Joseph Smith: Mormon Founder
Born in 1805, Joseph Smith Jr. was never a part of any church while growing up. He and his father were well known for their treasure hunting interests. They would go on digs around New York looking for treasure, but could never find anything of substance.
Smith Jr. claimed that his first vision accured at the age of 14 (1820). Three years later, Smith claimed to have another vision from an angel named Maroni who tells him the locations of golden plates located in Palmyra, NY. These plates came from Jews who populated the Americas; the Nemphites.
Four years later he finds the plates but he cannot show anyone because Maroni said he couldn’t. They were written in “Reformed Egyptian,” which isn’t a real language. Smith can’t read the fake language, and so he uses two stones that Maroni gave to him to translate. The stones, Urim and Thummim, are held up to his eyes so that he can translate the writings.
Only three witnesses saw this crazy process happen, and all three of them ended up quitting. Smith would be on one side of a curtain (so no one could see), and he translated outloud to someone who would write what was being said. No one ever saw the plates.
The Church of Jesus of Later-Day Saints was officially founded in 1830, and polygamy was prevalent. Because of such, many people opposed Smith (especially since most of his wives were under 16). His followers went with him across the States, and since things never go well, they keep on moving.
Eventually, Smith is arrested in Navoo, IL and put in jail in Carthage, IL. Why was he arrested? After The Nauvoo Expositor has published some anti-Mormon material, Smith went and destroyed the Expositer’s printing press, crippling the newpaper from any further publications. The people were so mad at Smith that they dragged him with his brother to the middle of the street and executed him.
Unfortunately, this created a martyr out of Joseph Smith. Ever since, the Mormon’s have been actively growing.
Filed under: Cults |
Tags: Cults, Joseph Smith, Latter Day Saints, Maroni, mormons, Nemphites, Religion, Thummin, Urim
4 Responses to “Joseph Smith: Mormon Founder”
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Actually, we know at least 11 other people, besides Joseph Smith, saw the gold plates, as related in the first pages of the Book of Mormon. Those testimonies can be found here:
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/bm/thrwtnss
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/bm/eghtwtns
Also, Joseph and his brother were not dragged to the middle of the street and executed. They were actually in jail awaiting a trial when a mob broke into the jail and murdered Joseph and his brother while still in jail.
The Restoration of the gospel may seem like an out-of-the ordinary occurrence, and that’s because it is. This was the first time that the heavens were opened to man after a long period of darkness and silence (which silence was brought about by the faithlessness of man). However, just because we have not seen something, or understand something, does not mean it is not right.
God is all-powerful. His ways are much beyond our comprehension, and often don’t make sense to us logically. But the Holy Ghost can convince us more powerfully than words and evidence of the truthfulness of the Restoration. One just needs to have faith, and ask sincerely to know, and it will be made known to him.
God bless.
Thanks for your reply, Jesse.
It is true that the Book of Mormon has testimonies at the front of the book. However, if you were to look at the last line of the page the Recollections of John H. Gilbert, we can see that Martin Harris, one of the original three never actually did see the plates. And do not forget that all three of these men later denied the Mormon faith.
I do apologize for getting the story wrong. It was a mob that came and murdered Joseph and his brother. In fact, about two hundred people went to murder Smith.
To be honest with you, I do not think that God needed to re-open the heavens to man. Jesus was enough. And I will actually be talking about who Jesus is, or who Mormon’s say he is, on the next blog. The Christian Jesus is not even the same guy as the Mormon Jesus.
You seem to have a nice little discussion going on. I for one believe Mormonism is falsely informing it’s believers. I found an article that futher demonstrates the questionable character of Joseph Smith Jr. For those interested, look at this article: Mormonism Unveiled
An interesting note to those men who did later leave the church: none of them denied their testimonies of what they had seen.
I mean, it’s not like it would discredit the gold plates if they did deny seeing the plates after they had lost their testimonies, but it is interesting that they didn’t.
I believe the “Christian” Jesus is actually the same Jesus that we believe in. But I think I understand what you mean in that we believe different things in regard to the doctrine He taught than certain other sects of Christianity.