Founding Prophet
The Mormons hold their founder, Joseph Smith Jr., as a prophet of God who was approached by an angel and given direct revelation. In 1820, the angel’s name was Maroni, the glorified son of Mormon (of which we get the name Mormonism from.) Later, in a later edition of “The Pearl of Great Price (1851 version), the messenger’s name was Nephi. He was given golden tablets, or plates, of which the “Book of Mormon” was written. They were written in ancient egyptian hieroglyphs. Overlooking how Joseph Smith translated ancient hieroglyphics, which he did behind a closed veil while someone else transcribed his words, the Mormon beliefs got them in trouble with their neighbors.
Joseph Smith was a “peeping-stone gazer.” An illegal practice at the time. His court bill for the misdemeanor was $2.68 in 1826, six year before his supposed vision of the angel. As the former Mormon historian, Dr. D. Michael Quinn wrote of him, “Joseph Smith, the founding prophet and president of the new church organized on 6, April 1830, had unquestionably participated in treasure seeking and seer stone divination and had apparently also used divining rods, talismans, and implements of ritual magic. His father, one of the Eight Witnesses to the divinity of the Book of Mormon and later the church patriarch, had also participated in divining and the quest for treasure.”
Those that were his contemporaries knew of his spurious character and no positive reports of his character can be found of him. E.D. Howe, a contemporary of Smith, went to his home town of Palmyra, New York, and obtained signed statements of sixty-two people who knew “Joe” Smith. This is what the statement read:
“We, the undersigned, have been acquainted with the Smith family for a number of years while they resided near this place, and we have no hesitation in saying that we consider them destitute of that moral character which ought to entitle them to the confidence of any community. They were particularly famous for visionary projects, spent much of their time in diggings for money, which they pretended hid in the earth; and to this day, large excavations may be seen in the earth, not far from their residence, where they used to spend their time in digging for hidden treasures. Joseph Smith Sr. and his son Joseph, were in particular considered entirely destitute of moral character and addicted to vicious habits.”
In Walter Martin’s research, he proclaims that, “...the amazing fact is that there exists no contemporary pro-Mormon statement from reliable and informed sources who knew the Smith family and Joseph intimately.”
The “prophet” and his group faced persecution wherever they went. Do not think this of persecution unprovoked, though. The Mormons were great proselytizers from the beginning. While they resided for a time in Nauvoo, Illinois, a former assistant, John C. Bennett, among others, began splintering away from the man, Joseph Smith Jr., and began speaking out against the prophet, especially as the practice of polygamy among them became more and more public. Eventually, “the general”, as he liked to be called, ordered the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor publication, known for being anit-mormon. They successfully wrecked the Expositor, but for it, the prophet and his brother were imprisoned. In jail, though, in the unfortunate creation of a martyr, he and his brother were brutally murdered by a mob of around two hundred people.
Thus came the end of the founder of Mormonism.
Jared Williams
Joseph Smith was a “peeping-stone gazer.” An illegal practice at the time. His court bill for the misdemeanor was $2.68 in 1826, six year before his supposed vision of the angel. As the former Mormon historian, Dr. D. Michael Quinn wrote of him, “Joseph Smith, the founding prophet and president of the new church organized on 6, April 1830, had unquestionably participated in treasure seeking and seer stone divination and had apparently also used divining rods, talismans, and implements of ritual magic. His father, one of the Eight Witnesses to the divinity of the Book of Mormon and later the church patriarch, had also participated in divining and the quest for treasure.”
Those that were his contemporaries knew of his spurious character and no positive reports of his character can be found of him. E.D. Howe, a contemporary of Smith, went to his home town of Palmyra, New York, and obtained signed statements of sixty-two people who knew “Joe” Smith. This is what the statement read:
“We, the undersigned, have been acquainted with the Smith family for a number of years while they resided near this place, and we have no hesitation in saying that we consider them destitute of that moral character which ought to entitle them to the confidence of any community. They were particularly famous for visionary projects, spent much of their time in diggings for money, which they pretended hid in the earth; and to this day, large excavations may be seen in the earth, not far from their residence, where they used to spend their time in digging for hidden treasures. Joseph Smith Sr. and his son Joseph, were in particular considered entirely destitute of moral character and addicted to vicious habits.”
In Walter Martin’s research, he proclaims that, “...the amazing fact is that there exists no contemporary pro-Mormon statement from reliable and informed sources who knew the Smith family and Joseph intimately.”
The “prophet” and his group faced persecution wherever they went. Do not think this of persecution unprovoked, though. The Mormons were great proselytizers from the beginning. While they resided for a time in Nauvoo, Illinois, a former assistant, John C. Bennett, among others, began splintering away from the man, Joseph Smith Jr., and began speaking out against the prophet, especially as the practice of polygamy among them became more and more public. Eventually, “the general”, as he liked to be called, ordered the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor publication, known for being anit-mormon. They successfully wrecked the Expositor, but for it, the prophet and his brother were imprisoned. In jail, though, in the unfortunate creation of a martyr, he and his brother were brutally murdered by a mob of around two hundred people.
Thus came the end of the founder of Mormonism.
Jared Williams
