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God’s institution or Satan’s instrument?
A book’s cover may not reveal its contents, but a prophet may be shown to be true-blue or fraudulent by his messages. If his messages are contradictory, inconsistent, and preposterous, we may conclude the institution he engineered is counterfeit. As you read the following quotation from The Book of Mormon, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. You are actually reading what you see.
“Now, if there was no law given—if a man murdered he should die—would he be afraid he would die if he should murder? And also, if there was no law given against sin men would not be afraid to sin. And if there was no law given, if men sinned what could justice do, or mercy either, for they would have no claim upon the creature?
“But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the words of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God” (Alma 42:16-22, The Book of Mormon, 1950 Edition, published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah).
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In psychiatry, Joseph Smith’s mumbo-jumbo would be called “word salad”—a sprinkling of words without a meaningful and intelligent connection. During my 34 years of working with psychiatric patients, there were numerous occasions when I encountered “word salad” vocabulary. The patients often handed me their thoughts on paper. It was impossible to make heads or tails of anything.
These poor people suffered from “mental mirages,” a form of schizophrenia—a psychotic disorder. They saw beauty in their words. I saw disorder and derangement. If I had taken their written statements and announced to the world that God had spoken to me through one of His angels, as Joseph Smith affirmed, and that I had copied onto paper the angel’s message, I might have found a large following—as Smith did. There’s always enough pushovers out there in this big world to go around.
And how did Smith feel about our authentic scriptures, the Bible, in his Book of Mormon? He scorned it. Listen to him. “Thou fool, that shall say: A Bible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible. Have ye obtained a Bible save it were by the Jews?” (2 Nephi 29:6). It was Smith’s intentions to create another “Bible” in the likes of The Book of Mormon. So he did just that. And thousands of duped victims are flocking to it.
It is true that Smith dictated to Oliver Cowdery who, in turn, wrote down the translation. Of interest at this point, however, is that a fellow by the name of David Whitmer, one of Smith’s cohorts and one of the three witnesses to the unfolding of Smith’s translation, later described the manner in which The Book of Mormon was translated. This is important because his name appears in the Preface of each copy of The Book of Mormon, under “The Testimony of Three Witnesses.” Whitmer testified—and observe carefully, please:
“Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus The Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man” (David Whitmer, An Address to all Believers in Christ, 1976, p. 12.).
From this bit of testimony we are forced to deduce that errors and contradictions in The Book of Mormon should be non-existent, for everything was repeated to Joseph Smith for accuracy. If the repeated dictation was correct, “then it would disappear and another character with the interpretation would appear.”
This conveys the fact that if the repeated translation was incorrect, it would not disappear until corrected! This is precisely what the sixth President of the Mormon cult stated in a public address, according to Oliver Huntington in 1881. He has the Mormon President saying, “And if there was a word wrongly written or even a letter incorrect, the writing on the stones would remain there. Then Joseph would require the scribe to spell the reading of the last spoken and thus find the mistake, and when corrected the sentence would disappear as usual” (Journal of Oliver Huntington, p. 168).
Oliver Huntington attended the meeting at which the statement by Joseph Fielding Smith, sixth President, was made. A typed copy of his Journal is on deposit with the Utah State Historical Society.
If Cowdery made some mistakes while writing down the translation, what assurance do we have that any part of The Book of Mormon is trustworthy? Let me tell you what has apparently occurred in the Mormon Hierarchy. To recoup the appalling mistakes, contradictions, and double-talk in The Book of Mormon, they have devised a scapegoat in the likes of Oliver Cowdery! But it won’t work, for Oliver Cowdery’s personal testimony is at odds with the current Mormon explanation—and he is one of their commanding witnesses to the validity of Smith’s bogus translation!
With this information at our disposal, we are now prepared to take an intriguing journey into the many ramparts and canyons of Mormonism.
Apparently, Smith had a strange fascination for artifacts hidden in the earth. If he were alive today, he would be a prime candidate for a top leadership position in the New Age Movement. From this bit of history relating to his “crystal ball” performances, magical tricks, and earthen artifacts, we are able to better understand his illusionary recounting of the angel “Moroni” and the “gold plates.” This, it is hoped, will lay the groundwork for what follows. Please read slowly and deliberately. And also see “The Death Of Joseph Smith” in Sections 2 & 3.
The claim is totally false. The Mormon “Testament” says Jesus was born at Jerusalem. “And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem, which is the land of our forefathers...” (Alma 7:10). Jesus, of course, was born in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:1-6). Bethlehem is not part of Jerusalem. They are two totally separate cities, distinct from each other, and separated by a distance of miles. One is not a suburb of the other.
Something is terribly wrong with the Jerusalem-Bethlehem theology, else Mormon “Apostles” and leaders would not be spending hours and weeks and months trying to explain what Smith meant. And Smith wasn’t speaking figuratively or symbolically when he said Jesus would be “born at Jerusalem.” He meant what he said. Did God make a mistake when He instructed Smith to tell the world His Son would be “born at Jerusalem”? Well, did He? No, God didn’t make a mistake. Smith stumbled while “supernaturally” translating his “divine revelation!”
If one of our modern-day translations stated that Jesus was born in Jerusalem, I suspect we’d be up in arms. Why? Because we know assuredly from the oldest Hebrew and Greek texts He was to be born—and was born—in Bethlehem. If Smith was guided by God’s Holy Spirit to write The Book of Mormon, as is alleged, the mistake must be attributed to Deity. Anyway we toss the coin, Smith's blunder—plus hundreds of others—proves him counterfeit, without a doubt.
Smith’s fictional angel, “Moroni,” was supposed to have piloted his efforts at translating his imaginary “extinct Egyptian tongue.” However, “Moroni” floundered, and his followers have been painstakingly trying since to rectify his “inspired” mess! We may rest assured the only angel in this screenplay is Joseph Smith. There’s only two species of angels—angels of light and angels of darkness. As to which category Joseph Smith belongs—well, no use belaboring the point. Ambassador Paul had something to say about this.
A few years ago, while studying with a Mormon leader, I called the Jerusalem mistake to his attention. He responded by saying there are mistakes in almost every translation. I countered by reminding him that Joseph Smith claimed he was personally guided by God, through the angel Moroni, while translating the plates into English. “Therefore,” I told him, “if mistakes occurred, God is to blame.” He couldn’t respond to that bit of reality.
True, mistakes are made when men, not moved by the Holy Spirit of God, translate from one language to another. This happens because we don’t have access to the original autographs. But Joseph Smith did have access to the original autographs (plates), or so he claimed. And God’s Holy Spirit moved him, or so he alleged. Yet his “divine” translation is filled with mistakes, absurdities, blunders, contradictions, and double-talk.
Smith is wrong on the priesthood, and he’s confused as to when the grace era began and when the old Hebrew era ended. The writer of Hebrews says the new era replaced the old Hebrew era when there was a change in the priesthood. Jesus became the new High Priest when He sat down at God’s right hand. He destroyed the old barrier, “the dividing wall of hostility [Old Covenant] by abolishing in his flesh [on the cross] the law [of Moses] with its commandments and regulations” (Ephesians 2:14-15).
So a New Covenant was established and a new era ushered in—not a few hundred years prior to the cross on what is now the American continent, but in the city of Jerusalem in about 30-35 A.D. At that time, God made one New Covenant with the entire human family, not separate (new) covenants at different times—as Smith alleges. Smith has his cart before the horse and places his “revelation” against Paul’s revelation. Yet there aren’t supposed to be any discord between the two books! Who can believe it?
