There is an endless array of claims against Joseph Smith and this Church, so much so, it would be hard to count them, but from time to time, I feel there is a need to address some of these claims, for faith reasons. What would be my reason to address only a few? The reason is to express spiritual common sense and first hand knowledge and experience toward those Anti-Mormon claims, showing the foolishness of them.
Over the many years, from the moment of Joseph Smith’s First Vision, his creditability was attacked. It began the moment Joseph Smith related the First Vision to a Methodist preacher who flatly denied him and essentially called Joseph a promoter of the devil. The vigor and fervor of that opposition spread and grew.
This says that the First Vision preceded any claims about Joseph Smith and because of the First Vision, evil intentions rose in others which Satan grabbed hold of and worked it to death (pun intended). From that point on, problems existed about so called “testimonies” made by people against Joseph Smith.
The onset of the First Vision set off a negative reaction in people. This reaction has nothing to do with whether or not Joseph was honest and true in his account. It had everything to do with the weakness of the flesh and of the mortal mind of those who did testify against Joseph, which is of course, a clear sign of no faith. The faith I speak of here is faith in God’s principles of behaviour, the good things of the spirit, not about faith in this Church.
Have you not noticed that so many people call themselves Christian, yet are liars, deceivers, greedy, selfish and the sort? Therefore the name Christian means nothing unless a person express right faith of a Christian.
When average everyday people who are not religious take offence to the existence of the First Vision, we actually find credibility to Joseph’s claim that he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appear to him in the forest grove. Credible because everyday people who are not religious will usually react negatively toward anything religious, especially the magnitude of the First Vision. This is where the Anti-Mormons focus their efforts when claiming they have testimonies from neighbours of Joseph Smith attesting to a lack of moral and ethical character. A time when visions and revelation were thought as being from the devil.
The Anti-Mormons cannot discount Joseph with revelation from God, because God does not give revelation to contentious people who promote confusion. God is not the author of confusion, as the Bible says and contentious people do breed confusion as one of their main methods. So what do the Anti-Mormons have to fight with? What is left are things of the world. This means worldly ideas and claims, worldly beliefs, people, etc. That is all they have left since they cannot, in any manner, fight faith with “no faith”. They make all the effort to appeal to the worldly in all of us, which is another weakness as God said.
Yet even on a worldly level, their credibility stands in question. The so called “testimonies” of those in Joseph’s neighbourhood have a serious credibility issue. Serious questions as to what faith they belong to, do they believe in God and if they do not, what motivates their witness, etc. Then we must address the Anti-Mormon’s, were such testimonies used by them actual testimonies or claims made by others from heresy and rumours? Witness accounts are always a concern as to validity. Human desire and motive to give a false testimony is a very common event. Police always have a problem with witness testimony since it is a common truth that witnesses lie to gain advantage of some sort or claim something they did not see.
On a worldly level, witness testimony is fabricated by people for many selfish reasons. Hatred toward another group or person, personal biases, ill feelings and desires of “getting him/her back”, etc. To get someone in trouble, to gain personal advantage or status is so common, it is an every day occurrence in the lives of people. Do we not find in the workplaces of the world, how people would lie and cheat to gain a promotion or financial advantage?
When dealing with religion of God, we must focus on the existence of faith in a person and their beliefs in God in order to help us determine if a testimony is true. I have personally experienced people to lie in their witness “testimonies” against others. Many other Christians, that I have personally experienced, gave spiritual testimonies that were not true even though they believed it as true. For example, I personally witnessed a lady give a testimony that an angel told her to accept or reject someone. When understanding how God’s Angels work, that they never make our decisions for us, such a claim was false, even though the lady believed it to be true. That person was either misled by the devil or it was self-induced and her testimony was unreliable. What if we take that same testimony and exclude the part of how God’s Angels communicate to us and tell everyone that we have a credible witness against someone? Would this be a true testimony or simply an evil opportunity to malign someone? Do you see what I mean?
When dealing with worldly testimonies, proper filtering is needed to weed out the false claims and lies. When dealing with spiritual testimonies, proper understanding of spiritual principles, laws and what makes a spiritual testimony true is needed to discern if it is true.
During the times of Joseph Smith, “Mormonism” was new and unknown to the world. People were not used to the idea of a Church and prophet that had a vision of God and Jesus Christ. This made many people nervous out of fear. Hence, many motives would clearly exist for someone to lie. Motives to avoid being branded a Mormon, fear of loosing face in their perspective churches, risk great persecution, loss of life or property, fear of being tarred and feathered? Faith says that many would lie and even support lies in order to avoid persecution or loss of the world. The Bible is full of such stories.
Is it not true that many people would deny Jesus Christ when faced with fear of the world? So who are the Anti-Mormon’s to think that they can use the weak in the world as their creditable witnesses?
The power of evil is rampant in the hearts and mind of the worldly and selfish. Those without faith and fortitude for truth, honesty, integrity and respect. We find that true faith is a valuable jewel that is usually difficult to find in people in the world, in general. However hard, this still should be the main element which any Mormon should use as a template or guiding light to determine the validity of any claim, for or against, Joseph Smith. It is by faith that we get God’s help and it is by faith that any person can truly obtain the truth about Joseph Smith and this Church.
Faith is one thing we do not find as a prominent trait in the minds and hearts of Anti-Mormon sediments. Faith has a distinctive glow about it, a unique sense or air that distinguishes the person as moral and ethical in mind, heart and action. Faith presents itself as patience, long-suffering, and all good things of the Spirit. we find that faith does not waste time disputing religion or groups, it spends it’s time preaching God.
Anti-Mormon sediment does not present itself as faithful to God and when there is no real and true faith in someone’s heart, then there is corruption and evil, because all natural men abide in evil. This is straight from the Bible. As a result with the angry and vicious vigor of Anti-Mormon claims, we find no faith in them at all. That is where Satan can reside, in the empty hole where faith was suppose to be.
Those who choose to argue and debate, rather than express and live faith, are likely the ones that have no faith, because they will debate to no end the letter of the word, failing or refusing to determine faithful things, but to determine faithful things requires spiritual discernment and the natural man of the world has no such ability.
Worldly claims, worldly ways, worldly gain is what the Anti-Mormons rely on. By this they may win the minds of some people because the average person of the world cannot spiritual discern faith or understand faith. This is why God portrayed the world as a large house in the clouds and that is where the Anti-Mormons reside. It is by faith that the wicked be shifted from the righteous in these last days.
So many have failed to see and understanding that God does not call a person for his apologist abilities or his education, he calls a person based on their faith. For example, if the Lord’s Church was not formed by Joseph Smith by way of the First Vision in 1820 and God waited to the current day, he would still choose someone who was not “important” in the world. Just as Moses was obscure in his beginnings, so was Joseph Smith in his beginnings and it is before the First Vision, that claims of evidence and testimony against Joseph Smith do not exist.
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