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Criticism of Mormonism/Books/The Changing World of Mormonism/Chapter 4
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Chapter 5 |
Claims made in Chapter 4: Joseph Smith and Money-Digging
67-70
Claim
- Joseph Smith was convicted of "glass looking" in 1826.
Author's source(s) - Fraser's Magazine, February, 1873, pp.229-30
72
Claim
- Regarding Joseph's "glass looking trial," Hugh Nibley is claimed to have said that "...if this court record is authentic it is the most damning evidence in existence against Joseph Smith," and that ""the most devastating blow to Smith ever delivered."
Author's source(s) - Nibley, The Myth Makers, p. 142
75
Claim
- Joseph Smith was "deeply involved in money-digging" during the years that he was preparing to received the gold plates.
Author's source(s) - No source provided.
77
Claim
- Martin Harris reported stories of treasures "sinking into the earth," and other "strange sights."
Author's source(s) - An interview with Martin Harris, published in Tiffany's Monthly, 1859, p.165
78-79
Claim
- Joseph found a seer stone while helping to dig a well.
Author's source(s) - Comprehensive History of the Church 1:129;
79
Claim
- Joseph said that the angel told him to "quit the company of the money-diggers."
Author's source(s) - Tiffany's Monthly, 1859, pp. 163-164, 167, 169
- The source here is not Joseph; it is second hand.
- Joseph Smith/Money digging
80
Claim
- The author proposed that Joseph fastened two of his seer stones together to make his "Urim and Thummim."
Author's source(s) - Author's opinion
- Book of Mormon/Translation/Method
- History unclear or in error: Joseph removed a stone from the Urim and Thummim to use by itself, since the two joined together were two large for him to look through comfortably.
80
Claim
- Joseph's father-in-law Isaac Hale claimed that Jospeh's occupation was "pretending to see by means of a stone placed in his hat."
Author's source(s) - Affidavit of Isaac Hale, as printed in the Susquehanna Register, May 1, 1834
82
Claim
- Bruce R. McConkie said: "The Prophet also had a seer stone which was separate and distinct from the Urim and Thummim, and which (speaking loosely) has been called by some a Urim and Thummim."
- The authors claim that Joseph Fielding Smith "admitted" that the "seer stone" was sometimes called the Urim and Thummim.
Author's source(s) - Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 1966, p. 818
- Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols., (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954–56), 225.
83
Claim
- Mormon apologists have difficulty explaining Joseph's use of seer stones.
Author's source(s) - Authors' opinion.
- The author's claim is false No, apologists have no difficulty explaining this issue.
- Mormon apologists explain Joseph's use of seer stones
83
Claim
- Mormons aren't sure how to deal with Joseph Smith's "peeping" activities.
Author's source(s) - Authors opinion.
84
Claim
- The plates didn't even have to be present while Joseph was translating.
Author's source(s) - Arch S. Reynolds, How Did Joseph Smith Translate?, p. 21.
84
Claim
- Joseph Smith originally wanted to obtain the plates in order to get rich, and he was rebuked by the angel.
Author's source(s) - Paul R. Cheesman, "An Analysis of the Accounts Relating Joseph Smith's Early Visions," Master's thesis, Brigham Young University, 1965, pp.130-31
- Joseph's intent was to follow the command of the angel to get the plates. He reported that Moroni "added a caution to me, telling me that Satan would try to tempt me, (in consequence of the indigent circumstances of my father's family) to get the plates for the purpose of getting rich. This he forbade me, saying that I must have no other object in view in getting the plates but to glorify God, and must not be influenced by any other motive than that of building his kingdom; otherwise I could not get them."[1]
- However, when he saw them for the first time, Oliver Cowdery says that "a thought would start across the mind on the prospects of obtaining so desirable a treasure--one in all human probability sufficient to raise him above the level of the common earthly fortunes of his fellow men, and relieve his family from want, in which by misfortune and sickness they were placed....his mind would be carried back to its former reflections of poverty, abuse, wealth, grandeur and ease, until before arriving at the place described, this wholly occupied his desire; and when he thought upon the fact of what was previously shown him, it was only with an assurance that he should obtain, and accomplish his desire in relieving himself and friends from want....do not understand me to attach blame to our brother; he was young, and his mind easily turned from correct principles, unless he could be favored with a certain round of experience."[2]
85
Claim
- The authors say that Brigham Young claimed that a chest of money "moved by itself" into the bank.
Author's source(s) - Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 19:37.
- Brigham said:
I will tell you a story which will be marvelous to most of you. It was told me by Porter, whom I would believe just as quickly as any man that lives. When he tells a thing he understands, he will tell it just as he knows it; he is a man that does not lie. He said that on this night, when they were engaged hunting for this old treasure, they dug around the end of a chest for some twenty inches. The chest was about three feet square. One man who was determined to have the contents of that chest, took his pick and struck into the lid of it, and split through into the chest. The blow took off a piece of the lid, which a certain lady kept in her possession until she died. That chest of money went into the bank. Porter describes it so [making a rumbling sound]; he says this is just as true as the heavens are. I have heard others tell the same story.
86
Claim
- Joseph is claimed to have attempted to "cover up" Oliver Cowdery's alleged work with a divining rod by changing a revelation.
Author's source(s) - Book of Commandments 7:3
- DC 8꞉6-7
87
Author's source(s)
- D&C 111:1-2, 4, 9, 10
- Comprehensive History of the Church 1:412
89
Claim
- Joseph Smith is claimed to have had a "Jupiter Talisman" in his possession at the time of his death.
Author's source(s) - Reed C. Durham.
- Mormon Miscellaneous, published by David C. Martin, vol. 1, no. 1, October 1975, pp.14-15
== Notes ==