Proselyting Techniques of Mormon Missionaries

[The Learner]

Bottomline, all the so-called LDS prophets including Joseph Smith were not Christians because of their hate towards African Americans. The so-called present leaders of LDS Church simply gave into public pressure.


1 John 2:8-12
Easy-to-Read Version
8 But what I write is also a new command. It is a true one; you can see its truth in Jesus and in yourselves. The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

9 Someone might say, “I am in the light,” but if they hate any of their brothers or sisters in God’s family, they are still in the darkness. 10 Those who love their brothers and sisters live in the light, and there is nothing in them that will make them do wrong. 11 But whoever hates their brother or sister is in darkness. They live in darkness. They don’t know where they are going, because the darkness has made them blind.

1 John 4:20
If we say we love God but hate any of our brothers or sisters in his family, we are liars. If we don’t love someone we have seen, how can we love God? We have never even seen him.

Me: we are all related in Adam.

 

[The Learner]

Other info on the Culture and influnces on Joseph smith:

The Corpus Hermeticum is a collection of treatises of a philosophical, religious, theological as well as theosophical nature. The collection played an important role in the development of the philosophy of alchemy and hermetism, and formed the basis for an alchemist philosophy of nature.
What is hermetic philosophy in simple terms?
Hermeticism - Wikipedia
In the Hermetic view, God is both the all (Greek: to pan) and the creator of the all: all created things pre-exist in God and God is the nature of the cosmos (being both the substance from which it proceeds and the governing principle which orders it), yet the things themselves and the cosmos were all created by God.

https://ia801606.us.archive.org/25/items/pdfy-jcWLRBnyXg-DUcMH/The%20Corpus%20Hermeticum.pdf

The Corpus Hermeticum is a collection of treatises of a philosophical, religious, theological as well as theosophical nature. The collection played an important role in the development of the philosophy of alchemy and hermetism, and formed the basis for an alchemist philosophy of nature. There are currently two views among scholars on the origins of hermetism. According to one, hermetism derived directly from Egypt, while according to the other it orginated in Greece. In the years 1945-46 a number of hermetic texts forming part of the now famous gnostic "library" were discovered in Nag-Hammadi (Chenosboskion) in Upper Egypt.

[Corpus Hermeticum in history] - PubMed

The originator and founder of hermetism was the mythical Hermes Trismegistos, a deity of the syncretic Hellenistic religion that came into being through the identification of the Greek god Hermes with the Egyptian god Thot. In later Hellenistsic times various hermetic writers considered Hermes...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

hermetic Magi's metaphysical teachings, Hermes Trismegus. JS used occult methods for his money digging.

- Paraceles, restore church Elijan & Elias
-John Salt Marsh taught 3 heavens before JS did.
-Muggletonians taught God was five feet tall with body parts.

 

[The Learner]

Emmanuel Swedenborg taught marriage for eternity.
John Finney Jr taught Spiritual wifery relates to LDS polygamy.
JS family was deep into the occult and false teachings of the day.
Esoteric Free Masonry influnced LDS temple rituals.
Radical Reformation along with German Quakers or Puritans wanted to restore an Adamic paradise on earth, restore the primitve Church, the elect claim the keys of the Church (specualtion on my part, which now only Jesus has).

Revelation 3:7
Jesus’ Letter to the Church in Philadelphia
“Write this to the angel of the church in Philadelphia: “Here is a message from the one who is holy and true, the one who holds the key of David. When he opens something, it cannot be closed. And when he closes something, it cannot be opened.

 

[The Learner]

- John Withrop Jr spread Hermetic, Rosicruican Mysteries, Parceisus Concepts. New England Poets.
- Folk Occult Magic, diving rods, magic circles to overpower guardian spirits assigned to treasures and Moroni was one related to the plates.
- Books avilible to Mormons includding those working with Smith (Sidney Rigdon and otehrs):
Theological Astronomies by Thomas Chamers & Dick Thomas. Nauvoo Library. LDS Newspapers quoted this source.
Thomas Paine Age of Reason taught worlds without number.
Swendenborg's books
Travels of Cyrus by Andrew Michael Ramsay
Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion read by Parley Pratt.
Key to the Science of Theology
William Morgan's books on Freemasonry exposed
Inquiry into the nature & tendecy of Speculative freemasonry by Stern
Some beauties of F.M. by Joshua Bradley
Note: JS brother was a Mason as was JS.
F.M. by Dana Ward & Thomas S. Webb
F.M. Monitor
View of the Hrbrews

Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, told Smith the contents of many books.

 

[The Learner]

Books JS donated to his local library: https://ensignpeakfoundation.org/wp...the-Nauvoo-Library-and-Literary-Institute.pdf

A Note on the Nauvoo Library and Literary Society - BYU Studies

Mormon historian Kenneth W. Godfrey provides a brief note about the Nauvoo Library and Literary Institute, which was founded in January of 1844 with Benjamin Winchester as chairman and Charles A. Foster as secretary. Seven prominent Mormons in Nauvoo were chosen to deliver lectures to the...

byustudies.byu.edu

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43040977

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/

 

[The Learner]

Books Owned by Joseph Smith

The following is a list of books that were evidently owned by Joseph Smith.

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New York Period
DeWolf and Brown, First Lines in Arithmetic, for the Use of Young Scholars. Hartford [Connecticut]: Printed and Published by William S. Marsh, 1818.
Location: Wilford C. Wood Collection, Wilford C. Wood Museum, Bountiful Utah
Name in book: Joseph Smiths Book January 31st 1818
Newlots
The name of Catherine, sister of Joseph Smith, is on an inside flyleaf
Mentioned in John Henry Evans, Joseph Smith, An American Prophet (New York: Macmillan, 1933), 437.
Note: According to Evans the First Lines in Arithmetic; also English Reader and Gospel Sonnets (see below) were given by Joseph Smith to a 15 year old boy named Richard Bush in Nauvoo, Illinois. It is not certain if the year that Bush obtained this book was in 1841. His date of birth is given variously as 12 March 1820 and 13 March 1826. Whether 1841 is the correct year of the arrival of Richard Bush is not known.
Pages from these books are reproduced in Wilford C. Wood, Joseph Smith Begins His Work, Vol. 2. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing Co., 1962; middle section.

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The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Together with the Apocrypha: Translated out of the original tongues, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised. With Canne's Marginal Notes and References.
Cooperstown, (N.Y.) Stereotyped, Printed and Published by H. & E. Phinney . . . 1828
[King James Version, with revisions of 1769]
Location: RLDS archives
Flyleaf:
The Book of the Jews And the property of
Joseph Smith Junior and Oliver Cowdery
Bought October the 8th 1829 at Egbert B Grandins
Book Store Palmyra Wayne County New York
Bottom of flyleaf:
Price $3.75
Holiness to the Lord
Joseph Smith's name appears in the Bible.
facing page 24: Joseph Smith Jr. and Oliver Cowd[e]ry Book
Esther: Joseph Smith Jr
page 683: Joseph Smith Jr
facing page 657: Joseph Smith Jr

This Bible was purchased by Oliver Cowdery on 8 October 1829 since Joseph Smith, Jr. was not at Palmyra at the time but arrived at his home in Harmony, Pennsylvania on 4 October 1829. Grandin published the Book of Mormon in 1830. It was used for Joseph Smith's correction of the Bible as markings were made corresponding to his manuscript revisions. Joseph Smith did not know Hebrew or Greek during the time he made the majority of the corrections to the Bible.

At first the full text was written out (for part of Genesis, all of Matthew, Mark and Luke) and then notations. Markings were made in the printed Bible that correspond to the short manuscript notations. Italic words that are crossed out in the Bible represent changes or deletions to be made.
Original manuscripts of Bible corrections in RLDS archives.
"Family Record" under "Marriages" has:
Joseph Smith Junr Emma Hale was married Jan 18 1827 Bainbridge, Chenango County State of New York
"The Phinney's [Henry and Elihu] imported all sorts of books from New York and Philadelphia and distributed them with their own publications through towns and villages from large wagons with moveable tops and counters, even providing a canal boat book store on the Erie Canal" (Margaret T. Hills, ed., The English Bible in America: A Bibliography of Editions of the Bible & the New Testament Published in America 1777 - 1957 [New York: American Bible Society and The New York Public Library, 1961], 69).

 

[The Learner]

Ohio Period
Horne, Thomas Hartwell. An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, from the 4th corrected edition, illustrated with numerous maps and fac-similes of Biblical Manuscripts. Philadelphia: E. Littell, 1825. 4 vols.
Location: RLDS archives
J D Hughes
Joseph Smith Jun. Kirtland O. Jan - 1834
Note: Vols. 2-4 only contain Joseph Smith's signature
Frederick Madison Smith book plate

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Stuart, Moses. A Grammar of the Hebrew Language. 5th edition, corrected and enlarged. Andover, Gould & Newman, publishers and printers, 1835. 271pp.[Fold out materials in back of the book]
Location: RLDS archives
Flyleaf: Joseph Smith Juns Book Bot. Nov. 20th 1835
D. H. Smith
Frederick Madison Smith book plate
Lamoni[,] Iowa[,] Aug. 31, 1895
Note: Joseph Smith along with other church elders took Hebrew lessons from Joshua Seixas in 1836. A certificate attesting to Smith's knowledge of Hebrew was signed by J[oshua]. Seixas on 30 March 1836. (LDS archives)

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Augustus Hahn, Biblia Hebraica, Lipsiae, Sumptibus Et Typis Caroli Tauchnitz, 1833. Printed in Hebrew.
Location: RLDS archives
Flyleaf: Joseph Smith jr Book
The signature of D.H. Smith appears in the front cover.
Two scraps of paper were inserted in the book.
Joseph's name is written on the back an inserted sheet titled, "Additional Observations for Discovering the Root": Joseph Smith Jr
Lamoni Church Library Nov 24 - 1922

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Other books owned
Smiley, Thomas T. Sacred Geography or a Description of the Places Mentioned in the Old and New Testament, intended to Promote a Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, accompanied by three maps . . . adapted to the use of schools and Private Families. Philadelphia, Printed for the author by W.P. Bason. Charleston, South Carolina, 1824. 12pp. [Maps: Map of the East as mentioned by Moses; Canaan, Palestine or the Holy Land; Countries mentioned in the New Testament]
Location: RLDS archives
Joseph Smith Jr
M J Whitehead

 

[The Learner]

Robbins, Royal. The World Displayed in its History and Geography, Embracing a History of the World, from the Creation to the Present Day, with General View of the Politics, Religion, Military and Naval Affairs, Arts, Literature, Manners, Customs and Society of Ancient as well as Modern Nations, to which is added, An Outline of Modern Geography. (2 vols. in 1, New York, W.W. Reed, 1832. 408pp.
Location: RLDS archives

name of Z. Coltrin is crossed out
Joseph Smith Jr Book
inside back cover: Cowdery Cowdery

Book said to be owned by Joseph Smith
James Gray, Mediatorial Reign of the Son of God (Baltimore, 1821)
Former location: RLDS archives

Mentioned by Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), 111. Brodie may have mistaken this book for the one that was owned by Samuel Harrison Smith. See below.

Possible books owned by Joseph Smith
The English Reader [Title page missing] n.d. 224pp.
Location: RLDS archives

Harret Smith
Joseph Smith {Sr./Jr.?]
Harverhill N Y [?]
Samuel

Note: This may not be our Joseph Smith family.

The English Reader
Location: Wilford C. Wood Collection

Mentioned in John Henry Evans, Joseph Smith An American Prophet, 437.

Gospel Sonnets or Spiritual Songs
Location: Wilford C. Wood Collection

Mentioned in John Henry Evans, Joseph Smith An American Prophet, 437.

Books owned by other members of the Smith family
Samuel Harrison Smith:

Gray, James. The Mediatorial Reign of the Son of God; or, the Absolute Ability and Willingness of Jesus Christ to save all mankind, demonstrated from the Scriptures. In which work an attempt is made to rescue the Gospel call from false philosophy. Baltimore. Published by Cushing & Jewett. 1821.
Location: Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University

on title page: Samuel Smith's Book February 20th 1830

Hyrum Smith

Whiston, William, translated, The Works of Flavius Josephus. Baltimore. Published by Armstrong and Plaskitt. 1830. Purchase date unknown.
Location: LDS archives

inside: Hyrum smiths Book

 

[The Learner]

Illinois Period
Alphabetical list of books donated by Joseph Smith to the Nauvoo Library and Literary Institute, 31 January 1844:

Apochryphal Testament
[William] Beaumont[']s Experiments [and Observations on the Gastric Juice]
[James Arlington] Bennett[']s [The American System of Practical] Book Keeping, 2 copies
Book of Mormon
[James] Brown's [An] Appeal, [from the British System of] gram[mar]
[James] Brown[']s [An] English Syntascope
[John Brown] Dictionary of the Holy Bible
Bruns' Travels
Catholic Manual
Catholic Piety
[A.B. Cleveland] Studies in Poetry & Prose
[John F. Dennett] Voyages & Travels of Ross[,] Perry & others
[Orville Dewey] Old World & the New, vol 1st
[Thomas] Dick[']s Philosophy [of a Future State]
[Philip] Doddrige[']s Sermons
[Benjamin Drake] Life of Tecunseh
Epicureo
[Hiram] Gillmore[']s Lectures [on Christianity]
[Charles A. Goodrich] History of the United States
[James] Hervey[']s Meditations [and Contemplations]
Krumanacher[']s Works
Merrills Harmony
Metropolitan[: A Monthly Journal of Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts]
[John Lawrence] Mosheim[']s Church History, 1 Vol
[Joel] Parker[']s Lectures on Universalism
[Parley P. Pratt] Millen[n]ium & other Poems [1840]
Reld & other Travels
[Charles] Rollin, 2 Vol
Sanders Discourse
[Walter] Scott[']s Poetical Works, in 5 vols
Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, by [John L.] Stephens 2 Vo[ls]
[John L.] Stephens Travels in Central America, 2 Vo[ls]
[Henry Philip Tappan] Review of Edward[']s On [the Freedom of] The Will
Times and Seasons 1 2 3 Vol also Vol 1 & 2
[Francois M.A. Voltaire] Historie de Charles [XII]
[Samuel] Whelpley[']s Compend[ium] [2 copies?]
[Samuel Wilcox] Home Physician

List from Kenneth W. Godfrey, "A Note on the Nauvoo Library and Literary Institute," Brigham Young University Studies 14 (Spring 1974):386-89.

 

[The Learner]

Like Mohammad LDS apologetists claim that JS could not read or write.
The fact he had many books and donated some proves othewise.

 

[The Learner]

Mormon Origins, Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon, Mormonism

Mormon Origins makes available historical documents relating to the beginnings of Mormonism.

user.xmission.com

Joseph Smith’s Developing Relationship with the Apocrypha | Religious Studies Center

Several approaches to interpreting Joseph Smith’s use of the so-called Jewish and Christian apocryphal literature have been employed both by critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereafter LDS), and by those professing faith in the Church and whose interests may be...

rsc.byu.edu

Personal Writings of Joseph Smith by Joseph Smith

Click to read more about Personal Writings of Joseph Smith by Joseph Smith. LibraryThing is a cataloging and social networking site for booklovers

www.librarything.com

books JS had access to:
The King James version of the Bible

- Ethan Smith's "Views of the Hebrews"

- Solomon Spaulding manuscript

- The Apocrypha

- The works of Flavius Josephus

- The complete works of Shakespeare

 

[Cassandra]

Note: in recent history LDS decided due to public pressure to allow African Americans into their priesthood.

I remember this as a child. My father told me that if you had more than 25% African American blood that you could not hold office. Late 50s

 

[The Learner]

I remember this as a child. My father told me that if you had more than 25% African American blood that you could not hold office. Late 50s

That is really sad friend. I was told the same thing about my Native American blood.

 

[The Learner]

Another BOM silly statement:

2 Nephi 30:6​

“…their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and a delightsome people.”

In 1981, the LDS Church decided to change what Joseph Smith called “the most correct of any book on earth” by reverting to the wording of the lone 1840 edition. The word “white” was replaced with the word “pure.”

...

2 Nephi 5:21 still says:

“And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, and they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.”

Third Nephi 2:12-15 continues to teach that dark-skinned Lamanites who converted unto the Lord had their curse “taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites.”

White and Delightsome or Pure and Delightsome? – A Look at 2 Nephi 30:6 – Mormonism Research Ministry

www.mrm.org

 

[TheRootOfDavid]

In short, Joseph Smith is regarded as a servant of God, a prophet. That doesn’t mean he was perfect- cause he was a sinner too.

I am an LDS Christian not because of Joseph Smith or Peter or Moses or any other man. But rather because of Christ, He is my King and I follow Him.

How do you follow Christ?

 

[The Learner]

How do you follow Christ?

Like yourself one step at a time. Prayer, godly living, fellowship, witnessing, serious bible study.

 

[TheRootOfDavid]

Like yourself one step at a time. Prayer, godly living, fellowship, witnessing, serious bible study.

How do you know I follow Jesus?

 

[TheRootOfDavid]

Like yourself one step at a time. Prayer, godly living, fellowship, witnessing, serious bible study.

If I were to follow Jesus it would not be by Prayer, godly living, fellowship, witnessing, serious bible study.

 

[The Learner]

How do you know I follow Jesus?

I do not, giving benefit of doub. If you are LDS, they I guess you do not follow the real Jesus.

 

[TheRootOfDavid]

I do not, giving benefit of doub. If you are LDS, they I guess you do not follow the real Jesus.

Thanks for the heads up.