Who is the angel Moroni?

received a very meagre education. At the age of 14, he became concerned about eternal things, and being unable to get any reliable help from ministers and churches, he resolved to investigate the subject for himself. Retiring into a solitary place in a grove, he prayed to God, and while thus engaged, he says he had a vision, two glorious personages encircled with a heavenly light appearing to him, who told him that all the churches and denominations were wrong, that none of them was acknowledged by God as His church, and that the true Gospel and the true church would be revealed to him at a future time. Thus the early dawn of Mormonism is described. It is not claimed that some fresh light had been given on the already existing Word of God, such as Luther received when in the act of climbing Pilate's stair, on his hands and knees, at Rome, a voice from the Word of God sounded with power through his soul, “The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:18), making what was already there a fresh message to meet his need, breaking the bonds of Romanism in which he was bound. No such light arose in the dark and troubled soul of Joseph Smith, but a hallucination, conceived in his disordered mind, or imparted by some lying spirit—as Scripture shows such are capable of giving (2 Chr. 18:21: 1 John 4:6) to deceive, and then use him to lead others into Satanic delusion and deception (2 Tim. 3:13).

With his imagination thus wrought upon and an expectation of a revelation being given him outside of the Bible, which is God's complete and abiding Word, the guide of all mankind through all the ages, it is no wonder to learn that shortly after, on September 21st, 1823, to this youth of eighteen years, another angelic messenger appeared, announcing that the covenant which God made with his ancient people Israel was about to be fulfilled; that the preparatory work for the second coming of the Messiah was about to begin; that the Gospel in all its fullness was to be preached to all nations, to prepare a people for the Millennial kingdom, and that Joseph Smith was to be the chosen instrument to introduce this glorious dispensation. The angel's name was announced as Moroni, son of Mormon, who had written an account of the aboriginal inhabitants of America, whose first settlers were said to be colonists from the Tower of Babel, whose builders were scattered over the whole earth. They were named Jaredites. Six hundred years before Christ another company arrived on American soil from Jerusalem, and succeeded the Jaredites in possession of the country, which they held until early in the fourth century, when in a great battle most of them were slain, the remnant being the Indian tribes that now inhabit the country. It was further stated that the Lord Jesus Christ, after His resurrection, went and preached among this people, planting churches among them. These continued for a time, but because of their unfaithfulness they were cast off, the last of their prophets being commanded to write a history of this people, and the prophecies concerning them, to be fulfilled in the latter days, and to hide it in the earth, until the fullness of the time for their fulfilment had come. Then it was to be brought forth, and its teachings used to supplement the Bible, and its revelations preached for fulfilment of God's purposes in the last days.

Finding of the Golden Plates

When young Joseph was fourteen years old, the family moved to Manchester, New York State. At that time a great religious revival was sweeping the country, especially strong in the part where he lived. Amid such an exciting atmosphere, in which good and bad were mixed up, Joseph claimed to have a vision according to The Official History of the Church. On September 23rd, 1823, whilst in prayer, he affirmed, the darkness of the room gave way to a blaze of glory. A radiant personage stood by his bedside, declaring himself to be an angel of God, Moroni by name. He told this lad of seventeen that the Lord had a great work for him to do, and through God’s power Christ’s Kingdom would be restored to the earth. His name, too, would be had for good or evil in all nations.

The angel then went on to inform Joseph of a book, hidden in the Hill Comorah, twenty-five miles south-west of Rochester, New York State. This book was written on golden plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of America; and that the fullness of the everlasting gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Saviour. Also there were two stones in silver bows, fastened to a breastplate, representing what is called Urim and Thummim, deposited with the plates, and that the possession and use of them constituted seers in ancient times, and that God had prepared them for the translation of the book. The next day, we are told, Joseph repaired to the Hill Comorah, and found the plates, as indicated by the angel Moroni. About to lift the plates out of the box in which they were placed, the angel Moroni appeared by his side, telling him four years must elapse before he could take possession of the plates, and translate the message engraved upon them. At this time Joseph was verging on eighteen years of age. When he was barely twenty-one, he married Emma Hale, who eloped with him because of her parents’ opposition to the marriage. Four years to the day that Joseph first tried to take away the plates, he repaired to the Hill Comorah, and took possession of them. The angel Moroni appeared once again, warning him to shield the plates from profane sight or touch, and that if he allowed them to be stolen or destroyed, he would be “destroyed and cut off.” Joseph affirmed that on his road home he was attacked three times by unknown men, seeking to get possession of the golden plates. He reached home happy but bruised, the golden plates intact.

Joseph affirmed that the hieroglyphics inscribed on the plates were in characters of “reformed Egyptian, the language of the Jews, and the writings of the Egyptians.” He claimed that looking at these strange characters through the medium of the Urim and Thummim, they resolved themselves into plain English. He would then read them to his wife, who, sitting behind a curtain, would write the words down. Later on, Oliver Cowdery, an unemployed school-teacher, assisted him.

The Gospel, as “sent forth by the hand of Joseph Smith,” consists of first principles and ordinances as follows:—First, Faith; second, Repentance; third, Baptism for the remission of sins; fourth Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost,” and “All mankind may be saved by obedience to these laws and ordinances.” Men are to be punished for their own sins, but not for Adam's transgression,” and if any die unrepentant and especially unbaptized, they can be hunted up in the “spirit world” by Mormon prophets, who go preaching the Joseph Smith Gospel there, and relatives on earth may be baptized as “proxies” for them, so as to keep intact the “ordinances” which are so essential to salvation. But all this is “another Gospel,” which the apostle declares, if he or “any man,” or even “an angel from heaven”—such as Joseph Smith's Moroni claims to be—preaches, “let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:6-8). The Gospel of God, which is His “power unto salvation” to every one that believes it (Rom. 1:16), has no “ordinances” added to it. It needs no “hands” of man laid on to make it effectual. No “Sponsors” or baptism by proxy are required to complete its work. It brings the good news of a present, known, and enjoyed salvation, which is immediately the possession of all who believe it (Acts 16:30), and every sinner who as such comes to the Lord Jesus Christ is received by Him and never cast out (John 6:37). When did the dying thief receive baptism for the remission of his sins? Will any say in the face of Luke 23:43, he did not go to be “with Christ” for want of it?

False religions are founded on deceit and fraud. For instance, Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, stated that the angel Moroni appeared to him three times, and told him that the book of Mormon—the Bible of the Latter Day Saints—was buried in a certain place. Four years later, Joseph Smith stated that he repaired to the spot and had delivered to him by the angel a stone box in which was a volume six inches thick, composed of thin gold plates and fastened by three gold rings. But we have only his own word for all this. There were no witnesses, and he was at best a man of questionable character.

Joseph Smith tried to get his assertion backed up by fraud. Three men—Oliver Cowdery, David Whitner and Martin Harris—swore that an angel of God showed them the book. This does not satisfy Mark No. 2. Collusion and fraud were quite possible. Even if the three men had not later denounced their testimony as false, no reasonable man would be satisfied with such evidence, concerning that which was asserted to be miraculous, and of such importance in matters of religious belief. When it was stated that the gold plates had suddenly and mysteriously disappeared, it looked like the confidence trick. The whole thing was a concoction without a word of truth in it.

On the morning of September 22nd, 1827, while Joseph Smith was engaged at his work, the angel again appeared to him, and pointing him to the side of a hill near the town of Manchester, in the State of New York, a short distance from where he lived, he was told that he would find there these ancient records and prophecies, buried in a cave, written on plates of gold. Arriving at the place indicated by the angel, he found a stone chest, the lid of which he raised, and there discovered the plates, exactly as the angel had described them. Each plate was eight inches long and six inches wide, about the thickness of common tin, graven in Egyptian hieroglyphics, fixed together like the leaves of a book, with three rings running through the whole. With the plates were two transparent stones, set in a hoop fastened to a breastplate. These were named “Urim and Thummin.” By using them as a medium, he was informed by the angel, he would be able to read the mystic writing, and translate it into his own tongue. Nobody except Smith saw the angel or the mysterious cave on the hillside, and nobody save a select circle of immediate followers ever claim to have seen the golden plates or the sacred stones named Urim and Thummin. On the title page of “The Book of Mormon” there appears what is called the “Testimony of Three Witnesses,” who say they have “seen the engravings which are upon the plates, and that they have been shown unto us by the power of God,” but how or where they do not inform us. This document bears the names of three men, who it is said a few years after its publication quarrelled with Smith, and became apostates from the Mormon faith. If these plates and the two mysterious Stones ever existed, why should they not have been shown to ten thousand witnesses and preserved, as the ancient manuscripts of the Bible are in the principal cities of the world until this day. This would have gone a long way to establish the truth of Joseph Smith's story. Where they went, nobody knows, save what the prophet has told us, namely, that when he had finished the translation, the angel again appeared, and took the plates away. Why? In the absence of this information, we beg leave to question their existence, and to suggest that the entire story of the angel's visit, the cave on the hill, and the finding of the plates and stones is a tissue of fraud and deception.

The Book of Mormon

The bulky volume which bears this name, and claims to be a translation of the writing found on the golden plates, is a fictitious history written in imitation of the Bible, composed of various books, each bearing the name of its writer, beginning with Nephi, a Jew, who lived in Jerusalem B.C. 60, and ending with Moroni, who claims to have lived after Christ, and had been charged to give an account of the order and ordinances of the church, to be used for guidance of the Latter Day Saints. Its weird and frivolous stories are utterly groundless, and although interwoven with Scripture, can deceive none save the “simple” (Rom. 16:18), and such as are “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14). Mormons claim that the book was written by “inspired men” and is “a volume of Scripture” of equal value at least with the Bible, which is acknowledged to be “the Jewish Scriptures,” for saints of the Eastern hemisphere, while the Book of Mormon is “also the Word of God of equal authority with the Bible,” especially for the Western hemisphere, of whose early saints the Bible knows and says nothing. The Bible, according to the Mormon creed, is a very faulty book, full of inaccuracies and errors, with whole books omitted, and at best it is only one of many “Revelations” given to men, “the Book of Mormon, the Book of Covenants and Doctrines,” and other works of the prophets being equal in authority. Isaiah, Paul, Joseph Smith, and Brigham Young are all “Revelators,” the latter, if anything, being of a higher order than the former. The following, culled from many such deliverances in Salt Lake Tabernacle, gives the acknowledged position of the Mormon Prophets, Revelators, and Bible makers: “Joseph Smith was a prophet, Brigham Young was a prophet, Wildford Woodruff is a prophet, and I know that he has a great many prophets around him, and he can make Scriptures as good as those in the Bible.” And Joseph Smith's revelations are evidently of far greater value in the Mormon Church than those of the Apostles, for it is declared by Brigham Young, his successor, that “if any make light of, or treat them with indifference,” they will prove their “damnation.” Nor need we wonder when we are told that Joseph Smith was not only an inspired prophet, but “he spoke by the authority of an endless priesthood which was upon him,” and all who “hold the priesthood possess Divine authority thus to act for God; and by possessing part of God's power, they are in reality part of God.” Prodigious! This is surely the “spirit of Antichrist,” of which Scripture warns, which begins by men claiming to have Divine authority, and culminates in “THE Antichrist” claiming to be God, and demanding to be “worshipped as God” (2 Thess. 2:4). Any sect which claims to be receiving continuous revelations through its priests and prophets, which are to be regarded as the voice of God, equal to or greater in authority than the written Word, has in its hands a weapon whereby it can deceive its votaries to any extent, and hold them in its chains. Rome, whose “Tradition” is of equal authority with Scripture, was the first to introduce this deception, and in her hand it succeeded so well that every upstart sect has copied it, and must have in some form its “revelations” through pope, priest, or prophet, making as of old “the Word of God of none effect” (Mark 7:13). Irvingites, Spiritualists, Christian Scientists, Perfectionists, and numerous smaller sects, while differing in much, agree in this, that there is something besides, something beyond Scripture, through which God now speaks, supplementing, and in many instances overturning the Holy Scriptures He aforetime gave, whereas the Word claims for itself that it is complete—filled full (Col. 1:25), that nothing is to be added to it (Prov. 30:6) or taken from it (Deut. 12:31), under awful penalties (Rev. 20:18-19), and that it has within it ALL that is required for all stages of Christian life, from the making wise of a “child” unto salvation, unto the full equipment and furnishing of “the man of God” for “every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17).

Little wonder then that we find here the exceedingly solemn, yet deliberate pronouncement, "Even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed." The truth of God allows for no respect of persons. Paul says in effect, "If I myself were to change my message, you would be responsible to refuse me, for I would fall under the curse of God." "Or an angel from heaven!" Is there a claim, a profession of a new revelation from God which throws a different light on the gospel? Let the one who brings it be accursed; for even though such were an angel from heaven, it is not the voice of God! How dreadful a condemnation of Mormonism, Christian Science (falsely so-called) and many other human or satanic inventions that pervert the gospel! Supernatural manifestations are commonly regarded as only coming from God, but even a fallen angel preaching another gospel is immediately the object of the curse of God. Satanic power is supernatural too.

There are today people like the Mormons who believe in the Bible but they believe also in the Book of Mormon which was allegedly given by an angel to Joseph Smith. They are an example of this. Such false teachings touch the very foundation of the Christian faith; otherwise Paul would not use such strong language. Paul even saw the possibility that he himself could fall back into Judaism and present something other than the pure gospel to the Galatians, if that were so he says, “I would be a curse.”

This piece of fiction remained unpublished. The manuscript continued in the custody of Messrs. Patterson and Lambdin, printers of Pittsburg. Years after Spaulding’s death the manuscript fell into the hands of the Revd. Sidney Rigdon, an intimate friend of Lambdin. He was an erratic character, an ex-Baptist minister, notorious for giving out eccentric and strange notions. He got into touch with Joseph Smith, Jr., and had become an ardent Mormon. Together they concocted the story of the golden plates.

The true origin of the plates (not gold, but copper) was told by W.Fulgate of Mount Station, Brown Country, Illinois. On June 30th, 1879, he swore on affidavit before J.Brown, Justice of the Peace, that the plates were all humbug, that they were got up by Robert Wiley, Bridge Whitton and himself. Whitton was a blacksmith, who cut the plates out of pieces of copper. Wiley and Fulgate made the hieroglyphics on beeswax, filling the impressions with acid. Fulgate also described the burial of the plates. Joseph needed no angel to tell him where these plates were buried, for either he or his confederates had buried them. Rigdon had edited the manuscript, adding liberally what he imagined were suitable texts and portions of Scripture, and even whole chapters to give it a more religious tone.

We now give an account of how this delusion arose, and was carried on in subsequent years. Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Mormon religion, was born on December 23rd, 1805, at Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont, U.S.A. We read, “The Smith family was popularly regarded as illiterate, whisky-drinking and irreligious; Joseph Smith, Jr., voted the laziest and most worthless of the generation. He could utter the most palpable exaggeration, or marvellous absurdity, with the utmost gravity” (Origin, Rise and Progress of Mormonism).