Who Was Joseph Smith?

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thephilosopher6

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  • Joseph Smith was a prophet.
  • Joseph Smith was a fraud.
  • Joseph Smith was deceived by demons.
  • Joseph Smith was mentally ill.
  • Other.
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Were the gold plates real, or did he just make it all up?
 
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I don’t believe Joseph Smith was mentally ill, because I believe he knew exactly what he was doing. Now, I don’t rule out the possibility that he could have been mentally ill, but, from my perspective, and the New York state legal system, he seemed like a con man to me.
 
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Based on my being extremely familiar with a family that suffered from severe bipolar disorder, I’m willing to give him the benefit of doubt. Either way, the bottom line is that it’s a giant fraud and the LDS leaders of today are complicit in perpetuating this fraud.
 
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I agree. There’s no real indication to me that he was mentally ill, but everything else points to him being a clear con man.
 
He grew up in a family that encouraged pushing the bounds of religious thought. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he got carried away with his own movie.
 
Most Mormons know very little about Joseph Smith other than the Church approved stories that they hear. Most who have learned who he was have already left the church.
 
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I can second this. The same missionaries have been coming round to the house for over a year and I often invite them in for a conversation.

A lot of them are so uninformed to the point that they don’t really know their own church doctrine. It is well known that Mormons reject the Trinity, the Godhead, yet this one sister when I asked if they believed that Jesus was divine, flatly said “yes, Latter Day Saints think Jesus was divine.” I was stunned: “think.” But on the other hand I was glad they realized He is God.
 
Seeing the results is interesting. So far, it’s about even split with deceived by demons and mentally ill. The largest group says he was a fraud. Curious what the “other” voter thinks.
 
Well, Mormons do believe Jesus is divine, just in a very different than Christians do. To them, Jesus is the second god in the Mormon Godhead, united in purpose to Elohim and the Holy Spirit.
 
That explains a LOT right now, you don’t even know.

I knew they believed in gods of other planets attributed ultimate authority to the one true God, but its true a pagan religion.
 
The term used, if they use the term at all is henotheistic, which means they believe in multiple gods but only worship one. Although, I have seen for Mormon apologists call Mormonism tritheistic, although I don’t think that’s accurate, as they believe more than three gods. I don’t remember who it was, the Name Escapes me, but he said that yes Mormons are polytheistic, but that they shouldn’t use the term because of the negative connotations of it.
 
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According to Mormonism, all beings begin as eternal spirit intelligence’s awaiting spirit birth, including us. Well, once upon a time, one of these spirit intelligence’s underwent spirit birth to his god parents who ruled over their own planet(s), and he became known as ‘Elohim’ (in fact, his god parents too would have went through the same process as Elohim since, in Mormon cosmology, redemption and exaltation is an eternal cycle). Eventually, like all spirit children, Elohim was sent to take up a mortal body on his god’s own planet and worship his own god to attain redemption and exaltation. He was successful, and he and his wife were resurrected by their god father and then exalted to the status of godhood. Elohim could now create his own planets and have his own spirit children.

His first spirit child with his wife (known as the Heavenly Mother) is known as Jehovah, and his second spirit child is known as Lucifer, and of course every human who ever lived are his spirit children too including us. After Elohim and his family settled on the planet Kolob, Elohim commanded Jehovah to create earth, and so Jehovah organized the material necessary and formed the planet earth. Now, there was a war in heaven, because Lucifer wanted to be the redeemer of planet earth, yet Elohim and his council chose Jehovah to be the redeemer. Lucifer took 1/3 of the spirit children with him and they became the demons, that is, spirit children who would never attain mortal bodies. Another 1/3 who sided with Elohim and Jehovah would be able to attain mortal bodies on earth. A final 1/3, that is, the neutral ones, would also get mortal bodies but they would be cursed to have black skin while the ones who sided with Elohim would be blessed with white skin.

(Note: Elohim, Jehovah, and the Holy Spirit form the Mormon Godhead; that is, 3 gods who are united by one purpose in redeeming the earth. Elohim is the first god, Jehovah is the second god, and the Holy Spirit is the third god. Now, just to clarify, the Holy Spirit in Mormonism also seems to be a spirit child of Elohim, though he seems to have sacrificed attaining a mortal body in order to help Elohim and Jehovah in their plan of redeeming humanity.)
 
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The first spirit child to take up a mortal body was Michael, and he became known as Adam while in his mortal body. A companion was also sent with him and she became known as Eve. Lucifer was jealous and envious of Elohim and Jehovah, so he tempted Adam and Eve to commit the first sin. From there, Elohim gave Adam and many of his ancestors through his chosen of Israel the Mormon priesthood to conduct sacred rites. Eventually, Jehovah would attain a mortal body by the Virgin Mary and become known as Jesus. He would teach the world about Elohim’s plan and lead all people to Elohim. By this, he would be saviour to the world. After his ministry in Palestine, he went to America to minister to the Native Americans, who were really Jews who fled Palestine before the Babylonian Exile. Jesus rejoined himself in heaven with Elohim, and now the plan of Elohim is unfolding until the end of time comes, especially with the restoration of the Church through Joseph Smith, a prophet of Elohim, who perfected his message that had been corrupted.

When Jesus comes back and raises the dead, those Mormons who have completed all the sacred rights, (the most important being marriage in order to have spirit children) will be exalted to godhood. They will get their own planets, have spirit children of their own, and continue the eternal process of redemption and exaltation on their own planets.

That is what Mormonism teaches. Details might slightly differ from Mormon to Mormon, but what I gave you is the basic gist of it all. A lot of Mormons realize how strange and cult like their beliefs sound, and may deliberately try and hide them and make themselves sound more Christian even though they are far from being Christians.

I recommend this video:

It explains a lot.
 
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I think he was a liar. He took many people away from knowing the truth about Jesus Christ. I wouldn’t want to wake up on Judgment Day and answer for that.
 
Deceived by Satan obviously. Even if he were a “fraud” per se, he still would have been tricked by Satan because, in creating a false church, he could be, in theory, leading souls away from the One True Church.
 
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