Joseph Smith - True or False Prophet?

Joseph Smith essentially created another god - a god that was once a man. His god is much more similar to the gods of Greek mythology than to the Hebrew God he was trying to masquerade as. It is a counterfeit god. In fact, Smith talked about more than just one god, and the fact that humans are thought to have the opportunity to become gods themselves, in LDS theology, is a clear departure from the monotheistic Judeo-Christian understanding of the Godhead.

In the King Follet sermon, Joseph Smith claimed

The first commandment in the Bible sets the stage by identifying who is who and what the relationships between the parties entering into the covenant of the moral low are. By changing the identity of God, Joseph Smith not only broke the first commandment, but essentially altered the whole covenant relationship between his god and those following him.

One may wonder how Joseph Smith may have broken this commandment. After all, Mormons are not particularly known to worship idols... Or are they?

Here is what Brigham Young had to say about what I call the ultimate LDS idol:

Joseph Smith did not worship man-made idols; instead, he made himself into an idol for his followers to worship. Just listen to what he had to say about himself:

Compare this to what Jesus, the God incarnate, had to say about himself: "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Mat. 11:29.

To make idols for others to worship instead of God is a clear transgression of the second commandments. To substitute yourself as the object of worship is more than breaking a commandment: it removes God from the picture.

As a side note, quite a few Latter-day Saints have deserted Joseph Smith since he uttered the boastful words above...

The third commandment warns against misusing the name of God. One of the more serious ways this commandment can be broken is by attributing to God ideas or revelations that did not originate in him. To illustrate this better, imagine somebody would publish on the Internet a newsletter under your name, make all kinds of false and inflammatory remarks that are in conflict with your values and not representative of your character. That would be a situation where your name was used in a wrong way and you would have every right to be unhappy about it.

Joseph Smith claimed to have received revelations from God that were later proven to be his own inventions. In fact, by falsely claiming he was inspired by God, we would not exaggerate a bit if we viewed the Book of Mormon and the other LDS doctrinal writings produced by Joseph Smith as a direct transgression of the third commandment. And it wasn't just that he claimed to be a prophet when he had not been called by God to be one; even more serious is the misrepresentation of God's character created by his non-Biblical ideas such as demoting God to the status of an exalted man, blurring the basis on which salvation is given, etc.

One of the things I liked about my Mormon friends was the fact that they really respected their day of worship. In fact, when we lived in Provo, most stores were closed on Sundays, including the Orem University Mall. Every Sunday morning, you could see a stream of families, all dressed up in formal clothes, walking or driving up to their local ward.

It is ironic, though, that they would call Sunday "the Sabbath". For one thing, in Old Testament Hebrew, Shabbath always refers to the seventh day of the week, which is Saturday. Second, with the exception of Seventh-day Adventists and Seventh-day Baptists who observe the Sabbath on Saturday, most Christian denominations find themselves in a dilemma when it comes to the day of worship: on one hand, they want to uphold the ten commandments (or most of them do), but on the other hand, they don't find any convincing Biblical foundation for changing the day from Sunday to Saturday (except, perhaps for the Catholics who claim their church was given the authority to change the day of worship). This change occurred during the first few centuries after Christ, and if anything, it was part of the Great Apostasy the LDS talk about. There is strong historical evidence that Christians in various parts of Europe were still worshiping on Saturday well into the 5th century. So if Joseph Smith was, indeed, a prophet of the restoration, this would have been his great chance to restore the day of worship to it's proper place on the weekly calendar.

Unfortunately, he missed this chance. The only argument the LDS church gives , to this day, for having the Sabbath on Sunday, is the same shaky argument some Christian denominations use: Acts 20:7. There is absolutely no evidence the disciples of Christ started worshipping on Sunday after Jesus' resurrection.

Even to the average non-Christian, the numerous instances in which Joseph Smith broke his marital vows to his wife, Emma, are staggering. Books have been written and more recently entire websites have been dedicated to his forgotten wives. Wikipedia has an informative page on this topic, on which one can easily note quite a few of these women were married to other men at the time they became the prophet's wives. That, in Biblical terms (see Leviticus 20:10), is plain adultery.

There is also good evidence that Joseph Smith tried to conceal his amorous

Many incidents in Joseph Smith's life would qualify for an entry under this section, but the most relevant, I think is his plagiarism of some of the ideas presented by Ethan Smith in his book "View on the Hebrews". Wikipedia has an interesting article on this book and it's parallels with the Book of Mormon. For the interested reader, the View on Hebrews is available (at least in part) on Google Books (for some reason, you'll have to click on the magnifier glass before the scan books loads into the frame below):

Joseph Smith claimed he translated the Book of Mormon from the ancient plates. An objective study of the text of his "translation" shows that he, in fact, plagiarized large sections of the King James Bible and borrowed and modified ideas from View on the Hebrews, as well as other sources (including his rich imagination). By presenting this material as "another testament of Jesus Christ", he not only stole material produced by other humans - he stole and distorted God's message to humans.