#extrabiblicalsources

[eli-kittim]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Debunked

Eli Kittim

The Latter Day Saint movement is a Christian Restorationist movement that was founded by Joseph Smith in the early 19th century. Currently, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka “LDS Church”) boasts 17 million members.

There is a theme in the Old Testament that is echoed in the New Testament's Book of Revelation 22:18-19. It effectively nullifies all extra-biblical sources of interpretation or additions to scripture, including Talmudic hermeneutics and 3 out of the 4 Standard Works of the LDS Church. Deuteronomy 4:2 reads:

“You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.”

Yet the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have added additional material, such as the noncanonical Book of Mormon, which is neither authorized nor accepted by mainstream Christian Churches. According to Latter Day Saint tradition, the so-called golden plates are the original source from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon (which is now called Another Testament of Jesus Christ). Paul writes in Galatians 1:8:

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!”

As the story goes, Smith allegedly found these plates in the 1820s after an angel named Moroni directed him to a buried stone box. He claimed that the angel instructed him not to show the plates to anyone until they had been properly translated from their original "reformed Egyptian" language.

However, there are several problems with these claims. The notion of “reformed Egyptian” comes from a narrative in the Book of Mormon, in which it is described as the language employed to inscribe the text on golden plates. And yet, historians, linguists, archaeologists, and egyptologists have not found any substantiated examples of such a language in the historical or archaeological record. In other words, the claim that the golden plates were written in a language called "reformed Egyptian” is bogus because such a language is basically unknown to linguists and egyptologists. Besides, there’s no linguistic, historical, or archaeological evidence of the use of Egyptian writing in Pre-Columbian America!

There are many other problems with Joseph Smith’s claims. He mentioned that he received his revelation from an Angel named Moroni. The said angel is mentioned in the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants, another LDS book, but not in the Bible. According to the Book of Mormon, the said angel added information to the teachings of Jesus. In fact, the Book of Mormon is more about Moroni than Jesus because the word "Mormon" itself is actually derived from the name of the angel Moroni! The fact that this angel substitutes itself for Christ by giving its name to a book——and given that the name Moroni is never once mentioned in the 66 canonical books of Holy Scripture——suggests that it is probably not on God’s payroll. Joseph Smith’s account reminds us of another so-called prophetess and channeler, namely, Esther Hicks, who currently claims to receive revelations from a non-physical spirit named Abraham. Thus, the LDS movement——featuring a spirit-guide who offers a new or alternative teaching THAT IS NOT IN THE BIBLE——has all the hallmarks of a cult!

It is important to note that Joseph Smith and his close associates were practicing folk magic, scrying, second sight, and divination, practices that are strictly forbidden in the Old Testament (Lev 19:26; Deuteronomy 18:10-12)! Both Smith and another seer named Samuel T. Lawrence reportedly used a seer stone to view the golden plates. What is more, eyewitnesses reported that Smith translated the golden plates not by looking directly at them but by looking through a transparent seer stone in the bottom of his hat! So, Smith allegedly translated the Egyptian not based on any scholarly knowledge or expertise but rather on psychic messages that were channeled to him.

There were allegedly 11 men who claimed to have seen the plates, aka the so-called Book of Mormon Witnesses. Then, after the translation process was completed, Smith claimed that he returned the plates to the angel Moroni, thereby conveniently making them magically disappear from sight so that they could not be investigated or re-examined.

However, there are various discrepancies and contradictory accounts. Some of Joseph Smith’s close associates accused him of being a fraud and of having “filthy” adulterous relationships. Moreover, Martin Harris, one of the alleged Three Witnesses to the golden plates, recounted his witness as a visionary experience. John Gilbert, the printer of the first edition of the Book of Mormon, asked Harris if he had seen the plates with his own eyes, to which Harris replied "No, I saw them with a spiritual eye.” In 1837, Joseph Smith excommunicated 28 members. A year later, in 1838, Smith said the following about the Three Witnesses (Cowdery, Harris, and Whitmer): “too mean to mention; and we had liked to have forgotten them." So much for the eyewitness reports!

In the same year (1838), Harris publicly confessed that "he never saw the plates with his natural eyes, only in vision or imagination." In fact, Harris openly denied that any of the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon had ever seen or handled the golden plates. As a result, Harris's announcement convinced several key members to leave the church. Over 30 years later, Harris’ account never changed. He gave another interview in which he admitted "I never saw the golden plates, only in a visionary or entranced state."

The Pearl of Great Price is part of the canonical books of the LDS Church. It was originally written as a pamphlet published in England in 1851, and was later revised and canonized by the LDS Church. The current version of the Pearl of Great Price contains several sections. One section is called the Book of Moses, which includes Smith's own revisions (i.e. the “Joseph Smith Translation” of the Bible, aka JST) regarding the first 6 chapters of the Book of Genesis, which include two extraneous chapters of "extracts from the prophecy of Enoch.” So, Joseph Smith is essentially rewriting the Bible according to his own private interpretations.

Another section in the Pearl of Great Price is the Book of Abraham. Joseph Smith produced it in 1835, and claimed that it was based on Egyptian papyri that were purchased from a traveling mummy exhibition. According to Joseph Smith himself, the book was "a translation of some ancient records... purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus". What a story! It has all the earmarks of occultism! This book also maintains that God did not create the universe ex nihilo (out of nothing) but rather through a reorganization of eternal, pre-existing elements. Not to mention that Joseph Smith retranslated portions of Matthew’s gospel, a work which contains significant changes and additions to the original biblical text.

In summary, Joseph Smith added another book to the Bible which was based on a discovery of certain golden plates that no one ever saw. This was a book translated from a supposed reformed Egyptian language that doesn’t exist in the historical or archaeological record, let alone in ancient America. And later, it magically disappeared so that it could not be examined. The witnesses themselves did not actually see the plates with their own eyes. And some of them even called Smith a fraud. Joseph Smith and his companions were all involved in divination and magic, which often attracts demonic spirits. As a matter of fact, the Spirit who introduced Smith to these extra bible additions is a suspicious familiar spirit who is never once mentioned in the Bible. Taken together, the evidence strongly suggests that the LDS Church is a heretical cult that has very little to do with Christianity! Not to mention their theology which is completely bogus (e.g. that God has a physical body of flesh and bones, that God was once a man on another planet, that just like him we can all become gods, that there exist many gods, that Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer/Satan, etc.)!