When I was 18 years of age, late in the calendar year 1970, I was deceptively introduced by a persuasive substantial faculty German trainer to the devilishly insipid specter of a lengthy-useless 19th Century gentleman, Joseph Smith, Jr., that, these days, carries on to loom more than the minds of tens of millions of God’s young children as a cult of persona in the guise of what they think to be a modern day working day prophet proclaimed to be a man in the likeness of Moses. That’s what I was instructed, that Joseph Smith was a prophet “like unto Moses,” having acknowledged nothing at all about him or the organization that he produced in April of 1830, the Mormon Church, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-working day Saints. A issue was questioned of me soon following I was frequented by two entire-time Mormon missionaries from Utah in Tyler, Texas. “Would not it be fantastic to have a living prophet to direct and guide humanity in this most perplexing planet?” The senior of the two missionaries, named Burgess, had requested me this, and I experienced replied that, “indeed, it would be fantastic certainly if God had known as a prophet to guidebook his individuals right here on the earth.” So that response to their query started my processive indoctrination into the Mormon Church, as an impressionable younger man entirely ignorant of the scriptures exposed in the Holy Bible about prophets, which the Mormons claimed to settle for and think as the word of God.
A single factor how old was joseph when he died led to an additional in the course of the early drop of 1970, as the two aforementioned Mormon missionaries satisfied with me as soon as a 7 days, for about six weeks, and instructed me quite a number of issues about Joseph Smith and his “Ebook of Mormon,” that I, for some silly purpose, totally acknowledged at that time with out questioning their validity in accordance with the Holy Bible. Although I had read through the Bible during my youth, and had memorized very a number of verses in it, I hadn’t actually recognized what I would read through that is, the true gospel, or good information, of Jesus as exposed by the Savior and his Apostles in the New Testomony, and prophesied by holy prophets in the Previous Testomony. I was totally ignorant about the Old Testomony record, which created it easy for these unscrupulously persuasive missionaries to guide me close to by the nose to believe in their nonsense and to do their bidding. In simple fact, the only looking through that I was essential to do in get for me to “acquire” a testimony of Joseph Smith as a prophet, and of the Ebook of Mormon as the word of God, was picked chapters and verses from the E-book of Mormon. There was no required studying from the Bible. In the course of the durations of time in which the two missionaries satisfied with me, they employed a flannel board and plastic figures as a means of embellishing in my head their 6 canned presentations that they known as discussions. At the beginning of each and every of these presentations, a single of the missionaries always requested me no matter whether I experienced prayed about what they experienced advised me about Joseph Smith and Guide of Mormon, and acquired a burning in my bosom as to the truthfulness of individuals things. Not getting known at that time the genuine historical truth about Joseph Smith and his Ebook of Mormon, that Smith was a charismatic charlatan and the book a nineteenth Century conspiratorial solution of Smith’s, and his 3rd cousin, Oliver Cowdery’s vivid imaginations, I was fully taken-in and duped by these missionaries, and was baptized into the Mormon Church in October of 1970. That’s why, permit me to present in this recounting what I would have explained, and how I would have responded, to those Mormon missionaries and the significant other Mormon gentlemen and females who had entered my life, had I known what I uncovered later on, and now know, about the Holy Bible and about the Lord Jesus Christ.
As to first concern that I was requested, about the require for a living prophet in the early-nineteenth Century, I would have simply mentioned that every thing that was, and is, necessary for a total and total expertise of Jesus Christ and his wonderful gospel, is within the confines of the Holy Bible and that if any gentleman claimed to be a prophet, or a instructor, in the present age, he would not say anything at all but what has already been stated in the Outdated and New Testaments of the Bible by holy men of God as they ended up moved by the Holy Spirit. Every single scripture in the Bible was provided by holy gentlemen of God for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, that a person searching for to comply with Jesus might be thoroughly furnished in each way. There was a distinctive reason why those Mormon missionaries hadn’t encouraged me to study the Bible, but only the Guide of Mormon. Had I go through, and understood, the Aged Testomony, I would have understood that the God of the Previous Testomony, the ante-mortal Jesus, experienced established some extremely stringent specifications for a becoming 1 of his accurate holy prophets, and that Joseph Smith hadn’t fulfilled “any” of people exacting conditions. You see, there is yet another extra-biblical ebook that the Mormons settle for as the phrase of God, which is crammed with the evidences that conclusively confirm that Joseph Smith was a bogus prophet. That book is called the “Doctrine and Covenants,” and is hardly mentioned by Mormon missionaries throughout individuals 6 canned presentations, named conversations, which prelude an acceptance or rejection of Mormon doctrine by struggling Christians. In Jeremiah fourteen:fourteen (KJV), the prophet writes, “Then the Lord said unto me, the prophets prophesy lies in my title: I despatched them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a issue of nought, and the deceit of their heart.” This was composed more than five hundred a long time after Moses had already prepared in Deut. 18:eighteen, “I will elevate them up a Prophet from amid their brethren, like unto thee, and will place my words and phrases in his mouth and he shall communicate unto them all that I shall command him.” Furthermore, the Lord proceeds talking in Deut. eighteen:twenty-22 (NIV), “If any prophet presumptuously speaks a term in my title that I did not command him to speak or speaks in the identify of other gods, that prophet should die. Nonetheless, you might say in your heart: How will we know that Jehovah has not spoken the word? When the prophet speaks in the title of Jehovah and the phrase is not fulfilled or does not appear correct, then Jehovah did not communicate that word. The prophet spoke it presumptuously. You ought to not concern him.” What does this indicate? I believe the which means of the phrases is rather darn clear. If a guy claims to be a prophet, like unto Moses, and can make a prediction, or prophecy, about what is to appear to pass, and if what he states, in every detail, does not arrive to move, the guy is a fake prophet, and, if he had been living anciently, should be set to dying. The Old Testomony is stuffed with examples of true prophecy presented by true holy prophets of God. One particular of these illustrations is the prophecy presented by Isaiah, in Isaiah 37:22-35(NIV), “As a result thus says the Lord regarding the king of Assyria: “He shall not occur into this metropolis, nor shoot an arrow there, nor appear just before it with defend, nor develop a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return and he shall not arrive into this metropolis,” says the Lord. “For I will defend this metropolis, to preserve it For My possess sake and for My servant David’s sake.” Isaiah experienced prophesied that the Assyrian Army, underneath the King of Assyria, would not shoot “one” arrow into the metropolis. Not 1 arrow, he mentioned! Well, experienced one particular measly arrow been discharged from the bow of one anxious Assyrian soldier into the metropolis, Isaiah would have sent a untrue prophecy in God’s identify. But the file reveals that not a single arrow was shot into the metropolis, which manufactured the prophecy true and faithful to God. In simple fact, each prophecy delivered by God’s accurate anointed prophets was true and trustworthy to the Lord God, and turned out just like the prophet had they would.
At this juncture, the prophecies of Joseph Smith, Jr. might be examined and comprehended for what they ended up, predictions manufactured by an uninspired guy calling himself a prophet. Keep in mind, if a man, presuming to be a prophet, predicts something to come to move in God’s name, each and every detail of the prediction should appear to pass. For instance, If I claimed to be an anointed prophet of God and said, in the name of God, that on Friday May possibly 12, 2017, at 4:00 in the afternoon in Washington, DC, that it would get started raining, and that it would rain steadily till 9:00 and right away end, following which an earthquake would be felt throughout the world. Nicely, let’s say that on that Friday it began raining at 3:00 in the afternoon and rained steadily right up until 6:00 and instantly stopped, and no earthquake followed. Was my prophecy fulfilled in every single detail? No, it wasn’t! It commenced raining on that Friday, but the time element was not fulfilled, nor was the earthquake fulfilled. Therefore, I shipped a untrue prophecy in the name of God, for which I could have been put to demise if I experienced been residing during the time of Isaiah. That was the penalty paid by bogus prophets. Now let us search at one particular of the a number of prophecies sent by Joseph Smith. Segment 87 of the notorious book, the Doctrine and Covenants, regarded as by Mormons to be their source of doctrine and scripture, is supposedly a prophecy of the American Civil War shipped by Joseph Smith on December twenty five, 1832. Let’s take a look at just what Smith explained would happen in Doctrine and Covenants 87:
“Verily, therefore saith the Lord regarding the wars that will soon come to move, beginning at the rise up of South Carolina, which will at some point terminate in the dying and distress of many souls And the time will arrive that war will be poured out upon all nations, commencing at this location (In the course of the American Civil War, war was not poured out on all nations. From 1861 to 1865, the rest of the world was rather significantly at peace). For behold, the Southern States shall be divided towards the Northern States, and the Southern States will contact on other nations, even the country of Fantastic Britain, as it is referred to as, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend them selves against other nations (The Confederacy did not get in touch with upon any other nation(s) than Fantastic Britain for support) and then war shall be poured out on all nations (Once more, war was not poured out to any on “all” nations throughout the interval of time, 1861-65). And it shall appear to move, right after a lot of times, slaves shall increase up in opposition to their masters, who shall be marshaled and disciplined for war (The slaves that rose up in opposition to their masters had been actually really couple of, and these slaves have been not disciplined for war. In most instances they have been killed). And it shall appear to move also that the remnants who are remaining of the land will marshal themselves, and shall grow to be exceedingly offended, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation (This did not take place at all). And as a result, with the sword and by bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn and with famine, and plague, and earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be manufactured to really feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, till the consumption decreed hath made a full finish of all nations (There were no famines, earthquakes, plagues, or intense thunder and lightning from heaven described any location in the planet from 1861-sixty five) That the cry of the saints, and of the blood of the saints, shall stop to occur up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, from the earth, to be avenged of their enemies. Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the working day of the Lord appear for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen.”