Who was Joseph Smith?
Joseph Smith, Jr. was the founder of Mormonism, and writers in this collection examine him closely because his claims stand or fall on one question: did God really give a new revelation through him alongside the Bible? What they weigh is not his sincerity but his evidence, his gospel, and his own words.
The Man and His Beginnings
Commentators start with his background and the accounts left by those who knew the family.
A J PollockWe now give an account of how this delusion arose, and was carried on in later 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., was voted the laziest and most worthless of the generation. He could say the most obvious exaggeration, or astonishing absurdity, with complete seriousness."
His own account began with a vision in a wood at fourteen, telling him every existing church was wrong. One writer sets this side by side with Martin Luther, the man whose life was changed by a line of Scripture while he climbed a stairway in Rome:
John RitchieIt is not claimed that some fresh light had been given on the already existing Word of God, such as Luther received when, while climbing Pilate's stair on his hands and knees in Rome, a voice from the Word of God sounded with power through his soul, "The righteous shall live by faith," making what was already there a fresh message to meet his need... No such light arose in the dark and troubled soul of Joseph Smith, but a hallucination, formed in his disordered mind, or given by some lying spirit.
The Golden Plates
The founding claim was an angel named Moroni, a buried record on gold plates, and two stones by which Smith said he could read the writing.
John RitchieBy using them as a medium, he was told by the angel, he would be able to read the mysterious writing and translate it into his own language. Nobody except Smith saw the angel or the mysterious cave on the hillside, and nobody except a small circle of immediate followers ever claims to have seen the golden plates or the sacred stones named Urim and Thummim.
Three men signed a statement that they had seen the plates. That signed testimony is tested and found wanting:
A J PollockJoseph Smith tried to get his claim backed up by fraud. Three men—Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris—swore that an angel of God showed them the book... Even if the three men had not later withdrawn their testimony as false, no reasonable man would be satisfied with such evidence for something claimed to be miraculous, and so important in matters of religious belief. When it was said that the gold plates had suddenly and mysteriously disappeared, it looked like a confidence trick.
A Second Book Beside the Bible
The heart of the objection is not history but authority. Mormonism accepts the Bible with a condition attached, and then places another book next to it.
The Bible TreasuryThe Mormons profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in repentance, and so on; but their unbelief shows in this article of their creed: "We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the book of Mormon to be the Word of God." To add to God's word is no less unbelief than to deny any part of it... the denial of the Word of God, whether by taking from it or adding to it, opens the door for every kind of fleshly wickedness.
Another Gospel
What Smith sent out was a series of steps and ordinances, including baptism performed on behalf of the dead. That is measured against the message the apostles preached.
John Ritchie"All mankind may be saved by obedience to these laws and ordinances"... But all this is "another gospel," and the apostle declares that if he, or "any man," or even "an angel from heaven"—such as Joseph Smith's Moroni claims to be—preaches it, "let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:6-8). The gospel of God, which is His "power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" (Rom. 1:16), has no "ordinances" added to it. It needs no human "hands" laid on to make it work... When did the dying thief receive baptism for the remission of his sins?
Polygamy and His Death
In 1843 Smith issued the revelation authorising plural marriage. His end came soon after.
A J PollockThe manifesto had sixty-six paragraphs, ending with the words, "Behold, I am Alpha and Omega. Amen." Less than a year after these boastful words were written, Joseph Smith died at the hands of men enraged by his wickedness and that of his followers.
He was shot in the jail at Carthage, Illinois, aged thirty-nine, while held on a charge of high treason. Later Mormon teaching then placed him very high indeed:
A J Pollock"All men are potential Gods. So Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, for example, are in eternity developing themselves quickly, so that they shall one day be Gods over all their offspring... Joseph Smith, the first Mormon prophet, stands next to Christ (Smith being now one of the Gods of his generation), and Christ stands next to Adam."
Summary
- Man: Born in Vermont in 1805, poorly educated, remembered by neighbours as unreliable, and dead at thirty-nine at the hands of a mob.
- Claim: An angel, gold plates and stones — seen by no independent witness, backed by three men who later withdrew their testimony, then said to have vanished.
- Book: A second volume set beside Scripture; adding to God's Word is treated as no better than denying it.
- Gospel: Salvation made to depend on ordinances, including baptism by proxy for the dead — measured against Galatians 1 and found to be "another gospel."
- End: The path runs from a private vision to plural marriage to a system where men become gods and Smith himself is ranked next to Christ.