Is it ever a good choice to read or listen to the slander of the Anti-Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
Is it ever a good choice to read or listen to the slander of the Anti-Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
I know that Jesus Christ restored His Church, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” to the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Therefore, the anti-Church slander is an anti-Christ slander, because it is the devil and his team trying to keep God’s children away from the true Church that Jesus Christ Himself restored with the fulness of His gospel, even as guided by Jesus Christ Himself through modern-day prophets and apostles. Of course, if our Church is the true Church of Jesus Christ on earth, then it makes sense that the devil and his team would do everything they can to get people to believe false slanders against us.
I realize that most of the people spreading false slander against our Church are actually “Christians,” who even believe the Bible, but still do not believe that Jesus Christ restored His Church on earth and leads it through His modern-day prophets and apostles. They have been taught the 200 years of false slander against us, and they believe it out of ignorance, without even checking what the Book of Mormon, our 75,000 missionaries, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints actually teach.
Suppose you’re a young, new voter in the United States, trying to learn about what the Republican party or group stands for and believes in. Would it be wiser to learn what they believe and stand for from their political opponents, the Democrats, or directly from the Republicans?
Clearly, all of the anti-Church literature was deliberately designed by those who are strongly against our Church to confuse and cause intellectual doubt in the minds of our Church members and anyone else who might consider investigating what we truly believe and teach. If you read the rest of this article, you will begin to recognize that those spreading slander against us have no interest in proving or presenting the truth. The devil and his team will say and do anything to scare people and keep them from reviewing what our missionaries and the Church truly teach.
If you are a member of our Church or someone who would like to know what we truly believe, I strongly recommend that you never read anti-Church literature and videos, etc., which have been deliberately designed to confuse you and create doubts about our Church, its origins, and its leaders.
If you are a grateful, joyful, and committed Christian who is not a member of our Church, and someone tried to force unbiblical, anti-Christian, and atheistic materials on you—materials that are deliberately and carefully designed to confuse Christians and give them intellectual doubt about the Bible, the origins of Christianity, the existence of God, etc.—would you want to read them? If your faith in the Bible and in Jesus Christ as our Savior brings incredible love, joy, and inner peace to your life, as our faith does for us, why would you want to read materials that are deliberately designed to confuse you intellectually and make you doubt the Bible, the reality of God, and our Savior, Jesus Christ? Then please try to understand why we do not want to read the anti-Church literature/slander that those against us want to pressure us and everyone else who might consider checking what we really believe.
Furthermore, if you think you are trying to “save” us, members of our Church, by convincing us that we are wrong in our beliefs and that you have been taught in your Christian Church, that our loving and just Heavenly Father will send all 17 million members of our Church to suffer forever in hell; you need not worry about that illogical fallacy- – – because remember also that almost all of modern Christianity also teaches that all you need to do to receive the ultimate reward in heaven is to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior on your deathbed or sooner – – just like the thief on the cross. Yes, I know that if you have been taught some of the false slanders against our Church; then you have also been wrongly taught that we accept a “different Jesus” as our Savior. However, since we definitely study and follow the same Bible that is used in most of English-speaking Christianity, “The King James Bible,” then it obviously makes no sense for us to follow a different Jesus Christ as our Savior. We read the same beautiful stories about Jesus Christ and His beautiful parables and teachings in the Bible that other Christians read.
Pause to reflect on the following as well:
1. About 20,000 people join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints each month (about 250,000 per year) by choosing to enter into a baptismal covenant to focus more fully on and follow the joy-producing, love-giving teachings of Jesus Christ as taught in both the Bible and The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, for the rest of their lives.
2. Most of them are Bible-believing Christians who have already accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. After studying our Christ-centered teachings with our missionaries and prayerfully studying the Book of Mormon, they have an even deeper love and testimony of the Bible and Jesus Christ as their Savior. There is no more powerful testimony of the Bible and Jesus Christ as our Savior than “The Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ,” as many millions of us Bible-believing Christians gladly testify. Yes, I know that’s the opposite of what other Christian churches taught you about the Book of Mormon, but the wise decision is to prayerfully read it yourself to discover what it truly teaches.
3. When new converts are baptized, their lives are even more filled with the gifts and fruits of the Spirit as promised to followers of Jesus Christ in the Bible in Galatians 5:22, which teaches that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.” These gifts of the Spirit can only come from heavenly sources, because the devil and his team don’t have true “love, joy, inner peace, gentleness, goodness, etc.,” so how could they give these miraculous and priceless gifts, worth more than all the wealth in the world, to Christians who don’t possess them?
4. Prayerfully ask yourself: “Does it really make sense that each of the thousands of committed Christians who join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints each month, after careful study, reflection, and prayer, would suddenly begin to believe in a “different Jesus Christ” as their Savior the day they are baptized—as the devil and his team of liars teach? (I recognize that most of those spreading false slander against our Church have no idea what we really teach and what the Book of Mormon really teaches. They are simply ignorantly spreading the lies the devil and his team have been spreading for 200 years.)
The devil and his team invent every lie they can to try to scare people and keep them from checking what our Church really teaches. Jesus clearly taught us how we can know who his true disciples are when he taught in John 13:34–35: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Why did modern Christianity change so much of what Jesus taught about how we can know who his true followers are – – – and begin to teach that we shouldn’t even be willing to meet with our 70,000+ missionaries, or millions of other active members of our Church, to see if they really “love one another” or not? Why do they want to scare you into just taking the devil at his word, that we are all evil, and that the Book of Mormon is so evil that you shouldn’t even touch it or read it to find out for yourself? The beautiful principles it teaches, and how it will strengthen your faith in the Bible and in Jesus Christ as your Savior, as it has for millions of us Bible-believing Christians?
To my dear wife and me, our testimonies of Jesus Christ and His beautiful gospel teachings, along with the gifts of the Spirit that accompany them, are worth far more to us than our house, our car, or any of our other possessions—or even more than all the wealth in the world. When your faith and your relationship with our loving Heavenly Father bring so much love, joy, inner peace, etc. into your life, then, of course, you want to protect it and carefully nurture your testimony daily with prayer and scripture study in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, to keep your testimony of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel and His Church strong and joyful. So, we certainly wouldn’t want the devil and his team of liars to get into our minds and hearts with their confusing lies that they’ve been working on for approximately 200 years to confuse followers of Jesus Christ who are members of His Church or are learning about and considering becoming members. Of course, it makes sense that this is the Church the devil and his team most attempt to slander and persecute, because it is led by Jesus Christ through a living prophet and apostles. And because the Bible and the Book of Mormon are so crucial in helping to strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ and our commitment to following His teachings, that is why the devil and his team have been willing throughout history to do anything and everything to try to keep us from reading those two books. Many of those who believe the false slander are so prejudiced against us that they would have a very difficult time prayerfully studying what the Book of Mormon and our Church actually teach with an open mind.
Why I think we should never read or hear any anti-Mormon slander.
We often talk about things we can do to strengthen our testimonies in Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. I think it’s important that we also sometimes talk about some things we can do to help prevent ourselves and our loved ones from becoming confused and losing or damaging our testimonies because of the enormous amount of LDS slander against the Church of Jesus Christ spreading throughout the world. My dear wife has expressed many times that her testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is her most prized and valuable possession, and that she truly would rather lose every earthly possession we have than lose her testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, because almost all of her greatest joys in this life and beyond arise from her testimony of this restored gospel and from the joy and inner peace that come into her life as she follows the teachings of Jesus Christ that the young missionaries of our Church brought to her in Venezuela when she was 14 years old.
A few years ago, I had two rather discouraging conversations with two faithful members of our Church. One told me how her daughter was so distraught because her husband, who had served a mission and had been very active in the Church for many years since his mission, suddenly expressed that he now had a big problem accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet and was no longer going to be active in the Church. Please pause to consider the disastrous negative effect this can have on the daughter, the grandchildren, and future generations if they allow anti-Church slander to damage or destroy their faith and precious testimonies, and their commitment to following the joy-producing teachings of Jesus Christ. Now, let us pause to consider what likely could have happened for this returned missionary husband and father to suddenly express that he has trouble accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet and that he would no longer be active in the Church. I personally believe it is almost certain that your son-in-law was horribly influenced in the wrong painful direction by those against us, persecuting members of our Church with anti-Church materials. It is not at all likely that it was because he had a problem with the beautiful and edifying teachings of Joseph Smith, such as the Plan of Happiness/Salvation, which is far more beautiful and true than the One Heaven and One Hell teaching taught in most of modern Christianity. And it surely was not because this young man was prayerfully studying the Book of Mormon or Doctrine and Covenants that we received through the Prophet Joseph Smith daily, because if he were prayerfully studying them daily, then he would surely feel spiritually what I and many millions of members of our Church feel, as we prayerfully read them, that surely Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and of the Restoration of the gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ in these latter days.
If the Book of Mormon is true and comes from God, as millions of us know it is, then we can see that it is 100% clear proof that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. We must not listen to the 200 years of false slander designed by the devil and his team to confuse us and take away our inner peace and true joy. A young man we will call John joined our Church a couple of months ago in Loja, Ecuador, where my dear wife and I are serving an 18-month Christian mission. He was so joyful and happy when he was baptized with a deep love for the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and Jesus Christ as our Savior. Afterward, he ended up talking to some people he knew at another local Christian church, who told him he had made a horrible mistake and that we were a cult and a huge assortment of false slander, and that we should be avoided like the worst plague, etc. He also looked up anti-Church of Jesus Christ LDS literature on the internet, which confused him even more. He quickly felt very confused and horrible inside, and didn’t know what to do.
Fortunately, he had good relationships with the two sister missionaries who taught him, and with Sister Hunt and me, spending time with us in our Christ-centered sports activities, so he was willing to at least meet with us and listen to us. We met with him several times and sent him materials to read. After much prayer and study, he has recently expressed several times that he is very grateful that he did not stray from our Church and that he now has back in his life the love, joy, and inner peace he temporarily lost for a couple of weeks. He joyfully remains very active in the Church and has now committed to never again listen to or read the false slander against our Church.
I heard from a couple of other dear members of our Church, who have grown children, who also expressed trouble accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet. Let’s pause to consider an absolutely astonishing prophecy the angel Moroni gave to the Prophet Joseph Smith when Joseph was just 17 years old.
Joseph Smith – History 1:33–34: “He called me by a name, and told me that he was a messenger sent unto me from the presence of God, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name be held for good and for evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or spoken of both for good and evil among all people. He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the ancient inhabitants of this continent, and the source from which they sprang. He also said that in it was contained the fulness of the everlasting gospel, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants.”
Pause for a moment to consider how amazing the fulfillment of that prophecy has been. Can any of you name any other person from the last 500 years, or even the last 2,000 years, to whom that prophecy fits as well as the Prophet Joseph Smith—even another person who is widely talked about (along with the Book of Mormon), and well-known for both good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues? There are some very well-known people like George Washington or Abraham Lincoln who are quite well-known in the United States and even in many other countries as good and honorable men who made a major positive difference in the world, or people like Adolf Hitler, who are well-known throughout the world for their evil. But where do you find a single person like the young 17-year-old Joseph Smith to whom this prophecy would fit that would be so widely known and publicized among all nations, kindreds, and tongues throughout the world for both good and evil? There are people like Michael Jordan, who for a few years is talked about in many parts of the world because of how well he plays a basketball game, etc., but not for better or worse, and 100 years later, no one is talking about them anymore. That prophecy is truly amazing when you stop to reflect on it. I remember meeting a man on a train in Germany while I was on my mission. He was not a member of our church, but he said that anyone who studied the prophecies of Joseph Smith would know that he was a prophet, because he made so many prophecies that actually came to pass. This was one of the many amazing prophecies that came through the Prophet Joseph Smith, through the angel/prophet Moroni, and that surely came to pass.
Pause to consider how absolutely astonishing it is that, over 200 years later, there are over 70,000 neat, sincere, honest, devout, and respectable young men and women who gladly sacrifice 18 to 24 months during the prime of their lives without any pay, to go into all the world to every kindred, tongue, and people to testify of Joseph Smith as the true prophet of the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth, and of Jesus Christ as our beloved Savior. During these same 200 years since Joseph Smith, there have always been at least as many people of every kind, tongue, and people who are eager to distribute false and slanderous anti-Mormon literature, with much of their primary focus centering on slander against the young prophet, Joseph Smith, who dedicated his life to bringing as many people as possible to Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith was a powerful witness of Jesus Christ as our Savior and of the Bible throughout his life. Joseph Smith’s critics are almost as fervently against him and convinced that he was a dishonest man because of the false literature they have been given, as our missionaries and we as a people are convinced that Joseph Smith was a good man and a true prophet of God, who has helped us so much to draw closer to Jesus Christ as our Savior, and whose teachings have brought true inner peace and joy into our lives. However, the anti-Mormons’ belief that we and the Book of Mormon are bad is based on a bunch of false slander, not on any facts or knowledge of what our Church and the Book of Mormon actually teach. The message of the restored gospel that Joseph Smith helped restore is so beautiful and uplifting that it would be difficult to attack the beautiful truths we teach, so the devil and his team attack the messenger and invent lies about our leaders and members and about what we teach.
I’m not saying that everyone who distributes anti-Mormon literature or teaches that we are a “cult” and not Christians, etc., is a bad person. I believe that many of them have very good intentions, as Saul of Taurus did before his conversion, who have simply been convinced by false slander that the Church of Jesus Christ is evil, so they actually believe they are helping God and His cause when they fight against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And very rarely do those who spread false slander take the time to prayerfully study and verify what the Book of Mormon and our Church actually teach. I am convinced that many of those same good people would join our church if they knew what we truly believe and if they would prayerfully read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it is true, instead of simply believing the crazy, false slander that the devil and his team have rallied against us. There are many people who previously taught anti-Church of Jesus Christ garbage, and then learned what we really believe and who we really are, and then joined our church.
The Bible teaches that we should know the followers of Jesus Christ by their fruits. Anyone who observes with an open mind the fruits of our Church and our active members will clearly see good fruits, not bad or evil fruits. Anyone who prayerfully reads the Book of Mormon will personally witness its many good fruits: it increases our faith in the Bible and in Jesus Christ as our Savior, and it strengthens our desires to do what is right and good, and to avoid all evil.
The Book of Mormon has truly brought millions of people greater inner peace, real joy, and a better, more committed relationship with Jesus Christ as our Savior, which helps to make it extremely obvious that the fruits of Joseph Smith and our Church are good fruits, not bad or evil fruits. Anyone who prayerfully and openly studies the Book of Mormon and analyzes the fruits of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will soon come to know that Joseph Smith was indeed a true prophet of God. Joseph Smith, like the prophets of old, did not try to take honor and glory for himself. He always sought to do the will of Heavenly Father and focused his life on bringing people closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as our Savior. Joseph Smith and his followers were severely persecuted throughout his life until a large mob, incited by the Devil, murdered him in cold blood at the young age of 38.
Does the devil and the critics of our church, whom he can influence, try to get people to read the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants for themselves so they can see what a charlatan and fool these people claim Joseph Smith was? Or do they do everything they can to try to prevent people from actually reading and praying about the Book of Mormon for themselves?
How many of you members of our Church have ever had literature attempted to be given to you against the Church of Jesus Christ? —–almost everyone, right? A great deal of false slanderous material attacks Joseph Smith, as the prophet of the restoration, with all kinds of made-up stories and lies that Satan and those he can influence can invent. Why does Satan and those he can influence want to invent so many more evil, horrible stories about Joseph Smith than about any other good man who has lived these last several hundred years? —– surely because he is the prophet of the restoration of the fulness of the true gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth, and anything having to do with the true restored church of Jesus Christ on earth is a great threat to the devil, right? And, because all those who follow these gospel principles that Joseph Smith helped to restore to earth will continue to make progress throughout this life and beyond, they will gain incredible inner peace and real joy during this life and beyond that the devil hates to see. Let’s enjoy it. Pause to consider that Jesus Christ and his true prophets and apostles were also severely persecuted in biblical times by those who also didn’t bother to test the beautiful, true principles they taught. Many of those who persecuted the saints, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ were called, were other Old Testament Bible believers, such as the Pharisees.
The devil and those he influences against us may try to tell us, our children, or other loved ones that we must listen to the anti-Church of Jesus Christ side of the debate in order to view it fairly. However, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not up for debate, and the winner will be the most skilled debater. Our missionaries are not trained to be skilled debaters. Rather, they are ordained by God simply to share the beautiful message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and to encourage people to prayerfully study the Book of Mormon and the Bible for themselves, to ask God directly if it is true, and to test the principles of the gospel for themselves in their own lives so that they may know for themselves beyond a doubt that following the principles of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ surely brings more inner peace and real joy than anything else. It is not a matter of the most skilled debater overwhelming someone with their skillful, lie-filled debates and thus leading good people off the joyful, progressive path of the gospel.
If one of my children, or any close loved one who has been very active in the Church, were to tell me that they suddenly had trouble accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet, I would like to ask them, gently but directly, if they have encountered any anti-Mormon literature that may have damaged their faith and testimony as it has so many others, or simply what exactly happened recently that caused these doubts about the Prophet Joseph Smith?
Considering the fact that some of our church members and those who investigate our Church are eliminated and removed from the Church through false slander, would it be a good idea for us to avoid slander against the Church of Jesus Christ like the plague, just as we should all avoid pornography, because it can cause great spiritual harm and damage a person’s testimony and inner peace, as well as the quality of their relationship with themselves, with God, and with others?
If any of you readers really feel you need or want to read some of the typical slanderous variety against our Church, then I encourage you to get the book “The Myth Makers” by LDS scholar Hugh Nibley. That book appears to be out of print, but you can find used copies on Amazon.com. Hugh Nibley offers tons of direct quotes from the multitude of lies and false slanders against our Church and our leaders; but then, to help you not become confused and suffer with intellectual doubts about your faith, he gives the ridiculous source of their lies and shows many examples where anti-Mormons constantly contradict themselves in their efforts to invent every lie and distortion they can to damage the joy-producing faith. Or, instead of ordering and reading the book, you can read my summary and some quotes from the book below, which I wrote and shared with some LDS friends after a couple of their adult children lost their faith and left the Church due to false slanderous materials.
The book, “The Myth Makers” by Hugh Nibley, is the only book full of anti-Church of Jesus Christ literature that I believe can be helpful and faith-building, and even entertaining to study, because it offers many dozens of direct quotes from anti-Mormon literature that might otherwise cause damage to your faith, but it is quite entertaining when Hugh Nibley offers the true other side of the debate and documents the huge contradictions and false sources of those crazy made-up stories.
The devil and his followers try to sneak in and attack our family members and other loved ones who are members of our Church, one at a time, with very one-sided debates, attacking them with anti-Church of Jesus Christ literature, which is material quoting fabricated sources as if they were firsthand witnesses of how evil Joseph Smith or other Church leaders were or are. Because almost every member of our Church and those who investigate our Church will at some point be subjected to this false slander, I’d like to share some excerpts from the book “The Mythmakers” because very often, when those who are against us find out about someone meeting with missionaries, they bombard them with this material.
For example, a few years ago, my sister told me about a family, dear friends of hers, who took the missionary lessons in their home. The whole family was feeling very joyful and thankful, and they were all going to be baptized together. Until the husband told his parents he was going to be baptized, his parents freaked out, fearing he was joining a cult because they had also been fed a bunch of fabricated slander. His parents bombarded him with the false slander that many “Christian churches” keep around for any situation where people might dare to even meet with our missionaries. Many Christian bookstores keep anti-Mormon materials available to sell or loan to anyone who has family members meeting with our missionaries, or for their members to try to use to lure our newer or weaker members away from the Church. It turned out that only the mother was baptized, and the father was scared off by the fabricated anti-Mormon lie. The teenage sons continued attending early morning seminary at our church and going to church with their mother, but their father would not allow the children to be baptized, and clearly the anti-Mormon garbage has caused a lot of stress and problems in their marriage, and we have slowed the family’s progress on their joyful journey of drawing closer to Jesus Christ. Please pause to consider—of all the dozens of churches in the world, which one would Satan fight the hardest against, using whatever means he could to cook up and spread garbage against that church?—the one that truly is the restored Church of Jesus Christ on earth led by a living prophet and apostles just as His church was 2,000 years ago, right? Do you see large movements with millions of people spreading anti-Baptist material and messages all over the world, or anti-Lutheran, anti-Catholic, anti-Presbyterian, etc. material? To help prepare new members or serious researchers of the church for the anti-Mormon material that will surely be thrown at them, here are some quotes from just pages 75 to 87 of the 287-page book “The Myth Makers,” which may help them understand how little interest anti-Mormons have in being truthful, since their slanderous materials completely contradict each other constantly. Pause to consider some of these supposed firsthand accounts, for example, of what they want you to believe are very reliable firsthand witnesses often cited in anti-Mormon literature.
First, let’s look at page 11 of “The Myth Maker” to see the scenario Hugh Nibley asks readers to imagine in their minds, as these supposed anti-Church firsthand eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ present their direct quotes and false evidence against the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ through him.
Scene: The auditorium of a public school in Palmyra, New York, at the turn of the century (circa 1900). There is a low platform at one end of the aisle. At the center table sits the president; at the table to his left, the secretary takes notes among a pile of documents. At the table to the right sits E.D. Howe (who is counsel for the witnesses against the Prophet Joseph Smith). The room is crowded.
President: Let’s call things to order, please. This is the time and place fixed by stipulation for the deposition of a number of witnesses in the case of the World v. Joseph Smith, for the purpose of examining the parties of record without being bound by the answers. We want it to be understood that this is not a formal trial. This is simply an investigation of some phases of the evidence that has been presented against Joseph Smith, who will not be present.
ED Howe: (Who has made no effort to hide his displeasure) As counsel for these good people present, I object to the entire procedure. The witnesses have already given their sworn statements…
President: …and we’ll simply ask you to repeat those sworn statements. We’ve instructed the Secretary to put your original statements in quotation marks.
ED Howe: But why isn’t the defendant present? We can’t have a trial without him.
The Chairman: No one should know better than you, sir! It was you and all these people here who have insisted on trying and convicting Smith in absentia over the years. Actually, it is your claims, not Smith’s, that we are examining at this time. Now we want this to be a very informal inquiry. Anyone who has anything relevant to say is invited to do so at any time. All we really want to know is what you really knew about Joseph Smith, since your testimony has convicted him of fraud in the eyes of the world. I must warn you that I may be a little harsh with some of the witnesses, but I have been directed to get to the bottom of this matter. The problem remains.
(Now, let’s turn to some quotes from some of those alleged firsthand eyewitnesses of Joseph Smith on pages 75-87.)
The crime of being a prophet
Scene: Same. The room is empty except for the president and his secretary, who are gathering papers before the game.
President: Before you leave, Mr. Beckmesser (who is the secretary), there are a few things I’d like to discuss with you. Since this isn’t a trial but merely an investigation, I’d like your reaction to Mr. Tucker’s portrayal of young Smith. A grumpy, taciturn, and spiteful brat wins a loyal and devoted following simply by telling wild and wonderful stories. What do you think?
Clerk: A little odd, sir. But then, didn’t a naughty boy on the East Side of New York a few years ago make a great religious fuss in front of a million people by announcing that the Virgin had appeared to him in a back lot?
President: Yes, I remember the case. But how long did that boy’s glory last: five days? A week, maybe? It just shows what different kinds of things we’re dealing with here. By the way, do you have that material for a portrait of Smith?
Employee: You mean all those intimate descriptions of what he was like? Yes, sir, I collected them as you requested. Here they are.
President: Do they present a consistent image of the man? I mean, did Smith make a consistent impression on people?
Clerk: If you mean, does everyone think he’s a scoundrel? The answer is yes; otherwise, his books wouldn’t be classified as anti-Mormon. His friends praise him, his enemies hate him, but apart from hating him, they can’t seem to agree on anything. Here’s one, for instance, who writes: “I can see him in my mind’s eye now, with his torn, patched trousers held in place by a pair of suspenders made of bedsheets, and with his calico shirt as dirty and black as the earth, and his shaggy hair sticking out of the holes in his battered old hat…”1
President: Very picturesque. The “mind’s eye,” indeed. Is this the child Joseph Smith?
Clerk: No way, sir. This is supposed to describe the man “when he was about twenty-five years old,” that would be after the publication of the Book of Mormon and the founding of the Church. 1
President: But does anyone take this seriously?
Secretary: Mr. Linn accepts it as an accurate portrait. There is a homely touch here that gives it an air of simple honesty: “…Joe had a jovial, easy-going, easy-going manner that made him many warm friends. He was a good conversationalist and would have made an excellent public speaker.”
President: A careless vagrant with a gift for gab.
Clerk: It would seem so, sir. But here’s another eyewitness description from the same period: “He was always well dressed, usually in black with a white tie. He looked like a reverend… Joseph was not an orator. He said what he wanted to say in a very clumsy way…” 3 So now he’s a well-dressed gentleman who can’t speak at all. And that’s typical. Mr. Tucker said that taciturnity was one of Smith’s most noticeable characteristics, and here another witness says: “Joseph didn’t talk much in society, his conversation wasn’t very fluent, he was by no means interesting company…” 4 S.S. Harding says: “Young Joe was difficult to approach. He was very taciturn and sat most of the time as silent as the Spinx. 5
President: Silent Smith, huh?
Employee: That’s what some say, but others say the opposite: “…very fickle in speech, having great self-confidence…” 6 “endowed with great cunning and fickleness…” 7
President: But isn’t that the later Smith?
Secretary: No, sir, this is the boy from Palmyra, who used to attend “revival meetings praying and exhorting with great exuberance of words…” 6
“…he used to help us solve some portentous questions…in our junior debate club, and subsequently…was a very acceptable exhorter at the evening meetings…”8 Here’s another: “He was sometimes very active in a religious revival, and exhorting with unusual earnestness, in that luxuriance of words which he had wonderfully at his command.”9 He is rather puzzling: a taciturn, stuttering, awkward Spinx with a wonderful exuberance of words. “His manner is easy,” Mr. Howe himself wrote of this stutterer, “quite fascinating and engaging, of mild and sober demeanor, though sometimes inclined to joke and be extremely jolly.”10 This is the boy Mr. Tucker says “was never known to laugh.” And although Mr. Tucker also assures us from the most intimate experience that everything Joe and his family did proclaimed their sordid atheism, the other neighbors report him as zealously active in religious circles.
President: So someone is lying.
Clerk: At least not everyone can be right. Remember that Mr. Tucker said that Joseph Smith had a “laborious and malignant mental makeup,” that he “seldom spoke to anyone,” and above all, that he “was never known to laugh.” 11 And Mrs. Eaton, following suit, says that he “seldom smiled or laughed. His eyes were always cast downward.” 12 Yet high authority says that “a deep vein of humor ran through everything he said and did,” 13 and Charles Dickens declares that “the exact adjective for Joe’s religion is—cheerful!” 14 The poet Whittier speaks of Smith’s “rude, bold, good-humored countenance,” 15 and even some of the more damning “witnesses” tell us, “…Joe had a jovial, easy way about him that didn’t bother his head,” and that “He used to laugh from the top of his head to the soles of his feet—it shook every part of his flesh.” 16 Moreover, while Mr. Hendrix assures us that he “made many warm friends,” other neighbors say, “He was shunned by boys his own age,” and that he was “…a clumsy, unpopular lad.” 17 Here’s a nice empasse: Chase and Ingersoll Stafford, who knew him so well, describe him as a troublemaker who “frequently got drunk, and when intoxicated, was very quarrelsome,” 18 while Tucker and Harding, who also knew him, assure us that “Smith was known to have never had a quarrel or quarrel with any other person…” 19 Who should we believe?
President: Maybe it’s easier to control your physical appearance. What do you say to that?
Clerk: Eyewitnesses described him in 1830 as “tall and thin, of slight build…” 20 Dogberry calls him “spindle-handled”; 21 Here is a remarkable description by Stephen S. Harding, former governor of the Utah Territory, who claims to have personally known Smith in Palmyra and “describes him as a tall, leggy, blond young man, who seldom smiled, seldom worked, and never fought, but was hard on the truth and birds’ nests.” 22
President: At least we know that Smith was tall and thin.
Clerk: But us? Thurlow Weed’s description of Smith at this time is that of “a stout, round, smooth-faced young man…” 23 He may have been tall, but how he could have been so obviously “lean” and sturdy and round at the same time is unknown. And just two years later, another eyewitness who claims to have known Smith very well says he is “a mean, insignificant-looking man, between forty and fifty years of age.” 24 We are later told that “this person’s gait was heavy and stooped, his hands large and thick, his eyes gray and unsteady-looking…” 25 A year after its publication, another work describes the prophet as “a tall, elegant-looking man with dark, penetrating eyes and features that, if not handsome, were commanding.” 26 Others call him “a commanding-looking man, tall and well-proportioned…” “…a noble-looking fellow,” says another, “every inch a Mohammed.” 27 Josiah Quincy says, “He was a genial, athletic fellow, with blue eyes standing out prominently against his light complexion… A fine-looking man is what a passerby would have instinctively murmured…” 28 Another visitor says Smith had dark hair and eyes and “a strong, rugged outline of face” with features exactly like Oliver Cromwell’s. 29 Charles Francis Adams described him as “a middle-aged man with a shrewd but rather ordinary expression of countenance.” 30
President: So far we have shifty grey eyes, prominent blue eyes, and piercing dark eyes.
Clerk: Yes, and while one illustrious visitor says he couldn’t see Smith’s eyes because the man refused to look people in the face, 31 others speak of his “piercing eagle eyes.” 32 Some think Smith’s enormous, fat, and massive clumsy hands deserve special mention, 33 while others comment on the remarkably small size of his hands. 34 One says he had “a Herculean build and an imposing appearance,” 35 another that he was unkempt and stooped, “very lanky and loose in his appearance and movements.” 36
President: A portraitist would have a great time depicting you from these honest, firsthand descriptions. How do you explain the discrepancies?
Secretary: The same is true when it comes to Joseph Smith’s intelligence and knowledge. Here we read of “a natural genius, strong inventive mental powers, deep study, and an unusually correct estimate of human passions and feelings…” 39 “a retentive memory; a correct knowledge of human nature…” 40 “great cunning and wisdom… boundless energy and intrepidity of character, of the most dauntless audacity…” 41 “great powers of reasoning were his natural gift… and a deep vein of humor ran through all he said and did…” 42 “a strong mind (says Quincy) utterly ignorant of the teachings of history…” 40 “Joseph was the calf that suckled three kine. He acquired knowledge very rapidly… He soon surpassed his teachers…” 43
President: A kind of superman. And on the other hand…?
Secretary: On the other hand, the same Smith in 1830 is “that ignorant linchpin, Joe Smith. This fellow seems to possess the quintessence of ignorance… and has little expression on his countenance but that of dullness; his mental powers seem extremely limited.” 47 One of the early says: “…I thought the fellow either insane or a very shallow impostor…” 48 “…his knowledge was scant and his judgment weak…” 49 “He was loitering, idle; (not to say vicious), and possessed of less than ordinary intellect. The author’s own recollections of him are otherwise.” 50 “He was as self-indulgent as he was ignorant…” 51 “a dissolute and unprincipled young rake, and known only for his general wickedness…” 52 “Joseph had seemed dull and quite devoid of genius from his childhood…” 53 “His weak and uncultivated intellect had not yet grasped (in 1830) anything more than the mere toying with mysterious things…” 54 “I mention these things….to show the mental weakness and low character of the man.” 54 “Joseph was careless and excessively lazy. He could read, though not without difficulty, wrote with very imperfect handwriting and had a limited understanding of elementary arithmetic…” 57
President: So it was the village idiot who wrote the Book of Mormon. This raises a small question about motive. Surely there are easier ways to deceive people than to compose a long and complex book that, as the book itself predicts, simply invites persecution. How do these people explain the colossally exhausting and dangerous task of writing, publishing, and distributing it abroad as the enterprise of the laziest man in the world?
Secretary: There are two schools of thought. One holds that Smith was sincerely religious, the other that he was not; the latter is the larger faction by about 100 to 1. We are to believe that he undertook the writing of the Book of Mormon out of sheer impudence, “his only talent.” According to Mrs. Brodie, this foolish, cunning, shallow, and prevaricating child dictated the entire Book of Mormon as a kind of joke to his parents “to carry off the amusement.” Joseph Smith’s “own character lends no prestige to his pretentious claims. Yet the majority of Mormons are sturdy, sincere, honorable, and excellent citizens.” 72
The Anti-Mormons’ enormous array of contradictory false witnesses against the Prophet Joseph Smith is clear proof that Anti-Mormons will trot out any false slander they can, no matter how dishonest the sources. If you would like to learn some beautiful truths about Joseph Smith, I invite you to read “They Knew the Prophet – Personal Accounts of Over 100 People Who Knew Joseph Smith” by Hyrum L. Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus, as the good and inspired prophet of God that he was. And if you prayerfully read the Book of Mormon and receive the answer that he was presented by God through the Prophet Joseph Smith, then you will know that he truly was a prophet of God. And if you prayerfully read the Doctrine and Covenants, which is filled with beautiful revelations from God through the Prophet Joseph Smith, you will be blessed with another powerful testimony that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God.
I often engage in conversations with other Christians about our church, and on many occasions, they’ve tried to give me anti-Mormon literature and encouraged me to look at anti-Mormon literature with an open mind, so that it may open my eyes about the Mormon church.
I ask them, “What does it take to be saved?” And they express that it is necessary to accept Jesus Christ as Savior before dying. And then I sincerely express my testimony of Jesus Christ as my Savior and of the Bible. I speak of the inner peace and guidance toward all the good that I feel whenever I read the Bible, and I testify of the gifts of the Spirit, such as the peace, joy, and increasing love described in Galatians 5:22. I testify that I and other members of our church believe in and love the Bible and that I and our members accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, and of the indescribable inner peace and blessings that bless my relationship with my wife and all our relationships as we together make efforts to come to Jesus Christ as He invited us to do, and to do our best to follow all of Jesus Christ’s teachings. I tell you that one of the reasons my dear wife is a pleasure to live with is because she loves Jesus Christ as her Savior even more than she loves me. And by striving to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ every day, she is very kind, loving, and serving as Jesus taught us all to be. Clearly, the teachings of Jesus Christ work very well to bring families closer together and bless each of us with better relationships with ourselves, with family members, with each other, and most importantly, with Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father.
Considering that I am a pretty typical active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who loves the Bible and loves Jesus Christ as our Savior, then the good news is that at least we will be “Saved,” considering that according to most Christians, all it takes to be saved is to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior before the day we leave this life, right? Yet even by their own logic that we should be “saved” by accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior, most Christian pastors seem to try to convince people that we are not real “Christians,” and that therefore, we will all be punished and tortured forever in hell.
Furthermore, if someone is “saved” by the typical Christian definition, and then is imperfect and makes a mistake or sins, then they are still saved, right? So, for example, Zera Pulsipher was the first member of my family to join our church, and he had already been “saved” as a Bible-believing Baptist minister, and then he and most of his congregation did what Anti-Mormons would call a mistake by joining The Church of Jesus Christ or Latter-day Saints, but since they were already saved, they wouldn’t lose their salvation, right? Considering also that probably at least half of the approximately 250,000 people who join our Church each year are already born-again, Bible-believing Christians, who already accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and who love the Bible and Jesus Christ, both before. and even more so after joining our church, then they too would not lose their salvation just by making what some would call a mistake of believing that the Book of Mormon is also inspired of God like the Bible that they also love, right?
I am grateful to know beyond a shadow of a doubt, through serious and prayerful study of the Book of Mormon, and through countless spiritual witnesses over the years, that Joseph Smith was the true prophet of the Restoration of the true Church of Jesus Christ in these latter days, and I am so grateful for the incredible daily blessings of true inner peace and true joy that this gospel of Jesus Christ brings into my life.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Elder Hunt