When I was eighteen a long time of age, late in the yr 1970, I was deceptively released by a persuasive higher faculty German instructor to the devilishly insipid specter of a prolonged-useless 19th Century gentleman, Joseph Smith, Jr., that, today, proceeds to loom in excess of the minds of millions of God’s children as a cult of persona in the guise of what they think to be a present day working day prophet proclaimed to be a man in the likeness of Moses. Which is what I was advised, that Joseph Smith was a prophet “like unto Moses,” getting acknowledged nothing at all about him or the firm that he developed in April of 1830, the Mormon Church, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A issue was requested of me shortly right after I was frequented by two complete-time Mormon missionaries from Utah in Tyler, Texas. “Wouldn’t it be fantastic to have a living prophet to direct and guide humanity in this most puzzling planet?” The senior of the two missionaries, named Burgess, had asked me this, and I had replied that, “sure, it would be great indeed if God had referred to as a prophet to manual his people listed here on the earth.” So that response to their query started my processive indoctrination into the Mormon Church, as an impressionable young male absolutely ignorant of the scriptures revealed in the Holy Bible about prophets, which the Mormons claimed to acknowledge and imagine as the word of God.
A single factor led to another for the duration of the early how old was joseph drop of 1970, as the two aforementioned Mormon missionaries satisfied with me when a week, for close to six months, and instructed me very a few things about Joseph Smith and his “E-book of Mormon,” that I, for some stupid cause, fully acknowledged at that time with no questioning their validity in accordance with the Holy Bible. However I experienced read the Bible in the course of my youth, and had memorized really a couple of verses in it, I hadn’t really recognized what I might go through that is, the accurate gospel, or great news, of Jesus as uncovered by the Savior and his Apostles in the New Testament, and prophesied by holy prophets in the Previous Testomony. I was entirely ignorant about the Old Testomony file, which produced it straightforward for these unscrupulously persuasive missionaries to lead me about by the nose to feel in their nonsense and to do their bidding. In truth, the only reading that I was required to do in purchase for me to “receive” a testimony of Joseph Smith as a prophet, and of the E-book of Mormon as the term of God, was selected chapters and verses from the Ebook of Mormon. There was no needed reading through from the Bible. During the durations of time in which the two missionaries fulfilled with me, they utilised a flannel board and plastic figures as a signifies of embellishing in my thoughts their six canned displays that they named conversations. At the starting of every of these presentations, 1 of the missionaries always requested me whether I experienced prayed about what they experienced instructed me about Joseph Smith and Book of Mormon, and obtained a burning in my bosom as to the truthfulness of these things. Not getting acknowledged at that time the legitimate historical real truth about Joseph Smith and his E-book of Mormon, that Smith was a charismatic charlatan and the guide a 19th Century conspiratorial product of Smith’s, and his 3rd cousin, Oliver Cowdery’s vivid imaginations, I was totally taken-in and duped by people missionaries, and was baptized into the Mormon Church in October of 1970. Therefore, permit me to present in this recounting what I would have explained, and how I would have responded, to individuals Mormon missionaries and the important other Mormon guys and girls who had entered my life, had I recognized what I learned afterwards, and now know, about the Holy Bible and about the Lord Jesus Christ.
As to 1st concern that I was asked, about the need to have for a dwelling prophet in the early-nineteenth Century, I would have just mentioned that almost everything that was, and is, necessary for a full and complete understanding of Jesus Christ and his superb gospel, is in the confines of the Holy Bible and that if any male claimed to be a prophet, or a teacher, in the current age, he wouldn’t say everything but what has previously been stated in the Aged and New Testaments of the Bible by holy males of God as they have been moved by the Holy Spirit. Each and every scripture in the Bible was offered by holy gentlemen of God for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, that a person seeking to stick to Jesus could be thoroughly furnished in every way. There was a distinct purpose why individuals Mormon missionaries hadn’t inspired me to read through the Bible, but only the Guide of Mormon. Experienced I study, and recognized, the Previous Testament, I would have recognized that the God of the Old Testament, the ante-mortal Jesus, had recognized some quite stringent specifications for a getting 1 of his correct holy prophets, and that Joseph Smith hadn’t fulfilled “any” of these exacting conditions. You see, there is yet another additional-biblical book that the Mormons acknowledge as the phrase of God, which is stuffed with the evidences that conclusively prove that Joseph Smith was a fake prophet. That book is named the “Doctrine and Covenants,” and is hardly mentioned by Mormon missionaries in the course of those 6 canned presentations, known as conversations, which prelude an acceptance or rejection of Mormon doctrine by struggling Christians. In Jeremiah 14:fourteen (KJV), the prophet writes, “Then the Lord explained unto me, the prophets prophesy lies in my name: I despatched them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a fake vision and divination, and a issue of nought, and the deceit of their coronary heart.” This was prepared in excess of five hundred years right after Moses experienced currently created in Deut. eighteen:18, “I will increase them up a Prophet from between their brethren, like unto thee, and will place my phrases in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.” In addition, the Lord continues speaking in Deut. eighteen:20-22 (NIV), “If any prophet presumptuously speaks a phrase in my identify that I did not command him to speak or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. Even so, you may possibly say in your heart: How will we know that Jehovah has not spoken the word? When the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the term is not fulfilled or does not come accurate, then Jehovah did not speak that word. The prophet spoke it presumptuously. You should not concern him.” What does this imply? I feel the that means of the phrases is fairly darn distinct. If a male statements to be a prophet, like unto Moses, and can make a prediction, or prophecy, about what is to occur to move, and if what he states, in every single detail, does not occur to go, the man is a untrue prophet, and, if he ended up living anciently, must be place to dying. The Previous Testament is crammed with examples of true prophecy presented by true holy prophets of God. One particular of these examples is the prophecy presented by Isaiah, in Isaiah 37:22-35(NIV), “For that reason hence suggests the Lord regarding the king of Assyria: “He shall not come into this town, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come just before it with protect, nor construct a siege mound from it. By the way that he arrived, by the same shall he return and he shall not arrive into this town,” says the Lord. “For I will protect this city, to conserve it For My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.” Isaiah had prophesied that the Assyrian Military, underneath the King of Assyria, would not shoot “one” arrow into the metropolis. Not a single arrow, he mentioned! Well, had one particular measly arrow been discharged from the bow of 1 anxious Assyrian soldier into the city, Isaiah would have shipped a false prophecy in God’s identify. But the file reveals that not 1 arrow was shot into the metropolis, which created the prophecy correct and devoted to God. In reality, every prophecy sent by God’s real anointed prophets was true and faithful to the Lord God, and turned out just like the prophet experienced they would.
At this juncture, the prophecies of Joseph Smith, Jr. may possibly be examined and comprehended for what they had been, predictions created by an uninspired gentleman contacting himself a prophet. Don’t forget, if a guy, presuming to be a prophet, predicts something to occur to move in God’s title, every depth of the prediction should arrive to move. For instance, If I claimed to be an anointed prophet of God and mentioned, in the identify of God, that on Friday May twelve, 2017, at four:00 in the afternoon in Washington, DC, that it would commence raining, and that it would rain steadily until nine:00 and quickly quit, after which an earthquake would be felt during the globe. Effectively, let us say that on that Friday it commenced raining at three:00 in the afternoon and rained steadily right up until six:00 and instantly stopped, and no earthquake adopted. Was my prophecy fulfilled in each and every detail? No, it wasn’t! It commenced raining on that Friday, but the time depth was not fulfilled, nor was the earthquake fulfilled. Therefore, I delivered a false prophecy in the name of God, for which I could have been place to death if I had been living during the time of Isaiah. That was the penalty paid by untrue prophets. Now let’s appear at one particular of the several prophecies delivered by Joseph Smith. Part 87 of the notorious book, the Doctrine and Covenants, regarded as by Mormons to be their supply of doctrine and scripture, is supposedly a prophecy of the American Civil War sent by Joseph Smith on December twenty five, 1832. Let us take a look at precisely what Smith said would happen in Doctrine and Covenants 87:
“Verily, thus saith the Lord relating to the wars that will soon come to pass, beginning at the rise up of South Carolina, which will ultimately terminate in the demise and distress of a lot of souls And the time will arrive that war will be poured out on all nations, starting at this location (Throughout the American Civil War, war was not poured out on all nations. From 1861 to 1865, the relaxation of the globe was quite considerably at peace). For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will contact on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is named, and they shall also contact on other nations, in get to defend by themselves against other nations (The Confederacy did not get in touch with on any other nation(s) than Excellent Britain for assist) and then war shall be poured out on all nations (Once more, war was not poured out to any on “all” nations for the duration of the period of time, 1861-sixty five). And it shall appear to move, after several times, slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshaled and disciplined for war (The slaves that rose up towards their masters ended up in fact really few, and these slaves were not disciplined for war. In most instances they have been killed). And it shall come to move also that the remnants who are left of the land will marshal them selves, and shall become exceedingly angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation (This did not arise at all). And therefore, 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 produced to feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, right up until the usage decreed hath produced a complete end of all nations (There were no famines, earthquakes, plagues, or intense thunder and lightning from heaven described any location in the entire world from 1861-sixty five) That the cry of the saints, and of the blood of the saints, shall cease to arrive up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, from the earth, to be avenged of their enemies. Wherefore, stand ye in holy areas, and be not moved, right up until the day of the Lord occur for behold, it cometh speedily, saith the Lord. Amen.”