his changing doctrines. (It is understandable when different witnesses give varying impressions about the same event, but when the one and only witness keeps changing his story radically, one can only conclude that he is lying.)

Furthermore, in the official version, which supposedly occurred in 1820, God told Joseph not to join any of the Christian churches as they were all corrupt (Joseph Smith History, 1:18-20). Yet records reveal that in June, 1828, eight years later, he had joined the probationer's class of the Methodist Church. (History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, 1851, page 214).

The nine contradictory versions of his first vision, combined with the fact that the official version of his vision had obviously never happened (otherwise he wouldn't have joined the Methodist church), together with his false claim to have translated the Book of Mormon from inscriptions on gold plates, bring us to the realization that Joseph Smith was a well practised, convincing liar. And bearing in mind that as a young man he had chosen to earn his living by deception, we are forced to conclude that it would be most unwise to place any value on any of his amazing claims.

The LDS is unable to refute these facts, and so they use the excuse that Joseph had repented of these things before he started up the LDS church. But this is not true. For instance, he never ever repented of or retracted his outright lie about having translated the Book of Mormon from reformed Egyptian that had been inscribed on gold plates. And instead of the LDS church clearing the matter up once and for all and making a clean sweep of it, they have chosen to perpetuate his deception.

Furthermore, Smith never gave up his occultic practices. He made no secret of the fact that he had received revelations from God through his occultic stone. And after his death, an occultic talisman coin was found in his pocket. His mother asked if she could keep it in remembrance of him, as he had always carried it on his person.

In the Bible the occult is placed in the same category as witchcraft, spiritism and idolatry, as they all have spiritual powers behind them that oppose the purposes of God. And an occultic stone isn't the means God uses to communicate with His prophets.



THE MISSING 116 PAGES

The talk doing the rounds was that Martin Harris anticipated making a great deal of money out of the sale of the Book of Mormon, through investing the amount needed to pay for its publication. But his wife didn't trust Joseph Smith. So in order to convince her that that they weren't being conned, Martin managed to persuade Joseph to lend him the first 116 pages. They were kept locked in a drawer in the Harris's home until it was time for them to be returned, when it was discovered that they had disappeared. Because his wife had been so against Martin's involvement with Joseph, it can only be assumed that she had destroyed these pages in the hopes that the deal would fall through.

To a normal thinking person this shouldn't have presented Joseph with too much of a problem, apart from a setback in time. After all, the engraved plates hadn't been lost, they were still there. And if the missing pages had been genuinely translated through the power of God, as he'd claimed they'd been, and had not been just another of his "cons," as Harris's wife had suspected they were, it would have been a simple matter to have re-translated them. This would have given him a wonderful opportunity of proving to Martin Harris's wife (and to any other doubters) once and for all, that his fantastic claims were genuine. But that wasn't the way it was.

So instead of throwing himself back into his work with renewed energy to make up for lost time, Joseph was paralyzed by fear and foreboding. He knew he'd messed up and suspected that it would only be a matter of time before his deception was exposed. He didn't have the ability to remember all of the names and places that were in those 116 pages. Nor could he duplicate all the details, or come up with the identical wording that he'd used the first time round. His guilty conscience led him to suspect that the missing pages had been secreted away somewhere, and that they would be brought out at an opportune time in order to discredit his book.

So he knew he dare not take that route. He had to find another solution. And this is where he gave himself away. After seven long months of agonizing he eventually came up with an excuse as to why he couldn't "retranslate" that section, but would replace it instead with data from a different plate. (See Doctrine and Covenants Section 10). When the 1830 edition was finally printed minus the original 116 pages, it contained the following preface:

"As many false reports have been circulated respecting the following work, and also many unlawful measures taken by the evil designing persons to destroy me, and also the work, I would inform you that I translated, by the gift and power of God, and caused to be written, one hundred and sixteen pages, the which I took from the Book of Lehi, which was an account abridged from the plates of Lehi, by the hand of Mormon; which said account, some person or persons have stolen and kept from me, notwithstanding my utmost exertions to recover it again — and being commanded of the Lord that I should not translate the same over again, for Satan had put it into their hearts to tempt the Lord their God, by altering the words, that they did read contrary from that which I translated and caused to be written; and if I should bring forth the same words again, or, in other words, if I should translate the same over again, they would publish that which they had stolen, and Satan would stir up the hearts of this generation, that they might not receive this work: but behold, the Lord said unto me, I will not suffer that Satan shall accomplish his evil design in this thing: therefore thou shalt translate from the plates of Nephi, until ye come to that which ye have translated, which ye have retained; and behold ye shall publish it as the record of Nephi; and thus I will confound those who have altered my words. I will not suffer that they shall destroy my work; yea, I will shew unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the Devil. Wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments of God, I have, through his grace and mercy, accomplished that which he hath commanded me respecting this thing. I would also inform you that the plates of which hath been spoken, were found in the township of Manchester, Ontario county, New-York."

As indicated in the above extract, one of the excuses given by Smith for not having retranslated the missing section, is that God had told him that whoever had his originals would alter the wording in order to make him out to be a fraud. But this would have been an impossibility. The manuscript had been written in ink on ordinary paper, which soaked up the ink (they had no ball point pens as yet). Added to this, in those days they had no means of erasing ink without leaving very obvious signs of what had been done. Also, they would have had to forge the handwriting of his scribe. Common sense alone tells us that it would have been impossible to have altered these pages without it being patently obvious.

Now that we know something of the story behind the writing of the Book of Mormon (and bearing in mind that Joseph was a con artiste, well practised in the art of deception), it becomes easy to understand why he provided a unique way, unknown to any other religion, for his followers to gain a testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon purely by faith in their feelings. It was his only way out, as he knew that neither his preposterous claims nor his book would stand up under a proper investigation.

Prospective followers of Joseph Smith are shown two LDS scriptures, Moroni 10:4 in the Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants 9:8. They are then assured that if they pray to God asking him to reveal whether the Book of Mormon is true, He will give them confirmation through a warm feeling in their bosom. (See the article, The Mormon Testimony and Brainwashing .)



THE COPYRIGHT

It was common knowledge at the time he wrote the Book of Mormon, that the Smith family was in dire financial straits, and that Joseph's original intent had been to make a lot of money out of it. (There had been several other books written about the supposed early inhabitants of the Americas, that had enjoyed success.) That was why the first [1830] printing of the Book of Mormon gave Joseph Smith's name both as the author and the proprietor of the copyright. ("Author" and "translator" are two totally different designations, and a translator has no right to call himself the author.) And it is a fact that the LDS church was only brought into existence when Smith's efforts at earning himself a living through the sale of the Book of Mormon had come to naught.

In David Whitmer's booklet printed in 1887, entitled "An Address to All Believers in Christ," he mentions that Joseph claimed that God had revealed to him through his stone that he should sell his copyright and furthermore that he would be successful in selling it in Toronto, Canada (which he wasn't.) Besides being a failed revelation, if the Book of Mormon had truly been "the fullness of the everlasting gospel and another witness of Jesus Christ," and if God had genuinely told him that all the other churches ware apostate and that he had been chosen to start up the "true" church as his prophet, He would never have instructed him to sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon, and nor would Joseph have had his name printed upon it as proprietor and author. As it turned out, in spite of God's supposed revelation, he was unable to sell his copyright; and so he removed his name as the author from the subsequent printings.

Marvin S. Hill, in his book, "Quest for Refuge," comments as follows concerning the copyright question:

"The economic situation of the Smith families was so desperate at this time that Joseph tried to sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon. Hiram Page wrote with bitterness years later that the prophet heard he could sell the copyright of any useful book in Canada and that he then received a revelation that "this would 'be a good opportunity to get a handsome sum." Page explained that once expenses were met the profits were to be "for the exclusive benefit of the Smith family and was to be at the disposal of Joseph." Page indicated that they hoped to get $8,000 for the copyright and that they traveled to Canada covertly to prevent Martin Harris from sharing in the dividend. Smith evidently believed that Harris was well enough off while his own family was destitute. When Page, Cowdery, and Knight arrived at Kingston, Ontario, they found no buyer. Martin Harris apparently learned of what was done, and Joseph guaranteed him in writing that he would share in any profits made from the subsequent sales of the book. In the spring of 1830 Harris walked the streets of Palmyra, trying to sell as many copies of the new scripture as he could. Shortly after Joseph Smith and Jesse Knight saw him in the road with books in his hand, he told them "the books will not sell for nobody wants them." (Marvin S. Hill, "Quest for Refuge," pages 20-21). (Italics inserted by editor.)

Copyright 2009 by Mormonism and Biblical Truth. All rights reserved.

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