Is it ever a wise decision to listen to or read false slander against The 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 slanders against the Church of Jesus Christ are slanders against Christ, because it is the devil and his team who are trying to keep God’s children away from the true Church that Jesus Christ Himself restored with the fulness of His gospel, including the guidance of Jesus Christ Himself, through modern-day prophets and apostles. Of course, if our Church is the true Church of Jesus Christ on earth, as millions of us Bible-believing Christians testify, then it makes sense that the devil and his team would do everything they can to get people to believe the false slanders against us.
I realize that most of the people spreading false slander against our Church are actually “Christians,” who even believe in the Bible, but still don’t believe that Jesus Christ restored His Church to the earth and leads it through His true modern-day prophets and apostles. They have been taught the 200 years of false slander against us, and they ignorantly believe it, without ever checking what the Book of Mormon, our 75,000 missionaries, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints actually teach.
Suppose you were a new young voter in the United States and were trying to learn about the principles, etc., that the Republican party/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 from the Republicans themselves? If someone trying to talk to you about our Church refers to us as “Mormons,” instead of using the true name of our Church from the beginning, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” then you can know that they are believing and spreading the false slander against us that they were taught.
Clearly, all of the anti-Church literature was purposely 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 who spread slander against us have no interest in verifying the facts or presenting the truth. The devil and his team will say and do anything to scare people and keep them from checking 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 purposely designed to confuse you and create doubts about our Church, its origin, and its leaders.
If you are a grateful, joyful, and committed Christian who is not a member of our Church, and someone tried to impose anti-Bible, anti-Christian, and atheistic materials on you—materials that are purposefully and carefully designed to confuse Christians and generate intellectual doubts about the Bible, the origins of Christianity, the existence of God, and so on—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, then of course you would not want to read materials that are purposefully designed to confuse you intellectually and generate doubts about the Bible, or about the reality of God and about our Savior, Jesus Christ. Therefore, try to understand why we do not want to read the literature and slander against the Church of Jesus Christ that those who are against us want to impose on us and on anyone who might consider verifying what we truly believe.
Furthermore, if you think you are trying to “save” the 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 eternally in hell, you don’t have to 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 used in most of English-speaking Christianity, the King James Bible, then it obviously doesn’t make 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.
Please also pause to reflect on the following:
1. Approximately 20,000 people join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints each month (approximately 250,000 per year) by choosing to enter into a baptismal covenant to focus more fully on and follow the joy- and love-producing 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 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 for yourself to find out what it really 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 riches of 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 born-again Christians who join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints each month, after careful study, meditation, and prayer, would suddenly begin to believe in a “different” Jesus Christ as their Savior the very 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, including pastors, have no idea what we really teach and what the Book of Mormon really teaches. They are simply ignorantly spreading the lies that 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 teaching 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 truly “have love one for another” or not? Why do they want to scare us into simply taking the word of the devil, that we are all evil, and that the Book of Mormon is so evil that we shouldn’t even touch it or read it to discover for ourselves the beautiful principles it teaches and how it will strengthen our faith in the Bible and in Jesus Christ as our 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 accompanying gifts of the Spirit, are worth far more to us than our house or our car or any of our other possessions, or even more than all the riches 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. Therefore, we certainly do not want the devil and his team of liars entering our minds and hearts with their confusing lies that they have been concocting for approximately 200 years to confuse followers of Jesus Christ who are members of His Church or who are learning about the possibility of becoming members and are considering doing so. Of course, it makes sense that this is the Church the devil and his team try to slander and persecute the most, 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’s why the devil and his team have been willing throughout history to do anything to try to keep us from reading those two books. Many of those who believe this false slander have become so prejudiced against us that it would be very difficult for them to prayerfully study what the Book of Mormon and our Church truly teach with an open mind.
Why I believe we should never read or hear any slander against the Church of Jesus Christ.
We often talk about things we can do to strengthen our testimony in Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. I think it’s important that we also talk about some things we can do to help ensure that we and our loved ones do not become confused, lost, or damaged by the enormous amount of slander against the Church of Jesus Christ or the Latter-day Saints that is being spread 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 the hereafter 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. She already had faith in God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible before they came to her door, but the beautiful teachings they shared with her greatly increased her faith in God and Jesus Christ as her Savior, and in the Bible.
A few years ago, I had two rather discouraging conversations with two faithful members of our Church. One shared with me that her daughter was very distressed 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 stop and consider the disastrous negative effect this can have on the daughter, the grandchildren, and future generations if they allow slander against the Church of Jesus Christ to damage or destroy their faith and precious testimonies, and their commitment to follow the joy-producing teachings of Jesus Christ. Now, stop and consider what likely could have happened to cause this returned missionary husband and father to suddenly express that he has a problem accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet and would no longer be active in the Church. Personally, I believe it is almost certain that your son-in-law was horribly influenced in the wrong and painful direction by those who are against us, who attacked our Church members with materials against the Church of Jesus Christ. It is not very 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 daily the Book of Mormon or the Doctrine and Covenants that we received through the Prophet Joseph Smith, because if he were prayerfully studying those books daily, then he would surely feel spiritually what I and many millions of members of our Church feel when we prayerfully read them, which is that surely Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God, and of the truth 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 that is 100% clear proof that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God, which is why the devil and his team try to scare people from reading it. 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 earlier this year in Loja, Ecuador, where my dear wife and I are serving an 18-month Christian mission. He was very 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 terrible mistake and that we were a cult and a whole variety of false slander, and that we should be avoided like the worst plague, etc. He also searched the internet for information about false slander against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which confused him even more. He quickly felt very confused and horrible inside, and a huge loss of inner peace and joy, and he didn’t know what to do.
Fortunately, he had a good relationship with the two sister missionaries who taught him, and with Sister Hunt and me, from 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 reading materials to help him regain the faith, inner peace, and real joy in his heart and soul that he had lost due to the false slander against the Church of Jesus Christ. After much prayer and study, he has expressed several times recently that he is very thankful he did not fall away from our Church due to the false slander, and that he now has the love, joy, and inner peace back in his life that had been temporarily lost for a couple of weeks. He joyfully remains active in the Church and is now committed to never again hearing or reading the false slander against our Church.
I learned that a couple of other beloved members of our Church, who have adult children, have also expressed a problem with accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet. Let’s pause to consider an absolutely astonishing prophecy that 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 name , and told me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do, and that my name should be taken among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, for good and for evil; that is, I should be spoken of well and evil among all people. He said that there was deposited a book , written upon gold plates , which gave an account of the ancient inhabitants of this continent, and of the origin of their descent. He also declared that it was contained in it the fulness of the everlasting gospel, as the Savior had communicated to the ancient inhabitants.”
Please pause for a moment to consider how astonishing the fulfillment of that prophecy has been. Can any of you name a single other person in the past 500 years, or even the past 2,000 years, for whom that prophecy fits as well as the Prophet Joseph Smith, or indeed another person who is much talked about (along with the Book of Mormon), and who is 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 very well known in the United States and even in many other countries as good and honorable men who made a significant positive difference in the world, or people like Adolf Hitler, who are very well known around the world for their evil, but where do you find a single person like the young 17-year-old Joseph Smith who this prophecy fits, who would become so well known and widely publicized among all nations, kindreds, and tongues throughout the world, both for his good and for his evil?
There are people like Michael Jordan, who for a few years is talked about in many parts of the world for how well he plays basketball, etc., but not so much for the good as for the evil, and a hundred years later no one talks about them. 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 he was a true prophet, because he made so many prophecies that were truly fulfilled. This was one of the many amazing prophecies that came through the Prophet Joseph Smith, through the angel/prophet Moroni, that surely were fulfilled.
Please stop and consider how absolutely astonishing it is that at this moment, more than 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 pay to go throughout 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 to the earth, and of Jesus Christ as our beloved Savior. During these same 200 years since Joseph Smith, there have always been at least that many people in every kindred, tongue, and people who are eager to distribute false and slanderous literature against the Church of Jesus Christ, with much of their primary focus on slandering the young prophet, Joseph Smith, who dedicated his life to bringing Jesus Christ to as many people as possible. Joseph Smith was a powerful prophet who dedicated himself to preaching the Word of God and spreading the Word of God throughout the world. He testified 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 defamers’ belief that we and the Book of Mormon are evil is based on a bunch of false slander, not on any true 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 the Book of Mormon is so uplifting, that it would be hard 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 literature against the Church of Jesus Christ or teaches that we are a “cult,” that we are not Christians, etc., is a bad person. I believe that many of them have very good intentions, as Saul of Tarsus did before his conversion, who were simply 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 any of those spreading false slander take the time to prayerfully study and verify what the Book of Mormon and our Church really 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 ever prayerfully and openly read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it is true, instead of simply believing the false, crazy slander that the devil and his team have concocted against us. There are many people who used to teach garbage against the Church of Jesus Christ, 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, such as increasing their faith in the Bible and in Jesus Christ as their Savior, and strengthening their 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 and true 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 examines 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 seek to bring honor and glory to himself. He always sought to do the will of Heavenly Father, and he 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 their lives, until a large mob incited by the devil and his lies 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 to see what a charlatan and fool these people say 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 someone try to give you literature contrary to the Church of Jesus Christ?—almost all of you, right? A great deal of the false slander 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 made-up, evil, and horrible stories about Joseph Smith than about any other good man who has lived in the 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 restore to earth continue to progress throughout this life and beyond, and thereby gain incredible inner peace and real joy during this life and beyond that the devil hates to see us enjoy. Stop to consider that Jesus Christ and his true prophets and apostles were also severely persecuted in Bible times, by those who also did not bother to verify 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 need to hear 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 most skilled debater emerges victorious. Our missionaries are not trained to be skilled debaters. Rather, they are ordained by God 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 shadow of a doubt, that following the principles of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ brings more inner peace and real joy than anything else. It is not the business of the most skilled debater to entice someone with his skillful, lie-filled debates and thus turn good people away from the joyful and 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 a problem accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet, I would gently but directly ask them if they had encountered any literature contrary to the Church of Jesus Christ that might have damaged their faith and testimony as has happened to so many others, or exactly what 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 singled out and driven away from the Church by 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 both 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 truly feel you need or want to read some of the typical slanders against our Church, then I encourage you to get the book “The Myth Makers” by Mormon scholar Hugh Nibley. That book appears to be out of print, but you may be able to find used copies on Amazon.com. Hugh Nibley gives tons of direct quotes from the multitude of lies and false slanders against our Church and our leaders; but then, to help you avoid being confused and suffering from intellectual doubts about your faith, he gives the ridiculous source of their lies and shows many examples where those who are against us constantly contradict themselves in their efforts to invent all the lies and distortions they can to damage your 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 Mormon friends after a couple of their adult children lost their faith and left the Church due to false and defamatory materials.
The book, “The Mythmakers” by Hugh Nibley, is the only book full of anti-Church 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-Church literature that might otherwise damage your faith, but it is quite entertaining when Hugh Nibley presents the true other side of the debate and documents the huge contradictions and false sources for those crazy made-up stories.
The devil and his followers try to sneak in and single out our family members and other loved ones who are members of our Church or who are investigating our Church, one at a time, with very one-sided debates by attacking them with literature contrary to the Church of Jesus Christ, which are materials that cite fabricated sources as if they were firsthand witnesses of how evil Joseph Smith or other leaders of our Church were or are. Because almost every member of our Church and those who investigate our Church will at some point be the target of false slander, I would like to share some excerpts from the book “The Mythmakers,” because very often, when those who are against us discover that someone is meeting with our missionaries, they bombard them with false slander.
For example, one of my sisters told me about a family, who are dear friends of hers, who took the missionary lessons in their home, and 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 became frightened, fearing that he was joining a cult because his parents had been fed a bunch of fabricated slander. And his parents bombarded him with the false slander that many “Christian churches” have in reserve for any situation where people dare to meet with our missionaries. Many Christian bookstores have anti-Mormon materials available to sell or loan to anyone who might have 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. In the end, only the mother was baptized, and the father became frightened by the fabricated slander.
The teenage children 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 false slander caused much stress and problems in their marriage and has delayed the progress of that family on their joyful journey of drawing closer to Jesus Christ. Please stop and consider—of all the dozens of churches in the world, which one would Satan fight the hardest, using whatever means he could to cook up and spread garbage against that church? The one that is truly the restored Church of Jesus Christ on earth led by a living prophet and apostles as His church was 2,000 years ago, right? Do you see large movements out there with millions of people spreading anti-Baptist material and messages all over the world, or anti-Lutheran material, or anti-Catholic material, or anti-Presbyterian material, etc.? To help prepare new members or serious church researchers for the defamatory material that is sure to be thrown at them, some of the following quotes from pages 75-87 of the 287-page book, “The Mythmakers,” may help you understand how little interest the smear mongers have in telling the truth since their defamatory materials constantly contradict each other. Take a moment to consider some of these so-called firsthand accounts, for example, of what they want you to believe are very reliable firsthand witnesses who are often cited in literature contrary to the Church of Jesus Christ.
First, let’s look at page 11 of The Mythmaker to see the context Hugh Nibley asks readers to imagine in their minds for these supposed anti-Church eyewitnesses to present their direct quotes and fabricated 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 (around 1900). There is a low platform at one end of the room. At the center table sits the president; at the table to his left, the secretary is taking notes amid a pile of papers. At the table to the right sits E.D. Howe (who is the attorney for the witnesses against the Prophet Joseph Smith). The room is crowded.
President: Let’s get this straight, please. This is the time and place fixed by stipulation for the deposition of several witnesses in the case of the World v. Joseph Smith, for the purpose of questioning the parties on the record without being bound by the answers. We wish to be clear that this is not a formal trial. It is simply an inquiry into 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 here, 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 clerk 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.
President: No one should know better than you, sir! It was you and all these people here present who have insisted on trying and convicting Smith in absentia over the years. In reality, it is your claims, not Smith’s, that we are examining at this moment. Now we want this to be a very informal inquiry. Anyone with anything relevant to say is invited to speak at any time. All we really want to find out is what you really knew: The crime of being a prophet.
Scene: Same. The room is empty except for the president and his secretary, who is gathering papers to prepare for departure.
President: Before you go, 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 evil-minded brat, he gains a loyal and devoted following simply by telling incredible and far-fetched stories. What do you think?
Shopkeeper: A little odd, sir. But wasn’t it a naughty boy from the East Side of New York who sent a million people into a state of great religious excitement a few years ago by announcing that the Virgin had appeared to him on a back set?
President: Yes, I remember the case. But how long did that boy’s glory last? Five days? A week, perhaps? That just shows we’re dealing with a different kind of thing. By the way, do you have that material for a portrait of Smith?
Clerk: You mean all those intimate descriptions of your appearance? Yes, sir. I compiled 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 whether everyone thinks 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 short of hating him, they can’t seem to agree on anything. Here’s one, for instance, who writes: “I can see him now in my imagination, with his torn and patched trousers held up to his body by a pair of suspenders made of bed sheets, and with his calico shirt as dirty and black as the earth, and his unkempt hair showing through the holes in his old, battered 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 is, after the publication of the Book of Mormon and the founding of the Church. 1
President: But does anyone take this seriously?
Clerk: Mr. Linn accepts this as an accurate portrait. There’s a homey touch here that gives it an air of simple honesty: “Joe had a jovial, easy, easygoing style that won him many warm friends. He was a good conversationalist and would have made an excellent campaign speaker.” 2
President: A scruffy vagrant with the gift of the 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 speech wasn’t very fluent, he wasn’t at all 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 Spinx.” 5
President: Silent Smith, huh?
Employee: That’s what some say, but others say the opposite: “…very fickle in speaking, with great self-confidence…” 6 “endowed with great cunning and fickleness…” 7
President: But isn’t that the later Smith?
Clerk: No, sir, this is the boy from Palmyra, who used to attend “the 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 passable exhorter at the evening meetings…”8 Here’s another: “He was sometimes very active in a religious revival, and exhorted with unusual fervor, in that luxuriance of words which he had wonderfully at his command.”9 He is rather puzzling: a clumsy, stuttering, taciturn Spinx with a wonderful exuberance of words. “His speech is plain,” Mr. Howe himself wrote of this stutterer, “quite fascinating and engaging, of a mild and sober demeanor, though sometimes inclined to joke and be excessively jolly.”10 This is the lad 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 was of a “slow and wicked 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 countenance was 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 “rugged, bold, good-humored countenance,” 15 and even some of the more damning “witnesses” tell us that “…Joe had a jovial, easy, careless way about him,” and that “he used to laugh from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, it thrilled every bit of flesh about him.” 16 Moreover, while Mr. Hendrix assures us that he “made many warm friends,” other neighbors say that he “was rejected by the boys of his own age,” and that he was “…a clumsy, unpopular lad.” 17 Here is a nice impasse: Chase and Ingersoll Stafford, who knew him so well, describe him as a brawler, who “frequently got drunk and when intoxicated was very quarrelsome,” 18 while Tucker and Harding, who knew him as well, can assure us that “Smith was known to have never had a quarrel or quarrel with any other person…” 19
19 Who should we believe?
President: It might be easier to check their physical appearance. What do they say about that?
Secretary: Eyewitnesses describe him in 1830 as “tall and thin, of slight build…” 20 Dogberry calls him “long-legged”; 21 There is a remarkable description by Stephen S. Harding, former governor of the Utah Territory, who claims to have personally met Smith in Palmyra and “describes him as a tall, long-legged, blond-haired young man, who seldom smiled, seldom worked, and never fought, but was a stickler for truth and birds’ nests.” 22
President: At least we know that Smith was tall and thin.
Secretary: But do we know? Thurlow Weed’s description of Smith at this time is that of “a stout, round, and soft-faced young man…” 23 He may have been tall, but it is not so obvious how he could be “slightly built” and stout and round at the same time. And only two years later, another eyewitness who claims to have known Smith very well says that he was “a humble, 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 were large and thick, his eyes gray and wavering…” 25 A year after this was published, another work describes the prophet as “a tall, elegant-looking man with dark, penetrating eyes and features that, if not handsome, were commanding.” 26 Another calls 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 vigorous, athletic man, with blue eyes that stood out 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, robust face” with features exactly like Oliver Cromwell’s. 29 Charles Francis Adams described him as “a middle-aged man with a shrewd but quite ordinary expression of countenance.” 30
President: So far we have shrewd gray eyes, prominent blue eyes, and dark, penetrating eyes.
Clerk: Yes, and although 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, clumsy hands deserve special mention, 33 while others remark on the remarkably small size of his hands. 34 One says he had “a Herculean build and commanding appearance,” 35 another that he was scruffy and stooped, “very lank and loose in his appearance and movements.” 36
President: A portraitist would have great fun depicting you from these honest firsthand descriptions. How do you explain the discrepancies?
Clerk: You get the same sort of thing when it comes to Joseph Smith’s intelligence and knowledge. Here we read of “a natural genius, strong inventive powers of the mind, 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 worldly wisdom… boundless energy and intrepidity of character, of the most dauntless boldness…” 41 “great powers of reasoning were his natural gift… and a deep vein of humor ran through everything he said and did…” 42 “a strong mind (says Quincy) utterly ignorant of the teachings of history…” 40 “Joseph was the calf that sucked of three kine. He acquired knowledge very rapidly… He soon surpassed his teachers…” 43
President: A kind of superman. And on the other hand…?
Clerk: On the other hand, the same Smith in 1830 is “that ignorant spindle-reed man, Joe Smith. This individual seems to possess the quintessence of ignorance… he has little expression on his face but that of dullness; his mental powers seem extremely limited.” 47 One of the early writers says: “…I thought the individual either insane or a very shallow impostor…” 48 “…his knowledge was scanty and his judgment weak…” 49 “He was lazy, idle (not to say vicious), and possessed of a below-average intellect. The author’s own recollections of him are very clear.” 50
“He was as self-indulgent as he was ignorant…” 51 “a young rake, dissolute, and unprincipled, and notorious only for his general wickedness…” 52 “Joseph from childhood seemed dull and utterly devoid of genius…” 53 “his uncultivated and weak intellect had not yet (in 1830) comprehended anything beyond playing with mysterious things…” 54 “I mention these things… to show the man’s feeble-mindedness and low character.” 54 “Joseph was slovenly and excessively lazy. He could read, though not without difficulty, and wrote with a very imperfect hand, 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 of motive. Surely there are easier ways to deceive people than writing a long, 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 on Earth?
Clerk: 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 a ratio of 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 practical joke to his parents “to carry on the fun.” Joseph Smith’s own character “does not lend a shred of prestige to his pretentious claims. Yet most individual Mormons are steadfast, sincere, honorable, and excellent citizens.” 72
The enormous variety of contradictory false witnesses that slanderers present against the Prophet Joseph Smith is clear proof that they will surface any false slander they can, no matter how dishonest or ridiculous the sources. If you would like to learn some beautiful truths about Joseph Smith, I encourage you to read the book “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 it was brought to light 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 full of beautiful and true 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 get into discussions with other Christians about our Church, and on many occasions they have tried to give me literature that is contrary to the Church of Jesus Christ and have encouraged me to examine it with an open mind, so that it will open my eyes about our Church.
I ask them, “What does it take to be saved?” and they respond 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 increased love described in Galatians 5:22. I testify that I and other members of our church believe in the Bible and love it, and that both 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 of our relationships as together we make efforts to draw closer to Jesus Christ as He invited us to, and we do our best to follow all of Jesus Christ’s teachings. I tell you that one of the reasons my dear wife is a joy to live with is because she loves Jesus Christ as her Savior even more than she loves me, and as she tries to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ every day, she is very kind, loving, and helpful, just as Jesus taught us all to be. Clearly, the teachings of Jesus Christ work very well to bring families closer together and to bless each of us with better quality 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 all it takes according to most Christians to be saved is to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior before the day we die, right? Even though, by their own logic, we should be “saved” for accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior, most Christian pastors try to convince people that we are not true “Christians” because they falsely teach what they were taught in Bible school, that we are “saved” because we believe in a different Jesus Christ, and that therefore, we will all be punished and tortured forever in hell – – – along with most of God’s children throughout history who never had a chance to hear about Jesus Christ or read a Bible before they die – – – which, of course, also doesn’t sound logical or fair.
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 strongly Bible-believing Baptist minister, and then he and most of his congregation made what false slanderers would call a mistake by joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but since they were already saved, they wouldn’t lose their salvation, right? Furthermore, if we consider that it is likely that at least half of the approximately 250,000 people who join our Church each year are already Bible-believing, born-again 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 would not lose their salvation just by making what some would call a mistake of believing that the Book of Mormon is also inspired by 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 testimonies 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 joys that this gospel of Jesus Christ brings to my life.
I sincerely share this testimony with you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Charles Hunt