Mormonism
Ryan Kipper Dr. Solberg English 1233-07 4 April 2003 The Captivating Cult “If a faith will not bear to be investigated; if its preachers and professors are afraid to have it examined, their foundation must be very week.” (Journal of Discourses-Smith, v. 14, pg. 216). Joseph Smith Jr. founded the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS), more commonly known as Mormons, in April of 1830. (Tanner pg. 2) The quote made by Apostle Smith in the Journal of Discourses clearly states that a religion, whose foundation is afraid to be examined, must be weak at its roots. When speaking to members of the Mormon Church one would frequently hear that the beginning of the church started when an angel named Moroni spoke to Smith privately. The base of the Mormon religion is based on a private conversation between Joseph Smith and an angel Moroni. The conversation cannot and is refused to be examined by the LDS. Three elements of the Mormon religion that need to be more closely examined are the history of the church, the beliefs of the church and how it contradicts the Bible, and the way the church conducts itself in modern America. Joseph Smith, Jr., was born on December 23rd in Sharon, Vermont, the fourth child of Lucy Mack and Joseph Smith. The Smiths moved to the Palmyra, New York area (about forty miles east of Rochester). In the spring of 1820 Joseph Smith Jr. at the age of fourteen, claimed that a revival broke out in the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist churches of Palmyra, near New York. (Farkas, Reed pg. 17) Smith did not join in the excitement, but questioned which, if any, church was true. Joseph, after the incident, read James 1:5, which says, “God will give wisdom to those who ask.” Smith claimed that he went to the woods to pray and there received a vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ. When Smith asked them which church to join, he was told, “Join none of them, for they were all wrong,” and that “all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt.” Three years later Smith claimed that an angel named Moroni appeared to him on September 21, 1823. The angel claimed that he was a former inhabitant of America, who shortly after his death, buried some golden plates, which recorded the history of his people and the fullness of the gospel. Moroni said Smith would translate the “Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics” on these golden plates, using special stones called Urim and Thummim (The Book of Mormon is Smith’s translation of the golden plates although he knew no language other than English). (Ankerberg, Weldon pg. 280) The following day, as Smith was working in a field, Moroni appeared to him again and took him to a hill called Cumorah, where he showed smith the golden plates and the Urim and Thummim. Moroni told Smith he was not allowed to move the plates, because he was a too young, and that he was to return to Cumorah annually for four years. At the age of 21, on September 22, 1827, Moroni gave smith permission to dig up the golden plates, along with the Urim and Thummim, and begin to translate them. (Van Gorden pg. 9) Smith wanted to authenticate the book of Mormon once he was through translating the Urim and Thummim. Martin Harris, Smith’s neighbor, sold his farm to cover the costs of printing the book of Mormon. Smith copied some of the reformed Egyptian characters on a piece of paper for Mr. Harris, who then took the paper to Dr. Charles Anthon, the esteemed linguist and professor at Columbia College, in New York. According to Joseph Smith, Dr. Anthon confirmed the authenticity of the characters and translation until Mr. Harris told him that they came from an angel, whereupon Anthon destroyed the certification of authenticity. Anthon later wrote a testimony that contradicts Smith's account, saying that Harris did present him with the transcription, but Anthon declared the characters to be nonsense and anything but Egyptian Hieroglyphics. In June of 1829, three people claimed to have seen the angel Moroni, with the gold plates, while being in the company of Joseph Smith. Shortly after that, eight others claimed to have seen the golden plates along with the angel Moroni, who were also in the company of Joseph Smith. (Van Gorden pg.