What Joseph Smith Never Counted On - Part 1 by Bob Betts

Anyone whos some of the things Joseph Smith said as recorded in History of the Church and Journal of Discourses, knows that this self-appointed prophet was quite full of himself and quick with a revelation. Some cases in point:

1. Oliver B. Huntington, Joseph Smith's friend and scribe, recorded something very odd that Joseph told him. "'The inhabitants of the moon are more of a uniform size than the inhabitants of the earth, being about 6 feet in height. They dress very much like the quaker style and are quite general in style, or fashion of dress. They live to be very old; coming generally, near a thousand years.' This is the description of them as given by Joseph the Seer, and he could 'See' whatever he asked the Father in the name of Jesus to see." Journal of Oliver B. Huntington, Vol. 3, p. 166.

   In Journal of Discourses, Vol. 13, p. 271, Brigham Young affirmed Joseph's teaching about "the inhabitants of the moon… ." Incidentally, Brigham then went one-up on Joseph by stating his own incredible beliefs regarding "…the inhabitants of the sun."

   What Joseph never counted on was that, over a hundred years later, man would actually land on the moon and find it completely devoid of life or any sign that life ever existed there.

2. In 1835, Joseph unfolded the papyrus that he found in the armpit of one of his newly acquired Egyptian mummies and beheld the hieroglyphics. As he wrote in his History of the Church, Vol. 2, p. 236, "I commenced the translation of some of the characters or hieroglyphics, and much to our joy found that one of the rolls contained the writings of Abraham, another the writings of Joseph of Egypt, etc.,--a more full account of which will appear in its place, as I proceed to examine or unfold them. Truly we can say, the Lord is beginning to reveal the abundance of peace and truth."

   What he never counted on was that, in the late 1960's, real Egyptologists would be allowed to examine and translate the papyri. They discovered that these were actually ancient Egyptian burial instructions which had absolutely nothing to do with Abraham or Joseph. Joseph Smith claimed this was THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. You'll find it in The Pearl of Great Price, one of the four books that Mormons accept as scripture.

3. In 1830, when Joseph published The Book of Mormon, he declared in the Introduction, "I told the brethren the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book."

   What he never counted on was that, after his death, his successors would find almost 4,000 errors that needed changing in his "most correct book." The LDS faithful are quick to inform you that those changes were a result of minor punctuation errors created by the printer who deliberately sabotaged their holy book. But, don't be fooled. The changes were not just multiple punctuation, spelling and sentence structure errors. But, many words were added and deleted, resulting in multiple textual and doctrinal changes. And, some of the changes were made as late as their 1981 Edition, which is their last edition.

In Part 2, in the February/March issue, we will look at more things in this genre that will expose Joseph Smith for who he really wasn't.

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