JOSEPH SMITH, THE LATTER-DAY FALSE PROPHET
1. 'I prophesy by virtue of the holy priesthood vested in me, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that, if Congress will not hear our petition and grant us protection, they shall be broken up as a government, and God shall damn them, and there shall be nothing left of them, not even a grease spot' (Joseph Smith, Millennial Star, Volume 22, page 455.)The biblical record reveals that God's true prophets never ever slipped up. Every single one of their prophecies, without any exceptions, including those concerning Christ's incarnation, his life and his death on the cross, was fulfilled, exactly as prophesied. Yet Joseph Smith, the "true" latter-day prophet who was supposedly given the responsibility of restoring God's "true" church could not get his act together concerning either God's prophecies or His revelations.
When this prediction was recorded in their official history, the LDS omitted the words 'not even a grease spot' (see History of the Church, Volume 6, page 116). The government never granted the Mormons their petition, and yet the Congress remained in power (Deseret News, Volume 1, page 59).
2. Doctrine and Covenants 114:1: 'thus saith the Lord: It is wisdom in my servant, David W. Patten, that he settle up all his business as soon as he possibly can, and make a disposition [sic] of his merchandise, that he may perform a mission unto me next spring, in company with others, even twelve including himself, to testify of my name and bear glad tidings unto all the world'.
David Patten was killed before he could serve this mission. The biblical God knows the end from the beginning, and we can rest assured that He never gave this false prophecy to Joseph Smith.
As usual the LDS offers a selection of excuses (so that we can take our pick), ignoring the fact that the Bible teaches that no amount of excuses can justify a false prophecy. One of their excuses is that the Lord actually called David on mission to the Spirit World. Another excuse is that he wasn't worthy of a mission, so the Lord killed him.
But the revelation was that his mission was to the whole world, not just to the spirit world. And the second excuse it makes it seem as though the LDS God is not properly equipped for his task of being a God. It insinuates that he has such a lack of foresight that it would have been a miracle in itself if any of Smith's prophecies had ever come true. How is it that the biblical God had no such problems?
3. Doctrine and Covenants 137: Entire paragraphs, comprising 216 words, were removed by the LDS authorities solely because they contained failed prophecies. However, the original records should be in the LDS archives. If you can get hold of a copy of the original Book of Commandments you will see these false prophecies for yourself, right there in print. Photocopies of some of the changes are in a book in my possession entitled "The Changing World of Mormonism" 1981 printing, by Jerald and Sandra Tanner, c/f pages 38 to 66. (You can read their book online by clicking on the link provided at the end of this article.)
Besides the alterations to their prophet's failed prophecies mentioned in item 3 above, there are many other chapters of prophecies and revelation that have silently disappeared from Doctrine and Covenants. It is the practice of the LDS church to sanitize both their history and their scriptures whenever they show the church up in a bad light, and if necessary to lie "for the sake of the church." They even have a name for this. They call it "lying for the Lord." But what Lord are they lying for? The God of the Bible is a God of truth.
The fact that the LDS leadership regularly sanitizes their history tells us not only that they have done their utmost to conceal all the evidence that reveals that Joseph Smith was a false prophet, but that in so doing they have perpetuated his deceptions. The truth of the matter is that if they admitted that Joseph Smith was a false prophet all their doctrines would be suspect, because they all had their origins in his supposed revelations.
4. Doctrine and Covenants 124:20-21: And again, verily, I say unto you, my servant George Miller is without guile; he may be trusted because of the integrity of his heart; and for the love which he has to my testimony. I, the Lord, love him. I therefore say unto you, I seal upon his head the office of a bishopric, like unto my servant Edward Partridge, that he may receive the consecrations of mine house, that he may administer blessings upon the heads of the poor of my people, saith the Lord. Let no man despise my servant George, for he shall honor me.
George Miller was excommunicated seven years later.
For his word ye shall receive, as if from my own mouth, in all patience and faith (Doctrine and Covenants 21:5).Another LDS excuse is that unforeseen circumstances had prevented some of Joseph Smith's prophecies from coming to pass. This is both ridiculous and unacceptable. The true, biblical God doesn't guess the future when He passes His word on to His prophets. He knows the future. Nothing is ever unforeseen by Him. He is not bound by the dimensions of time and space as we are here on earth. He created time, but exists in eternity. So to Him, the past, present and the future are all equally clear. He could never be taken by surprise when things go wrong or if circumstances change, because he knows and always has known the end from the beginning. That's why His biblical prophets never ever gave a false prophecy.
".....We shall, in this lecture speak of the Godhead: we mean the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are two personages ..... they are the Father and the Son: the Father being a personage of spirit, glory and power: possessing all perfection and fullness: the Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, a personage of tabernacle [body].... And he being the only begotten of The Father ..... possessing the same mind with the Father, which mind is the holy spirit ....." (1835 Doctrine and Covenants, Lecture Fifth of Faith, 5:1-2, pages 52, 53, 55, First Edition) (Italics inserted by author.)(Note: The original Doctrine and Covenants was split into two sections. The first section comprised their canon of LDS Doctrines and the second section contained the LDS Covenants (Revelations). The above quote from the fifth lecture of faith was recorded in the first section, and included in their canon of scripture, indicating that it was their official doctrine. However, as mentioned earlier on, it is the habit of the LDS church to sanitize or to deny any aspects of their history, including any past doctrines that may reflect negatively on them, to the extent of even lying, if necessary. And so they vehemently deny having worshipped different deities at different times in the past. In line with that, they maintain that the above quote was only the personal opinion of one of their members. But this excuse is invalidated by the fact that it was included in their canon of official doctrine in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants.)
The Lectures were selected for that volume by a committee appointed on September 24, 1834 by a general assembly of the church to arrange the doctrines and revelations of the church into a single volume. That committee of Presiding Elders, consisting of Joseph Smith, Jr., Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams, stated that the Lectures were included "in consequence of their embracing the important doctrine of salvation," and that the Lectures, together with the church-regulatory sections that followed, represent "our belief, and when we say this, humbly trust, the faith and principles of this society as a body." (See 1835 D&C, Preface.) Accordingly, the church body accepted the committee's compilation on August 17, 1835 as "the doctrine and covenants of their faith, by a unanimous vote." (History of the Church 2: 243-6).The Book of Mormon, which Joseph published round about the time he'd started the LDS church, also defined deity in trinitarian terms, describing God the Father as a spirit being as well as the one and only God:
"..... Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God" ..... (Alma 11:44)The LDS "Articles and Covenants" (the original Doctrine and Covenants) also taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are "one God." And Section 20:17-28 on the nature of God was similar to the creeds of protestant churches. (You can view this in the LDS archives.)
"..... the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one ....." (3 Nephi 11:27)
"And then Ammon said: Believest thou that there is a Great Spirit? And he said, Yes. And Ammon said: This is God. And Ammon said unto him again: Believest thou that this Great Spirit, who is God, created all things which are in heaven and on the earth? And he said Yes ........" (Alma 18:26-29)
And the king said: Is God that Great Spirit that brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem? And Aaron said unto him: Yea, he is that Great Spirit, and he created all things both in heaven and in earth ..... (BOM Alma 22:9-11)
"..... to dwell in the presence of God in his kingdom, to sing ceaseless praises with the choirs above, unto the Father, and unto the Son, and unto the Holy Ghost, which are one God....." (Mormon 7:7)
"Now Zeezrom said: Is there more than one God? And he answered, No." (Alma 11:28-29)
"..... there is but one God" (Alma 11:35)
"We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see ..... God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page 345, compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith). (Italics inserted by editor.)Enticing others to turn from the worship of the true God to another deity qualified Joseph Smith on a second count as a false prophet, according to the book of Deuteronomy.
If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 13:1-3, KJV)Mormons need to ask themselves how it could be possible for a true prophet of God to start up the so-called "true" restored church of Jesus Christ under God's inspiration and guidance, and then later on maintain that they had originally been worshipping the wrong God.
"We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea and take away the veil that you may see. It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God ..… that he was once a man like us ..... Here, then, is eternal life — to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely by going from one small degree to another" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith, 1976, pages 345-346 c/f "Times and Seasons," Volume 5, pages 613-614). (Italics inserted by editor)Don't forget that during those early years Joseph Smith had claimed that he was receiving ongoing revelations and prophecies from God. He was even supposed to have retranslated the Bible under God's divine guidance during this period. Yet we are expected to believe that God never bothered to tell him that he and the LDS church were worshipping, following and praying to the "wrong" deity, a deity they now ridicule.
"(I Joseph) enquired of the Lord about it, and behold, the following revelation came through the stone: Some revelations are of God: some revelations are of man: and some revelations are of the devil."If Joseph was unable to discern whether his so-called revelations had come from God, his own imagination or the devil, surely one should be extremely cautious about listening to any of his claims, let alone accepting them as being truth. Bear in mind that none of Smith's teachings were in line with God's revelations in the Bible. To put it bluntly, to gamble one's eternal existence on the claims of a self-proclaimed prophet who admitted that he couldn't tell whether his prophecies and revelations had come from God, the devil, or his own imagination, would be most unwise.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12, KJV)Joseph Smith's followers have been led to believe that God allowed the early church of Jesus Christ, for which He gave His life, to become totally apostate, and that He also allowed the Bible (the standard of truth He had given us to protect ourselves from spiritual deception) to become corrupted and unreliable. Furthermore, they have been persuaded to worship a different, previously unknown God who was once an ordinary mortal man who had to earn his way to godhood; to follow a different Jesus to the Christ of the Bible (see the link to the relevant article); and to believe in a different gospel, despite the warnings in the Bible about the deceptiveness of false prophets who teach about a different Jesus and a different gospel. (c/f 2 Corinthians 11:3-4, Galations 1:8, 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, etc.)
