Editor’s note: Much of the information in this article, including citations from other sources, comes from Dr. Alvin J. Schmidt’s peer reviewed book, The American Mohammad Joseph Smith, Founder of Mormonism, published by Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, copyright 2013.
We live in an information age. An over-abundance of stories and data come at us from all directions—and fast. Some of it is factual and some of it less so. Some of it gets labeled as “disinformation” by people who disagree with, or disapprove of it entirely. Wouldn’t it be great if all the information that we consumed was truthful, enabling us to be well-informed?
But truth is a casualty of living in a sinful, fallen world. Even what the Bible says about who God and His Son Jesus are has been clouded over and altered over the centuries by mankind. Some of this is the result of differing interpretations of the Bible message, but some also due to the distortion of it by skeptics and non-believers.
Americans in the early part of the 1800’s were generally less educated than Americans today. But in one way they were quite similar. Many possessed little to no biblical knowledge. Of those who could be considered religious in the then young United States many were inclined towards emotionally oriented religious experiences rather than being well-grounded in biblical doctrine.
Into this early American society Joseph Smith, Jr. was born in 1805. His father, like others living in upstate New York at the time, spent considerable time and effort digging for rumored hidden treasure and money. He also engaged in water divining with a forked hazel branch. Young Joseph, “professed to have his father’s gift,” (William Alexander Linn, The Story of the Mormons: From the Date of their Origin in the Year 1901, New York: Russell and Russell, Inc., 1963, p. 15)—a statement that he never denied later in life.
Smith grew to be unusually tall for the time, over six feet, and had blue eyes, light brown hair, and an athletic build. His imposing stature was diminished little by the limp caused by a childhood incident in which a physician removed part of an infected leg bone. Long-time Mormon loyalist John Doyle Lee remarked that Smith’s manner and appearance, “was bewitching and winning…. And he was able to invigorate people when they were glum or demoralized.”
Thomas B.H. Stenhouse also described Smith’s charisma, saying, “In his presence everyone was at ease. His eccentricities or errors were rather virtues than defects. They loved him because he was to them so human and so like themselves, and yet, when necessary, his dignity was ready, and his mission became divine in their wondering eyes.”
Smith’s charisma helped him overcome any shortcomings in his formal education and allowed him to have considerable influence over others that he came into contact with. So, was it his charisma and force of personality, or a God-assigned role as a prophet that made it possible for him to have such a significant impact on American religion? During his short life he not only introduced new scriptures to the religious world but also founded a new religion—a religion that he claimed restored Christ’s original New Testament church.
When Smith walked into Newel Whitney’s store in Kirtland, Ohio, the first words to come out of his mouth were, “I am Joseph the Prophet” (Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, New York, Alfred A Knopf, 2006, p. 127). It was February 1831 and he was a mere twenty-five years old. He and his wife, Emma, had just arrived by sleigh from Fayette, New York. Followers at the time would tell you that he was merely doing as commanded in a revelation he received 11 months earlier, “thou shalt be called a seer, translator, a prophet….” (D&C Sec. 20:1a) (LDS Sec. 21:1)
One might ask, since Smith proclaimed himself a prophet of God, how well would he compare with the prophets of the Bible? For example, one biblical scholar observed that there are 333 prophesies in the Old Testament that predict the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ fulfilled all of these prophecies despite them coming from a variety of men and over a time span of centuries. So let’s take a moment and look at the prophets of God’s in the Bible.
God’s Prophets of the Bible
As we read in the Bible about this select group of men, we see that they often led hard lives. Generally they weren’t well off financially and sometimes were physically harmed for sharing a message that was unpopular with their countrymen. One prophet, Jeremiah, was even commanded by God not to marry!
God had two objectives for His prophets. First, they were to tell the Israelites how they could have a relationship with God until the arrival of the Messiah by obeying His laws and repenting when they didn’t. This applied to the Israelites both individually and as a nation.
The second objective God had for His prophets, and the primary element in His ultimate plan for mankind, was to tell the Israelites about the coming Messiah. This was because it would be through the Messiah that the restoration of the relationship between God and the human race would be accomplished. And because of the Messiah’s unequaled importance, the prophets also shared with the Israelites how to recognize Him once He arrived. Despite serving at different times and in different places in Israel’s history, God’s true prophets did not waiver in delivering God’s message to the people. Interestingly, at no time did God command any of His prophets to do what Smith did—establish a new religion.
One also learns from the Bible that there were ways that the people could know if a prophet was truly a prophet of God or an imposter. It was a simple test that set a high bar: what a prophet prophesied had to come to pass. If a prophet’s predictions did not happen, then he was not speaking for God (Deut 18:22). There was no grading on the curve; it was a strict pass/fail test. So a fair test of Smith’s claim as God’s prophet would be an examination of how well his prophecies fared.
Missouri as Zion
Because of a series of prophecies that he claimed to have received from God, Smith’s followers, who called themselves Saints, moved from place to place. In 1831 he declared that Independence, Missouri, was Zion, the location of God’s kingdom on earth, the place where Jesus would come when he returned, and the place to which the Saints were commanded to gather. But as the original settlers of Jackson County, Missouri, where Independence was the county seat, learned that Smith’s revelations identified them as enemies and people to be “plucked out,” their resistance increased to such a degree that the Saints were eventually forced by a mob to leave the county entirely in 1833.
Some of Smith’s followers returned to Kirtland, Ohio, but many moved to adjacent Clay County, Missouri. Upon hearing the news of the expulsion, Smith, who had returned to Kirtland, claimed that the Lord had instructed him in a revelation to reinstate the Saints, by force. (D&C Sec. 100:3d) (LDS Sec. 103:15)
In hopes of preventing future problems between Smith’s followers and the original settlers, the Missouri State Legislature set aside Caldwell County in Northwest Missouri for them. But the significant influx of Mormons resulted in them overflowing into neighboring Daviess County. Tensions eventually boiled over on both sides. Following an attack by the Mormon militia, the Danites, on a state militia unit that was camped at Crooked River, Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs issued the following order, “The Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state, if necessary for the public peace—their outrages are beyond description.” (Missouri Executive Order Number 44)
Apparently it didn’t matter to Boggs that Smith had declared Independence to be God’s kingdom on earth, the Saint’s Promised Land. Prophecy or not, the Mormons were evicted, relocating again, this time to a mosquito infested swamp known as Commerce, Illinois, which they later renamed, Nauvoo.
Israelites Move to the Promise Land
Contrast this with the Israelites who also faced obstacles when they received God’s command to conquer and occupy the Promised Land. We read in Deuteronomy (9:1-3) where God tells the Israelites that the nations of the Promised Land that they were to enter were greater and stronger than they were, but that He would subdue their enemies. When they chose to follow His commands completely they were successful in conquering the Canaanites and taking possession of their land. But despite being God’s chosen people, they didn’t always follow His instructions to their full extent. As a result, their success was not complete, and they did not experience the fullness of God’s blessing that He intended for them.
Later Gideon is told by God to go fight the Midianites. But when Gideon gathers 32,000 warriors for the battle, God, in two steps, culls the army down to only 300 men. Once the remaining 300 men surrounded the enemy camp, they blew trumpets and smashed clay pitchers that God had told them to take into battle with them. This caused tremendous alarm and confusion in the enemy camp causing the camp’s occupants to turn on each other with their swords before they fled. To a mortal man, God’s instructions likely would be considered foolhardy, but because Gideon obeyed, he and his men achieved victory.
At other times and places in the Old Testament, the Israelites chose to trust and depend on their human, idol worshiping allies rather than God. Instead of battlefield success—they experienced failure.
Likewise, Smith and his followers didn’t fare any better than the disobeying Israelites. One of the towns that they founded in northwest Missouri, Far West, is now unoccupied. The only indication that they were even there are a few roadside signs for Mormon history buffs.
Understanding Biblical Scripture
Smith’s lack of understanding of biblical scripture didn’t help the Mormon’s cause during their time in Missouri either. During what became known as the Missouri Mormon War, Smith preached to his followers that, “they [his followers] must live on the plunder of their enemies.” He claimed as his justification the incident where Jesus told his disciples that they could pick and eat the grain as they walked through a grainfield.
The disciples’ actions were based on Deuteronomy 23:25, “If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to their standing grain (emphasis added).” This gave Israelites permission to take small quantities of their countrymen’s grain for personal needs while forbidding them from stealing (or plundering) their neighbors’ possessions. Smith’s poor interpretation of scripture that resulted in his instructions to his followers was a contributing factor in Governor Boggs issuing his extermination order.
As was mentioned previously, sometimes God’s prophets in the Bible suffered violence at the hands of the very people that they were trying to reach for Him. But they chose not to resist because their faith and hope was with the One who was greater than they. But Smith instead advocated violence against his enemies at times. He used as his basis a revelation that he claimed he received in Kirtland on August 6, 1833 (D&C Sec. 95:5f) (LDS Sec. 98:31). One application of the revelation was during the Missouri Mormon War when he instructed David Patten, the leader of the Danites, “Go kill every devil of them.”
The Law of Consecration
In 1831 Smith introduced what became known as the Law of Consecration. The law required that every household’s surpluses be given to the common treasury of the church. These funds would to be kept by the bishop, but Smith had the prerogative to assign funds for any given purpose, even his own benefit. On one occasion, while in Missouri, Smith used money from the funds to pay personal legal bills. In today’s world, that would be considered embezzlement which is usually punishable by prison time.
But that wasn’t the only time that Smith took personal advantage of funds from the Law of Consecration. After his family moved to Nauvoo, he claimed that he had been commanded to build Nauvoo House (D&C Sec. 107:18d) (LDS Sec. 124:60). (Editor’s Note: Section 107 of the RLDS/CoC D&C was removed from the main body of the book by action of the church’s 1970 World Conference.) The revelation directed that the house was intended “for the boarding of strangers.” But it also stated, “Therefore, let my servant Joseph, and his seed after him, have place in that house, from generation to generation, for ever and ever….” This did not happen because of Smith’s death and the subsequent departure of his family from Nauvoo.
Previously, while in Kirtland, Ohio, Smith formed a bank claiming he was told to do so by a revelation from God. But the state of Ohio declined to grant the bank a charter so that it could operate legally. Rather than close the bank he reorganized it on January 2, 1837, and changed its name to Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company. Despite state law that forbade the illegal enterprise, he continued to operate it.
A closer look at how the bank was managed shows that all was not as it seemed. Many of the deposit boxes were marked that they contained $1,000. Instead they contained lead, sand, shot, and other weighty material covered with a layer of fifty-cent coins. Suspicious depositors were allowed to heft the boxes. Those that peered inside saw the layer of coins. Appearances were sufficient to cause them to conclude that all was in order. It wasn’t. Many depositors lost their money when the bank collapsed in January 1838.
It is estimated that this chicanery caused fifteen percent of the church members in Kirtland to leave the church, either voluntarily or by excommunication. The other 85 percent remained, but some as dissenters.
Polygamy
In February 1831, Smith issued a revelation, stating, “Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave to her and none else” (D&C Sec. 42:7d) (LDS Sec. 42:22). One may be excused if they wondered whether or not Smith ever believed this revelation because later that year he told Apostle Lyman Johnson that he was thinking of advocating plural marriage. But he also admitted that he felt that the time was not right.
It wasn’t until July 12, 1843, that Smith claimed that he received a revelation introducing plural marriages. It took another month before he shared this revelation in secret with the church’s High Council in Nauvoo. Eventually the revelation was made public, but it wasn’t until August 29, 1852 when Brigham Young told a church-wide assembly in Salt Lake City, well after Smith’s death.
Meanwhile, by November 2, 1843, Smith had secretly “married” 33 women other than Emma. (Todd Compton, The Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2001, pp. 4-8)
A one-time trusted insider, William Law, told of how Smith utilized secret informers in Nauvoo who reported to him daily about the behavior of given individuals in the city. Then, at an opportune time, Smith would confront these men about what they had said or done. The information was so accurate that the person being confronted concluded that their prophet possessed a special gift, resembling clairvoyance or perhaps the ability to know everything.
Prophet or Imposter?
Throughout history, imposters have presented themselves to others as someone who possesses extraordinary qualities, exceptional abilities, and special knowledge—usually received directly from God. Initially these imposters seem to know that they do not really possess the extraordinary attributes that they proclaim to others. But as more and more people are drawn into believing their fallacious claims, the imposters themselves start to believe their own misstatements of their abilities. It appears that Smith was one of these people.
Recapping, Smith didn’t just organize a new church; he claimed to have restored Christ’s original church to the earth. In doing so he also produced many doctrines that contradicted Christ’s teachings in the Bible. Since a list of some of the contradictions are already presented elsewhere on this website, we invite the reader to go to the article “Does Truth Really Matter.”
Instead of his prophecies coming to pass, according to one study, more than 60 of Smith’s prophecies turned out to be false (Robert Morey, How to Answer a Mormon, Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1983, p.116). A glaring example of Smith’s false prophecies can be seen in those related to the Saints relocating to Missouri and driving out the original settlers. One such example is found in the D&C, Sec. 95:6e, (LDS Sec. 98:37) “and I, the Lord, would fight their battles, and their children’s battles and their children’s children until they had avenged themselves on all their enemies, to the third and fourth generation;”
If this and other similar prophecies had been at God’s direction one would have expected the Saints to have succeeded. Fast forward to today and one sees that his followers in Missouri are a minority of the state’s population.
Likewise, some of Smith’s later prophecies superseded ones that he had given previously. One example has already been mentioned; the prophecy on monogamous marriage that was followed later by one on plural marriage. Interestingly, according to William Swartzell, a one-time devoted convert to the church, Smith once told him, “It does not take me long to get a revelation from heaven.”
In addition to the failed prophecies, there were Smith’s deceitful practices. The opening and operation of the illegal bank in Kirtland mentioned earlier provide examples of his dishonesty. While the prophets of the Old Testament were not always without sin, they at least tried to obey God’s commandments. Smith, on the other hand, went so far as to promote violence and theft by his followers, as described earlier.
The Visit by Henry Caswall
Among Smith’s skeptics was author Henry Caswall. He doubted Smith’s claims that he could translate ancient documents reputed to be written in Egyptian hieroglyphics. One notable example was Smith’s claim that he translated some Egyptian hieroglyphics into English and that the original material had been written by the Old Testament patriarch Abraham.
In the Spring of 1842 Caswall paid a visit to Smith in Nauvoo. Caswall took with him an old Greek Psalter that had been in his family for several hundred years. After telling Smith that he understood the volume to be a Greek Psalter, Smith remarked, “No, it ain’t Greek at all, except, perhaps a few words. What ain’t Greek, is Egyptian; and what ain’t Egyptian is Greek. This book is very valuable. It is a dictionary of Egyptian Hieroglyphics.” He then pointed to the capital letters at the beginning of each verse and continued, “Them figures is Egyptian hieroglyphics; and them that follows, is the interpretation of the hieroglyphics, writing in the reformed Egyptian. Them characters is like the letters that was engraved on the golden plates” (Henry Caswall, The City of the Mormons; or Three Days at Nauvoo, London: J.G. F and J. Rivington, 1843, p. 36.).
It is said that a number of Mormons near by the exchange between the two men were immensely impressed with what the prophet told Caswall. The experience caused Caswall to affirm Smith’s followers as “dupes,” “credulous,” and “deluded.”
Perhaps the choice by Smith of what he referred to as Reformed Egyptian was intentional as during the early 1800’s Egyptian was considered a dead language. Because Egyptian hieroglyphics were just beginning to be deciphered at the time, few if any of Smith’s contemporaries would be able to support or refute his work. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that the papyri Smith claimed to translate the Book of Abraham from was revealed by Egyptologists as an Egyptian book of the dead and not as he had claimed—an authentic account written by the Old Testament patriarch Abraham.
As Caswall attempted to demonstrate, the best defense against a charlatan like Smith is discernment and knowledge In a religious context, understanding that an imposter’s claims don’t line up with Biblical precepts, values and practices, as well as recognition of failed prophecies, go a long way in separating falsehood from truth. As was mentioned previously, Smith, in large part, was able to convince his followers that he was a prophet because they had little to no knowledge of the requirements and roles that the prophets of the Old Testament had to fulfill in order to be considered a prophet of God. Smith’s followers seemed to have never heard, or ignored, the warnings in the Bible’s Old Testament about false prophets. They perhaps were unaware of Christ’s warning, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ferocious wolves” (Matt 7:15). At least some of Smith’s followers were fortunate that during their lifetimes, their skepticism allowed them to come to the realization that Smith was more of an imposter than a prophet of God, causing them to leave his church.
Protection from Deception
We urge present day followers of Joseph Smith, Jr.’s teachings to take advantage of the voluminous information about him, his history, his scriptures and religious doctrines as presented on this website and in other non-Mormon or non-RLDS/Community of Christ resources. It is also important that you take steps to learn the truth about Christ and His plan for you. Your life now and in the future depends on it. Don’t allow yourself to be deceived by false information coming from a deceitful, false prophet.
The best protection one has from spiritual deception is the ability to compare “new” doctrines and “revelations” with God’s Word, the Bible. He has provided His Word for us so that we may know Him and His will for us. Among Smith’s claims was that the Bible was corrupted down through the centuries. But archaeological discoveries, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, have confirmed that his claim and similar claims from others were false.
The truth is that God protected His Word so that we can know what is true and what is not. Sadly many Christians, because of their lack of Biblical literacy seek God and His will in all the wrong places. Even though the Old Testament prophet Zechariah was primarily speaking to the postexilic Jews in Judah, his words found in Zechariah 10:2 still apply to us today: “…diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd.”
Before we close, we’d like to share one more story.
One of Smith’s claimed revelations, well known by his followers as the “Word of Wisdom,” bans the use of alcoholic beverages. But during Smith’s life, he was known to those around him to have violated his own prohibition, and sometimes conspicuously. One account of an occasion when Smith became inebriated was recorded by then church elder, Robert Richards. He recorded seeing Smith lying alone on the grass in Montrose, Iowa, which is across the river from Nauvoo. Next to him lay a whiskey bottle. In addition, Richards heard Smith say, “I am a prophet, a profitable prophet; a profitable prophet indeed I am. Prophetical profits are good profits, very good profits, I’ll be hanged if they ain’t. The saints are a pack of fools; but I am a prophet, a profitable prophet, a prophetical, prophesying, profitable prophet.” (Robert Richards, The California Crusoe or The Last Treasure Found: A Tale of Mormonism, New York: Stanford & Swords, 1854, p. 84) Richards later left the church.
Since 1830 when Joseph Smith organized his church, millions of people around the world have trusted his scriptures and teachings as coming from God. Given what has been presented here about Smith, should they have? Should you? Famed horror genre author Stephen King is quoted as saying, “The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” It appears that Smith followed that very prescription, years before Stephen King’s warning.
Sadly, many of Smith’s teachings and doctrines live on today, sometimes in different forms in churches whose origins can be traced back to him. These churches include, but are not limited to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormons), The Community of Christ (before 2001 known as the RLDS), the Restoration Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a group that still practices polygamy), and the Church of Christ Temple Lot.
It is our prayer that the information that has been shared here clearly shows the need for everyone to be more astute consumers of information. Attention needs to be paid not only to how closely information being presented conforms to the truth, but also the reliability and integrity of the messenger presenting it. Smith may have proclaimed himself a prophet but in reality he failed the test over and over again. That, along with repeated occurrences of him being the instigator of illegal/immoral activities among his followers, should raise considerable concern among his followers today. If you are a follower of Joseph Smith’s teachings, we urge you to re-consider your allegiance to them and instead align yourself with Jesus Christ. He is trustworthy and true and the only one worthy of your allegiance. Your eternal destiny depends on it.
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.”
2 Peter 2:1-2