LDS The Mormon Concept of Modern Prophets:
Mormon Answers to Common Questions
This page, part of my Mormon Answers site, answers common questions about prophets in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and about Joseph Smith in particular. It is one of several pages in a suite on "Frequently Asked Questions about Latter-day Saint (LDS) Beliefs." This work is solely the responsibility of Jeff Lindsay and does not necessarily reflect official LDS doctrine.
"Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city..."
-- Jesus Christ, in Matthew 23:34
"Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets."
-- Amos 3:7
"As my Father hath sent me, even so I send you."
-- John 20:21
On the other hand, even divinely called prophets are still mortal human being subject to all manner of errors. God does not take over a prophets brain. Revelation from God may be a rare event, not a steady stream of direction on every trivial matter. As we learn from the Bible, prophets and apostles of Jesus Christ can make mistakes, commit sins, have silly arguments, be deceived by others, and so forth. To expect that every act and every utterance of a prophet will be infallibly correct and ideal is to demand far too much.
An excellent resource on the topic of prophets is the article "The Nature of Prophets and Prophecy" by John A. Tvedtnes, published at FAIRLDS.org. You may also wish to consult my related pages covering questions on Joseph Smith's First Vision accounts and a discussion of Joseph's prophecies that have been fulfilled. Also see John Tvedtnes's Response to a list of 52 allegedly false prophecies by Dick Baer (the list is toward the bottom of that page). Finally, also see my essay on the fallibility of human leaders in the true Church.
The word "prophet" comes from the Greek prophetes, which means "inspired teacher." Although neither the Greek term nor its Hebrew equivalent, nabi, initially required the function of foretelling, all prophecy looks to the future. Since the Lord has chosen some of his servants to be foretellers--to disclose, sometimes in specific terms, momentous events that are to occur--the predictive element often overshadows other implications of the word in the minds of some.A belief in divinely called prophets lies at the heart of LDS doctrine (see the Articles of Faith, for example). We recognize the biblical prophets as well as those in the Book of Mormon, and we accept authorized modern prophets who lead and have led the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We believe that Joseph Smith and all subsequent presidents of the church were and are prophets and representatives of Jesus Christ and special witnesses of Him to the world. The President of the Church is not only a prophet commissioned of Christ, but like Peter of old, also holds the keys of the kingdom (Matt. 16:16-19).But the gift of prophecy is not restricted to those whose words have been recorded in scripture. By scriptural definition, a prophet is anyone who has a testimony of Jesus Christ and is moved by the Holy Ghost (Rev. 19:10; cf. TPJS, pp. 119, 160). Moses, voicing his approval of two men who had prophesied, exclaimed, "Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!" (Num. 11:26-29). Schools of prophets and "sons" (followers) of prophets, some false and some true, existed in large numbers in Old Testament times. In modern times, speaking of Brigham Young, Elder Wilford Woodruff said, "He is a prophet, I am a prophet, you are, and anybody is a prophet who has the testimony of Jesus Christ, for that is the spirit of prophecy" (Journal of Discourses 13:165). It follows that this spirit does not operate in every utterance of its possessor. The Prophet Joseph Smith explained that "a prophet [is] a prophet only when he [is] acting as such" (History of the Church 5:265).
Modern prophets and apostles are like the prophets and apostles of ancient times: they were called by God, ordained and authorized by God, given the power to teach inspired messages from Christ, and appointed to lead the Church of Christ. Prophets and other ministers who are not called by God are unlikely to benefit the people (Jer. 23:32). True prophets did not go to college to get a degree from men, nor did they call themselves to the ministry. There was no doubt about the source of the call and the source of the authority they received. Recall the words of Christ to his apostles in John 15:16: "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit...." Concerning the priesthood, Paul likewise taught that "no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron" (Hebrews 5:4). Recall that Aaron was called to the priesthood by God through the prophet Moses and was anointed to the office of priest by Moses (Exodus 28:1,41). The prophet Joshua was likewise ordained (given authority) by Moses through the laying on of hands (Deut. 34:9; Numbers 27:18-23). Other scriptures showing this pattern and related concepts about authority include 1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6; Mark 13:34; Matt. 10:1; 1 Kings 19:16,19 with 2 Kings 2:12-15; Acts 8:17 and Acts 19:13-16.
There have been numerous allegations against Joseph Smith by enemies of the Church, including some who once were members but turned against the Church. The allegations were inflammatory enough to stir up mobs that sought to kill Joseph and drove many Latter-day Saints from one community to another. Joseph finally was jailed - on false charges of treason - and was killed by a mob in Illinois in 1844.
In spite of the much evil that has been said of Joseph Smith, the vast majority of those who knew him loved him and affirmed his goodness and his divinely appointed role as a prophet. We need not rely on uncertain rumors or hearsay to determine whether he was a fraud or not. The Book of Mormon offers concrete evidence - mountains of it - for anyone to determine whether this farmboy was a genuine prophet of God or just a gifted but evil charlatan. The Book of Mormon is his translation of an ancient sacred record from peoples in Central America, some of whom also knew of the coming of Christ and of His atonement. Their record, a 500-page volume covering over a thousand years of events and prophecies, stands as a second witness for Jesus Christ, in harmony with the Bible, with a beauty and power that has changed millions of lives for the better - including mine. Read it carefully, ponder it, and pray to God to know for yourself if it is His word, with the Bible, or if it is a malicious fraud. This Christ-loving, divine record is something no man could have fabricated. If you love the words of Christ, I believe you will love the power of the Book of Mormon. If it is an authentic ancient record, translated only by the gift and power of God, then Joseph Smith was truly a prophet called of God. If it was a fabrication, then he was not. It's that simple.
I ask no one to just take my word for it. I ask people to put the Book of Mormon to the test. By test, I don't mean looking at an anti-Mormon book and listing 20 silly, easily-refuted arguments against the Book of Mormon. I mean actually reading the Book of Mormon, thinking about it, giving it a chance, maybe even taking a few notes or making an outline as you read to consider broad issues and to see how the overall structure fits together. Ask yourself, as you read, could any man have written this book? Does it truly testify of Christ and of God? What does it teach of Christ and His Atonement? What does it mean for me, in the 20th century?
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.I think the best way that this passage can be consistent with common sense and the rest of the Bible (see the next question below for details) is to understand that prophecy, tongues (the gift to speak and understand foreign languages), and human knowledge are things of value to us in this imperfect mortal world, before the coming of the perfect day, but that charity is an eternal attribute that is essential for the next life and our eternal destiny. The day of perfection has not come - and it looks like it's a long ways off, from my imperfect perspective - so obviously, gifts of the spirit are still needed. If Paul means that prophecy would stop after the New Testament, does he also mean that knowledge would stop after the coming forth of the Bible? It has for some people, but don't blame Paul or God for that! This verse says nothing about prophecy not being needed just because the Bible is available.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
The church that placed the above-mentioned ad claims to be a church that just relies on the Bible alone, taking their message straight from the pages of the Bible. Sadly, they must be missing quite a few pages. The book of Joel is one of those missing sections. If they had read it, perhaps they would know that prophecy and spiritual gifts are to be found in the last days, before the coming of the Lord. Look at Joel 2:28-31:
28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:Yes, spiritual gifts, including prophecy, is to be poured out before the great Second Coming of the Lord. They are an important sign of the last days, in fact. One dramatic event shortly before the return of the Lord is described in Revelation 11, where two "witnesses" (v. 3 - perhaps apostles, special witnesses of Christ), also described as "prophets" (v. 10) will prophecy in Jerusalem for 1,260 days and be killed, then brought back to life by the power of God. Surely there will be more prophecy to come - at least 1,260 days' worth.
29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
In Ephesians 4:11-14, Paul explains that prophets and apostles were put in the Church of Jesus Christ to help bring us to a unity of faith, among other reasons. Unity in the faith has clearly not been achieved (though you can make an important step in the direction by converting to the Restored Gospel today!), so prophets are still needed. Paul speaks of prophets and prophecy as something that is needed until there is religious unity (Eph. 4:11-14). In 1 Cor. 14:5 (see also v. 29), Paul wishes that all would have the gift of prophecy that the church might be edified. Is there no longer a need for edification?
Paul knew that the world, with its emphasis and reliance on human wisdom, would work to quench spiritual gifts and despise prophecy. But he said, "Quench not the Spirit" and "Despise not prophesyings" in 1 Thess. 5:19,20.
In light of the New Testament record, if there is any church on earth that can legitimately be called the Church of Jesus Christ, it must have apostles and prophets. And those who deny prophecy do not understand the scriptures.
Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city....The same is repeated in Luke 11:49. Not only would Christ send prophets, but He would expect His followers to receive His prophets as His messengers (Matthew 10:40-41):
He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.However, Christ did warn that false prophets would come (e.g., Matt. 7:15), but this warning only makes sense if there would be true prophets to be distinguished from the false. If there were to be no more prophets, He should have simply said so. Instead, He warned against false prophets and gave clues on how to distinguish them in Matthew 7:15-20:
He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.
(See also John 13:20 and John 15:20.)
15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.The fruit of the Book of Mormon is tangible, hard evidence - not hearsay, slander, or rumor - which has been a proofstone available to all the world to examine the prophetic claims of Joseph Smith. Most of the ministers of the "mainstream" Christian world insist that there are to be no more prophets, but the absence of prophets and apostles is one of the surest indications that a general apostasy from the original Gospel had occurred. The original Church of Christ not only had apostles and prophets, but had such as its foundation, at its very core, as we read in Ephesians 2:19-20:
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither [can] a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;Likewise, 1 Corinthians 12:28-29 and Ephesians 3:1-6 confirm that the early Church had apostles and prophets and that they taught sacred truths to the early Christians. Paul further explains the importance of apostles and prophets in the Church in Ephesians 4:11-14:
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone....
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;Without the guidance that comes from revelation to God's anointed leaders, even a community of believers may be tossed about by every wind of doctrine, drifting like a ship without a rudder. For example, the early loss of apostles and prophets due to apostasy from within and persecution from without led to a situation where basic doctrines became clouded, confused, and perverted. The introduction of infant baptism is one example. Soon basic doctrines about the nature of God became replaced with ideas more palatable to the Hellenized thinking of the 3rd and 4th centuries. The reality of the physical, tangible, resurrected body of Christ was dissolved by councils of debating men who preferred abstract, Platonic "forms" over the "unsophisticated" idea of a God who actually looked like man, in whose image we were literally created. The idea that God and Christ were one in purpose yet separate beings (see John 17:20-23, Acts 7:55,56; John 14:28) was replaced with ideas that were more appealing to Hellenized intellectuals. Those who were taught and believed such doctrines were still Christians, certainly, if they accepted Christ, but there were truths and principles that were missing. These truths and principles have been restored - and it required specially called, authorized, and ordained prophets of God such as Joseph Smith.
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive....
God has always worked through apostles and prophets, and has not changed in that regard. Amos 3:7 explains: "Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." The Lord God does His work through His servants, the prophets, to whom he reveals truths and teachings. If there are no prophets, then something is missing.
Besides the apostles named in the New Testament (whose body of 12 was meant to be maintained, as seen by the selection of Matthias to replace the deceased traitor Judas, Acts 1:24-26), we have other names of men who were prophets, after the time of Christ. Acts 15:32 names two: "And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them."
Did Paul say prophecy had ended with Christ? No. In fact, prophecy was a gift of the Spirit had among the Christian community, as Paul indicates in 1 Cor. 14:3: "But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort." Revelation 11:10 also prophesies of two prophets in particular who, in the last days, will be killed in Jerusalem and be revived miraculously.
Amazingly, some modern critics charge that a belief in prophets after Christ makes Latter-day Saints non-Christian. While the word "Christian" is not defined in the Bible, it is used in 3 places. One is in Acts 11, where we learn that believers in Christ were first called "Christians" in Antioch. One of the key features of these Christians was that they accepted and heeded prophets who came among them - and this was after the Ascension of Christ. Look at Acts 11:25-30:
25 Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul:In the above passage, prophets (apparently Christian) from Jerusalem came and prophesied of a coming famine, and the Christian community in Antioch apparently accepted and responded to the message of those prophets by sending relief to their brethren in Judaea. The saints (members of the Church) in Antioch were Christian, and had prophets, after the coming of Christ. Later in Acts 13:1, we again read of prophets being among the Christian community at Antioch:
26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
27 And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch.
28 And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.
29 Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea:
30 Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.
Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.In my opinion, accepting living prophets from God is a vital part of true Christianity, rather than a sign of paganism. The presence of living prophets is a sign of God's work underway, rather than a sign of evil. It is the absence of apostles and prophets, and continuing revelation itself, that is cause for concern among the mainstream Christian churches, as good and noble as many of them may be. Without continued revelation through anointed servants, these churches are like ships without a rudder, depending on human logic and debates among scholars to settle issues and provide guidance. No wonder there is such a huge range of ideas among Christian churches on moral and theological issues. Something is missing: guidance through God's chosen apostles and prophets. But that something has been restored, and the Book of Mormon provides the solid evidence to back the claim.
Does the Bible teach the prophets are infallible? In some cases, we find prophets who sinned and were derelict in their duty, such as the prophet Jonah, who fled from a difficult assignment.
Prophets are mortals who receive the gift of prophecy from time to time, as God directs. Not all they do or say will be inspired. For Latter-day saints, we are not accountable to believe all that any Church leader ever said, but only those things which have been accepted and approved by consent of the leadership bodies of the Church - in a way similar to the way the Biblical canon was established. Not every word of Peter, James, and Paul, for example, was necessarily sacred, and some of them even made mistakes. But there were times when the power of God moved them to write scripture which others were inspired to recognize as scripture.
Moses wished that all his people could have the spirit of the Lord upon them enough that they could also act as prophets (Numbers 11:29):
And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD'S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!Having the Spirit of God move you from time to time does not make you perfect. Being a chosen and ordained prophet does not make every opinion true, nor does it make one superior in every area of knowledge. Reverend J.R. Dummelow (not LDS) described the authors of the Bible in terms that ought to be applied, in all fairness, to Joseph Smith as well:
"Though purified and ennobled by the influence of the His Holy Spirit, these men each had his own peculiarities of manner and disposition - each with his own education or want of education - each with his own way of looking at things - each influenced differently from one another by the different experiences and disciplines of his life. Their inspiration did not involve a suspension of their natural faculties; it did not make them free from earthly passion; it did not make them into machines - it left them men.Hardly the megalomaniac portrayed in anti-Mormon literature, Joseph told members of the Church that he was but a man and that they could not expect perfection from him any more than he could expect it of them, "but if they would bear with my infirmities and the infirmities of the brethren, I would likewise bear with their infirmities" (History of the Church, Vol. 5, p. 181). Latter-day Saints do not believe in infallible prophets whose every word must be true."Therefore we find their knowledge sometimes no higher than that of their contemporaries.... "(J.R. Dummelow, One Volume Bible Commentary, p. 85)
One modern prophet, Joseph Fielding Smith, wrote:
It makes no difference what is written or what anyone has said, if what has been said is in conflict with what the Lord has revealed, we can set it aside. My words, and the teachings of any other member of the Church, high or low, if they do not square with the revelations, we need not accept them. Let us have this matter clear. We have accepted the four standard works as the measuring yardsticks, or balances, by which we measure every man's doctrine. You cannot accept the books written by the authorities of the Church as standards in doctrine, only in so far as they accord with the revealed word in the standard works. (Doctrines of Salvation 3:203)President Harold B. Lee expressed a similar idea in a European area conference:
If anyone, regardless of his position in the Church, were to advance a doctrine that is not substantiated by the standard Church works, meaning the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price, you may know that his statement is merely his private opinion. The only one authorized to bring forth any new doctrine is the President of the Church, who, when he does, will declare it as revelation from God, and it will be so accepted by the Council of the Twelve and sustained by the body of the Church. And if any man speak a doctrine which contradicts what is in the standard Church works, you may know by that same token that it is false and you are not bound to accept it as truth.That's the standard for official Church doctrine and official prophecy. Finding someone who alleged to have heard a random statement from Joseph Smith does not make it binding prophecy or doctrine. Not even an appearance of the President of the Church on the Larry King show is going to result in official doctrine that Church members must live by. It may be entertaining, it may even be uplifting, but if the Lord wants to give His people new revealed doctrines for which we are to be held accountable, Larry King will not be part of the process. (No offense, Larry!)
For more information, Michael T. Griffith has a useful article, Vindicating Prophecy: Why the Anti-Mormon View of Prophecy Is Invalid, which deals with false standards applied by anti-Mormons to LDS prophecy and prophets - standards which would invalidate the Bible as well. Also see the Web page, "What is Official Doctrine?" with an excellent article by Stephen Robinson.
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.This doesn't exactly say that one mistake makes a false prophet. James L. Mays, editor of Harper's Bible Commentary (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988, p. 226), writes:
Prophecy in the names of other gods is easily rejected, but false prophecy in God's name is a more serious matter. This dilemma requires the application of a pragmatic criterion that, although clearly useless for judgments on individual oracles, is certainly a way to evaluate a prophet's overall performance.The problem with applying Deut. 18:22 to a single, individual prophecy is that some prophecies can be fulfilled in complex ways or at times much later than anticipated by the hearers. Moreover, God sometimes appears to reverse certain prophecies, as He says He is free to do in Jeremiah 18:7-10:
7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;Be careful in how you apply Deut. 18:22, for you threaten to reject some true prophets in the Bible! There are examples where a true prophet prophesied something which did not happen as he stated, to the best of our knowledge. An example is found in the story of Jonah, who was told by God to prophecy to the people of Nineveh. Jonah prophesied that the people would be destroyed in 40 days (Jonah 3:4) - no loopholes were offered, just imminent doom. God changed things, however, when the people repented and He chose to spare them - much to the chagrin of that imperfect (yet still divinely called) prophet, Jonah. Jonah, in fact, was "displeased ... exceedingly" and "very angry" (Jonah 4:1) about this change from God, perhaps because it made Jonah look bad. In spite of an "incorrect" prophecy and in spite of the obvious shortcomings of Jonah, he was a prophet of God and the Book of Jonah in the Bible is part of the Word of God. Yet if that sacred text had been lost, only to be restored by Joseph Smith, perhaps as part of the Book of Mormon, it would be assaulted as the most damning evidence against Joseph Smith. Just imagine how the critics would dismiss the Book of Jonah as being evil, contradictory, ludicrous, anti-Biblical, unscientific, and unchristian (of course, there are plenty already who reject it as it is, unable to believe major parts of the story).
8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
The prophet Ezekiel provides another example of how true prophets may err or give prophecies of uncertain accuracy. In Ezekiel chapters 26, 27, and 28, we read that Tyre (a fortified island city) would be conquered, destroyed, and plundered by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The riches of Tyre would go to Babylon (Ezek. 26:12). Nebuchadnezzar's army did lay siege to Tyre, and its inhabitants were afflicted, apparently so much that they shaved their heads bald, as prophesied in Ezek. 27:31. However, the 13-year Babylonian siege apparently was not quite as successful as Ezekiel had predicted, perhaps because the land-based tactics of Babylonian sieges were less effective against a fortified island city with significant maritime power. The result of the siege may have been a compromise or treaty rather than total destruction and plunder, for Ezekiel 29:17-20 reports that the predicted plundering did not take place. Almost as if in compensation, the Lord now announces that He will give Egypt to the Babylonians, which is the theme of chapter 29. Here are verses 17-20:
17 And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,Yes, Tyre was eventually destroyed, but its complete destruction apparently did not occur during the Babylonian siege, and certainly the Babylonian army did not get the riches of Tyre as has been prophesied. It is Ezekiel himself who reports this "prophetic failure." (The analysis above is derived from an article by Daniel C. Peterson in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1995, pp. 49-50.)
18 Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it:
19 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.
20 I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord GOD.
D.C. Pyle has also commented on Ezekiel's prophecy of Tyre:
Of course, my favorite part of the prophecy against Tyre is the part found in Ezekiel 26:14 and 27:36, where the Lord states that Tyre would "not be rebuilt" and "exist no more forever."To those who refuse to believe that Tyre still exists today, pictures can be see at http://tyros.leb.net/tyre/index.html. Note that there are many buildings - it has been rebuilt. A literal interpretation of Ezekiel's prophecy coupled with a belief in Biblical inerrancy leads to obvious problems.Of course, after it was left unconquered by the Babylonian armies, it eventually fell to the Greeks under Alexander and was destroyed by his armies.
But then, the city which was never to be rebuilt forever rose again to wealth and power in 125 BCE! During the Roman period, the city rose to even more prominence and had a Christian community living in the mainland portion. Muslims reduced the city to ashes in 1291. It was rebuilt again sometime after this. In 1983, it had an estimated population of 23,000.
The prophecy stated that the place would "be a bare rockface for spreading nets and would never be rebuilt" but today, the place has become a fairly important maritime center.
My purpose in discussing the prophecies about Tyre is not to question the truthfulness of the Bible (it is true - we just need to struggle to understand it properly, as we must with all scripture and all prophecy, and we need to understand its potential limitations). My primary purpose in discussing Tyre is to point out that an overly critical attitude and a strict application of Deut. 18:22 may reject even true, Biblical prophets. If we try hard enough to find reasons to reject a prophet, we will surely succeed - but beware lest we judge unwisely and reject those whom God has sent and anointed, even though they be mortal and fallible. As for Tyre never being rebuilt, I think it's fair to mention that Hebrew writers used extreme words like "never" or "all" or "forever" in a rather loose way. Tyre was "never" to rebuilt and animal sacrifices were to continue "forever" - but these expressions can best be understood as figures of speech rather than absolutes. But if we're going to take the reasonable, thoughtful path of understanding the Bible rather than looking for apparent flaws to condemn it out of hand, we should extend the same courtesy to the Book of Mormon and the words of modern prophets.
Another example to consider is the prophet Jeremiah - a great and inspired prophet - who prophesied that king Zedekiah would "die in peace" (Jer. 34:4-5). Critics could argue that this prophecy did not prove to be true, for Zedekiah saw his sons killed by the conquering Babylonians and was himself blinded and put in prison, where he died in captivity - not in peace (Jer. 52:10-11). Of course, the point is that he would not be killed by the sword, but die of natural causes - albeit in prison - yet to the critics, it may look like a case of a false prophecy. This case is certainly less clear-cut than the prophecy of Ezekiel discussed above, yet also serves to warn us against harsh judgments.
Many LDS critics attempt to condemn Joseph Smith using a standard that would, if applied to Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Jonah, also condemn the Old Testament as a fraud.
Joseph Smith made some amazingly correct prophecies: predicting in 1832 that a civil war would erupt, beginning in South Carolina, with Great Britain to be involved; prophesying that tobacco is harmful to human health and giving a dietary code with nutritional principles much like the modern "food pyramid;" predicting his own martyrdom; prophesying of the global success that the restored Church would experience, with persecutions; predicting that the Saints would become established in the Rockies; and predicting other important events relative to Native Americans, the United States of America, the Church, future calamities, many details related to specific individuals, etc. Several of these fulfilled prophecies are discussed in detail on my LDSFAQ page, prophecies that have been fulfilled. The prophetic nature of the Book of Mormon is also noteworthy. Even mundane passages such as the physical description of Nephi's journey through the Arabian peninsula serve as validated prophecies, in a sense, for none of the many accurate details in the text could have been fabricated in 1830 based on what was then known about Arabia, and the "direct hits" (e.g., the place Bountiful and the burial site named Nahom) serve as evidences vindicating Joseph Smith as a prophet.
The specific prophecies that are said to be false or incorrect by critics are typically based on hearsay or unreliable sources or are based on incorrect interpretations of what is said. There is no reliable evidence to say that Joseph Smith fails any sound test based on Deut. 18:22. Some of the most common specific objections are treated in my answers below, including a discussion of the Missouri temple prophecy (from Section 84 of the Doctrine and Covenants) and the Lord's command to David Patten (Section 114 of the Doctrine and Covenants).
For further reading on this topic, Michael T. Griffith has a useful article, Vindicating Prophecy: Why the Anti-Mormon View of Prophecy Is Invalid, which deals with false standards applied by anti-Mormons to LDS prophecy and prophets - standards which would invalidate the Bible as well. That article is part of his book One Lord, One Faith (Horizon Publishers, 1996). Below is a portion of that article (quoted here since the Web link may have quit working):
In 2 Samuel 7:5-17, we read that the prophet Nathan unequivocally prophesied to David that through his son Solomon the Davidic empire would be established "forever," that the children of Israel would dwell in the promised land "and move no more," and that the "children of wickedness" would no longer afflict them. These things are quite clearly stated. No conditions are attached to these promises, none whatsoever. [Yet this prophecy clearly did not prove successful if it is interpreted literally.]...[Another example of a problematic Biblical prophecy is] Judges 13:5, where it is recounted that an angel promised Samson's mother that Samson would "begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." No matter how liberal or expansive one wants to be with the facts of Israelite history (as recorded in the Bible or elsewhere), there is no way it can reasonably be concluded that Samson fulfilled this prophecy.
Not only did Samson fail to even "begin" to free Israel from the Philistines, but (1) there were times when he consorted with Philistine women, (2) he married a Philistine, (3) he himself never even led any Israelite troops against the Philistines, and (4) the Philistines eventually humiliated him.
Moreover, and most importantly, Israel actually lost ground to the Philistines during Samson's tenure. Judges 13-16 illustrates Philistine encroachment into Hebrew territory. The Samson narrative documents the eastward expansion of the Philistines by mentioning the Philistine presence in Timnah and Lehi, both in the strategic valley of Sorek (Achtemeier 1985:787-791). This Philistine expansion worsened the land shortage that eventually forced the Danites to migrate northward.
Of course, the nonfulfillment of Judges 13:5 can be attributed to Samson's failure to live according to his Nazarite calling. In addition to his sexual liaisons, he married a Philistine, ate unclean food, drank wine, and allowed his hair to be cut. Therefore, it could be said that the angel's prophecy was nullified by Samson's behavior. However, the angel placed absolutely no conditions on his promise that Samson would begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines. He simply declared that Samson would do so.
Baer establishes a test for false prophets ... based on the one given by Moses in Deut. 18:20-22. Ironically, the text can be used to prove that Moses himself was a false prophet. In Num. 25:13, he said in the name of the Lord that Phinehas, his grand nephew, would hold the priesthood eternally. But if Heb. 7:11-12 is correct, the Aaronic priesthood is not eternal. By the same standard, Jonah's prophecy that Nineveh would be destroyed failed.Tvedtnes also offers the example of David and the men of Keilah. Of them, the Lord said to David, "They will deliver thee up [to Saul]" (1 Sam. 23:12). This did not happen for one simple reason: David wisely fled from the city (vss. 13-14). Does this invalidate the Bible and make God errant? No - it shows that prophecy can be conditional, and that we better run when the Lord warns us of danger.There are other such examples. E.g., Isaiah told king Hezekiah, "Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live." (2 Kings 20:1 [see also Isaiah 38:1-5]) But after the king pleaded with the Lord, the prophet delivered a new message, saying that 15 years would be added to his life. The Lord told Moses that he would destroy the Israelites and make of Moses a greater nation than they. When Moses protested that this would be wrong, the Lord changed his mind (Num. 14:11-20).
The fact of the matter is that all prophecy depends on the faithfulness (or unfaithfulness) of those involved. In the case of Nineveh, the Lord revoked his threatened destruction of the city because they repented. By the same token, he can revoke promises of good if people sin. The Lord himself explained this principle through the prophet Jeremiah:
At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. (Jer. 18:7-10)
Instead of running, a change in behavior can also help. For example, in 1 Kings 21: 17-29, the Lord commands Elijah to prophecy of death and destruction to come upon the household of the wicked king Ahab. Ahab, in response, puts on at least a show of repentance by fasting, wearing sackcloth, and mourning. In response, the Lord tells Elijah, "Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house." The prophecy will still be fulfilled, but the timing has been changed in response to Ahab's behavior. An even more dramatic example is the extra 15 years of life that King Hezekiah got after Isaiah prophesied he would die of the severe illness that he had (Isaiah 38:1-5). Hezekiah mourned and pleaded with the Lord, and the Lord withdrew the previously given decree. Though not stated as conditional, it proved to be a conditional prophecy that the Lord altered.
Some of the allegedly false prophecies of Joseph Smith are obvious examples of conditional prophecies (e.g., Doctrine and Covenants 84), following a Biblical pattern. The critics seem to have forgotten the Bible in their zeal to condemn.
Joseph smith gave his life as a final witness to the truthfulness of his prophetic mission, sealing his testimony with his blood. But there were others with him as a mob attacked him and his small group of helpless prisoners being held illegally in a jail, and Joseph successfully sought to save some of their lives, though he knew his would be taken. It is true that somebody had brought a small pistol to Joseph for self-defense, but his desperate efforts to save others hardly detracts from the fact that he gave his life, or that a mob of vile conspirators, stirred by some of the best anti-Mormon ministers of the day, deliberately murdered the prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum.
PBS provides a brief overview of the martyrdom, associated with their production of the documentary, "American Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith." Also see the Ensign article, "Martyrdom at Carthage " by Reed Blake (June 1994). More detailed information on this topic comes from Ari D. Bruening and David L. Paulsen in "The Development of the Mormon Understanding of God: Early Mormon Modalism and Other Myths," FARMS Review of Books, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 109-169 (quoting from pp. 152-155):
Prior to the martyrdom, Joseph Smith was well aware that a group of conspirators had formed in order to murder him and his brother Hyrum, as well as other important men in the church.[86] When Joseph Smith was in jail at Carthage, Thomas C. Sharp, who had organized an anti-Mormon political party in 1841, wrote in the Warsaw Signal: "We have seen and heard enough to convince us that Joe Smith is not safe out of Nauvoo, and we would not be surprised to hear of his death by violent means in a short time. He has deadly enemies.. . . The feeling of this country . . . will break forth in fury upon the slightest provocation."[87] Joseph Smith knew that he would die at Carthage. As he left Nauvoo, he stated, "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter."[88]Also see the short article, "Gunfight" by Michael Ash, as well as "Was Joseph Smith Really a Martyr?" by Stephen R. Gibson, and "Was Joseph Smith a Martyr?" by W. John Walsh.The day and evening of the martyrdom (27 June), General Deming, who had command of the Carthage Greys, was to guard the jail, but he left during the day for fear of losing his life.[89] The main group was in the public square, while eight individuals were to guard the prisoners under the command of Sergeant Frank A. Worrell. "The disbanded mob militia had come up to Carthage to the number of two hundred, with their faces blackened with powder and mud. . . . it was then arranged that the guard at the jail should load with blank cartridges and that the mob should attack the prison and meet with some show of resistance."[90]
Joseph had been given a weapon earlier that day by Cyrus H. Wheelock, who had come to the jail to get messages to carry back to Nauvoo. The gun was a small one, known as a "pepper-box" revolver.[91] According to Truman G. Madsen, a few individuals attempted to save the Prophet's life by testifying in his behalf. Stephen Markhameven offered to exchange clothes so that the Prophet could escape in disguise, but Joseph declined.[92] "After all these efforts, the only real thing the Prophet had between him and the final scene was a pistol which Cyrus Wheelock had brought him."[93] The prisoners had only two pistols and two walking sticks with which to defend themselves.[94]
Sometime after 5:00 p.m., when the prisoners had been notified that Stephen Markham had been driven from Carthage by the mob, "there was a slight rustling at the outer door of the jail, and a cry of surrender, then a discharge of three or four guns. The plot had been carried out: two hundred of the mob came rushing into the jail yard."[95] George Q. Cannon reports that many members of the mob "rushed up the stairs while others fired through the open windows of the jail into the room where the brethren were confined. The four prisoners sprang against the door, but the murderers burst it partly open and pushed their guns into the room."[96] As John Taylor and Willard Richards tried to knock the guns from the hands of the mob, a "shower of bullets came up the stairway and through the door."[97] "Continual discharges of musketry came into the room."[98]
According to the account in the History of the Church, John Taylor continued to try to ward off the guns of the mobsters until the guns extended approximately half their length into the room. Deciding that it was useless to fight, he tried to jump out of the window, at which point he was shot.[99] Hyrum was also shot. "When Hyrum fell, Joseph exclaimed, 'Oh dear, brother Hyrum!' and opening the door a few inches he discharged his six shooter in the stairway,. . . two or three barrels of which missed fire."[100] Finally, Joseph dropped his pistol and attempted to jump from the window but was shot in the chest and fell out of the window.[101] Madsen reports that thirty-six bullets were fired into the prisoners' room within two minutes. Joseph and Hyrum each received five bullets, and John Taylor was shot four times.[102]
These descriptions of the martyrdom hardly depict a "gun battle." The prisoners were locked inside their room, had no more than two guns, and were trying to defend themselves against an armed mob of at least two hundred men. As Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill write, "The murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith at Carthage, Illinois, was not a spontaneous, impulsive act by a few personal enemies of the Mormon leaders, but a deliberate political assassination, committed or condoned by some of the leading citizens in Hancock County."[103]
Some may ask why Joseph used any weapons if he knew he was to die at Carthage. Apparently, he was more concerned with the well-being of those with whom he was associated than with his own. The Prophet had "promised those brethren in the name of the Lord that he would defend them even if it meant giving up his life."[104] He had given his word to the Saints in 1842 that "When my enemies take away my rights, I will bear it and keep out of the way; but if they take away your rights,I will fight for you."[105] Joseph clearly did not condone the oppression of his people. On 18 June, Joseph had told the Nauvoo Legion, "while I live, I will never tamely submit to the dominion of cursed mobocracy."[106] On the issue of using a gun at Carthage, Joseph and Hyrum agreed that they disliked the idea, but Joseph thought it necessary for them to defend themselves.[107] Joseph said, "Could my brother Hyrum but be liberated it would not matter so much about me."[108] It has been speculated that when Joseph finally tried to escape from the window, he did so in order to save the life of Willard Richards, since it was Joseph the assassins wanted to kill. Joseph was shot from behind two or three times before he fell out of the window.[109] Even after the Prophet had fallen from the window, the murderers continued to shoot at his dead body.[110]
The Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered by a large group of angry mobsters. They did shoot at the mobsters, but only in defense of their lives. To make this gruesome, plotted murder sound as though it were the result of some sort of duel, with each party acting with similar ferocity, is highly inaccurate and insulting.
References cited above:
86. History of the Church, 6:280-81 n.
87. Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill, Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1975), 14.
88. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 380; see History of the Church, 6:558.
89. George Q. Cannon, The Life of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, 2nded. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1907), 524.
90. Ibid.
91. Ibid., 517.
92. Truman G. Madsen, Joseph Smith, the Prophet, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1989), 121.
93. Ibid., 122.
94. Ibid.
95. Cannon, Life of Joseph Smith, 526.
96. Ibid.
97. Ibid.
98. History of the Church, 6:618.
99. Ibid.
100. Ibid.
101. Ibid.
102. Madsen, Joseph Smith, the Prophet, 122.
103. Oaks and Hill, Carthage Conspiracy, 6.
104. Madsen, Joseph Smith, the Prophet, 122.
105. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 268; see History of the Church, 5:181.
106. History of the Church, 6:499.
107. Ibid., 608.
108. Cannon, Life of Joseph Smith, 514.
109. Madsen, Joseph Smith, the Prophet, 123.
110. Cannon, Life of Joseph Smith, 527-28.
The Bible clearly teaches that true prophets of God are nevertheless imperfect. The Apostle Paul, for example, wrote of his weakness and admitted that he still struggled with sin (Romans 7:18-20). Moses, one of the greatest prophets of all, also was not without weakness and sin. A sin committed apparently in pride and disbelief kept him from being allowed to enter the promised land - as a punishment from God. (See Numbers 20:10-12. Moses did not accurately follow the instructions of the Lord in performing a miracle and seems to have presumptuously taken credit for it.) Not every act of Moses was perfect, nor was his reputation flawless. In fact, his detractors could point out that he began as a "killer," for he killed an Egyptian, although it was in the process of defending someone else who was being attacked. His brother, Aaron, called of God to serve as a mouthpiece for Moses, also sinned terribly in making a golden calf. He repented, but he did sin.
Jonah, again, is an example of an imperfect prophet, who yet was called of God and divinely inspired. David spoke and wrote scripture, yet later committed awful sins - including adultery and murder. Solomon also was guilty of ugly deeds. In the New Testament, we find contention between Paul and Barnabas and between Paul and Peter. Paul also seemed to suffer from the problem of prejudice, for his opinion of people from Crete, given in Titus 1:12-13, seems a little less than open-minded:
One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.Cretians are always liars? Maybe so, but it seems a little unfair (not to mention politically incorrect).
This witness is true.
And among the Apostles of Christ, there was petty contention about who should be the greatest among them. They weren't perfect. They were called, chosen, anointed, and given power from God - but they made foolish mistakes at times. Even the great Peter had to weep bitterly when he realized what he had done in denying Christ three times. (Think of what fun anti-Mormons would have if Joseph Smith had denied Christ even once after his call to be a prophet.) Peter repented, and later became an immovable witness for Christ, but he was guilty of sin and failure after being ordained an Apostle. Human servants are still human and fallible - but as servants of God, they can act as true prophets and teach truth, prophesy about great things, and lead us to Christ. But we worship God, not his mortal servants. Nevertheless, we will be held accountable for how we receive the authorized servants that Christ sends to us. Be careful about condemning them for their mortal faults and sins.
Additional food for thought: Van Hale has compiled some excellent questions from the Bible that should help expose the fallacy of rejecting God's prophets for apparent sins, weaknesses, or practices contrary to our standards. In his discussion, Van Hale asks the following questions, all of which refer to actual incidents in the Bible that critics could use to incorrectly reject Biblical prophets:
Could a prophet...:If Christians are willing to accept the prophets of the Bible in spite of a few blemishes on their reputations, shouldn't they be willing to give modern prophets a little slack? But I fear that some of our most vehement critics, like the bigoted religious leaders who sought the blood of Joseph Smith, are driven with the same hateful frenzy that inspired the respected religious leaders of Christ's day to seek His blood and the blood of many other true Christians. Prophets have been slain from the earliest days, and logic and fairness seems to do little in slowing down the assault.1. Kill? Judges 14:19 (Samson); Ex. 2:11-16 (Moses) [see also 1 Sam. 15:33].
2. Lie? Gen 12:10-20 (Abraham); Jer. 38:24-28 (Jeremiah); 1 Kings 2:8-9 (David); 2 Kings 8:10 (Elisha); and Matt. 26:69-75 (Peter).
3. Get drunk? Gen. 9:21 (Noah).
4. Boast? 2 Cor. 11:16 (Paul)
5. For a small fee, use his supernatural powers to tell where to find lost animals? 1 Sam 9:6-8, 20.
6. Prophesy of an event which fails to occur? Jonah 3:1-10; Jer. 18:5-10.
7. Gamble for high stakes? Judges 14:12-20
8. Be angry at God? Jonah 4:1, 9.
9 Believe something unscientific? Lev. 11:7; Deut. 14:7 (the hare does not chew the cud). Gen. 1:16 (Was the earth created before the sun, moon and stars?)
10. Curse children? 2 Kings 2:23-25 (Elisha).
11. Want vengeance? Ps. 137:9; Jer. 18:19-23.
12. Contradict a former prophet? Matt. 19:3-8 compare Deut. 24:1-4 (divorce); 2 Sam. 24:1 compare 1 Chr. 21:1 (who caused David to sin?); Ex. 34:7 compare Ez. 18:20 (are children punished for the sins of their fathers?); Ex. 23:7 compare Rom. 4:5 (does God justify the ungodly?).
13. Fail to understand a revelation? Acts 10:3, 17; 1 Cor. 13:9-12.
14. Advocate divorce? Ezra 9, 10:3, 11, 19, 44.
15. Institute strange sounding rituals? Ex. 29; Num. 5.
16. Give counsel not approved by the Lord? 2 Sam. 7:1-5 (Nathan).
17. Worship false gods? 1 Kings 11:9-10.
18. Accept a position as the chief of magicians, astrologers, and soothsayers? Dan. 5:11.
19. Break God's moral law? Judges 16:1 (Samson visits a prostitute); 2 Sam. 11 (David and Bathsheba).
20. Give two contradictory prophecies? 1 Kings 22:14-18.
21. Lie to another prophet in the name of the Lord? 1 Kings 13:11-32.
22. Accuse God of deception and betrayal? Jer. 20:7
23. Go out in public naked? Is. 20:1-6 (Isaiah); 2 Sam. 6:20-22 (David); Micah 1:8 (Micah).
24. Attribute doubtful characteristics to God? 2 Sam. 6:6-7 (God kills in anger); Ex. 7:3 (God hardens Pharoah's heart); 1 Sam. 24:1, 10 (God punishes David for a sin he "moved" him to commit); 1 Kings 22:9-23 (God causes prophets to lie); Ez. 14:9 (God deceives prophets); Amos 3:6 (God is the cause of evil in a city); Ez. 20:25-26, 32 (God gave laws and judgments which were not good, including child sacrifice); Hos. 9:15-16 (God hates and curses); Deut. 20:10-11, Lev. 25:44 (God commands and condones slavery); 1 Sam. 16:14, 18:10 (God sends evil spirits to influence men); 2 Th. 2:11 (God will delude men); Ex. 32:14, Deut. 28:68, Amos 7:3, 6, Jonah 3:9, 10 Jer 26:13; 2 Sam. 24:16 (God changes his mind).
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.Further, in Matthew 10:40-41, Christ said,
He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.Yet in Matthew 23:34, Christ foretold that the prophets He would send would be rejected, persecuted, and killed, as happened to the leaders of the early Church and as happened to Joseph Smith:
He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward....
Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city....We will be held accountable for how we receive His servants. The challenge, of course, is to determine whether or not Joseph Smith was a true servant and prophet of God. In spite of the volumes of slander against him that enemies of the Church have prepared, their lies are refuted not only by the many witnesses who truly knew Joseph and experienced the miracles and divine manifestations associated with the restoration of the Gospel (among those witnesses are some of my own ancestors who left their own personal accounts) , but most importantly by the power of the Book of Mormon, which is a witness for Christ and powerful evidence that Joseph Smith really was a divinely called and authorized prophet of God.
God's nature does not change, and absolute truth does not change, but the rules and instructions God gives to man are adapted for our time and circumstances, and DO change. This is part of the reason why we need continuing revelation and living prophets.
Consider a few examples. Should modern Christians keep the feast of the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, and offer animal sacrifices? Yet the Old Testament tells us that these rites should be kept FOREVER (Exodus 12:14-24). Should we keep the Feast of Firstfruits, which was to be a "statute for ever throughout your generations" (Lev. 23:9-14), or the wave offerings of sacrificed animals, another "statute forever" (Lev. 23:15-21), or the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:33-44, esp. v. 41) or offerings of flour and frankincense (Lev. 24:5-9), also said to be everlasting and perpetual? Do modern Protestants and Catholics strictly observe the Sabbath day as taught in the Old Testament (absolutely no work or shopping and observing the Sabbath on Saturday)? Yet the Old Testament practices were said to be given as "a perpetual covenant" and a sign between God and Israel forever (Exodus 31:16-17). Many of these Old Testament ordinances and observances were changed in the original Church of Jesus Christ - not by men, but by revelation from God.
Further examples include circumcision, which was said to be "an everlasting covenant" in Genesis 17:13, yet this commandment was later changed, making circumcision of no importance at all (1 Corinthians 7:19, Galatians 5:6). The change was made through revelation to living apostles and prophets. A dramatic example of revealed change occurred in the revelation to Peter that showed him the Gospel was now to be preached to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. That revelation in Acts 10:9-18 occurred with the help of a vision in which Peter was commanded to eat "unclean" things. This revelation directly contradicted two previous Biblical revelations. One was the instruction from Christ that the Apostles were sent to preach to the house of Israel, not to the Gentiles (Matthew 10:5; see also Matthew 15:24); the other was the prior strict prohibitions against eating the very things that Peter was commanded to eat (Leviticus 11:2-47). Those changes may have been hard for Peter to accept, but they were from God and he obeyed. (Speaking of food, are Christians today allowed to eat fat? Yet a prohibition against eating fat in Leviticus 3:17 is said to be a perpetual statute.)
How can we account for the changes that occurred in laws and ordinances that were said to be perpetual or forever? God can give a set of laws that are to be ongoing until He issues a change - but He must do it, not man. The changes that took us away from many aspects of the Mosaic law, as with the changes away from the still older rules of Sabbath observance and circumcision, were made under divine inspiration after the Atonement of Christ had been completed, which fulfilled the Mosaic law and required or permitted change of other practices. God did not change, but the rules that we needed were changed. The changes were revealed by those having authority, not by committees. Besides change made through apostles and prophets, Christ also personally reversed, modified, or strengthened several previous teachings of past prophets (e.g., see Matthew 5, esp. v. 21-22, 27-28, and 31-44).
Based on the many changes in laws and commandments documented in the Bible, it is entirely incorrect to say that modern prophets are false if they reveal any changes in practices or rules. The real issue is not whether we agree with them, but whether they are true prophets or not. That question, again, can be answered by determining if the Book of Mormon is true. If it is not, Joseph Smith and all successive prophets in the Church were false. If it is true, then we should be careful not to reject those whom the Lord has called.
Much of the rancor of anti-Mormons over revisions to LDS texts is based on a serious misunderstanding of the nature of scripture. Some seem to think that every word of the Bible was dictated by God and preserved perfectly, resulting in an error-free text that never needed to be revised and whose content was undeniably correct and trustworthy. This position requires bold and resolute ignorance, for it is absolutely contrary to the historical record and the witness of scripture itself. For detailed information on this important topic, please see my page, Latter-day Saints and the Holy Bible: Frequently Asked Questions. As a corollary to the views of our critics, the revelations and understanding given to prophets were full and complete, requiring no need for updating or improving their writings.
To those with such views, I say don't expect God's revelations to prophets to come all at once, to all be suddenly clear and perfect. Isaiah described revelation as coming "precept upon precept,...line upon line; here a little, and there a little" (Is. 28:13-14). And what ends up being written is not necessarily dictated straight from the mouth of God, but can undergo human influence as it is being prepared. This may be particularly true for the writings that became the Doctrine and Covenants, where a variety of early revelations and instructions to the Church became less relevant in light of subsequent revelations and circumstances. Consider the writings of Jeremiah, which were recorded by Jeremiah's scribe, Baruch. As Jer. 36:32 explains, Baruch wrote all the words from Jeremiah that were recorded in a book. Unfortunately, King Jehoiakim of Judah burned the book that contained the words of Jeremiah. Jeremiah commanded his scribe, Baruch, to write on another roll the words of Jeremiah, "and there were added besides unto them many like words. Many like words added? This doesn't sound like original dictation straight from the mouth of God, perfectly preserved. Prophets speak or dictate by inspiration, but there can be changes and additions. It's a natural result of having continuing revelation from God, the rock that Christ described to Peter as a foundation for His Church.
We need living prophets for our time. The instructions God gave to Noah don't necessarily apply to our day, though I have no objections to your building a boat or hoarding animals (make sure you have the proper permits first). We do have living prophets today, with Gordon B. Hinckley as the current President of the Church, with divine authority that is easily traced back to Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith was given his authority and the keys of the kingdom by a visitation from angelic messengers, Peter, James, and John, who received their authority over the Church from Christ Himself. It's wonderful if it's true - and it is!
I'll summarize several key issues below, drawing upon some additional resources.
Some historical background for this topic is provided in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol.2, in the article "History of the Church," which describes young Joseph's activities prior to actually receiving the golden plates in 1827:
The events of the four-year interval between 1823 and 1827 doubtless helped Joseph Smith to mature in preparation for the responsibilities and challenges that subsequently came to him. There is some evidence that his father was involved in treasure hunting, a common activity among poor New England farmers who hoped through the use of magic to discover buried money, and it was necessary for Joseph to extricate himself from the mistaken notions of that superstition. The angel told Joseph that one of the reasons for the delay in giving him the gold plates was that he had dwelt on their monetary worth (PWJS, p. 7). In November 1825, Joseph and his father worked briefly with a man named Josiah Stowell of South Bainbridge (Afton), New York, who believed a Spanish treasure was located in Harmony, Pennsylvania, near the Susquehanna River. The project failed, and the Smiths gradually separated themselves from the money-digging activities of their neighbors to concentrate on the religious mission described by the angel. As a happy outgrowth of the Harmony project, while working there Joseph met Emma Hale, whom he married on January 18, 1827. In the meantime, his older brother Alvin died; Joseph was arrested in 1826 as a "glass looker" [actually, this may not have been the charge at all - see below] under a New York law that made it a crime "to tell fortunes, or where lost or stolen goods may be found" (see the legal definition of "Disorderly Persons," The Justice's Manual, Albany, New York, 1829, p. 144 ...); and his parents lost their farm through their inability to make the last mortgage payment. These misfortunes, along with other experiences, deepened and strengthened the young man as he learned to discern between good and evil and to endure opposition.As for this 1826 hearing, critics of the Church point to it as evidence of Joseph's poor character. It is often said that he ran afoul of the law in such questionable activities. This line of attack is based upon the persistent work of Rev. Wesley P. Walters, a professional anti-Mormon, who published a legal document from 1826 that supposedly shows that Joseph was convicted of glass looking. However, the highly questionable provenance and handling of this document raises the possibility of fraud, while even if the document is accepted at face value, its puzzling contents do not support the claim that Joseph was convicted. These issues are addressed in some detail by Russell C. McGregor and Kerry A. Shirts in "Letters to an Anti-Mormon," FARMS Review of Books, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1999, pp. 177-180 (the whole article spans pp. 90-298), from whose work the following analysis is drawn, in part.
Let's consider the questionable origins and handling of the document. When Walters found the relevant documents among historical records in a county office, he dishonestly removed the evidence from its lawful custodians without their permission, according to McGregor and Shirts. They make the case that he may have essentially stolen the documents that he found and took them--or a subset of them--to Yale University. The lawful custodians of the documents did not get them back for three months, and had to apply legal pressure to induce the return. The county authorities whose documents had been illegally removed only learned of the theft because Mr. Walters published at least some of them. There was no written description of the documents before he removed them, and no witnesses who could describe what he found to compare it what he returned. Thus, the possibility exists that the documents have been tampered with, or that important pieces of evidence were removed or destroyed, leaving only what might be construed as damaging.
Further, the evidence of the alleged conviction for a crime is not what Walters says it is, even if we accept his document. Misdemeanor trials were not recorded in New York at that time, just felony trials. Thus, the document Walters has provided, which lists "misdemeanor" as the charge by Joseph's name, cannot be an official court transcript of a trial. If it were, it would require the signatures of witnesses who gave testimony, but there were no such signatures. Even Walters would later admit that this was not a genuine trial, but a pretrial hearing. Yet the document, whose provenance and authenticity cannot be guaranteed due to Walters' questionable handling, ends with this statement: "And therefore the Court find [sic] the Defendant guilty." Such language cannot come from a pretrial hearing of any kind. Something seems rather odd about the unauthenticated document produced by Mr. Walters.
Even if we accept the document as authentic, it does not prove that Joseph was being tried for being a "glass looker" or for any other allegedly occult practices. Several defendants are listed, each with a charge to the side of their names. Joseph has a charge of simply "misdemeanor" at the side of his name. The label "glass looker" appears below his name, not beside it. As far as we know, it could not have been a charge because there was no such crime as glass looking in New York at that time (though fortune telling and magically finding lost objects were crimes).
There was a judge, King Noble, who is quoted as saying that Joseph was bound over for trial. But Judge Noble did not hear the case and can only be reporting hearsay. Judge Noble is reported to have said that Joseph avoided a full regular trial by fleeing from the area, but it's much more likely that he was acquitted, as McGregor and Shirts explain (p. 179):
I mentioned Justice Neely's costs of $2.68. There is also an amount of $0.19 listed as "warrants." Another document that Walters ran down was a bill presented by Constable De Zeng for that amount. Now it happens that $0.19 was the prescribed amount for a pretrial mittius (warrant of commitment back to prison for lack of bail), as set down in A Conductor Generalis of 1819. In other words, it was the amount the constable would charge for bringing an accused person in. If Justice Neely had found that there was a case for Joseph to answer, he would have ordered him bound over for trial at the next court of General Sessions, and De Zeng would have charged an additional $0.25, which was the prescribed amount for a posttrial warrant of commitment. But the charge was not levied: therefore, Joseph was not remanded to the custody of the constable, and so he was, in all probability, acquitted. That is precisely what Oliver Cowdery reported in Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate 2 (October 1835): 202.Some kind of hearing occurred, certainly. But there is little reason to trust Mr. Walters and his analysis. The most plausible scenario is that Joseph was accused and acquitted.
But even if all these arguments fail, convictions and even imprisonment for alleged crimes is not the sort of thing that we should use to reject those claiming to be prophets of the Lord. Seems like a number of chosen prophets of God in the Bible did actually "run afoul of the law"--and for charges more serious than any misdemeanor. Moses fled his Egyptian home, apparently with a murder charge hanging over him--and even with a genuine dead body to support the charge. Joseph in Egypt and Jeremiah in Jerusalem spent serious time in jail. Elijah, Isaiah, Paul, and others were accused of misdeeds by the governments of their days. And please don't forget the Savior, who was convicted by the false testimony of others and even executed for His alleged crimes. In fact, the false charge of treason would prove to not only be instrumental in the martyrdom of Jesus Christ, but also of a prophet of Jesus Christ named Joseph Smith.
Matthew Roper also gives a brief but good discussion of the issue of the trial in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, Volume 4, 1992, pp. 80-82, in an article reviewing Weldon Langfield's 1991 book, The Truth about Mormonism: A Former Adherent Analyzes the LDS Faith. Roper notes that Mormon scholars have been "understandably skeptical" of anti-Mormon claims based on Walters' work, since the three previously known versions of the trial "were contradictory on some essential details, such as who brought charges against Joseph, the nature of the charges, who testified, or whether there was a conviction at all.... While less renowned critics such as Langfield continue to rely upon the mistaken conclusions of Walters and the Tanners, recent research demonstrates that those conclusions were ill founded and that Joseph was acquitted of any crime." He also notes that "W. D. Purple, who claimed to have kept notes at the trial, declared that Joseph was acquitted" (see Marvin S. Hill, "Joseph Smith and the 1826 Trial: New Evidence and New Difficulties," Brigham Young University Studies, vol. 12, Winter 1972, pp. 226-230). (Roper also quotes Chenango County Historian Mae Smith about Walters' illegal activities and the steps they had to take to get the documents back, citing a letter of Mae Smith to Ronald Jackson, February 6, 1986, with a photocopy in Roper's possession.)
Anti-Mormon critics such as the Tanners, in their attempts to make Joseph look bad, also claim that Joseph took "leg bail" from the trial, saying that he was allowed to escape with the promise that he would stay out of town. That's a very odd claim, given that Joseph and Emma were married in that town 10 months later by a justice of the peace. The Tanners can't explain how this could be. But it's simple: Joseph was "discharged" as W.D. Purple said (Chenango Union newspaper, May of 1877). He took notes at the trial and appears to be the only eyewitness that wrote anything about it. He said, "It is hardly necessary to say that, as the testimony of Deacon Stowell could not be impeached, the prisoner was discharged, and in a few weeks left the town." That's the most reliable first-hand, non-Mormon evidence available. Joseph was discharged, not convicted, and did not take "leg bail," but simply left freely a few weeks later.
Some recent authors have again tried to make much of the 1826 trial. In reviewing the work of one such author, Richard Turley made the following observation:
Referring to Joseph Smith's well-known 1826 trial, for example, Krakauer asserts that "a disgruntled client filed a legal claim accusing Joseph of being a fraud" (Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (New York: Doubleday, 2003), p. 39). This assertion shows Krakauer's unfamiliarity with basic aspects of the trial in question, as well as his tendency to spin evidence negatively. In actuality, the trial resulted not from "a disgruntled client" but from persecutors who had Joseph hauled into court for being a disorderly person because of his supposed defrauding of his employer, Josiah Stowell. As a modern legal scholar who carefully studied the case has noted, however, Stowell "emphatically denied that he had been deceived or defrauded" (Gordon A. Madsen, "Joseph Smith's 1826 Trial: The Legal Setting," Brigham Young University Studies 30 [Spring 1990], 105). As a result, Joseph was found not guilty and discharged (ibid.)..A key resource on this topic is the paper by Gordon Madsen cited above ("Joseph Smith's 1826 Trial: The Legal Setting"). Joseph was acquitted.
Another useful article on this topic is "An Analysis of Wesley Walters' 'Joseph Smith's Bainbridge, N.Y., Court Trials'," by Malin Jacobs at Shields-research.org. Also see Joseph Bentley's "Legal Trials of Joseph Smith," which is the last section of that page. Update: Russell Anderson has provided Joseph Bentley's article in stand-alone form.
And where do you draw the line between miracles and magic? To critics, walking on water or turning water to wine or making lots of food appear from a small quantity can all be classed as magical or occult acts.
Joseph admits to faults in his youth. There is no claim to perfection or infallibility. If, as a young man, he was superstitious or dabbled in the practice of "glass looking," what would that tell us about him later in the role of prophet? Regardless of any foibles or unhealthy curiosities as a youth, he grew to become a great prophet, one through whom Jesus Christ restored the true Priesthood, brought back modern revelation, and instituted the restored Church of Jesus Christ on the earth. And powerful evidence for those claims can be found, among other places, in the Book of Mormon. A great miracle - not magic. Got a copy? Read it yet? And have you carefully thought about it and then prayed to know if it's true? (Oh, and please don't listen to those anti-Mormon pros who are absolutely horrified at the thought of somebody praying to get wisdom from God instead of from them. Pray, ask, think - but be sure to pray.)
"We never knew we were bad folks until Joseph told his vision. We were considered respectable til then, but at once people began to circulate falsehoods and stories in wonderful ways."There is no question that many people did not like Joseph Smith. He was hated enough that many joined in a conspiracy to arrest him on false charges and murder him while in the Carthage Jail. With such enemies, it should not be a surprise to find not only bullets but also a few unkind words directed at Joseph. To some critics, the fact that he had enemies is all it takes to condemn him, forgetting that Christ's Church in New Testament times was also spoken against everywhere and had numerous hateful critics who persecuted the saints and even killed the Lord.- William Smith, brother of Joseph Smith, Jr., quoted in Deseret Evening News, Jan. 20, 1894, p. 11.
The issue, though, is whether there is real substance to the many slanderous remarks that people have made about Joseph. Some early anti-Mormons worked hard to produce a large number of affidavits about Joseph Smith's character. Philastrus Hurlbut, twice excommunicated from the Church for immorality, became a bitter enemy. He collaborated with E. D. Howe, who published Mormonism Unvailed (sic) in 1834, which has been drawn upon endlessly by successive generations of anti-Mormon authors. According to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol.1, in the article "Anti-Mormon Publications,"
Hurlbut was hired by an anti-Mormon committee to find those who would attest to Smith's dishonesty. He "collected" affidavits from seventy-two contemporaries who professed to know Joseph Smith and were willing to speak against him. Mormonism Unvailed attempted to discredit Joseph Smith and his family by assembling these affidavits and nine letters written by Ezra Booth, also an apostate from the Church. These documents allege that the Smiths were money diggers and irresponsible people. Howe advanced the theory that Sidney Rigdon obtained a manuscript written by Solomon Spaulding, rewrote it into the Book of Mormon, and then convinced Joseph Smith to tell the public that he had translated the book from plates received from an angel. This theory served as an alternative to Joseph Smith's account until the Spaulding Manuscript was discovered in 1884 and was found to be unrelated to the Book of Mormon.Hurlbut's affidavits against Joseph Smith show surprising consistency of wording and style, as if Hurlbut either wrote them or directly influenced the content. These aren't reliable documents by any means (see Richard Lloyd Anderson, "Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reappraised," Brigham Young University Studies 10 (Spring 1970): 283-314; also Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 3 (1991): 52-80.)
In fact, the Howe-Hurlbut affidavits can be shown to be untrustworthy on issues of testable fact, as Donald L. Enders has shown in a ground-breaking article, "The Joseph Smith, Sr., Family: Farmers of the Genessee," in Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate, Jr., eds., Joseph Smith: The Prophet, the Man, (Provo: Brigham Young University, 1993), 213-225, as cited in FARMS Update No. 90, "Can the 1834 Affidavits Attacking the Smith Family Be Trusted?", Sept. 1993. Enders examined land and tax records, farm account books, soil surveys, surveys of historic buildings, agricultural experts, and other sources, to examine and evaluate the Smith farm and their agricultural practices and other economic activities. The evidence shows that the Smiths worked extremely hard, clearing tons of rock and about 6,000 trees to begin their farm. Just the fence around it required cutting six or seven thousand 10-foot rails of wood. The Smiths worked in numerous areas to earn money for the farm, while also producing nearly a ton of maple sugar each year. 1830 Manchester Township tax records appraise the family's holdings at the average level per acre for farms in the area, and at a value above all but one of the ten local farms owned by families who signed affidavits claiming the Smith's were "lazy," "indolent" people who appeared to "live without work." The affidavits are based on hostility, not an honest appraisal of Joseph Smith.
For related information on the unreliability of the attacks on Joseph Smith, see "Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reexamined," by Richard L. Anderson (FARMS Review of Books, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1991, pp. 52-80) and "Censoring the Joseph Smith Story" by Hugh Nibley.
Marvin S. Hill in Brigham Young University Studies, Vol. 30 (Fall 1990), p. 73, makes an important point:
If the Smiths were so reprehensible, why did the Presbyterian Church to which many of these witnesses belonged admit Lucy and her children to membership in 1824? There was nothing negative said about their character when they chose to leave the Church in 1828. William Smith was probably right when he said that his family did not learn that they were bad folks until after the Book of Mormon appeared.Many people who knew Joseph Smith and his family spoke of their good character and diligence. An example of one non-LDS person's favorable views of Joseph comes from a former neighbor, Orlando Saunders, who was interviewed in 1881. He said of the Smith family: "They were the best family in the neighborhood in case of sickness; one was at my house nearly all the time when my father died." Saunders told Frederic G. Mather that the Smiths "were very good people. Young Joe (as we called him then), has worked for me, and he was a good worker; they all were. . . . He was always a gentleman when about my place." (Quotes are given in R.L. Anderson, "Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reappraised," Brigham Young University Studies 10 (Spring 1970): 309.)
Most of the people who knew Joseph best loved him and testified of his honor and integrity. Hundreds knew Joseph well, including some of my own ancestors who have left their testimonies that they had known a real prophet, a man of God, and a good, honest person named Joseph Smith.
The critics also overlook Matthew 24:34, Mark 13:30, and Luke 21:32, where Christ makes prophecies that are still not fulfilled which involved "this generation" - very similar to the wording that critics condemn in Doctrine and Covenants 84:2-5. The standard used to make a false prophet out of Joseph Smith would also reject Jesus Christ. My advice: be careful about whom you condemn and how you reject possible messengers of God.
Doctrine and Covenants 84:2-5 can also be viewed as a command rather than prophecy because of its use of the word "shall." In the scriptures, "shall" often but not always conveys an imperative or conditional sense, as in "Thou shalt not kill." If someone kills, they aren't destroying prophecy, but breaking a commandment. While verse 5 is clearly a prophecy, speaking of the generation that shall not pass away until the house shall be built, verse 4 with its phrase "which temple shall be reared in this generation" may be viewed as a command to build the temple. Doctrine and Covenants 124 refers to that passage as a past command which was being lifted for the time. Yet Church leaders then and now, as far as I can tell, still feel that the command will ultimately need to be fulfilled. A similar situation is found in the command for the Israelites to take possession of Canaan. Weak efforts to keep that command failed, at which point the Lord put the command on hold and required a waiting period of 40 years before His people would be prepared to keep it and gain their lands of inheritance.
Shall a temple be built in Missouri? I believe so. The command to do so was put on hold, but when we do build it, you will be able to say that the command or the prophecy has been fulfilled. Delayed fulfillment does not invalidate the Lord's prophets!
The Lord has the right to adjust the timing of His statements and decrees. The prophet Jeremiah established a similar principle, namely, that the fulfillment of God's promises to bless or punish a nation depends on the righteousness or wickedness of that nation. Just as with Jonah's prophecy of Ninevah's destruction, which was withdrawn by the Lord when Ninevah repented, much to Jonah's distress, so also modern prophecies can be put on hold or changed depending on how humans exercise their free agency. This may take away the clear-cut, black-and-white world that our critics want, but that's not the world of the Bible. Listen to the words of the Lord in Jeremiah 18:7-10:
7. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;God has the right to change his plans in response to human actions. His purpose is not to be inflexible, but to bless His children. In applying Jeremiah 18:7-10 to the issue at hand (though I'm not sure it should be applied), one could argue that the Latter-day Saints in Missouri did not repent of their transgressions (as a community, anyway, though many individuals did) and lost the privilege of building the temple at the time (see D&C 105:2-6). However, the Lord later said to those who had sought to build it that their offering had been acceptable in the face of opposition from others and that it was not then required to attempt to build the temple at that time (see D&C 124:49-51). Different groups appear to be addressed in these two passages from the Doctrine and Covenants, so both may be compatible if we wish to apply D&C 105:2-6 to the issue of the temple. But I think the best approach is just to consider the issue of delayed fulfillment. Be patient - we'll yet see a temple reared in Jackson County, Missouri.
8. If that nation , against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
9. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10. If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them.
None of this will satisfy the critics, of course, and I'm sure they would have enjoyed ridiculing Jonah and Jeremiah had they been there at the time. If they are interested in understanding whether Joseph was a prophet or not, the issue to consider is not how to weight the various issues concerning the command to build a temple. The real meat is with the Book of Mormon, where Joseph's claim to prophetic gifts can be tested much more readily and logically.
Verily thus saith the Lord: It is wisdom in my servant David W. Patten, that he settle up all his business as soon as he possibly can, and make a disposition of his merchandise, that he may perform a mission unto me next spring, in company with others, even twelve including himself, to testify of my name and bear glad tidings unto all the world.Actually, this statement is better viewed as a command, as Russell C. McGregor and Kerry A. Shirts explain in "Letters to an Anti-Mormon" (FARMS Review of Books, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1999, pp. 90-298, citing page 176):
David W. Patten was commanded to "settle up his business as soon as he possibly" could, with a view to preparing for a mission. Although ... he died strong in the gospel, it has been argued that he didn't settle up his business as soon as he could; had he done so, he wouldn't have been "on the scene" to be killed at Crooked River.(For more on Patten's death and the hostilities associated with it, see my page on the 1838 "Mormon" War in Missouri.)But there is indeed a prophecy contained in that section, the prophecy that a twelve-man mission would depart the following spring, the spring of 1839. And it happens that on 26 April 1839 the Quorum of the Twelve did in fact depart on a mission of England [beginning from the place and time specified]. Had Patten been alive at the time, he would have been part of that mission. Thus, your rhetorical question, "Why would God describe the specifics of a mission that would never take place?" is moot, since the mission did in fact take place. Therefore it was entirely appropriate for Patten to prepare for it. The mission went ahead, with another in Elder Patten's place.
Winter 1829-1830. An Address To All Believers In Christ, David Whitmer, pages 30-31. Joseph Smith sent Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery to Toronto, Canada to sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon in response to a revelation that he claimed to have received from God.Many people, including B.H. Roberts, have taken Whitmer's widely-quoted account at face value, more or less. (Roberts actually asked if Whitmer's account was correct, would it still be possible to accept Joseph as a prophet? He then answered affirmatively. Some anti-Mormons, like Norman Geisler, claim that Roberts admitted to a false prophecy from Joseph. This is not the case.) However, David Whitmer's account may not be reliable. He wrote it in 1887, long after the events he described and long after Joseph Smith was dead. And Whitmer wrote it at a time when he was very hostile toward the Church. Since the evidence for this allegedly failed prophecy is a secondary source from someone who was hostile at the time, written at a time long removed from the events reported, it cannot be given much weight.The mission and the revelation was a total failure as recorded by David Whitmer. When Joseph Smith was asked why the revelation had failed he answered that he did not know how it was. David Whitmer records that Joseph Smith "...enquired of the Lord about it, and behold the following revelation came through the stone: 'Some revelations are of God: some revelations are of man: and some revelations are of the devil. So we see that the revelation to go to Toronto and sell the copy-right was not of God, but was of the devil or the heart of man."
Joseph Smith may have received permission from the Lord to cause some men to go to Canada in hopes of selling the copyright. David may have assumed that was necessarily a prophecy of success. Years later, as a bitter non-Mormon, having been away from the Church for 50 years, his recollection of the event may have been colored by his feelings.
The passage in the Doctrine and Covenants doesn't look like a prophecy to me, but a request from the Lord: "let my servant Joseph and his house have place therein, from generation to generation" (verse 56). Giving this request does not mean that the house will stand or be occupied forever. But it is still there.
But suppose Joseph did think that people lived on the moon - so what? Many people did in the early 1800s. There had been a newspaper hoax in Joseph's day in which it was claimed that Sir John Herschel had discovered that the moon was inhabited by people. If Joseph or Brigham Young or other Church leaders believed such errant reports, does it make those men false prophets? If President Hinckley, in the course of routine conversation, describes atoms in terms of the old model with spherical electrons in fixed orbits around a nucleus, has he lost credibility as a revelator chosen by God? Did any Old Testament prophet show a knowledge of science close to that of President Hinckley, or a knowledge that would be acceptable to the hard-hearted Bible critics of today? Did any of them grasp the nature of subatomic particles, of relativity, or - much easier - did they know the value of pi or proper ways to classify birds and mammals? If President Hinckley as a matter of opinion says that he expects the Green Bay Packers to go to the Superbowl, should we reject him if the Packers fall short? We do not believe that prophets will have divinely guided opinions on every matter 24 hours a day, but only prophets when acting as such.
Back to the allege moon story, even if Joseph were fooled by a false report in the paper, does that make him any less of a prophet than was Joshua, who was fooled by a false report from the Gibeonites in Joshua 9? Was he any less of a prophet than the blind patriarch Isaac, who was fooled by his son Jacob into giving a blessing meant for his brother (Genesis 27:12, 35)? (See also 1 Kings 13 for an example of a prophet being fooled by the lies of others.) Remember, prophets don't speak prophetically in every little thing.
But even if Joseph did have the talisman, there is no evidence that he ever used such a thing, much less used it for occult practices. If I die with a little metal disc in my pocket, does that prove I'm a Satan worshipper? Do the few Hebrew and Greek letters on that coin carry a Satanic message? What about the Latin word "Deus" that appears on it? That's the word for God - and unless you're a lot poorer than I think, chances are you occasionally have round metal objects in your pockets with a similar English word on it. Does the phrase "In God We Trust" make you a follower of the occult? And what about that all-seeing eye on the back of your dollar bills? Please spare yourself the shame of being caught dead or alive with such objects in your possession and forward them all to me at 20 Diane Lane, Appleton, WI 54915. Is that goodwill or what?
By the way, the ever-creative zeal of professional anti-Mormons to condemn modern prophets often seems like something right out of the Bible. I imagine that our modern critics would have really enjoyed living in ancient times, where they could have torn into other prophets like Moses or Joseph of old for their involvement in Egyptian ways or even seemingly "magical" practices. For example:
Good grief, they turned a rod into a snake during a pagan magic-fest with Egyptian magicians, performing the same occultic acts as the pagans! That's witchcraft! Moses and Aaron must die! Come buy our amazing new scrolls, "The Snake Makers" and "Behind the Mask of Mosesism." And come to our workshop tonight to learn how to witness to deluded Hebrews in love, and burn them.
The Generic Issue
The premise of the question about Gordon B. Hinckley, and many related questions about other prophets, is that a prophet should continually act under direct guidance from God so that nobody could ever deceive him and that no mistakes could ever be made. However, there is no Biblical basis for such a belief. Prophets are mortal men who have been ordained and chosen by God to be a mouthpiece for revelation and guidance, but that revelation only comes when God wills it, making it somewhat sporadic in both ancient and modern times. There is no expectation that every act, every decision, and every purchase by a prophet will be divinely and infallibly guided. As Joseph Smith said, "a prophet is only a prophet when acting as such." Critics of the Church say this is a cop out, but it is true and Biblical.
The Bible gives examples of prophets and apostles who were mortal and fallible, with obvious mistakes having been made by Jonah (shirking his duty), Moses (not circumcising his son), and Peter (denying Christ three times). But can real prophets be fooled by deceivers? Certainly. Joshua was fooled by the men of Gibeon, who came in disguise as if from a distant country when they were locals who normally would have been treated as enemies. In that story, given in Joshua 9:3-27, Joshua was deceived. He was a prophet, but he fell for the trick of the Gibeonites.
An even more dramatic example of a prophet being deceived, and of the mistakes that prophets can make, is given in 1 Kings 13. In that chapter, we read of a man of God with prophetic power and the gift of healing who was given an assignment by God and who was told by God not to eat or drink in that place. After having performed a great miracle, another "old prophet" wanted to meet the man of God and have the man of God eat and drink at his house. To achieve his vain desire, the old prophet told a lie, saying that an angel of God had told the old prophet that the man of God was indeed to come eat and drink after all. Sadly, the man of God - a powerful prophet - believed the lie. He was deceived (1 Kings 13:18 - though the Joseph Smith Translation has a notable difference by having the old prophet not telling a lie). He joined the old prophet at his home where he ate and drank, disobeying the instructions he had received from God. God then gave a revelation to the old prophet - the one who had lied! - saying that the man of God would be punished for his disobedience, that "thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers" (1 Kings 13:21,22). That prophecy was fulfilled as the man of God was killed by a lion on the way home. It seems pretty harsh to me, and anti-LDS critics would delight in attacking this story if it were in the Book of Mormon, but the story does illustrate that prophets can be deceived (and that they can sin - though I hope the old prophet repented in great sorrow). We do not believe that prophets are infallible - and neither do they. But we trust the Lord's promise that He will not let His properly chosen and anointed Prophet to lead the Church astray.
As a final example of prophets not receiving direct revelation for everything they do and say, in one of Paul's discussions of marriage in the New Testament, he speaks of an issue for which he had received "no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment" (1 Cor. 7:25-28). This seems to indicate that Paul was just giving his best judgment but did not feel that he had direct revelation from God on the topic. This passage made it into sacred scripture. Surely there were many other things Paul did, said, and even purchased that were not guided by infallible, direct revelation from God. But when God chose to give revelation to Paul, then he was acting as a true prophet and those revelations can be trusted (to the extent that they have been properly preserved and translated in our modern Bibles).
Gordon B. Hinckley and the Salamander Letter
Gordon B. Hinckley, before being made Prophet of the Church, was involved in purchasing some documents from Mark Hofmann, a documents dealer who sold the Church several counterfeit historical documents. Gordon B. Hinckley at that time was an Apostle serving in the First Presidency while the Prophet, Spencer W. Kimball, was ill. While Elder Hinckley never said the documents were authentic, it seems clear that he did not immediately and prophetically recognize that they were forged, otherwise the Church would not have shown interest in them. Many people, including FBI documents experts and historians, believed that some of Hoffman's forged documents were authentic. Some of those documents challenged some LDS views about Joseph Smith and played into the hands of critics.
In 1980, President Hinckley met Mark Hofmann, then a university student who claimed to have found an old Bible with a paper that appeared to be the original paper with characters copied by Joseph Smith from the gold plates and given to Martin Harris for examination by Charles Anthon. Though now known to be fraudulent, like many other documents from Hofmann, it was a convincing forgery. Shortly thereafter, Hofmann claimed to have found a record of Joseph Smith's blessing to his son, Joseph Smith III, in which he blessed the eleven-year-old boy to be the "successor to the Presidency of the High Priesthood," which some interpreted to mean that the son would be the next prophet. This letter appeared to strengthen the claims