Explorations Class #13 Discussion

Mormon History

The history of the Mormon Church is one of false premises. Joseph Smith perpetrated a simple confidence game on gullible family and friends, and it grew larger as time passed. Rather than attempting to compose a narrative of what "really happened", I present the conclusions of Rev. Wesley Waters*, who has done all the detailed on-site research necessary to establish the facts of the Joseph Smith story. Rev. Waters presents three scenarios to fit the facts, two of which he discards because, although they allow the LDS Church to maintain Smith as a true prophet, they are based on fallacious information or require a massive reworking of the First Vision narrative. The following is taken directly from Rev. Waters' work.

"A third, more realistic approach, is that Joseph began with a substantially different story than the one he put forth later in his career. He altered and expanded the story in several steps as occasion required, ending up with the official version he published in 1842. Space allows for nothing more than a sketchy outline, but the development, we believe, based on all the available accounts, was somewhat as follows.

 "The earliest form of the story which the Smiths circulated was that Joseph Jr., had discovered the plates through the aid of the seer-stone which he used to locate buried treasure. Just a year after the Book of Mormon appeared in print, the editor of the Palmyra Reflector noted that Joseph Smith, Sr., followed the 'popular belief that these treasures were held in charge by some evil spirit.' 'At a time when the money digging ardor was somewhat abated, the elder Smith declared that his son Joe had seen the spirit (which he then described as a little old man with a long beard)' who would furnish him with a book containing a record of the ancient inhabitants of this country. At first, the story 'had no regular plan or features', and several variations have been preserved by those who knew the Smiths. In October 1827, when Martin Harris first heard that Joseph Smith had unearthed golden plates, he visited the Smith home and interviewed each of the members independently. All, including Joseph Smith, Jr., himself, gave the same story: 'He found them by looking in the stone found in the well of Mason Chase'. Harris' narrative makes it clear that Joseph had already determined to produce a book, but needed someone to back it financially. Since Harris was deeply moved by religious ideas, Smith added that an angel had told him to quit the money-digging business, and that he had been shown Martin as the man who would help him with the new project. Harris replied, 'If the Lord will show me that it is his work, you can have all the money you want.' A 'still small voice' told Harris to become financially involved, and he ultimately became one of the witnesses for the new publication.

 "From this point on the story takes a religious tone, with an angel taking the place of the 'spirit' as custodian of the plates. The Reflector, however, is careful to point out that, 'It is well known that Joe Smith never pretended to have any communion with angels, until a long period after the pretended finding of his book.'

 "Once Joseph had put forth his claim to angelic visitation, a new situation had to be dealt with. He had to explain how it was that one with a questionable reputation who had never even joined a church should be favored with a special visitation from heaven. W. W. Phelps, who lived for a while at the neighboring town of Canandaigua and later joined the Mormons, pointed out that the objection was raised that if God were going to reveal anything it would be to some great person in the church. Smith's answer is to admit his sinfulness, and his story is changed so that he no longer finds the plates in his search for treasure, but they are revealed to him in his search for forgiveness. He has not joined a church because he was shown that they have lost the truth which can only be restored when the plates are translated.

 "His story, however, still lacks an element that will explain what motivated his search for forgiveness. Sometime after 1830, possibly in 1833, he drafts his 'strange account' in which he sets forth his Bible reading as producing the awareness of his need for forgiveness and his conclusion that all churches are wrong. This approach is abandoned, however, possibly because it might have seemed out of character for him to have shown such Biblical literacy. A better motivation was found in the revival led by Elder Lane, which occurred, as he recalled, about 1823. Thus late in the year 1834, the story is published through Oliver Cowdery that, stirred by this revival in September of 1823, he was answered by an angel visitation to his bedroom.

 "Not content to halt here, late in 1835 Smith is still making improvements in his story. On November 9, 1835, he told his story to a visitor who called himself Joshua, the Jewish Minister, and related how in a silent grove two personages had appeared to him, adding that one of them had testified 'that Jesus Christ is the son of God'. Apparently Joseph at this point intended his two personages to be nothing more than angels, for he not only adds that he 'saw many angels in this vision', but also five days later told Erastus Holmes that 'the first visitation of angels' occurred when he was about fourteen years old. This would account for the confusion that later developed, even among church leaders, in speaking of Smith's first vision as an angel visitation. In telling his story to Joshua, Joseph made no attempt to fit it into the framework of the account his paper had published earlier that year, for apart from the two Bible references, he mentions nothing about a revival or other motivation that led him to the grove to seek heavenly guidance. This account, consequently, was left unpublished and largely unheard of until brought to light from the archives of the LDS Church by James B. Allen of Brigham Young University.

 "Three years later, in 1838, when he begins his official history, the Mormon leader tackles the problem of working his first visitation story into the setting of the story that had already been released into his paper. Now far from Palmyra where any might be likely to remember the dates, Joseph moves the date of the revival back to 1820 to accommodate his first vision narrative. While he is writing in 1838, he is facing division in his own ranks and strong opposition from the established churches. We are not surprised, therefore, to find the strong note of seeking forgiveness shoved into the background in favor of a condemnation of all the churches by his heavenly visitors. At this point in his career it is not so important to be sorry for his sins, as it is that he be endorsed in his claims. By this time, also, his theology has changed so that he is now advocating a plurality of gods. It is not surprising, therefore, to find the two personages have apparently become, for Smith, two separate gods, the Father and the Son.

 "Such we believe, is the general development by which Joseph Smith, Jr., ultimately arrived at his official story. While some may disagree with our reconstruction, all students of Mormon history will be forced to reconsider the reliability of Joseph's first vision story. We believe that the firmness of the revival date as the fall of 1824, the features of Smith's story as fitting only that date, and the absence of any Palmyra revival in the year 1820 are established beyond any reasonable doubt, and will force upon Mormon writers a drastic re-evaluation of the foundation of their church." (Emphasis added)

We must be careful when dealing with Mormons not to simply attack their prophet. All that is likely to do is to create resistance and close off lines of communication. However, in the end, it is not possible to avoid the fact that Joseph Smith was not a prophet of God, since if Mormon beliefs are incorrect, so is Joseph Smith. With that caveat said, we should still be aware of the origins of Mormon belief, since those origins drove the direction of Smith's theology. As time passed, what had begun as a small con game took on a life of its own. Smith knew that it was phony, but after a while, came to believe it himself.

Original LDS theology was remarkably conventional. The BOM in may ways adds little to the Bible. Yet, even in the original, a few errors existed. Over time, Smith added numerous "revelations" which dramatically changed the nature of Mormonism. The most important of these, the Plurality of Gods (Progression), served to build up Smith's importance in the future world. Another, the Plurality of Wives (Polygamy) served Smith's ambitions on earth. Numerous other revelations had much more mundane application, but each served to build up Smith's importance in his church and to fortify his church against opposition.

This transformation of theology with time is perhaps the defining characteristic of Mormonism. Progressive revelations are potentially able to transform any belief into something unrecognizable by those who originally held it. They are even allowed to change the text of divine documents, as we will see in the BOM and the D&C. Ultimately this means that there is no absolute standard of truth. The terror of this for the Christian should be clear. If you cannot know what truth is, because it will change, how will you know that your salvation is secure?

Resources:

Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price (available at bookstores and LDS Churches)
"Is the Mormon My Brother" by James R. White
"Letters to a Mormon Elder" by James R. White
"Pillars of Mormonism" by Ezra Pond
"No Man Knows My History" by Fawn Brodie 

Web Resources:

Institute for Religious Research
Mormon Research Ministry
Utah Lighthouse Ministry (a large library of research materials is available here)
Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry

*New Light on Mormon Origins from the Palmyra N.Y. Revival", Rev. Wesley Waters
© 1997, First Printing 1967, distributed by

Mormon Research Ministry
PO Box 20705
El Cajon, CA 92021-0955