Can Mr. Smith Be Trusted???

It amazes me how many people have fallen victim to the lies of Satan that are presented in the crisp, clean façade that is Mormonism. It saddens me that so many are blindly following a doctrine that was warned about thousands of years earlier in the same Bible they claim to value. One only has to read one chapter of the Pearls of Great Price (Joseph Smith—History) in order to see the scary and blatant denial of the Bible and its warnings against a different God, a different Christ and a different gospel.

His story has been documented to have changed several times, but in ready the most current version we have of his visions, the hairs on the back of my neck still stand up at just how blinded Joseph Smith really was to the truth. We must remember that Satan is the master manipulator. We know that he causes us to question the Word of God (Genesis 3:1-5) and that he has the ability to twist Scripture to fit into his plan (Matthew 4:6, Luke 4:10). This is evident throughout this particular chapter in the Pearls of Great Price as Biblical text is used through out in order to further his agenda.

First, Joseph Smith says “While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.’”

One thing I have learned in my Christian walk to is to be extremely careful not to take a verse out of context. I have seen people take Philippians 4:13 (“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”) to mean a whole host of things. I have hear people use it to say they can do anything...rip a phone book in have, walk across a busy freeway without getting hit, etc. Why? Because the verse is taken out of context. If you read Paul’s words to the Philippian church in their entirety, you see that he is speaking of contentment. I can be content in whatever state I am in. In his writings, James was referring to asking for wisdom during a time of trial and temptation, at the times we are most vulnerable. Yes, we may ask for wisdom just as Solomon did, but to take the verse in James out of context is the first big no-no I see.

He says he was visited by two Personages “whose brightness and glory defy all description” and one said of the other “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”(vs 17). We know that it is believed by the LDS church that these personages were God the Father and Jesus. Lets not forget, Satan knows the Bible. And this vision happened hundreds of years after the Bible was written. How is this possible that Joseph Smith saw God the Father when it says in Exodus 33:20 “And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.”? “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him” can be found in Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7, and Luke 9:35 as these men recorded what happened when Jesus was transfigured. We also must bare in mind the what we see in II Corinthians 11:14-15 “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” So, Satan can transform himself into an angel of light AND use Scripture to his benefit.

In verse 19 of this chapter he says that the personage told him, in regards to all doctrines and commandments of the day, that “having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof”. Another instance of using Scripture (as this appears in I Timothy 3:5).

There is a footnote that appears after verse 20 that says “Some preachers and other professors of religion reject the account of the First Vision—Persecution is heaped upon Joseph Smith—He testifies of the reality of the vision”. I believe that they reject his account of his vision based upon the Word of God. We have already seen in II Corinthians 11:14-15 that Satan can transform himself into an angel of light. II Corinthians 11:4 says “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with [him].” Galatians 1:6, 8-9 “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel…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. As we said before, so say I now again, If any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”

In verse 24, Joseph Smith likened himself to Paul “when he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account of the vision he had when he saw a light, and heard a voice, but still there were but a few who believed him; some said he was dishonest…” There were a few who believed Paul because they were with him when it happened (Acts 9:7 says that the men that accompanied Paul heard a voice but saw no one). There were those who thought Paul (who was then called Saul) was dishonest as he was a major force in the persecution of the church. (Acts 8).

Verse 25 shows a version of what was included in Matthew 5:11 by saying “they were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil against me falsely” to show that he was being persecuted, and therefore blessed. He was facing these “persecutions” because of what he was preaching.

In the footnote in between verses 26 and 27, Joseph Smith says that Moroni appeared to him. Yet, in the 1851 version, he said it was Nephi.

In verse 28, he says “I was left to all kinds of temptations; and, mingling with all kinds of society, I frequently fell into many foolish errors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and the foibles of human nature…In making this confession, no one need suppose me guilty of any great of malignant sins. A disposition to commit such was never in my nature…” James 2:10 says “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one [point], he is guilty of all.” We are guilty of sin even if we commit just one. Sin is malignant. Why do you think our bodies are subject to death? And it wasn’t in his nature? Ephesians 2:3 says “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” It is in our nature to sin, both great and small. One only has to read Psalm 51 to see that.

In verse 30, he says “…I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than the noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside…” Again, II Corinthians 11:14, Satan can transform himself into an angel of light.

In verse 34, he says, in reference to the gold plates “…that the fullness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it.” Colossians 1:19 says “For it pleased the Father that in him [Jesus] should all fullness dwell.” In Jesus, not gold plates.

In verse 35, he makes reference to a seer. A seer is a person who prophecies future events; prophet; a person endowed with profound moral and spiritual knowledge; a wise person or sage who possesses intuitive powers; a person who is reputed to have special powers of divination, as a crystal gazer or palmist. Sounds like sorcery and witchcraft to me. And we are to avoid such things. Galatians 5:19-21 says “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these]; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told [you] in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

How can a religion based upon sorcery inherit the kingdom of God? Deuteronomy 18:10-12 “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things [are] an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.” Let us not forget what happened to King Saul after he indulged in such things. (I Samuel 28).

In verse 36, he says Moroni, the name of the being in his vision, “first quoted part of the third chapter of Malachi; and he quoted also the fourth or last chapter of the same prophecy, though with a litter variation from the way it reads in our Bibles.” Read Genesis 3: 1-5, Matthew 4:6 and Luke 4:10, we see that Satan does that with Scripture all of the time.

In verse 42, Joseph Smith says “Again, he told me, that when I got those plates of which he had spoken—for the time that they should be obtained was not yet fulfilled—I should not show them to any person…” The problem I have with this is that so much of this has been done in secrecy. The Bible has a lot to say about things done in secret. Psalm 10:8: 17:12, in speaking of the wicked, says “He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor… Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.” Ecclesiastes 12:14 “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” And, in Isaiah 45:19 and 48:16, God says that He does not speak in secret “I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right… Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there [am] I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.”

It is interesting to see in verse 47 that he says “…when almost immediately after the heavenly messenger has ascended from me for the third time, the cock crowed…” That was what happened after Peter denied Jesus three times (Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and John 18).

In verse 56, he states “…hence arose the very prevalent story of my having been a money digger.” Joseph Smith was found guilty of money digging in 1826 in a court of law. “The proceedings of a court hearing date March 20, 1826—New York vs. Joseph Smith—revealed Joseph Smith ‘had a certain stone which he had occasionally looked at to determine where hidden treasures in bowels of the earth were…and had looked for Mr. Stoal several time.’ The hearing ruled the defendant guilty of money digging” (Frazers Magazine, New Series, February 1873: 7:229)

There is so much room for doubt in this account, when compared to what is written in the Bible. Oliver Cowdery (Messenger and Advocate, vol 1, October 1834, pgs 14-16) , says “Man may deceived his fellow-men, deception may follow deception, and the children of the wicked one may have power to seduce the foolish and untaught, till naught but fiction fees the many, and the fruit of falsehood carries in its current the giddy to the grave; but one touch with the finger of his love, yes, one ray of glory from the upper world, or one word form the mouth of the Savior, from the bosom of eternity, strikes it all into significance, and blots it forever from the mind.” He speaks of the vision he also had with Joseph Smith. But, there is a problem. I John 4:1 says “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” Just two verses later John writes “And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God…” (I John 4:3a).

It is evident that Joseph Smith did NOT follow Scripture when he was visited. I have no doubt that he was visited, but it was not a being from heaven that did so. And he will have to answer before God one day about the millions he led astray.

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