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Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Becoming Gods/Chapter 1: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 06:47, 22 February 2010


Preface
A FAIR Analysis of:
Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism
A work by author: Richard Abanes
 Chapter 2

Claims made in "Chapter 1: God's Latter-Day Prophet"

24

Claim
Joseph's family survived by "money digging."

Author's source(s)

Response


24

Claim
Joseph was adept at "occult ritual."

Author's source(s)

  • No actual reference given by the author: The note simply says "Smith was well-known as a money-digger throughout western New York and northern Pennsylvania."

Response


24

Claim
Joseph's neighbors thought that he was "an imposter, hypocrite and liar."

Author's source(s)

Response


26

Claim
During the First Vision, Joseph was told that "all Christian creeds" were an abomination and that "all Christian teachers" were corrupt.

Author's source(s)

  • No source provided.

Response


26

Claim
Many Mormons believe that "their salvation, to a limited degree, rests upon Smith."

Author's source(s)

  • In a note on page 332, the author says "I do not mean to say the Mormons hold Joseph Smith on an equal par with Jesus Christ. Smith holds a place just below Christ."
  • Jerald and Sandra Tanner, The Case Against Mormonism, 2 vols., (Salt Lake City, 1967), vol. 1, p. 75.
  • Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, p. 302

Response


26

Claim
Bruce R. McConkie said that "we must turn to Joseph Smith to gain salvation."

Author's source(s)

  • Bruce R. McConkie, Millennial Messiah: The Second Coming of the Son of Man (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1982), 334. ISBN 0877478961. GL direct link

Response


26

Claim
Dallin Oaks said that "I have built my life on the testimony and mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith."

Author's source(s)

  • Dallin Oaks, "Joseph, the Man and the Prophet," Ensign (May 1996): 71. off-site

Response

  •  Misrepresentation of source: The author omits Elder Oaks' very next words:
In all of my reading and original research, I have never been dissuaded from my testimony of his prophetic calling and of the gospel and priesthood restoration the Lord initiated through him. I solemnly affirm the testimony Joseph Smith expressed in the famous Wentworth letter of 1842:
“… The standard of truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing, persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done” (Times and Seasons, 1 March 1842, 709; quoted in Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 5 vols. [1992], 4:1754).
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.


27

Claim
Joseph Smith was "harsh and violent."

Author's source(s)

  • No source provided.

Response


27

Claim
James E. Faust said that Joseph Smith "was the greatest prophet who ever lived upon the earth."

Author's source(s)

  • James E. Faust, "The Importance of Bearing Testimony," Liahona, Mar. 1997, p.3. off-site

Response

  •  Misrepresentation of source: Note that the author removes all the surrounding text which discusses Jesus Christ (italic text is quoted by author; bold for emphasis):
As one of the special witnesses of the Lord, I desire to declare my testimony to you. I am grateful that I have always had a testimony of the gospel. I cannot remember when I did not believe. I have not always understood everything and do not claim to do so now, but through thousands and thousands of spiritual confirmations throughout my life, including my calling to the holy apostleship, I can declare my testimony to you that Jesus is the Christ. With every fiber and cell of my being, I know that He is our Savior and Redeemer. I testify that Joseph Smith was the greatest prophet who ever lived upon the earth and of great importance to the Savior in the work of God on the earth. I know this to be true.


28

Claim
Joseph Smith may have been a "pious fraud," who believed that he had been called of God while perpetrating fraud.

Author's source(s)

  • Dan Vogel in Waterman, p. 50

Response


28

Claim
Joseph Smith and other church leaders "often used deception to conceal their activities."

Author's source(s)

  • No source provided.

Response


28

Claim
Polygamy was practiced in secret and denied publicly.

Author's source(s)

  • Times and Seasons, Mar 15, 1843, vol. 4, no. 9, p. 143

Response


28

Claim
Heber C. Kimball predicted that the world would someday see Joseph Smith as "a god."

Author's source(s)

Response


28

Claim
Brigham Young applied 1 John 4:3 to Joseph Smith.

Author's source(s)

Response


29

Claim
LDS claim that Joseph Smith "told but one" First Vision.

Author's source(s)

  • Preston Nibley, Joseph Smith the Prophet (SLC: Deseret News, 1944), p. 30.

Response

  •  The author's claim is false
  • First Vision/Accounts
  • Church publications have long described the multiple accounts of the First Vision:
    • Milton V. Backman, Jr., "Joseph Smith's Recitals of the First Vision," Ensign (January 1985): 8.off-site
    • Dean C. Jessee, "Early Accounts of Joseph Smith (1831–1839)," Brigham Young University Studies 9 no. 3 (1969), 275–294. PDF link
    • Dean C. Jessee, The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, revised edition, (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 2002), 9–20.


30

Claim
The 1832 account of the First Vision states that Joseph was in his "sixteenth year," and that he "probably meant when he was 16 years old.

Author's source(s)

  • Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 1:28

Response


30

Claim
The 1832 account does not mention two personages.

Author's source(s)

  • Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 1:28

Response


30

Claim
The 1832 account does not mention that "all the churches in Joseph's day were false."

Author's source(s)

  • Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 1:28

Response


31

Claim
Joseph claimed that he learned about the errors in Christendom through personal Bible study several years before the First Vision.

Author's source(s)

  • Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 1:27

Response


31

Claim
Orson Pratt said that the two personages "declared themselves to be angels."

Author's source(s)

  • Pratt in "Biography and Journal of William I. Appleby, Elder in the Church of Latter Day Saints," 1848 reprinted in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, vol. 1, pp. 146-147.

Response


31

Claim
Church historian Andrew Jenson said that "The angel again forbade Joseph to join any of these churches."

Author's source(s)

  • Andrew Jenson, "Joseph Smith, The Prophet," Jan. 1888, vol. 3, nos. 1-3, p. 355.

Response


31

Claim
Joseph dictated the 1838 account of the First Vision to counter the leadership crisis in Kirtland.

Author's source(s)

  • No source provided.

Response


31

Claim
The visit of Moroni was confused with the First Vision, and "was probably the real first vision."

Author's source(s)

  • No source provided.

Response


34

Claim
"Not a single piece" of literature published in the 1830's mentions a visit by the Father and the Son.

Author's source(s)

  • No source provided.

Response


34

Claim
Joseph's mother said that the First Vision was of an angel.

Author's source(s)

  • Lucy Mack Smith, letter to Solomon Mack Jr., Jan. 6, 1831, reprinted in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, vol. 1, p. 216.

Response


34

Claim
Joseph privately began reworking the story of seeing an angel into a vision of Christ.

Author's source(s)

  • Oliver Cowdery, Messenger and Advocate, Feb. 1835, vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 77-80.

Response


34

Claim
Without "Mormonism's so-called" Melchizedek Priesthood, no man can see God and live.

Author's source(s)

Response


34

Claim
Nobody knows "when or how" the Joseph received the Melchizedek Priesthood.

Author's source(s)

  • Online reference to anti-Mormon site "lds-mormon.com"

Response


34

Claim
Joseph "had to backdate" the First Vision to 1820 in response to a leadership crisis.

Author's source(s)

Response


35

Claim
The First Vision originally stated that the personages were angels.

Author's source(s)

Response


35

Claim
There was no 1820 revival in Palmyra that converted "great multitudes" of people.

Author's source(s)

  • Oliver Cowdery, Messenger and Advocate, Feb. 1835, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 42.

Response


35, 342n78, 348n130

Claim
  • Joseph Smith is claimed to have joined other churches after having been told that churches were wrong.
  • Joseph is claimed to have become a member of the Baptist Church after his First Vision.
  • Joseph is claimed to have become an "exhorter" for the Methodists after his First Vision.

Author's source(s)

  • Fayette Lapham, "Interview," pp. 305-306, reprinted in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents 1:458.
  • Mitchell Bronk, "The Baptist Church at Manchester," The Chronicle: A Baptist Historical Quarterly [January 1948], vol. 11, pp. 23-24.
  • Orasmus Turner, Lockport Daily Courier, May 5, 1854.
  • Sophia Lewis, Susquehanna Register, May 1, 1834 reprinted in Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH, 1834), 269. (Affidavits examined)

Response

35, 342n79-80

Claim
Newspapers reported in 1829 that Joseph Smith had a dream in 1827 about a spirit visiting him three times in one night.

Author's source(s)

  • From the 'Palmyra Freeman: Golden Bible, Niagara Courier, Aug. 27, 1829, vol. 2, no. 18.
  • "The Gold Bible," Rochester Advertiser and Telegraph, Aug. 31, 1829.

Response


35-36, 343n83

Claim
Joseph Smiths First Vision may have been a dream of a "bloody ghost dressed as a Spaniard.

Author's source(s)

  • Hiel Lewis, letter to James T. Cobb, Amboy Journal, Apr. 30, 1879, reprinted in Wyl, pp. 79-80
  • Fayette Lapham [May 1870], in Dan Vogel (editor), Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1996–2003), 5 vols, 1:459.
  •  Citation error: the reference to the dream and bloody clothes is on p. 458.

Response


36, 343n85

Claim
Joseph Smith was an "occultist."

Author's source(s)

  • Lance S. Owens, "Joseph Smith: America's Hermetic Prophet," Gnosis, Spring 1995, no. 35, p. 60

Response


36

Claim
Early Mormons believed in "witchcraft."

Author's source(s)

  • John L. Brooke, The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844, pp. 71-72.

Response


36

Claim
Joseph's mother talked about "magic circles" and the "faculty of Abrac."

Author's source(s)

  • Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, vol. 1, p. 285.

Response


37, 344n93

Claim
Joseph's family had a "magick dagger" that was owned by Hyrum Smith.

Author's source(s)

  • No source given.
  • The endnote describes the dagger and its alleged importance to Joseph without acknowledging the source of the information.

Response


37, 344n94

Claim
Joseph's family had "three magick parchments." One of these was owned by Hyrum Smith.

Author's source(s)

  • No source given.
  • The endnote 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.
  • An indirect reference is made to the book Occult Sciences."

Response


37, 344n95

Claim
Joseph had a "Jupiter talisman" with him the day he died.

Author's source(s)

  • No source given.
  • The endnote simply states the date of Joseph's death.

Response


38

Claim
"Researchers of Mormonism" now believe that Joseph was influenced by "Jewish kabbalism."

Author's source(s)

  • No source provided.

Response

  • Joseph Smith/Occultism and magic/Kabbalah influence
  • William J. Hamblin, "'Everything Is Everything': Was Joseph Smith Influenced by Kabbalah? Review of Joseph Smith and Kabbalah: The Occult Connection by Lance S. Owens," FARMS Review of Books 8/2 (1996): 251–325. off-site
  • William J. Hamblin, Daniel C. Peterson, and George L. Mitton, "Mormon in the Fiery Furnace Or, Loftes Tryk Goes to Cambridge] (Review of The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844 by John L. Brooke)," FARMS Review of Books 6/2 (1994): 3–58. off-site


38

Claim
Joseph considered the date April 6th to have "astrological significance."

Author's source(s)

Response

  • The author provides no evidence for what Joseph believed about April 6.
  • He fails to mention the one bit of evidence that we do have for what Joseph may have thought: DC 20꞉1 suggests that April 6 was seen as the date of Christ's birth.[1] The author fails to cite D&C 20.


38-39, 346 n. 104-109

Claim
Joseph was arrested in 1826 for being a "disorderly person and an imposter."

Author's source(s)

  • Dan Vogel, "Rethinking the 1826 Judicial Decision," Mormon Scripture Studies: An E-Journal of Critical Thought.

Response


39

Claim
No "statements of repentance by Smith" for money digging have ever been found.

Author's source(s)

Response

  •  The author's claim is false
  •  Misrepresentation of source: in the quoted article, Martin Harris reported that Joseph had told him that the angel Moroni instructed him "...he must quit the company of the money-diggers. That there were wicked men among them. He must have no more to do with them."[2]
  • In Joseph's time and place, there was nothing shameful or disgraceful about money digging per se—it was the fact that some were wicked that was the problem.
  • Joseph Smith/Money digging


40, 348n123

Claim
Gordon B. Hinckley cited false documentation to support the story of an 1820 revival.

Author's source(s)

  • Gordon B. Hinckley, Truth Restored, pp. 1-2.

Response


42, 349n126

Claim
There is no evidence that Joseph Smith was "persecuted" for telling the story of his vision between 1820 and 1824.

Author's source(s)

  • Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, vol. 1, p. 29, 46-47.

Response


42, 43 (sidebar)

Claim
Contradictions in the stories of Paul's vision were "long ago resolved by scholars analyzing the Greek texts. The discrepancies in Paul's account involve modern ignorance of the Greek wording used."

Author's source(s)

  • W.E. Vine, Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, p. 544.

Response


42

Claim
Brodie's idea that the First Vision may have been "the elaboration of some half-remembered dream stimulated by the early revival excitement" is a satisfactory way to "explain things."

Author's source(s)

Response


44

Claim
Brodie's idea that the First Vision may have been "created some time after 1830 when the need arose for a magnificent tradition to cancel out the stories of his fortune-telling and money-digging" "further weakens" Mormon claims.

Author's source(s)

Response


45, 351 n. 144

Claim
Joseph "continued practicing magick, divination, astrology, and soothsaying long after the LDS Church was founded in 1830."

Author's source(s)

  • No specific reference is provided.

Response

  •  History unclear or in error: The note simply mentions that seer stones continued to be used after the Church was organized in 1830—a fact that could be easily deduced from reading the Doctrine and Covenants.
  • Joseph Smith/Seer stones


46

Claim
Brigham Young used Oliver Cowdery's divining rod to point out the location where the temple would be built in Salt Lake City.

Author's source(s)

Response


46

Claim
Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball were given divining rods by Joseph Smith.

Author's source(s)

Response


46

Claim
Joseph received a revelation praising Oliver's gift of using his divining talents.

Author's source(s)

  •  [ATTENTION!]

Response


48

Claim
Joseph continued to discover and use new seer stones.

Author's source(s)

Response


48

Claim
Joseph "never stopped being" an occultist.

Author's source(s)

  • Author's conclusion.

Response


49

Claim
The activities of Joseph's family may have been "satanic."

Author's source(s)

  • Author's conclusion.

Response


Endnotes

  1. [note]  John Franklin Hall, "April 6," in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4 vols., edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, (New York, Macmillan Publishing, 1992), 1:61–62.
  2. [note]  Katich cites Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism (Urbana and Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois Press; Reprint edition, 1987), 74. ISBN 0252060121.
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