Ava
As a Christian, I trust the Bible to be the
Word of God.
In ancient times, God spoke to His chosen
people through His prophets.
God knew there would be other men pretending
to be prophets
but - who were no more than mere counterfeits.
Chris
You’re right, Ava.
And God gave us a fool-proof test to know
if someone is a true prophet of God.
It says, in Deuteronomy 18:22
Ava
It seems that Joseph Smith fits those descriptions.
Didn’t he make prophecies that did not come
to past?
Chris
Quite a few!
There is a classic example in LDS Church history
called the Canadian Copyright Episode.
This event was recorded during the winter
of 1829 and 1830 in a publication called
“An Address to All Believers in Christ, pp. 30-31”
by David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses
of the Book of Mormon.
When Smith desperately needed more money to
complete the printing of the Book of Mormon,
his brother Hyrum Smith suggested to Joseph
that some men could go to Canada and sell
the copyright to the Book of Mormon.
Smith agreed to ask the Lord by looking into
the hat in which he placed the seer stone.
Ava
I guess a traditional prayer wasn’t reliable
enough for an answer to this question?
Chris
Joseph claimed he received a revelation that
some of the brethren should go on a mission
to Toronto Canada.
There, they would be successful in selling
the copyright.
So, Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery traveled
to Toronto, but they were unable to sell the
copyright and returned without any money.
Smith was asked point blank, why God had forsaken
them, having commanded them to go?
Ava
That must have been discouraging for Hiram
and Oliver.
Chris
Joseph didn’t know why the prophesy didn’t
come to pass.
So surprisingly - he enquired of the Lord
by going back to the same seer stone in a
hat to get an explanation from God.
Ava
That seems bizarre.
So, what did the hat reveal this time?
Chris
He was told that the initial revelation was
not from God after all.
He then supposedly received a NEW revelation.
Ava
So, Smith admitted that he could not actually
tell if his ideas came from God, from Satan
or simply out of his own head –
or in this case – the hat.
But then, how could Smith even be sure this
second revelation was from God.
How could he ever be sure of any revelation?
Chris
It did, however, give Smith a ‘Get out of jail free’ card
to use in the future if
anything else went wrong with his prophesying.
Revelations that succeed - come from God.
And, the ones that fail are either wishful
thinking or, snuck in by Satan who can deceive
the prophet.
Ava
Smith couldn’t lose, whatever the outcome
of his revelations.
Where then does that leave the reliability
of any revelation coming from a supposed prophet?
Putting faith in something, with a such a
small chance of it being from God is very
risky.
Especially when it effects someone’s life.
This also means about two thirds of Smith’s
other revelations and scriptures are then
completely false by the simple laws of probability.
Chris
The fact that almost everything Smith taught
and wrote has now been exposed as false, means
that in reality nothing can be trusted as
being from God, and that Smith made it up
as he went along.
Ava
How then, if he thought at the time it was
a revelation, can we possibly accept anything
written or said by Joseph Smith?
Chris
We can’t, since Smith himself didn’t even
know if he could trust what he thought was
revelation.
