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The Book of Mormon teaches, in conformity with Bible doctrine, that God spoke the worlds into being: "For behold, by the
power of his word man came upon the face of the earth, which earth was created by the power of his word. Wherefore, if God being able to
speak and the world was, and to speak and man was created, O then, why not able to command the earth, or the workmanship of his hands upon
the face of it, according to his will and pleasure?" (Book of Mormon, Jacob 4:9). This creative word, or 'logos,' became incarnate in
Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon describes Jesus Christ as creator of "all things:" "And he shall be called Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary." (Mosiah 3:8).
This doctrine of Christ as Creator erodes in Joseph's later teaching, along with all other Bible doctrine. The ground of creation
shrinks; instead of speaking the worlds into being ex nihilo, God arranged pre-existing matter. If Jesus Christ truly created "all things" that were created,
then He also pre-existed all created things. But God's eternity also erodes,
replaced by gods procreating in time like a tribe of squirrels. What is
left in contemporary Mormon doctrine is a Jesus Christ who did not create
"all things" as stated in the Book of Mormon, but who Himself
came into being.
Traditional theism recognizes that, if the material things we see around us came into being at some time, as they all did, then there
must behind them be an uncaused cause, an eternally existent being who calls all these ephemeral things into the light of existence. Yet all
this dissolves in Joseph's later teaching, into eternal matter and a tribe of gods who inhabit
the cosmos as tenants, the way people do.
Hobgoblin of Little Minds
Not only are the various scriptures produced by Joseph Smith not in accord with the Bible, they are not even in accord with one
another. Joseph Smith began his career as prophet celebrating monogamy:
- “Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord:
For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines
he shall have none; For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women.
And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts.”
- (Book of Mormon, Jacob 2:27-28).
- "Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing
was abominable before me, saith the Lord. . .Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not
any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none; For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women.
And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts."
- (Book of Mormon, Jacob 2:24-28).
- "And it came to pass that Riplakish did not do that which was right
in the sight of the Lord, for he did have many wives and concubines, and
did lay that upon men's shoulders which was grievous to be borne; yea,
he did tax them with heavy taxes; and with the taxes he did build many
spacious buildings."
- (Book of Mormon, Ether 10:5).
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...and ended quite differently: "In 1887 the Utah Church historian,
Andrew Jenson, drawing upon the enormous file of secret manuscript material
in the church library in Salt Lake City, compiled a list of twenty-seven
wives of Joseph Smith." (Fawn M. Brodie, 'No Man Knows my History,'
Appendix C, The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith). Just as Mohammed ibn Abdallah's
wives came in for divine chiding in the Koran, Joseph's wife Emma is likewise
instructed to stuff a sock in it:
In 1831, Joseph Smith is still reminding the Shakers that God made the
two one: "Wherefore, it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. . ." (Revelation to the Shakers)
So what happened? The careers of Mohammed ibn Abdallah and Joseph Smith
followed the same trajectory: these prophets found a following. Fleeing
mockery, ridicule and vandalism, they formed communities around themselves.
To the faithful, the prophet's word was law. What would a man do with that kind of power?
Surrounded by a little band that hung on their every word as the very word
of God, these men saw opportunities open up which most men never face.
If a man could get away with anything, would he? Or would he fear the God
he claimed to serve? Both Mohammed ibn Abdallah and Joseph Smith decided,
at a certain point in their prophetic career, that what they really wanted
was their neighbor's wife. The 'God' for whom they spoke wholeheartedly
seconded the move. In neither case did it escape the senior wife's notice
that the 'God' who spoke sounded suspiciously like a ventriloquist's dummy.
As already noted, Joseph Smith covered a wide swath of theological territory
in his wanderings, from modalism in the Book of Mormon to polytheism in
his later writings. The god census in the Book of Mormon is one only:
- “...for there is one God and one Shepherd over all the earth.”
- (Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 13:41).
- "Now Zeezrom said: Is there more than one God? And he answered, No."
- (Alma 11:28-29).
- "For if there be no Christ there be no God; and if there be no God
we are not, for there could have been no creation. But there is a God,
and he is Christ, and he cometh in the fullness of his own time."
- (2 Nephi 11:7).
- ". . . whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth
and forever, should serve him, the true and only God. . ."
- (Book of Mormon, Ether 2:8).
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When asked to reconcile the god count of the Book of Mormon with the "gods"
who would later appear, Mormons fail to see the problem, explaining that
'one' means just the same as 'many.' Joseph Smith himself was aware, however,
of a disjunction: either there is one god or there are many: "A time to come in the which
nothing shall be withheld, whether there be one God or many gods, they shall be manifest." (28, Doctrine and Covenants Section
121, Prayers and prophecies from the Liberty, Missouri jail).
If Joseph Smith spoke as a prophet when he wrote in the Book of Mormon
that there is only one God, then how is he speaking in the same spirit
when he prophesies about the "gods"? It is not God who is the
author of confusion. Man himself, whatever the size of his mind, too often
finds consistency an elusive hobgoblin, impossible to catch.
Joseph Smith began by teaching, in the Book of Mormon, that Father, Son
and Holy Ghost are "one God:"
- “And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true
doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is
one God, without end. Amen.”
- (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 31:21).
- "And after this manner shall ye baptize in my name; for behold, verily
I say unto you, that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one.
. ."
- (Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11:27).
- "And thus will the Father bear record of me, and the Holy Ghost will bear record unto him of the Father and me; for the Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost are one."
- (Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11:36).
- ". . .to sing ceaseless praises with the choirs above, unto the Father,
and unto the Son, and unto the Holy Ghost, which are one God, in a state
of happiness which hath no end."
- (Book of Mormon, Mormon 7:7)
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Joseph's understanding of that fact was defective, but the fact remains just as he stated it, and just as he
himself had heard it preached: that Father, Son and Holy Ghost = one God. He ends by ridiculing. . .the very same idea he began by teaching:
- “Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are
only one God! I say that is a strange God anyhow—three in one, and one in three!”
- (Joseph Smith, Sermon on the Plurality of Gods).
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It should be apparent that a prophet who contradicts himself is no prophet.
Spell Check
- “...and their skill was in the bow, and in the cimeter, and the ax.”
- (Book of Mormon, Enos 1:20).
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Pssst...'cimeter'...scimitar? Not a novel weapon, 'cimeter' is a phonetic
spelling for 'scimitar,' pronounced "sim'i-ter," from Old French
"cimeterre." (Webster's International, 1965).
Joseph Smith likened himself to Mohammed ibn Abdallah:
"If the people will let us alone, we will preach the gospel in peace.
But if they come on us to molest us, we will establish our religion by
the sword. We will trample down our enemies and make it one gore of blood
from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. I will be to this generation
a second Mohammed, whose motto in treating for peace was 'the Alcoran or
the Sword.' So shall it eventually be with us -- 'Joseph Smith or the Sword!'"
(Joseph Smith, quoted pp.230-231, Fawn M. Brodie, 'No Man Knows my History)
There seems to be an element of conscious patterning here. Both these unlettered
prophets collected harems and ended as the leader of a polity, not just
a church. So 'scimitars' fit well with Joseph's documented interests, whereas
there ain't no such thing as a 'cimeter.'
"The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the
Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is
a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in
us." (Doctrine and Covenants, 130:22).
What conclusions do, and do not, follow from the visions of God experienced
by Old Testament and New Testament saints?:
The God Kind of Faith
- "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word
of God; so that things which are seen were not made of things which do
appear."
"By this we understand that the principle of power which existed in
the bosom of God, by which the worlds were framed, was faith; and that
it is by reason of this principle of power existing in the Deity, that
all created things exist; so that all things in heaven, on earth, or under
the earth exist by reason of faith as it existed in Him.
"Had it not been for the principle of faith the worlds would never
have been framed neither would man have been formed of the dust. It is
the principle by which Jehovah works, and through which he exercises power
over all temporal as well as eternal things. Take this principle or attribute
— for it is an attribute — from the Deity, and he would cease to exist.”
- (Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith, First Lecture, 14-16).
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Joseph Smith's influence turns up in surprising places. His distinctive
teaching on faith, generations after his death, would take the world by
storm as the Word of Faith movement:
This language sounds distinctly 'off' to traditional theists. Why would
an omniscient, omnipotent being need faith? Faith is for the blind, not
the seeing: "For we walk by faith, not by sight..." (2 Corinthians 5:7).
The Doctrine of the Trinity
What is the doctrine?
Biblical Proof:
The four propositions proven above: that
a.) There is only One God;
b.) The Father is God;
c.) The Son is God;
d.) The Holy Spirit is God.
-- are at the heart of the fifth-century Athanasian Creed: "So the
Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet
they are not three gods: but one God." Mormons concur with b.), c.)
and even d.); it's point a.) which needs remedial work!
Hold on to Your Wallet
Joseph Smith's colorful career included the founding of the 'Kirtland Safety
Society Bank Company,' organized in 1836. Those who left the movement told
interesting stories about this short-lived bank and its assets:
- “Lining the shelves of the bank vault, they said, were many boxes, each marked $1,000.
Actually these boxes were filled with 'sand, lead, old iron, stone, and combustibles,' but each had a top layer of bright fifty-cent
silver coins. Anyone suspicious of the bank's stability was allowed to lift and count the boxes. 'The effect of those boxes was
like magic;' said C.G. Webb...Joseph's secretary, Warren Parrish, who was cashier for a short time, wrote in 1838: 'I have been
astonished to hear him declare that we had $60,000 in specie in our vaults and $600,000 at our command, when we had not to
exceed $6,000 and could not command any more; also that we had but about ten thousand dollars of our bills in circulation when
he, as cashier of that institution, knew that there was at least $150,000.'”
- (Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows my History, Disaster in Kirtland, pp. 196-197).
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Not surprisingly, "On January 27, less than a month after the bank's opening, the Painesville Telegraph reported that he
had 'shut up shop...saying he would not redeem another
dollar except with land.' Everyone possessing Kirtland bank bills now tried
desperately to get rid of them. By February 1 they were selling for twelve
and one half cents on the dollar." (Ibid., pp. 197-198).
Three-in-One
A common form of proof of God's triunity -- His 'Three-in-One'ness -- are
the many instances where scripture ascribes one divine work indifferently
to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Creation, one case in point, is covered
above in "The First Page". The principle: "With regard to
the divine nature, on the other hand, it is otherwise. We do not learn
that the Father does something on his own, in which the Son does not co-operate.
Or again, that the Son acts on his own without the Spirit. Rather
does every operation which extends from God to creation and is designated
according to our differing conceptions of it have its origin in the Father,
proceed through the Son, and reach its completion by the Holy
Spirit." (Gregory of Nyssa, On Not Three Gods). More cases in point:
Family Ties
In the Wentworth Letter, Joseph Smith explains that the Book of Mormon
reveals the racial history of contemporary Native Americans, who are a
"remnant" of Israelites descended from Joseph:
"The second race came directly from the city of Jerusalem, about six hundred years before Christ.
They were principally Israelites, of the descendants of Joseph. The Jaredites were destroyed about the time that the Israelites
came from Jerusalem, who succeeded them in the inheritance of the country. The principal nation of the second race fell in battle towards
the close of the fourth century. The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country." (Joseph Smith, The Wentworth Letter)
When population groups are closely related, the link can be detected through
medical means. But these methods do not confirm Middle Eastern descent
of the Native Americans:
"In the 1990s, DNA studies gave Mormon detractors further ammunition
and new allies such as Simon G. Southerton, a molecular biologist and former
bishop in the church. Southerton, a senior research scientist with the
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia,
said genetic research allowed him to test his religious views against his
scientific training. Genetic testing of Jews throughout the world had already
shown that they shared common strains of DNA from the Middle East. Southerton
examined studies of DNA lineages among Polynesians and indigenous peoples
in North, Central and South America. One mapped maternal DNA lines from
7,300 Native Americans from 175 tribes. Southerton found no trace of Middle
Eastern DNA in the genetic strands of today's American Indians and Pacific
Islanders." (Los Angeles Times, February 16, 2006, 'Bedrock of a Faith
is Jolted,' William Lobdell, latimes.com)
Some Mormon apologists are now calling the Book of Mormon an inspired work
of fiction. Inspired or otherwise, fact it's not.
You Who Hear Prayer
Mormons are encouraged to pray to the heavenly Father:
- “Prayer is the way we communicate with our Heavenly Father. He wants to
hear our deepest feelings and concerns. Prayer isn’t complicated or rigid.
It is simply communicating what’s in your heart to your Father in Heaven.”
- (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, web-site).
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They are not encouraged to pray to Jesus Christ, even though saints like
Paul and Stephen did so:
"Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it
might depart from me. And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you,
for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will
rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon
me." (2 Corinthians 12:8-9).
"And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit.'" (Acts 7:59)
Mormons, who do not believe in the trinity, are prone to identify Jehovah,
the God of the Old Testament, with Jesus Christ. This makes all the stranger
their reluctance to pray to Jesus, because everyone who is godly prays
to the living God:
"For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You
In a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters
They shall not come near him." (Psalm 32:6)
"O You who hear prayer, to You all flesh will come." (Psalm 65:2).
"The LORD is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
He also will hear their cry and save them." (Psalm 145:18-19).
The disciples in the Book of Mormon pray to Jesus: "And behold, they
began to pray; and they did pray unto Jesus, calling him their Lord and
their God." (3 Nephi 19:18).
So what is the embarrassment? Having described Jesus Christ and God the
Father as separate beings, the Mormons wander lost in a maze of unwelcome
alternatives: either pray to both Jesus and the Father as the Bible directs,
but which by their logic takes them out of henotheism and into open polytheism,
or deprive Jesus Christ of the honor the Bible demands for Him: "But
when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: 'Let all the
angels of God worship Him.'" (Hebrews 1:6). If your theology does
not allow you to obey God's commands, your theology is wrong!
Not only the Bible, but also the Book of Mormon, commands men everywhere
to worship the God of Israel. His people must worship Him: "And now
behold, I say unto you that the right way is to believe in Christ, and
deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow
down before him, and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength,
and your whole soul; and if ye do this ye shall in nowise be cast out."
(2 Nephi 25:29). This command is for all: ". . .and all are alike
unto God, both Jew and Gentile." (2 Nephi 26:33). "All men"
in America are to worship Him: ". . .for it is a choice land, saith
God unto me, above all other lands, wherefore I will have all men that
dwell thereon that they shall worship me, saith God." (Book of Mormon,
2 Nephi 10:19). With so much exhortation ringing in their ears, why do
Mormons hang back?
Baptismal Regeneration
- “For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water;
and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.”
- (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 31:17).
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During the years leading up to publication of the Book of Mormon, Alexander
Campbell was preaching in America a gospel that identified the act of baptism with the new birth. This new
gospel energized young Joseph. The affection,
however, was not mutual.
Joseph Smith's difficulty in understanding the gospel message of salvation
is shown succinctly in his translation of Romans 4:5, which runs, in the King James version,
"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." (Romans 4:5).
This made no sense to Joseph, who instead gives us,
"But to him that seeketh not to be justified by the law of works, but believeth on him who
justifieth not the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." (Romans 4:5, Joseph Smith
translation.)
Why would God justify the ungodly, wondered Joseph? Plainly, there is a "NOT" missing there!
Where do the striking features of Joseph Smith's late teaching come from?
The reader of late works like the King Follett Discourse perceives, we're
not in Kansas anymore:
"If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world its in orbit, and who upholds
all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible -- I say, if you were to see him today you would see him
like a man in form -- like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion,
image and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with him, as one man talks and communes
with another." (Joseph Smith, King Follett Discourse).
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