“Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.” — Joseph Smith If there were any single, brief quote I could share that explains Mormonism, … Read more
One of the older criticisms of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith is that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized, or at least inspired, by the 1825 book View of the Hebrews by Ethan Smith…hey, they’ve even both got the last name! One more suspicious circumstance… From Wikipedia: View of the Hebrews is an 1823 … Read more
This question was recently put to me by a reader DMT on this website: In 2 Nephi 3:24 it reads: “And there shall rise up one mighty among them”.. The Book of Mormon today has in the footnote for this verse “Joseph Smith” as being the one who will rise up, however, earlier versions of … Read more
There’s an interesting story in the Deseret News entitled A simple explanation works best for the Restoration. I’ve included the first bit here, but read it in its entirety and let me know what you think. We left off last week with the notion that the Book of Mormon was plagiarized from a manuscript written … Read more
As asked in a comment thread on this blog… Q: “I find it interesting that the day before he was killed that Joseph Smith drank wine and don’t Mormons have to be temple worthy to worship in the temple and one of the things that make them temple worthy is that they can’t drink alcohollic … Read more
In responding to comments on another post I did quite a bit of research on the question of whether Mormons worship Joseph Smith, so I thought it was worthy of it’s own post. The question seems to arise due to the amount of praise and attention heaped on Joseph Smith by Mormons. I won’t deny … Read more
This question is sparked in response to a statement from Church President Brigham Young, who said “that no man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith. From the day that the Priesthood was taken from the earth to the winding-up scene of … Read more
From Jeff Lindsay’s site, where he asks the question “If the gold plates never existed, how did Joseph get numerous witnesses to stand by their stories until their dying day, even when some of them later became angry with Joseph and left the Church?” This is a common question asked by Mormons, but I have … Read more