This startling discovery, the report states, was made by an archaeological team headed by Professor Abraham Jones, associated with BYU’s faculty of Archaeology—and (hang on) the hieroglyphic symbols on these plates are amazingly identical to those the prophet Joseph Smith copied from the gold plates of the Book of Mormon!
 |
| See article at http://tinyurl.com/p9q14ru
The article states they compared the hieroglyphic symbols with those Joseph Smith drew from his gold plates "in 1928." Say what?? (No doubt, he rose from the dead.)
Of course, there is no Professor Abraham Jones connected with BYU . . . and the above picture of plates are actually a picture of the faked “Lead Codices of Jordan” but passed off as plates found in the Hill Cumorah. (For those of you who don't know what the Book of Mormon is, it claims to contain writings of ancient prophets between 2200 BC to AD 421 who sailed from Jerusalem to the American continent.)
So . . . welcome to the exciting world of fakery par excellence!
(Be sure to see Endnote 33 for the WNDR's (World News Daily Report) witty Disclaimer Notice—it's worth the chuckle). 
THE WITNESSES OF THE BOOK OF MORMON:
WHAT DID THEY REALLY SEE?
The WNDR's article is typical of those who like to pull jokes on people—which brings us to the subject of this post. Fooling the public was nothing new to Joseph Smith. This was especially true concerning the gold plates of the Book of Mormon and the witnesses he manipulated to sign a statement saying they saw them. However, they actually never saw them! They later admitted it.
How did Joseph Smith manage to pull it off?
Well, this is what this post is all about.
This article will look at the
claim of the three men who testified an angel appeared and showed them
Joseph Smith’s gold plates; also, eight other men who, although did not claim to
see an angel, testified Smith allowed them to "heft" the plates.
We will look at:
The Printed Statement
of the Three Witnesses to the Gold Plates
of the Book Of Mormon 
Oliver Cowdery David Whitmer Martin Harris
Artist's rendition of angel showing places to the three witnesses
Below is the three witnesses’ statement printed in the front of the Book of Mormon, stating an angel showed them the gold plates and engravings. (For the sake of space, the following is an excerpt from that lengthy paragraph focusing only on this particular claim. The rest of the paragraph mostly mentions the Book of Mormon people and religious verbiage) “That we, through the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which contain this record…And we also testify that we have seen the engravings which are upon the plates; and they have been shown unto us by the power of God, and not of man. And we declare with words of soberness, that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon; and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bear record that these things are true. David Whitmer Martin Harris”
The printed statement
of the eight witnesses to the gold plates
Artist's rendition of Joseph Smith showing the plates to the eight men
The printed statement of the
eight witnesses is slightly different. They do not claim an angel showed the
plates to them; instead, Joseph Smith showed the plates to them and they
“hefted” them.
“…Joseph Smith, Jun., the translator of this work has shown unto us the plates of which hath been spoken, which have the appearance of gold; and as many of the leaves as the said Smith has translated we did handle with our hands; and we also saw the engravings thereon, all of which has the appearance of ancient work, and of curious workmanship. …for we have seen and hefted, and know of a surety that the said Smith has got the plates of which we have spoken.
Many ask, “Certainly, these men
wouldn’t testify to something unless it was true! Or, would they?”
First, let’s ask the following question:
Who Actually Wrote the Testimony of the Witnesses?
Where did the statement of these
witnesses, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery
and David Whitmer, come from? Did they write the testimony themselves? The
answer is “No.” Joseph Smith actually did, and then each man supposedly signed
it.
It is strongly maintained by LDS
Church writers that Joseph Smith wrote the original version of the two
testimonials for all eleven men to sign. We have no visual record of their
signatures. The original manuscript of the Book of Mormon, which
supposedly contained the original signatures, was placed by Smith in the
cornerstone of the Nauvoo house in 1841.
The only visual record the LDS
Church has is the “printers copy” made by Oliver Cowdery, all in his
handwriting, including the signatures of the three men. It is called the
“printer’s copy” to distinguish it from the original manuscript.
Below is a copy of the eight witnesses’
statement, including the signatures, all in Cowdery’s handwriting. Whether this
is really the “printer’s copy” may be suspect. It could actually be the
original, revealing that the men never actually signed it but only allowed
their name to be placed under the statement of testimony, persuaded by Smith.
However, this is just a suspicion of my own.
Was the original Book of
Mormon manuscript, including the two testimonials ever retrieved from the
cornerstone of the Nauvoo House?
Yes. The original was eventually
retrieved from the cornerstone of the Nauvoo building. Only 28% of the
manuscript survived. LDS writer, Royal Skousen, says “Most of it was severely
damaged by water that had seeped in as well as by mold that ate away a lot of
the manuscript.” Therefore, the church says: “As a result of this, we do not
have the portion of the original Book of Mormon manuscript containing the
witness statements.”(30) (Perhaps
it never did contain actual signatures.)
WHAT DID THE THREE WITNESSES SEE?
We’ll focus mostly on the three
witnesses, since their account is the most fanciful; then later, the eight.
Whatever Martin Harris, Oliver
Cowdery and David Whitmer saw, and by whatever means, it was not, by their own
admission, in the dimension of physical reality.
Martin Harris admitted he never
saw anything with his “natural eyes.” He stated:
“I never saw the
golden plates, only in a visionary or entranced state.”(2)
Harris admitted the same to John
H. Gilbert, the printer who set up the type for the Book of Mormon. During
the printing of the first edition of the Book
of Mormon, Harris was in the print shop while the type was being set for
the testimony of the three witnesses. The printer, John Gilbert, asked him if
he had seen the plates with his naked eye.
“Martin looked
down for an instant, raised his eyes up, and said, ‘No, I saw them with a
spiritual eye.”(3)
Harris further told a Palmyra
lawyer who asked him, “Did you see the plates and the engravings upon them with
your bodily eyes?” responded with:
I did not see
them as I do that pencil-case, yet I saw them with the eye of faith; I saw them just as
distinctly as I see anything around me - though at the time they were covered
with a cloth.(4)
(underlining
mine)
Harris further let the cat out of
the bag when he revealed the other eight witnesses saw no plates either even
though in the printed statement they claimed Smith showed the plates to them.
Even Joseph Smith admitted the three only saw the plates in a “vision.” (See
History of the Church vol 1, p. 55)
How many knew about this?
On April 15, 1838, Stephen Burnett,
a High Priest and missionary, denounced Joseph Smith and the three witnesses’
testimony and submitted the following letter to Lyman E. Johnson, a former
twelve apostle, explaining his withdrawal from the church:
Br[other]
Johnson – my heart is sickened within me when I reflect upon the manner in
which we with many of this Church have been led & the losses which we have
sustained all by means of two men in whom we placed implicit confidence, that
Joseph Smith & Sidney Rigdon are notorious liars I do not hesitate to
affirm, & can prove by a cloud of witnesses…
I have reflected
long and deliberately upon the history of this church & weighed the
evidence for & against it - loth to give it up - but when I came to hear Martin
Harris state in public that he never saw the plates with his natural eyes
only in vision or imagination, neither Oliver nor David & also that the
eight witnesses never saw them & hesitated
to sign that
instrument for that reason, but were persuaded
to do it, the last pedestal gave away . . . . I therefore three weeks since in
the Stone Chapel gave . . . the reasons why I took the course which I was
resolved to do, and renounced the Book of Mormon. . . .
I was followed
by W. Parrish, Luke Johnson & John Boynton, all of who concurred with me,
(sic) after we were done speaking M. Harris arose & said he was sorry for
any man who rejected the Book of Mormon for he knew it was true, he said he had
hefted the plates repeatedly in a box with only a tablecloth or a
handkerchief over them, but he never saw them, only as he saw a city
through a mountain. And said that he never should have told that the testimony
of the eight was false, if it had not been picked out of (him) but should have
let it passed as it was.(5) (underlining mine)
So, in reality, the witnesses saw nothing. They even
hesitated to sign the testimony, making it obvious it was written by Joseph
Smith.
“Well,” some might
insist, “Harris and the eight wouldn’t have signed a statement if they hadn’t
seen something. Doesn't the 'eye of faith' count?"
What they saw was a product of
their own mind. Remember, by Martin Harris’ own admission, everything he and
the others saw, came as a vision. Historical accounts reflect the witnesses
were effectively induced to see the plates in a vision because of Smith’s
mesmerizing methods. How did he manipulate them?
First, Smith persisted in
badgering them by telling them that only the faithful could see them. That kind of remark would belittle
the best of men. He used the manipulative method of intimidation.
Playing upon the witnesses’
emotions, he engineered them into conjuring up a vision by telling them God was
not allowing them to see the plates because they were “unworthy” and needed to
“repent.” With that kind of pressure, individuals will see exactly what they
are expected to see.
An example of how Smith coerced
them to see a vision was told to the Governor of Illinois, Thomas Ford by more
than one of Smith’s key men:
They [Smith’s men] told Ford that the witnesses
were “set to continual prayer, and other spiritual exercises.” Then at last “he
(Smith) assembled them in a room, and produced a box which he said contained
the precious treasure. The lid was opened; the witnesses peeped into it, but
making no discovery, for the box was empty,
they said, ‘Brother Joseph, we do not see the plates.’ The prophet answered
them, ‘O ye of little faith! How long
will God bear with this wicked and perverse generation? Down on your knees,
brethren, every one of you, and pray God for the forgiveness of your sins, and
for a holy and living faith which cometh down from heaven.’ The disciples
dropped to their knees, and began to pray in the fervency of their spirit,
supplicating God for more than two
hours with fanatical earnestness; at the end of which time, looking
again into the (empty) box, they were now persuaded that they saw the plates.”(9)
(Parentheses and emphasis mine)
?
Seeing the plates with their spiritual eyes instead of natural, accounts for newspaper reports
that said all three witnesses told different
versions. This “makes it all the more likely,” author Fawn Brodie wrote in her
book, No Man Knows My History, “that
the men were not conspirators but victims
of Joseph’s unconscious but positive talent at hypnosis.”(10)
Persuasion of this nature is
similar to the ploy Mormon missionaries use today. To the Investigator
(potential convert), they read Moroni’s promise at the end of the Book of
Mormon, which says that if one asks God in the name of Christ with a sincere heart, the truth of the book will be manifest to them by the Holy
Ghost.
This can’t help but suggest to
the investigator that if he doesn’t
get an answer he or she is not sincere. When the missionaries tell them others have received an answer, it doesn’t
take much for the investigator to be intimidated. He asks himself: “What’s wrong with me? Why won’t God give me
a confirmation?” As a result many Investigators keep praying until they do get some kind of
manifestation. It may be goose bumps, or some kind of sensation, but they
finally take it as an answer even if it is produced by their own psyche.
For Mormons, that kind of answer
is okay. The Mormon Church teaches that feelings
are the way God authenticates truth.(6) Nevertheless, that should
sound an alarm because that is not what the Bible teaches. How should one go
about determining if the Book of Mormon is true?
One should use a combination of
methods, remembering I Thessalonians 5:21 says one must prove all
things. Decision-making must utilize every avenue at one’s disposal. In other
words, God gave us a brain to use. He doesn’t expect us, as Josh McDowell says,
to commit “intellectual suicide.”(8)
First, pray to initiate guidance
in:
1.
Researching the historical facts of Mormonism
2.
Compare the facts with God’s Word
3.
Seek counsel from Christian pastors
4. Pray to confirm what has been gleaned.
(Don’t pray about the “contents,” because Smith copied much of the Bible into it, but pray about the origin.)
Now, to the eight witnesses’
testimony.
WHAT EXACTLY DID THE OTHER EIGHT WITNESSES “HEFT”?
“We
have seen and hefted and know of a surety that the said Smith has got the
plates of which we have spoken.”
The eight witnesses stated they hefted the gold plates, and
described them as “weighing between forty and sixty pounds and being
approximately eight inches long, five or six inches wide, and five or six
inches thick.”(18)
In the first place, if they were
pure gold there is no way they could have lifted them in the casual manner they
describe. According to the measurements these plates of gold would have weighed
nearly 230 pounds—unless, of course, they weren’t pure gold. This is what LDS
writer, Michael De Groote claims in an article entitled, “How Gold Were the
Golden Plates?”
He references LDS Metallurgist,
Read H. Putnam, who suggests the plates were a metal alloy of gold and copper
called "tumbaga" by the Spaniards. It would look like ordinary gold
but would weigh less. “Putnam estimated a solid block of the ideal engraving-friendly
copper/gold alloy would weigh about 107 pounds. Take half of that away to
account for air between the plates and "the weight of the stack of plates
would be about 53 pounds."(29)
While it may be the plates
weren’t pure gold, it is believed Smith may still have duped the eight
witnesses in the same way he duped two of his friends, William T. Hussey and
Azel Vandruver.
He showed them the supposed
plates in a chest concealed beneath a canvas. Smith convinced them the
plates were so sacred that if they looked directly upon them they would die.
SHussey became so excited, he
ripped off the canvas, saying “Egad, I’ll see the critter, live or die!”(19)
What did he see? Nothing but “a
large tile brick.”(20)
Smith was always pulling tricks like this, taking great
delight in fooling people. Once, after a rain shower, Smith discovered some
white sand. He “tied up several quarts of it [in his ‘frock’] and then went
home.” His family was eager to know
what he had. Smith later told Peter Ingersol:
At that moment I happened to think about
a history found in Canada, called the Golden Bible; so I very gravely told them
it was the Golden Bible. To my surprise they were credulous enough to believe
what I said.(21)
Since Hussey saw a tile brick,
some may figure it safe to assume that whatever the eight witnesses hefted
could have been another large brick covered with a cloth or canvas and Smith
was able to persuade them it was the original plates. However, that won’t work
because the men’s printed testimony claims they saw the engravings.
Could
Joseph have forged false plates and engravings for the eight witnesses to see?
Many feel Smith concocted some kind of plates of his own.
Oliver Cowdery could certainly have made such a set, including engravings, since
he’d been a blacksmith in his youth.(22) Fawn Brodie, in her book,
also suggests that Joseph built a makeshift set of plates.(23)
But the gears in Joseph Smith’s mind were working toward
another motive in making a set, besides fooling the eight men.
Brodie notes in her book that by
making real plates, Smith hoped to make money by exhibiting them. John C.
Bennett, a close associate, said that Smith asked him to go to New York and
obtain some falsely engraved plates so that he could exhibit them, at “25 cents
a sight.”(24) While anything Bennett could say might be suspect
considering his reputation, nevertheless, in this instance, Bennett’s story was
backed up by Sarah, the wife of Mormon historian and Apostle, Orson Pratt.
When one researches the facts
(instead of relying on feelings), one can only reach one
conclusion: the plates were an elaborate hoax.(25)
One has to pity the witnesses
who, at first, may not have wished to testify to something that wasn’t true,
even indicating they were reluctant to have their names under the testimony,
but were manipulated and intimidated by a man they believed was a prophet of
God.
It is also thought by some, that
they were influenced further because of the family connections. Four of the
eight witnesses were Whitmers; Hiram Page married a Whitmer daughter; and three
were members of Joseph’s own family. Mark Twain later observed:
I could not feel more satisfied
and at rest if the entire Whitmer family had testified.(26)
Stretching or misrepresenting the truth was no
problem for Smith. He also altered his
“revelations.”
 Apostle William E. McLellin said, regarding the printed statement entitled, “Testimony of the Twelve Apostles to the Truth of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants” contained in the “Explanatory Introduction” to the Doctrine and Covenants:
"So far as
the testimony of the Twelve published in that book (Doc. & Cov.) is
concerned, it was a base forgery.(38)
It is not unreasonable to suppose
the testimony of the three and eight witnesses were also forgeries. David
Whitmer, listed as one of the three witnesses in the latter, accused Joseph of
that very thing.(1)
He also said Smith had seriously
altered other revelations:
…I was often in
Joseph's office, and know positively that some of the revelations were so
altered, mutilated and changed that a good scholar would scarcely know them. In
one revelation I counted 20 alterations! Hence, who can depend upon them? I
cannot. I will not. ... All your trouble arises from your taking that mutilated
and altered Doctrine and Covenants.(1) (Saints Herald, Vol.
17:556, 557, as quoted in Changing
of the Revelations, page 6)
Charles. W. Lamb quotes this
statement from a letter written by Apostle William McLellin in 1877:
"I
found that Smith did not always tell the truth... he materially altered his own
revelations before they were ever printed."(1)
DID THE
WITNESSES EVER DENY THEIR TESTIMONY?
The Mormon Church, of course, claims that none of the three
witnesses ever denied their testimony of seeing the plates. But Oliver Cowdery,
according to the Mormon publication Times
and Seasons, did deny. Published in 1841, J. H. Johnson, a believer in
the Book of Mormon, reflected the sentiments of the community when he
wrote a poem echoing the fact that men (like Oliver Cowdery) lie, but it
doesn’t necessarily invalidate the truth of the Book of Mormon. The last
stanza reads:
…Or prove that Christ was not the Lord
Because that Peter cursed and swore?
Or
Book of Mormon not his word
Because
denied, by Oliver?(12) (emphasis mine)
Oliver Cowdery said he was
willing to make a public recantation and he was “sorry and ashamed of his
connection with Mormonism” and left the Mormon Church and joined the Methodist
Church.(13)
Oliver Cowdery died, not
in Utah, but at the home of fellow witness David Whitmer, who had also left the
Mormon church. Whitmer makes it clear that Cowdery “died believing as I do
to-day,” which included a belief that Joseph was a fallen prophet, and that the
Doctrine and Covenants contained false revelations.(28)
The Mormon Church, however,
claims Cowdery came back to the church. But if he did, he must have left again
because when he died he was buried by a Methodist minister in Richmond,
Missouri.
David Whitmer became a member of
the Church of Christ,
and died still rejecting the LDS Church, but said he continued to
believe in the Book of Mormon (probably its “contents” because of the
many Biblical passages in it).
Martin Harris joined Anna Lee’s
church, the Shakers, saying that his
testimony of Shakerism was greater than that of the Book of Mormon.(14)
Although later in life he came back to the Mormon Church and took out his
temple endowments, he admitted it was just to find out “what was going on in
there.”(15)
Interestingly, as often happens
with time and celebrity status, there are accounts in the witnesses’ later years, where they greatly
enlarged their testimony about the plates. Whereas both men (Harris and
Whitmer) had admitted years earlier to only seeing the plates in a “vision” or
“entranced state” and not as a physical reality, they are quoted in later years
as giving very different and exaggerated accounts from their original
testimony. Fawn Brodie notes, in No Man
Knows My History, that David Whitmer’s testimony, given 49 years later,
was too “richly embellished.” Whitmer added a long list of things he supposedly
saw, which were not mentioned in his earlier account:
the brass
plates, the plates of the book of Ether ., . . a table with many records or
plates upon it . . . also the Sword of Laban, the directors - i.e., the ball
which Lehi had, and the Interpreters (Urim and Thummin).”(16) (parentheses
mine.)
WHAT WOULD
MOTIVATE THE WITNESSES TO MAINTAIN THEIR TESTIMONY ABOUT THE PLATES IN SPITE OF
THEIR REJECTION OF THE MORMON CHURCH?
Embellished or not, why would the
three witnesses persevere in their testimony about the plates later in life,
even though they renounced Joseph Smith and left the Mormon Church? Why?
Because they had become celebrities!
WHERE
ARE THE GOLD PLATES NOW?
?
Joseph Smith said that after 1829, when
through translating, the gold plates were returned to the angel Moroni. He
didn’t elaborate on it. All he said was:
“Thereafter the plates were
returned to the custody of Moroni.”(34)
A story by early church leaders was that Smith, accompanied
by Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum Smith and David Whitmer accompanied him and instead of giving them to the angel,
they returned the plates to a cave inside the Hill Cumorah. They said Smith placed
the plates on a table near “many wagon loads” of other ancient records.(35)
Mormon
apologist, John Tvedtnes, doubts the Hill Cumorah contains any caves
based on scientific evidence. He states:
The New York Hill Cumorah is a
moraine laid down anciently by a glacier in motion. It is comprised of gravel
and earth. Geologically, it is impossible for the hill to have a cave,
and all those who have gone in search of the cave have come back empty-handed.
If, therefore, the story attributed to Oliver Cowdery (by others) is true, then
the visits to the cave perhaps represent visions, perhaps of some far
distant hill, not physical events.(36)
Even though geologically impossible, Mormons traditionally
continue to tell the story of the cavern containing the gold plates and other
ancient records. Bill McKeever of Mormonism Research Ministry, in his article,
“Where are the Gold Plates Now? says:
No doubt [repeating] this tradition is meant to strengthen
the faith of members who need to believe the plates actually existed. But it
should come as no surprise that the actual evidence for such a conclusion is
anything but compelling.(37) (brackets mine)
OBSERVATIONS
If the Book of Mormon is
true, wouldn’t God want to provide archaeological evidence comparable to the
kind discovered by archaeologists throughout the Holy Land? There are two
reasons: (1) No such evidence exists because the Book of Mormon people
never existed, and (2) God would not provide evidence to a church and prophet’s
doctrines that contradict the Bible.
DOES THE BIBLE
SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THE BOOK OF MORMON
AND JOSEPH SMITH?
No…absolutely nothing .
The LDS Church claims the Book of Mormon is a “Second
Testament” to Jesus Christ and contains the “fullness of the everlasting
gospel,” even though it doesn’t contain all the unbiblical doctrines Joseph
Smith later passed off as revelation from God. The Bible says no “Second
Testament” is needed because the fullness of the everlasting gospel is already
contained within its pages.
Unfortunately,
the witnesses’ testimony of the gold plates has attracted a membership of over
fifteen million, with over 296,000 converts baptized
for the year ending December 31, 2014, although
thousands later leave, or become inactive.
Mormon
converts continue to be deceived who accept the story of the gold plates
without investigating the facts.(27)
Deception is:
To delude and ensnare. Using a lie
to promote something that is not of value.
(See a comparison chart between what
Christianity and Mormonism teaches at endnote number 32.)
The Bible is the God-breathed word of God. It is powerful and life
changing, is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, and reveals the
true God to us. It is credible, validated by archaeological discoveries,
and we can
be assured what we learn in the Bible comes from Him! (see my article, “Is the Bible Reliable?” at http://www.janishutchinson.com/newsletters/reliability.pdf
Did an angel deliver the Book of Mormon, and did God
call Joseph Smith as a latter-day prophet?
The apostle Paul made it very clear in Galatians 1:8 that no
“Second Testament” is needed. He warned that anyone preaching doctrine
different from what he and the other apostles taught is false:
But
though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
The Holy Bible
Until next time,
Janis
THANK YOU FOR VISITING!
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endnotes
1. McLellin’s
statement: Saints Herald, Vol. 17:556, 557, and the Charles Lamb
statement both cited at http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changingtherevelations.htm.
The David Whitmer accusation cited in Mormonism-Shadow or Reality? By Jerald and Sandra Tanner (Salt Lake,
Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1972), 31.
2. David Persuitte, Joseph Smith and the Origins of the Book
of Mormon (McFarland & Co. Pub., Jefferson, NC) 2nd Ed. 1991, p.
97.
3. Persuitte, p. 96. His quote is from Wilford C. Wood, Joseph Smith Begins His work,
Vol. 1, forepart, “Memorandum made by John H. Gilbert, Esq.” (John H. Gilbert’s memorandum was a prepared
statement in preparation for the World’s Fair held in Chicago, ILL, in 1892)
4. Interview with Ole Jensen in Clarkston,
Utah, published in J.M. Sjodahl: Introduction to the Study of the Book of
Mormon, pp 58-60, as quoted in
Fawn Brodie’s No Man Knows My History,
(2nd Ed. NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1971), 78. (emphasis mine)
5. Letter from Stephen Burnett
to Lyman E. Johnson. (Italics,
mine.) A copy of this letter is in the
Joseph Smith Collection in the LDS Church Archives. Cited in Persuitte, 96.
6. See The Mormon Missionaries: An inside look at their real message and methods, by Janis Hutchinson (Grand Rapids, Kregel Pub., 1995), Chapter 4. 7. See Hutchinson, The Mormon Missionaries, 204-205. 8. Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, rev. ed. (San Bernardino: Here’s Life Pub. 1979), 3. 9. History of Illinois (Chicago, 1854), 257. (Italics mine.) Cited in Brodie, 79-80. 10. Brodie, 77. (Italics mine.) 11. In David Whitmer’s Address to All Believers in Christ; he stated: “All of the eight witnesses who were then living (except the three Smiths) came out [of the LDS Church]. Peter and Christian Whitmer were dead. Oliver Cowdery came out also. (28). Cited in Marvin W. Cowan’s Mormon Claims Answered (Marvin W. Cowan, 1989), 57. 12. From Times and Seasons (2:482). Also quoted in Oliver Cowdery - The Man Outstanding, by Joseph Hyrum Greehalgh, Phoenix, Ariz., 1965, p. 28, as cited in Tanner, 55. 13. Affidavit by G.J. Keen. See also, Tanner, 54. 14. Martin Harris-Witness and Benefactor of the Book of Mormon, 1955, p. 52. Cited in Cowan, 56. Martin Harris was well known for his religious instability and that he changed his religious affiliation at least thirteen times in his life. In addition, he gave false prophecies and became carried away with his own visions. In one vision he saw Jesus in the form of a deer. In another, he said the devil looked like a jackass and had short smooth hair like a mouse. (See Tanner, Mormonism-Shadow or Reality? p. 56.) 15. Tanner, op cit 58. 16. Brodie, 78. Compare the Palmyra Reflector, March 19, 1831, and David Whitmer’s interview with Orson Pratt 49 years later, as published in the Millennial Star, Vol. XL, pp. 771-2. 17. Intentionally left blank. 18. Anderson, op cit 9. 19. James H. Snowden, The Truth About Mormonism (N.Y., George H. Doran Co., 1926), 60.
20. Snowden, op cit 60. See also, “The Salt Lake Daily
Tribune,” October 25, 1879 at http://www.truthandgrace.com/1879translating.htm.
21. Palmyra Reflector, February 28,
1831. See also Snowden, 57, citing an affidavit
given in Mormonism Unveiled by
Howe, 235-36.
22. Tanner, op cit 59.
23. Tanner, op cit, 59. 23. Brodie, No Man Knows My History, 80. 24. Brodie, op cit 316-317 25. See Hutchinson, Mormon Missionaries, Chapter 7 entitled “Magic and Masonry: How Joseph Smith put it all together”. 26. Brodie, op cit 79.
27.
2014 Statistical Report for 2015 April General Conference. http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/2014-statistical-report-for-2015-april-general-conference
28. “An Address To All Believers
In Christ, 1887, Pp. 1-2). Cited at exmormon.Org/D6/Drupal/File9.
29.
“How
Gold Were the Golden Plates?” by Michael De Groote, dated July 7, 2010. Deseret
News. Cited at http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705384964/How-gold-were-the-golden-plates.html?pg=all
31. Joseph
Smith plagiarized thousands of words from the Bible to insert in the Book of
Mormon. He borrowed from the Presbyterian’s Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms; the Apocrypha,
and quoted from Malachi, a book
written after 600 B.C., (when the Nephites supposedly landed in the
Americas); copied 21 chapters of Isaiah,
and, according to one author, 27,000 words total from the 1769 KJV of the
Bible, including italicized words added by the translators. (See Tanner, op
cit., 68-73)
32.
Comparison chart: (Sorry, I couldn't align the right-hand column; but you can still read it okay.)
Mormonism
teaches: Christianity
teaches:
The
Existence of many Gods There
is only one God
(Journal of Discourses
2:345) (Deut.
6:4; Isaiah 43:10)
God
the Father is an exalted man God
the Father is not a man
(Doctrine & Covenants
130:22) (Numbers
23:19; Isaiah 31:3)
God
the Father has a physical body God
the Father is Spirit
(Doctrine & Covenants
130:22) (John
4:24)
God
the Father had a beginning God
the Father is Eternal
(The Seer, 132) (Isaiah
43:13)
God
the Father has parents God
the Father has no parents
(The Seer, 132) (Isaiah
43:13)
God
the Father is a polygamist God
is not married
(The Seer, 172) (Mark
12:28-30)
God
only “organized” the universe God
created the universe
(Mormon Doctrine 589-590) (Genesis
1:1; John 1:1)
Jesus
was the physical Son of God Jesus
was begotten by the Holy Spirit
(Mormon Doctrine, 546-547) (Matt.
1:18-23; Luke 1:26-35)
Jesus
became a God Jesus
has always been God
(Deseret News, June 17,
1901) (John
1:1-18; Colossians 2:9)
Jesus
and Satan are brothers Satan
is only a created being
(Gospel Through the Ages,
15) (Isaiah
14:12-15; Rev. 12:9)
Jesus
was a polygamist Jesus
has only one bride: the Church
(Journal of discourses,
1:345-346) (Revelation
19:7-9; 21:9)
Men
can become Gods Men
can only become children of God
(Journal of Discourses,
2:345) (John
1:12; Romans 8:23)
There
is salvation after death There
is no salvation after death
(Mormon Doctrine 669-672) (Hebrews
9:27)
There
is salvation only in the LDS Church There
is salvation only in Jesus Christ
(Doctrines of Salvation
1:350) (John
14:6)
Salvation
is through Jesus and Joseph Smith Salvation
is only through Jesus
(Journal of Discourses,
7:289) (John
3:16; Ephesians 2:8-9)
33. “World News Daily Report (WNDR) by Barbara Johnson, dated April 3, 2015. http://tinyurl.com/m7myrm9:
WNDR “assumes however all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any persons, living, dead, or undead is purely a miracle.” (emphasis mine)
34. Joseph Smith 2:27-65; D&C 27:5; Doctrines
of Salvation, vol. 3, pp 215-226. See also, Bruce R. McConkie
Mormon Doctrine, p.327, 1979
edition.
35. Packer, J.
Cameron (2004), "Cumorah's Cave",Journal
of Book of Mormon Studies (Provo, Utah:Maxwell Institute) 13 (1): 50–57. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_plates#Returning_the_plates.
36. FARMS Review of Books, vol. 2 (1990),
p.261).
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4 comments:
You are accountable before the people you mention here, the Angels, the HOLY GHOST,JESUS CHRIST, and HEAVENLY FATHER for twisting history of PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH JR.
SEE you at JUDGEMENT DAY.
Dear Alfredo,
Thank you for your comment. I sincerely understand where you are coming from, as I was a Mormon for 35 years, taught the Gospel Doctrine class and was married in the temple. However, one of the things I make sure I do in my blogs is to quote from the LDS Church's own records, so members can check it out themselves to see that it is the truth. This is what I've done in this blog. No one can intelligently say that when I quote right from the LDS Church's own records that they are lies.
I wish you the best and pray that you will allow God to open your eyes to the truth.
Blessings,
Janis Hutchinson
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