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Dear Friends,

This is the third and final post in a mini-series I wrote about the LDS (Mormon) church. The first one is here.

demons + huckster = cult 

Christian apologists (including the authors of the book we’ve been going through) routinely ask skeptics to propose alternatives to standard Resurrection beliefs, rather than just wave away the orthodox account.

So, it only seems appropriate for me to propose an alternative theory of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, rather than just wave it away.

Every single source I use in my theory below is an LDS source. I’m quoting their own people (in fact, the more material I find on this topic from their own mouths, the more horrified I am that so many people continue to fall for this).

I put brackets around each fragment that I’m citing a source for; if it doesn’t have brackets, that’s the part that is my theorizing. Sometimes the bracketed text will contain a direct quote, and sometimes my paraphrase.

Here I go:

1. Joseph Smith opens a door into the spiritual realm via his practice of magic
   • [“The Prophet’s involvement in ‘magic . . . was a preparatory gospel’ (page 53) and ‘Remnants of the magical culture stayed with him to the end.'” (page 51)] (4)
2. [He also becomes involved in treasure-hunting, including with the aid of “seer stones”] (5)
3. He deeply absorbs [his mother’s emphasis on human responsibility in eternal salvation] (6)
4. Through a combination of demonic influence, his own lust for power/women/money, and his desire to please his mother, he begins to invent a vast body of mythology and a new religion based on it
5. In parallel with #4 and influenced by the same factors, as well as his experience in treasure-seeking, he begins to fashion the golden plates
   • With the direct aid of his father, who knew how to cooper (make barrels) (7), or using skills learned from his father
   • [Again using special stones, this time during translation of the plates] (12)
6. A demon appears to the three witnesses in the form of an angel from God and shows them a vision of the plates
7. All of the Eleven Witnesses, as well as others, view the physical plates themselves
8. He destroys the plates
9. Around 1835, he becomes infatuated with, and [“marries”, Fanny Alger, a beautiful teenage live-in servant] (8) (9) under the guise of [divine commandment](9), and driven by:
   • • His own lusts
     • Possibly, further demonic influence
     • A desire to grow the movement faster
   • Despite disapproval of at least two of the Three Witnesses, mentioned in the previous post
10. He goes on to marry [“many additional wives”](9) under similar circumstances and pretenses, [claiming divine authority to overrule his first wife’s objections](10)
11. He [“authorized other Latter-day Saints to practice plural marriage”](9)
12. The movement experiences significant growth as a result of plural marriages
    • More children are produced
      • [“Plural marriage did result in an increased number of children born to believing parents.”] (9)
    • Large numbers of promiscuous (read: average) men are converted to the movement by the concept of plural marriage
13. Smith’s success as a cult leader goes to his head and he becomes more and more brazen, which brings us to the Book of Abraham
    • He reasons…correctly….that if and when the fraud becomes widely known, he’ll be dead anyway

So that is my theory. Again, all my cited sources are LDS sources.

In a nutshell: demons+huckster = cult.

He saw this beautiful young woman working in his house every day, scrubbing floors, doing dishes, etc. and decided at some point that he just had to have her. If you want me to instead believe that [an angel threatened to kill Smith with a sword if he didn’t marry even more women besides just Alger] (9), sorry, but you are going to have a tough row to hoe.

So, I believe Smith fabricated a revelation from God and/or was told by a demon he needed extra wives.

Satan is the father of lies, so I don’t consider it too important to sort out where the lie came from (Smith and/or Satan). This whole sordid tale should serve as a reminder not to open doors you aren’t able to close.

My visit to Ground Zero! Also, Satan loses.

I was passing through the area recently, and decided to visit Temple Square. I soon learned that whereas male missionaries are sent far and wide, spreading LDS beliefs via bicycle, female missionaries/volunteers (all of them? some of them? not sure) are stationed at Temple Square, and the nearby Conference Center, etc.

Several of them initiated conversations with me. They were friendly, but they seemed deceived and ignorant. They were surprised that I did not consider them Christians, even though they believe in a literal goddess. I mentioned the destroyed printing press (see previous post) to one of them, and she had not even heard of it. Another one pointed to her name tag, which bore the name of their church (“Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints”), in an attempt to highlight their so-called Christianity. I wasn’t convinced.

I’ve met numerous LDS throughout my career, and found almost every one of them to be intelligent and personable. But because I’m weird, I’ll go even further: I believe many of them are my brothers and sisters, and I’m going to see them in heaven someday, by the grace of Jesus Christ, even if they never, during their mortal lives, wriggle out of the Satanic net they’re caught in.

That’s a different can of worms (29), but for now I’ll say this in defense of the brother-and-sister theory (which is commonly taught among the Primitive Baptists):

[1Jo 4:7 KJV] 7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and EVERY ONE THAT LOVETH IS BORN OF GOD, and knoweth God.

So, yes…Satan can play all kinds of tricks in the here and now, and temporarily make victims out of God’s little children. But the day is coming where every last one of his tricks will be fully exposed, Satan will meet his final judgment, and all of God’s dear children will be pulled out of the mire and taken home to be at peace with their Father.

Jesus wins, Satan loses. That’s the bottom line.

Oh, and, to repeat one more time:

The evidence bases for Christian and LDS beliefs are not similar. The Christian one is superior.

God bless, and thanks for reading!

Links:

(1) The opening salvo

(2) Joseph Smith on History Channel

(3) Trajan at worldhistory.org

(4) Quotations from respected LDS scholar Richard Bushman

(5) Joseph Smith looking for treasure using seer stones

(6) William Smith discussing Lucy Mack Smith impressing on her children their responsibility in their own salvation

(7) Joseph Smith’s father making barrels

(8) LDS Ben Johnson calls Fanny Alger “a very nice and comely young woman about my own age”

(9) Fanny Alger lived with the Smiths and is considered to be Joseph Smith’s first plural wife

(10) “the Lord” commanding men to marry additional women whether their first wife liked it or not

(11) Oliver Cowdery anointed

(12) Translation of the Book of Mormon using stones

(13) Oliver Cowdery as scribe and Second Elder

(14) Bushman on Cowdery

(15) Whitmer on Whitmer

(16) Joseph Smith’s death called a martyrdom

(17)  LDS on death of Joseph Smith

(18)  Oliver Cowdery excommunicated

(19) Cowdery excommunicated for, among other things, accusing Joseph Smith of adultery

(20) David Whitmer excommunicated

(21) Martyrdom of Peter

(22) Martyrdom of Paul

(23) LDS discussion of Book of Abraham

(24) More skeptical responses to the Book of Abraham

(25) Book of Abraham

(26) Robert Ritner doing work

(27) A farrago of nonsense (go to page 27)

(28) Mad respect for the Bible

(29) He shall save His people