Criticism of Mormonism/Books/The Kingdom of the Cults (Revised)/Index

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A work by author: Walter Martin, Hank Hanegraaff (editor)
Index of claims
Note: This is a review of claims and/or responses to misrepresentations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found in this work. The inclusion of an author's work here does not imply that he or she is "anti-Mormon," or that none of his or her works have value. Those who do not wish to examine the claims contained in what some would consider an "anti-Mormon" work are advised to proceed no further.
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Index to claims made in The Kingdom of the Cults (Revised edition)

This is an index of claims made in this work with links to corresponding responses within the FAIRwiki. An effort has been made to provide the author's original sources where possible. This index only treats the section of the book dealing with Mormonism.

179

Claim
  •  Author's quote:[I]n keeping with the acceleration of cult propaganda everywhere, the Mormons have around 50,000 "missionaries" active today

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion
Response
  •  Prejudicial or loaded language: Why the scare quotes around the word 'missionaries?' If they aren't missionaries, then what are they?
  • Loaded and prejudicial language

180

Claim
  • The book claims that Latter-day Saints are cautioned against the use of "caffeine-bearing drinks, such as Coca-Cola."

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

181

Claim
  • Tithing is claimed to be one-tenth of gross income.

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response
  •  The claim is false: The First Presidency has issued the following statement about what constitutes tithing:
The simplest statement we know of is the statement of the Lord himself, namely, that the members of the Church should pay ‘one-tenth of all their interest annually,’ which is understood to mean income. No one is justified in making any other statement than this.[1]
  • Whether a member interprets "income" as "gross," "net," or some other way is up to them.
  • If "no one" is entitled to make any other statement, surely that includes anti-Mormon authors!

181, n3

Claim
  • Utah "shows that rates of divorce, child abuse, teenage pregnancy, and suicide are above the national average and climbing."

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

182

Claim
  •  Author's quote:Mormons…flourish a pseudo-mastery of Scripture before the uninformed Christian's dazzled eyes and confuse him, sometimes beyond description.

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion
Response
  •  Prejudicial or loaded language
  • One wonders if this is intended to discourage conservative Christians from even considering scriptural evidence from a Mormon.

182

Claim
  • The book refers to the "young and boastful Joseph Smith…"

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response
  •  Prejudicial or loaded language

182

Claim
  • It is claimed that Joseph Smith's statement that "no man knows my history" resulted in "endless suspicion by Mormon historians and non-Mormons" who began researching it.

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response
  •  Absurd claim: The history of the Church has been of intense interest to historians since the Church was formed.

182

Claim
  • Joseph Smith practiced "occult peep-stone seeking."

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

182

Claim
  • Joseph Smith practices "treasure digging."

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

182

Claim
  • Joseph Smith committed "adultery before the polygamy prophecy."

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

182

Claim
  • Joseph Smith proclaimed that the Book of Mormon "is the most correct of any book on earth."

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

182

Claim
  • Joseph Smith said "I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam…"

Author's source(s)
  • History of the Church, 6:408-409
Response

183

Claim
  • According to D. Michael Quinn, Joseph Smith Sr. was a "mystic" and a treasure digger.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

183

Claim
  • Joseph Smith Jr. was "interested in treasure seeking even after he became president of the LDS Church.

Author's source(s)
Response

183

Claim
  • D. Michael Quinn was excommunicated "after refusing to keep silent about his unflattering research."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

184

Claim
  • Brigham Young wanted to suppress Lucy Mack Smith's history because it had "many mistakes."

Author's source(s)
  • Millennial Star, 17:297-298, personal letter dated January 31, 1885.
Response

184

Claim
  •  Author's quote:It is interesting to observe that Smith could not have been too much moved by the heavenly vision, for he shortly took up once again the habit of digging for treasure along with his father and brother, who were determined to unearth treasure by means of 'peep stones,' 'divining rods,' or just plain digging.

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided
Response

184

Claim
  • Joseph is claimed to have gone "on record as denying that he had ever been a money-digger."

Author's source(s)
  • Joseph Smith, History, 1:55
Response

184

Claim
  • Joseph "took part in and personally supervised numerous treasure-digging expeditions" and "claimed supernatural powers."

Author's source(s)
  • Rev. John A. Clark, Gleanings by the Way, (Philadelphia: W.J. and J.K. Simon; New York: Robert Carter, 1842), 225 off-site
Response
  • The claim relies upon a hostile source Gleanings by the Way (1842) , written by the Rev. John A. Clark. There are no sources provided for Clark's statements, although it is likely that he relies upon the Hurlbut affidavits:
"...Jo Smith, who has since been the chief prophet of the Mormons, and was one of the most prominent ostensible actors in the first scenes of this drama, belonged to a very shiftless family near Palmyra. They lived a sort of vagrant life, and were principally known as money-diggers. Jo from a boy appeared dull and utterly destitute of genius; but his father claimed for him a sort of second sight, a power to look into the depths of the earth, and discover where its precious treasures were hid. Consequently long before the idea of a GOLDEN BIBLE entered their minds, in their excursions for money-digging, which I believe usually occurred at night, that they might conceal from others the knowledge of the place where they struck upon treasures, Jo used to be usually their guide, putting into a hat a peculiar stone he had through which he looked to decide where they should begin to dig.


184

Claim
  • A hearing 1826 ruled that Joseph was "guilty of money-digging."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

186

Claim
  • The angel Moroni was originally identified as Nephi.

Author's source(s)
  • 1851 edition of the Pearl of Great Price.
  • Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Mormonism—Shadow or Reality?, 5th edition, (Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1987), 136.
  • Times and Seasons, vol. 3, 753
Response

186

Claim
  •  Author's quote:This unfortunate crossing up of the divine communication system was later remedied by thoughtful Mormon scribes who have exercised great care to ferret out all the historical and factual blunders not readily explainable in the writings of Smith...

Response

187, n10

Claim
  • "Reformed Egyptian" has never been seen by any "leading Egyptologist.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

188

Claim
  • The book claims that Sidney Rigdon "virtually challenged the whole state to do pitched battle with the 'Saints'" and as a result they were "subsequently persecuted and expelled."

Response
  • Partially true. Sidney did indeed make an inflammatory speech. This did not, however, initiate persecution against the Latter-day Saints. Sidney's speech was prompted by the persecution that the Saints had experienced so far, including his own tar and feather experience and the expulsion of the Saints from Independence, Missouri.

189

Claim
  •  Author's quote:[I]n Kirtland, Nauvoo, Jackson County, etc., the Mormons had a chance to win converts to Smith's religion because they were strangers and the character of the prophet was unknown in those areas.

Response
  •  Absurd claim: the members of the Church and Joseph were repeated subjects of skeptical or hostile publications and newspaper reports. The charges against Joseph were typically close at hand.

189-190

Claim
  • It is claimed that Eber D. Howe "did tremendous research during Joseph's lifetime" on Joseph's character, and that Joseph "never dared to answer Howe's charges."

Author's source(s)
Response
  •  Absurd claim: Howe has the distinction of writing the first anti-Mormon book, but this says little about his "tremendous research," since most of his material was from someone else's efforts.
  • Howe relied on hostile affidavits collected after the fact by Doctor Philastus Hurlbut, a man who had sworn to wash his hands in Joseph Smith's blood. Hurlbut was unable to publish the affidavits himself after his trial for making death threats against Joseph . He sold this material to Eber D. Howe, who published them.
  • The Hurlbut affidavits

190

Claim
  • Latter-day Saints "pretend" that Howe's work was the result of a "revengeful vendetta of one Dr. Philastus Hurlbut." The "fact" that stories published by Howe were "publicly circulated previous to Hurlbut's excommunication" is claimed to be "incontestable."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  • The role of Hurlbut in gathering the affidavits is a matter of historical record.
  • If Martin has evidence that these claims were being made before Hurlbut collected them, he should present the evidence. Assertion is not evidence.
  • Specific works/The Hurlbut affidavits

190

Claim
  • It is claimed that there are "no contemporary pro-Mormon statements from reliable and informed sources who knew the Smith family and Joseph intimately."

Response
 The claim is false: No positive witnesses about the Smith family?
  • It is convenient that the author inserts the "reliable and informed" qualifiers—this allows him to simply insist that any evidence in the Smiths' favor simply isn't reliable or informed.
  • Joseph's mothers and four siblings were members of the Presbyterian church. They were eventually suspended for not attending for eighteen months. If the family had been as reprobate as the Hurlbut affidavits claimed, it is unlikely their neighbors would have tolerated them in the church for as long as they did. See: Lucy Mack Smith and Presbyterianism

190

Claim
  • John C. Bennett, one of Josephs "former assistants" is claimed to have "boldly exposed the practice of polygamy in Nauvoo."

Response
  •  History unclear or in error: Bennett, a serial adulterer, was repeatedly chastened by Church leadership and finally excommunicated. He retaliated by accusing Joseph Smith of similar crimes.
  • John C. Bennett

191

Claim
  •  Author's quote:"Each succeeding president of the Mormon Church claims...an infallible prophetic succession."

Response

191-192

Claim
  • Brigham Young and the Mountain Meadows massacre.

Response

193

Claim
  •  Author's quote:[T]he god of Mormonism elevates "white" races as supreme and has demeaned African-Americans and Native Americans as "unrighteous."

Author's source(s)
  • No citation provided.
Response

193

Claim
  • The Book of Mormon describes the "Native-American" curse as a "skin of blackness."

Author's source(s)
Response

194

Claim
  • Editions of the Book of Mormon printed after 1981 changed the word "white" to "pure" in order to "delete" "racist overtones."

Author's source(s)
Response

194

Claim
  • Brigham Young made degrading comments about race in the Journal of Discourses.

Author's source(s)
Response

194

Claim
  • The Urim and Thummim were "supernatural spectacles."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  Prejudicial or loaded language
  • The Urim and Thummim were never described in the Bible, nor in Church history as being "supernatural."
  • Joseph_Smith/Seer_stones

194

Claim
  • The first edition of the Book of Mormon listed Joseph Smith as "author and proprietor."

Response

195

Claim
  •  Author's quote:The conflicting methods Smith used for translating the Book of Mormon leaves little doubt that the story changed often through its progressive history.

Author's source(s)
  • David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, 12.
  • Deseret News Church Section, September 20, 1969, 32.
  • Emma Smith, The Saint's Herald, 310.
Response
  • The author wishes to contrast the story of the translation using the Urim and Thummim with the use of a seer stone placed in a hat. In reality, both methods are believed to have been employed and the timeline documenting their use is consistent.
  • Book of Mormon/Translation/Method

197

Claim
  • Charles Anthon claimed that he never told Martin Harris that the translation of the characters from the gold plates was correct.

Author's source(s)
  • Letter from Charles Anthon to E.D. Howe, Feb. 17, 1834.
Response
  • Anthon did not like being associated with the Book of Mormon. If he did not reassure Martin, as he later claimed to Howe, why did Martin return reassured and ready to mortgage his farm to publish Joseph's translation?
  • Martin Harris and Charles Anthon

199

Claim
  • Nobody has found "the slightest trace" of a language known as "reformed Egyptian."

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response

200

Claim
  • The book claims that archaeological evidence refutes the Book of Mormon.

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response

200

Claim
  • The Smithsonian Institution has refuted Book of Mormon archaeological claims.

Author's source(s)
  • Smithsonian statement.
Response

201

Claim
  • The author states that "elephants never existed on this continent."

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response
  • Actually, Mastodons and Mammoths did exist on the American continent. The question is whether or not they existed into the Jaredite timeframe before they were hunted to extinction in the Americas. Note that the only mention of elephants in the Book of Mormon relates to the earlier Jaredite civilization.
  • Book of Mormon/Anachronisms/Animals

201

Claim
  • The book claims that the metals described in the Book of Mormon "have never been found in any of the areas of contemporary civilizations of the New World."

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response

201

Claim
  • BYU professor Thomas Stuart Ferguson called Book of Mormon geography "fictional."

Author's source(s)
  • Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Ferguson's Manuscript Unveiled, 1988.
Response
  • Ferguson was not a professional archaeologist or scholar of Book of Mormon geography.
  • He was an amateur who had unrealistic ideas about what could be expected from archaeology.
  • Thomas Stuart Ferguson

202

Claim
  • "Mormon theology" claims that Native Americans are "descendants of the Lamanites" and that they are "of the Semitic race."

Author's source(s)
  • W.C. Boyd, The Contributions of Genetics to Anthropology.
  • Bentley Glass.
Response

202

Claim
  •  Author's quote:Now, if the Lamanites, as the Book of Mormon claims, were the descendants of Nephi, who was a Jew of the Mediterranean Caucasoid type...

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response
  •  The claim is false: The Book of Mormon does not claim that the Lamanites were the descendants of Nephi." Also not considered are the Mulekites, the Jaredites, and the likely presence of people on the continent before Lehi's arrival.
  • Book of Mormon/Lamanites/Relationship to Amerindians

202-203

Claim
  • The Book of Mormon was "corrected" without "consulting the missing golden plates."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  Absurd claim: Both the translation and corrections were the result of a revelatory process—Joseph did not need the plates physically present to translate or to correct the text. He could not read the plates, save with God's aid. Why would God need the plates to be physically present?
  • Book of Mormon/Textual changes

203

Claim
  • The name "Benjamin" was changed to "Mosiah" in Mosiah :21.

Author's source(s)
Response

203

Claim
  • The Book of Mormon plagiarizes the King James Bible.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

204

Claim
  • Martin Harris is claimed to said that he saw the plates with his "spiritual eyes" rather than his "naked eyes."

Author's source(s)
  • Recollections of John H. Gilbert, 1892, Typescript, BYU, 5-6.
Response

204

Claim
  •  Author's quote:The Mormons are loath to admit that all three of these witnesses later apostatized from the Mormon faith and were described in the most unflattering terms ("counterfeiters, thieves, [and] liars") by their Mormon contemporaries.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  The claim is false. The fact that the witnesses left the Church is actually taught in Church. The fact that none of them ever denied their testimony that they saw the angel and the plates, despite the fact that they all disagreed with Joseph Smith later in their lives when they could have "exposed the fraud" so to speak, makes their testimony even more powerful. New documents, such as the recently discovered William McLellin notebook, continue to provide proof that the witnesses never denied their testimony of the Book of Mormon.

204

Claim
  • The book claims that Joseph Smith "wrote prophecies and articles against the character of the witnesses," and that this makes their testimony "suspect."

Author's source(s)
  • DC 3:12
  • Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 3:228. BYU Studies link
  • Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 3:232. BYU Studies link
Response

204

Claim
  • Oliver Cowdery is claimed to have denied his testimony in the Times and Seasons.

Author's source(s)
  • Times and Seasons, 2:482.
Response
  • The source is a poem by Eliza Snow, the first part of which reads:
Amazed with wonder! I look round Or prove that Christ was not the Lord
To see most people of our day, Because Peter cursed and swore?
Reject the glorious gospel sound, Or Book of Mormon not his word
Because the simple turn away. Because denied, by Oliver?
Or does it prove there is no time, Or prove, that Joseph Smith is false
Because some watches will not go? Because apostates say tis so?


204

Claim
  • Martin Harris is claimed to have "denied the teaching of Brigham Young" after he was rebaptized.

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response
  • Without a source, it is difficult to assess this claim.

204

Claim
  • David Whitmer is claimed to have said that "it was a vision and not an actual visitation by an angelic person."

Author's source(s)
Response
  •  The claim is false: Whitmer's actual words are:
In June, 1829, the Lord called Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and myself as the three witnesses, to behold the vision of the Angel, as recorded in the fore part of the Book of Mormon, and to bear testimony to the world that the Book of Mormon, and to bear testimony to the world that the Book of Mormon is true. I was not called to bear testimony to the mission of Brother Joseph Smith any farther than his work of translating the Book of Mormon, as you can see by reading the testimony of us three witnesses.

204-205

Claim
  • The Book of Mormon contains passages from the King James Bible.

Response

205

Claim
  • Some of Christ's words in 3 Nephi are a paraphrase of a sermon made by Peter, before Peter had made it. According to the author, 3 Nephi "makes Christ out to be a liar" because Christ "attributes Peter's words to Moses as a direct quotation," while Peter was actually paraphrasing Moses.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!] - source?  (Key source)
Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

205

Claim
  • The Book of Mormon is said to "follow an error" in the King James Bible in Isaiah 4:5 / (2 Nephi 14:5). The phrase "For upon all the glory shall be a defense" should actually be "For over all the gloary  [check spelling] there will be a canopy."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

205

Claim
  • The Jaredites are claimed to have "enjoyed glass windows" in their barges.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  The claim is false
  •  Misrepresentation of source: The Book of Ether specifically says that if the Jaredites were to put windows in their barges, this would result in the barges being "dashed to pieces." There are no windows in the barges, and no mention of glass at all (see Ether 2:23).
  • "Anachronisms"—windows? glass?

205

Claim
  • The Book of Mormon mentions "steel" and a "compass."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

205

Claim
  • Laban uses a steel sword and Nephi had a steel bow.

Author's source(s)
Response
  • "Anachronisms"—steel
  •  Internal contradiction: 205-206: The author admits that biblical usage has "steel" = "bronze," and then criticizes the Book of Mormon for potentially following the same convention.

205-206

Claim
  • The Jaredites had steel swords, but "steel" in the Bible is actually bronze or iron.

Author's source(s)
Response
  • "Anachronisms"—steel
  •  Double standard: The author admits that biblical usage has "steel" = "bronze," and then criticizes the Book of Mormon for potentially following the same convention.

206

Claim
  • Interpreting "steel" as "bronze" undermines the claim that the Book of Mormon was translated correctly.

Author's source(s)
  • William Hamblin, "Handheld Weapons in the Book of Mormon" 1985, FARMS.
Response
  •  Author(s) impose(s) own fundamentalism on the Saints
  •  Double standard: the KJV Bible uses "steel" for "bronze"—does this mean it is utterly unreliable?
  • "Anachronisms"—steel
  •  Internal contradiction: 205-206: The author admits that biblical usage has "steel" = "bronze," and then criticizes the Book of Mormon for potentially following the same convention.

206

Claim
  • The compass was not yet invented. "Mormons" are claimed to defend this by using Acts 28:13, which is correctly rendered as "circle" instead of "compass".

Author's source(s)
Response
  • The author ignores numerous other examples.
  • The question is not whether the word could be otherwise translated—the question is whether in KJV-style English the term "compass" could be used as the Book of Mormon does. And, the answer is clearly, "Yes."
  •  Author(s) impose(s) own fundamentalism on the Saints: the author seems to want to insist on some type of perfect, ideal "translation," which neither Joseph nor the Saints believe in.
  • "Anachronisms"—compass

206

Claim
  • The Bible says that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, but the Book of Mormon says that he would be born "at Jerusalem."

Author's source(s)
Response

206

Claim
  • The Bible is claimed to contradict the Book of Mormon teaching that children cannot sin under eight years of age.
  • The Bible is claimed to place sin at the point of conception.
  •  Author's quote:Anyone who thinks that children under age eight cannot sin has not visited the classrooms of today's schools.

Author's source(s)
Response

207

Claim
  • The Book of Mormon and D&C are claimed to contradict one another. According to the author, the Book of Mormon states that ""remission of sins is the accomplishment of baptism,"" while the D&C states ""the direct opposite,"" by claiming that remission of sins occurs before baptism.
  • The author claims that "Mormon theologians conspicuously omit any serious discussion of the contradiction."

Author's source(s)
Response
  • Remission of sins before or after baptism?
  • "Mormon theologians" understand that there is no contradiction; the critics are reading these texts through their own theology, not through an LDS view of the matter.
  • The work repeats itself: p. 227.

207

Claim
  • The author claims that the Book of Mormon condemns polygamy, and that this contradicts the D&C.

Author's source(s)
Response

207

Claim
  • The Book of Moses and Book of Abraham are claimed to be in conflict with one another. The Book of Moses talks of one God creating the earth, while the Book of Abraham talks of more than one god creating the earth.

Author's source(s)
Response

207

Claim
  • Joseph Smith's "Civil War Prophecy" is claimed to have been "drawn chiefly from material already published at the time."

Author's source(s)
  • Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 1:301. BYU Studies link
  • Boston Daily Advertiser & Patriot, December 10, 1832.
  • D&C 87
Response

208

Claim
  • Joseph "prophesied that he would possess the house he built at Nauvoo 'for ever and ever,'" yet the Nauvoo House was never completed.

Author's source(s)
  • DC 124:22-23
  • DC 124:59
  • Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 1:160. BYU Studies link
Response

208

Claim
  • It is claimed regarding Joseph's prophecy concerning the restoration of Israel that he expected it to occur within his lifetime, when in reality the prophecy in Ezekiel 37 "began to be fulfilled in 1948, more than a hundred years after Smith's death."

Author's source(s)
  • Ezekiel 37:
  • No source provided for Joseph Smith's prophecy of the restoration of Israel.
Response
  • The statement from Joseph occurred around 1832 (see History of The Church, 4:375. BYU Studies link where Hyde dates this to ""about nine years"" before 1841).
  • The author's grasp of Zionism and Israeli history is poor. European Jews began immigrating in large numbers to Palestine in 1882, and immigration was already increasing from the 1840s-1880s. The ""gathering of the Jews"" began well before the establishment of the state of Israel, as the author appears to believe (see [here]).
  • The author does not believe that a dedication by Hyde has any effect, but he cannot prove that it did not, just as those with faith cannot prove that it did.
  • This claim is also made in One Nation Under Gods: p. 463, 617n18

208

Claim
  • The author claims that "numerous students of Mormonism" such as E.D. Howe, Pomeroy Tucker and William A. Linn believe that the Book of Mormon was based upon the writings of Solomon Spalding. Spalding is claimed to have "written a number of 'romances' with biblical backgrounds similar to those of the Book of Mormon."

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response
  • Howe (1834), Tucker (1867), and Linn (1902) are not ""students of Mormonism""—they were critics of the Church. It is telling that the author cites no one since 1902.
  • Ever since critic Fawn Brodie wrote, the Spalding theory has been considered a dead end. Recent critics have tried to resuscitate it, without success.
  • Book of Mormon/Authorship theories/Spalding manuscript
  • The Hurlbut affidavits
  • Matthew Roper, "The Mythical "Manuscript Found" (Review of: Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon? The Spalding Enigma)," FARMS Review 17/2 (2005): 7–140. off-site PDF link

209

Claim
  • It is claimed that the "theological portions" of the Book of Mormon were added to Spalding's writings by Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery and Sidney Rigdon.

Author's source(s)
  • Testimony of John Spaulding, Martha Spaulding printed in Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH, 1834), 278. (Affidavits examined)
Response

210

Claim
  •  Author's quote:It is fairly well established historically, then, that the Mormons have attempted to use a manuscript that is admittedly not the one from which Smith later copied and amplified the text of what is now known as the Book of Mormon…

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

210, n15-16

Claim
  • It is claimed that the Spalding Manuscript "Manuscript Story" contains at least 75 similarities to the Book of Mormon.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

211

Claim
  • The author claims that Deuteronomy 13:1-10 "perfectly" describes Joseph Smith.

Author's source(s)
Response

211

Claim
  • The Bible prohibits adding to the Word of God, and "[i]t does no good for the Mormon to argue that Revelation 22:18-20 only pertains to the book of Revelation," since in 1981 the Joseph Smith Translation modified it.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
On changes in general: On "changes" to Revelation:
  • Humans may not add to or alter the word of God. God, however, may do what he wishes. Can God not command a prophet to do so?
  • If Joseph's claims are true, then he may be restoring changes made by someone else to the text.
  • The author mistakenly assumes that the Joseph Smith Translation must be a textual restoration.
  • Bible/Joseph Smith Translation/As a restoration of the original Bible text

212

Claim
  • Joseph is claimed to have "declared theological war on Christianity" by branding "all Christian sects as 'all wrong'."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  Absurd claim: Christian sects were declaring each other to be in error for centuries before Joseph's arrival. It was this conflict that troubled him and led to his prayer in the grove.
  •  History unclear or in error: Joseph did not say the churches were "all wrong," i.e., entirely mistaken on all points. He did report the message from God that they all lacked something, or taught some things that were not true. But, Joseph saw much of value in other Christians:
Have the Presbyterians any truth? Yes. Have the Baptists, Methodists, etc., any truth? Yes. They all have a little truth mixed with error, We should gather all the good and true principles in the world and treasure them up, or we shall not come out true "Mormons".[2]

212

Claim
  • The book claims that the LDS brought persecution upon themselves and that they were the "initial antagonists."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  Absurd claim: Christians have been disagreeing theologically about practically every issue for nearly two thousand years. Joseph did not suddenly start this practice.
  • Since when is preaching different doctrines license for violence, rape, dispossession, and murder? Is the author trying to excuse these crimes because the Mormons said things their neighbors didn't like?
  • Even if the Saints did "start the fight," it is extraordinary that a Christian minister like the author resorts to the claim that "they started it." Jesus taught "bless them that curse you." The author has decided to continue a fight he is convinced that the Mormons started, and excuse those who persecuted the Saints for their beliefs.

213, n20

Claim
  • It is claimed that Blacks were denied the priesthood because they were "under a curse for their lack of valiance in their premortal existence."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

214

Claim
  • According to Hebrews 7, Jesus Christ changed the priesthood and eliminated the need for the Aaronic Priesthood.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

215, n21

Claim
  • Jesus' priesthood is said to be "untransferable." The LDS claim that Melchizedek conferred his priesthood on Abraham "finds no support in scripture."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  • The LDS do not need to rely only on biblical scripture for their knowledge of such things. There is nothing in the Bible that precludes Abraham receiving the priesthood from Abraham.
  •  Misrepresentation of source: the author's claim about a non-transferable priesthood is based on a translation error that has been long since corrected. Theological necessity, however, keeps the idea popular in some circles.
  • Priesthood/Non-transferable

216

Claim
  • The priesthood is the "priesthood of all believers."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

216-217

Claim
  • LDS look forward to "communication with the dead."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  Prejudicial or loaded language
  •  Absurd claim: Latter-day Saints look forward to the resurrection promised to all, and for a continuation of their loving relationships with those who have passed away.
  • The "Mormon author" Joseph Heinerman also appears in the anti-Mormon film The God Makers.  [ATTENTION!] - is this the source?

217

Claim
  • The author claims that Latter-day Saints show a "denial of the true deity of Jesus Christ."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

218

Claim
  •  Author's quote:[A]ll church theologians from the earliest days of church history have affirmed that Christianity is monotheistic in the strictest sense of the term.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  Absurd claim: The author should try to persuade a Jew or Muslim that Christianity (with its trinitarian God) is monotheistic in "the strictest sense of the term."
  • Like other Christians, Latter-day Saints believe that God is one, and that more than one divine person may be properly spoken of as "God" (the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost).
  • Christians have used various methods to reconcile these two ideas. Latter-day Saints reject Nicene trinitarianism, and have adopted a solution more in line with modern Christian ideas of "social trinitarianism."
  • Nature of God/Trinity/Nicene creed
  • Do the LDS reject monotheism?

219

Claim
  • "God is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth"

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  Misrepresentation of source
  • The Latter-day Saints agree with this scripture, but (along with many Christian commentators) reject the idea that this scripture is describing God's nature as "only" a spirit.
  • Nature of God/God is a Spirit

219-220

Claim
  • LDS "misuse" John 10:34, which claims "Ye are gods" to "falsely" imply that Jesus "endorsed godhood for man." The author claims that this does not agree with the context of John 10:24-36.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  • The author needs argument, not just assertion.
  • Nature of God/Deification of man
  • An extended discussion of this issue can be found in:
    • Michael S. Heiser, "You've Seen One Elohim, You've Seen Them All? A Critique of Mormonism's Use of Psalm 82," FARMS Review 19/1 (2007): 221–266. off-site PDF link wiki
    • David Bokovoy, "Ye Really Are Gods": A Response to Michael Heiser concerning the LDS Use of Psalm 82 and the Gospel of John; Review of "You've Seen One Elohim, You've Seen Them All? A Critique of Mormonism's Use of Psalm 82," by Michael S. Heiser," FARMS Review 19/1 (2007): 267–313. off-site PDF link wiki
    • Michael S. Heiser, "Israel's Divine Counsel, Mormonism, and Evangelicalism: Clarifying the Issues and Directions for Future Study," FARMS Review 19/1 (2007): 315–323. off-site PDF link wiki

220-221

Claim
  • Adam-God doctrine taught by Brigham Young

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

221-222

Claim
  • King Follett discourse.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  [ATTENTION!] - what is the criticism?  (Key source)

222

Claim
  • The book claims that Latter-day Saints "attempt to veil their evil doctrine in semi-orthodox terminology."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  Prejudicial or loaded language
  •  Absurd claim: the author is charging members of the Church with willfully trying to hide their beliefs and intent.
  • The author should stop trying to declare what members believe, and let Latter-day Saints explain their own beliefs.

222

Claim
  • "Mormon doctrine" is that "God the Father is a mere man…"

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  The claim is false LDS do not consider the Father "a mere man," or a "mere" anything.
  •  Prejudicial or loaded language

223

Claim
  • The author equates the word "spirit" with "immaterial nature."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

223

Claim
  •  Author's quote:Mormons indeed have sworn allegiance to a polytheistic pantheon of gods…

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  Absurd claim
  •  Prejudicial or loaded language
  •  The claim is false: Latter-day Saints have "allegiance" only to God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
  • Nature of God/Polytheism

224

Claim
  • The "Mormon teaching" that God was seen "face to face" in the Old Testament has been "refuted" through language and comparative textual analysis. God said that that no man could see His face and live (Exodus 33:20

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

225

Claim
  • Biblical scriptures describing God's body parts are claimed to be metaphorical. Why then does God not have feathers or wings, as described in the Bible?

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  • Jesus is God, and he clearly had a body like humans do, and was resurrected with that body. Why, then, do the critics object to the Latter-day Saints saying that God has a body, when the entire message of Christianity is that God descended to earth and was incarnated and then resurrected?
  • No man has seen God?
  • Nature of God/Corporeality of God

227

Claim
  • The author claims that it is a contradiction that D&C 20:37 states that baptism follows repentance while 3 Nephi 12:22 and Moroni 8:11 states that repentance follows baptism.

Author's source(s)
Response

227

Claim
  • The Holy Ghost is referred to as "it."

Author's source(s)
  • Charles Penrose, Mormon Doctrine (1888).  [ATTENTION!] - page number?  (Key source)
Response

228

Claim
  • The book claims that for LDS, God is not "incomprehensible."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  • Mortal minds cannot comprehend everything about God.
  • However, Latter-day Saints do not regard God's nature or character as incomprehensible—He is, quite simply, Our Father: a personal being who loves us and wishes us to return to him.
  • It is strange that understanding God's intent and relationship to humanity is regarded as a negative thing by the author.

229

Claim
  • Brigham Young said that Jesus was not begotten by the Holy Ghost.

Author's source(s)
Response
  • LDS doctrine teaches that Christ was the Son of the Father. Little is known, save that the virgin Mary was "carried away in the Spirit for the space of a time" prior to Jesus' birth and conception (1 Nephi 11:19).
  • Jesus Christ/Conception

229

Claim
  • "Mormon theology" is claimed to teach that "polytheism is the divine order" and that these gods are "polygamous."

Author's source(s)
  • Parley P. Pratt, Key to the Science of Theology, 23.
Response
 FAIR WIKI EDITORS: Check sources

229-230

Claim
  • LDS are claimed to teach that Jesus was conceived "by actual sexual relations" with Mary.

Author's source(s)
Response

231

Claim
  • Brigham Young is claimed to have denied the virgin birth. The author refers to Adam-God as "Brigham Young's doctrine of the virgin Birth."

Author's source(s)
Response
  •  The claim is false
  •  Misrepresentation of source: In this very passage, Brigham: "When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost." Brigham even mentions "the Virgin Mary"—how does this deny the virgin birth?

232

Claim
  • It is claimed that "no General Authority has ever contradicted" Brigham Young's teachings on Adam-God.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  •  Absurd claim: Brigham was unable to convince all of the apostles of his day that Adam-God was proper doctrine.
  •  The claim is false:
  • Charles W. Penrose said in 1902:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has never formulated or adopted any theory concerning the subject treated upon by President Young as to Adam.[3]
  • In October 1976 general conference, President Spencer W. Kimball declared the Church's official position on Adam-God:
We warn you against the dissemination of doctrines which are not according to the Scriptures and which are alleged to have been taught by some of the General Authorities of past generations. Such, for instance, is the Adam-God theory. We denounce that theory and hope that everyone will be cautioned against this and other kinds of false doctrine.[4]

233

Claim
  • Brigham said that "keeping the commandments of God will cleanse away the stain of sin." According to the author, "Apparently Brigham was ignorant of the biblical pronouncement that 'without the shedding of blood there is no remission [of sin]"

Author's source(s)
Response
  •  Absurd claim: The author is implying that Brigham Young did not understand the need for Christ's atonement.
  • Brigham is merely asserting that if one does not strive to keep the commandments after repenting of sin, one has not truly repented, and treats the atonement of Christ lightly. In this case, the "commandment" to be kept is the command to be baptized, the whole point of which is to access the atonement:
Has water [of baptism], in itself, any virtue to wash away sin? Certainly not; but the Lord says, "If the sinner will repent of his sins, and go down into the waters of baptism, and there be buried in the likeness of being put into the earth and buried, and again be delivered from the water, in the likeness of being born—if in the sincerity of his heart he will do this, his sins shall be washed away. Will the water of itself wash them away? No; but keeping the commandments of God will cleanse away the stain of sin.

234

Claim
  • LDS believe that Adam and Eve "were foreordained to sin" and that the Fall of Adam was necessary.

Author's source(s)
Response
  • The LDS believe that God foresaw the likelihood of sin, but the choice remained a free agent act of Adam and Eve's.
  • It is ironic that the critics (who often believe in some from of Calvinist predestination) complain about Adam and Eve being "foreordained to sin." In much of creedal Christianity, God creates humanity out of nothing (ex nihilo) and thus creates in them the nature to sin.
  • The only alternative to seeing the Fall of Adam as necessary to God's plan is to see the Fall as a disaster from which God had to recover and go to "plan B."

235

Claim
  • The author states that Joseph Smith said that the Garden of Eden was located in Missouri rather than Mesopotamia.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

235

Claim
  • The Book of Moses is claimed to state that Cain was the "progenitor of the Negro race" and that his "black skin" was the result of a curse by God.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response
  • Under the influence of cultural ideas adopted from Protestantism, some Latter-day Saints read the Book of Moses in this way.
  •  Misrepresentation of source: There is, however, nothing in the Book of Moses that describes Cain as the "progenitor of the Negro race," nor is there anything which calls his curse "black skin." Like the Bible, the Book of Moses says only that "the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him" (Moses 5:40).
  •  Double standard: This reading of the Cain story drew on common Protestant ideas of the time. Yet, the author wishes to blame members of the Church more than his own religious tradition.
  • "Curse of Cain"
  • LDS Scripture and the priesthood ban
  • Protestant critics' double standard on race: a case study

235

Claim
  • LDS are claimed to believe that blacks were "less than valiant" in the "war in heaven."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

235

Claim
  • The Indians "have allegedly been cursed by the Mormon deity with dark skins."

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

235

Claim
  •  Author's quote:Mormonism, then, is clearly a religion with a shameful history of white supremacist doctrines and practices.

Author's source(s)
  •  [ATTENTION!]
Response

236

Claim
  • According to Latter-day Saints, Jesus Christ was "the spirit brother of the devil."

Author's source(s)
Response

236

Claim
  • LDS are claimed to believe that Jesus Christ was married to Mary, Martha and "the other Mary" at Cana.

Author's source(s)
Response
  •  History unclear or in error: some 19th-century LDS held this view, but it was not a doctrine of the Church.
  • Was Jesus a polygamist?

236

Claim
  • Brigham Young taught that the shedding of Christ's blood was not sufficient to cleanse all sins.

Author's source(s)
Response

243

Claim
  • The author claims that Latter-day Saints believe in "infallible prophets."

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

Endnotes

  1. [note]  First Presidency letter, 19 Mar. 1970; quoted in the General Handbook of Instructions (1989): 9-1 by Dallin H. Oaks, Conference Report (Apr. 1994), 46. See also Dallin H. Oaks, "Tithing," Ensign (May 1994), 35. off-site
  2. [note]  Joseph Smith, Jr., Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, selected by Joseph Fielding Smith, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1976), 316. ISBN 087579243X. off-site
  3. [note] Charles W. Penrose, "Our Father Adam," Improvement Era (September 1902), 873. reprinted in Charles W. Penrose, "Our Father Adam," Millennial Star 64 no. 50 (11 December 1902), 785–790. (this paragraph from p. 789).
  4. [note] Spencer W. Kimball, "Our Own Liahona," Ensign (November 1976), 77. off-site

Further reading

A FAIR Analysis of Critical Works

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