How Does Joseph Smith Fare Against the Biblical Tests for a False Prophet?
MissJo, “Joseph Smith Rendered in the Style of a Medieval Religious Icon”
by Fred W. Anson
The Bible has four (4) tests for determining if a claimed prophet really is one or not. They are as follows:
Deu 13:1-11
Seducing God’s people into following a god other than the one that they’ve known:
Deu 18:18-22
Giving predictions of the future in order to deceive God’s people into following another god that fail to come to pass:
Mat 7:15-20
Living a life that doesn’t produce good fruit:
1 John 4:1-3
Denying that God eternal was incarnated as Jesus Christ:
Let’s see how Joseph Smith fares against these biblical criteria, shall we?
TEST 1: Seducing God’s people into following a God other than the one that they’ve known
Deuteronomy 13:1-4 (KJV)
If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
EVIDENCE AGAINST JOSEPH SMITH
Smith explicitly taught another God in the King Follett Discourse – he even bragged about doing so.
“I will prove that the world is wrong, by showing what God is. I am going to inquire after God; for I want you all to know Him, and to be familiar with Him; and if I am bringing you to a knowledge of Him, all persecutions against me ought to cease. You will then know that I am His servant; for I speak as one having authority.
I will go back to the beginning before the world was, to show what kind of a being God is. What sort of a being was God in the beginning? Open your ears and hear, all ye ends of the earth, for I am going to prove it to you by the Bible, and to tell you the designs of God in relation to the human race, and why He interferes with the affairs of man.
God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by His power, was to make himself visible—I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form—like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with Him, as one man talks and communes with another.”
(“The King Follett Sermon”, Ensign, April 1971)
TEST 2: Giving predictions of the future that fail to come to pass
Deuteronomy 18:18-22 (KJV)
I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?
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.
EVIDENCE AGAINST JOSEPH SMITH
Joseph Smith made several failed predictions for the future, but probably the most damning of Smith’s failed prophecies is the prophecy that the Centerpoint temple would be built in Missouri within Smith’s Generation:
“Yea, the word of the Lord concerning his church, established in the last days for the restoration of his people, as he has spoken by the mouth of his prophets, and for the gathering of his saints to stand upon Mount Zion, which shall be the city of New Jerusalem.
Which city shall be built, beginning at the temple lot, which is appointed by the finger of the Lord, in the western boundaries of the State of Missouri, and dedicated by the hand of Joseph Smith, Jun., and others with whom the Lord was well pleased.
Verily this is the word of the Lord, that the city New Jerusalem shall be built by the gathering of the saints, beginning at this place, even the place of the temple, which temple shall be reared in this generation.
For verily this generation shall not all pass away until an house shall be built unto the Lord, and a cloud shall rest upon it, which cloud shall be even the glory of the Lord, which shall fill the house . . .
Therefore, as I said concerning the sons of Moses for the sons of Moses and also the sons of Aaron shall offer an acceptable offering and sacrifice in the house of the Lord, which house shall be built unto the Lord in this generation, upon the consecrated spot as I have appointed,”
(Doctrines and Covenants 84:2-5, 31)
As Theologian and Christian Apologist, Matt Slick observes:
The Mormons were driven out of Jackson County in 1833. They were not gathered there in accordance with this prophecy dealing with building the temple.
The prophecy clearly states that the generation present when the prophecy was given would not pass away until the temple was built at the western boundaries of the state of Missouri which is in Independence.
This clearly failed.”
(Matt Slick, “Joseph Smith’s False Prophecies“, CARM website)
An aerial photograph of the Temple Lot in Independence, Missouri where Joseph Smith and the Saints failed to build a temple in the generation of 1832.
TEST 3: Living a life that doesn’t produce good fruit
Matthew 7:15-20 (KJV)
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
EVIDENCE AGAINST JOSEPH SMITH
So many to pick from here but I think that this one, from an official LdS Church source, shall suffice:
“Careful estimates put the number between 30 and 40 [polygamous wives of Joseph Smith]. See Hales, Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, 2:272–73.”
“Joseph Smith was sealed to a number of women who were already married.”
(LdS Church, “Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo”; official church website, retrieved 2016-01-02)
And let’s be clear, he married them and he had sex with them:
Sexuality in Joseph Smith’s Plural Marriages
Joseph Smith’s first wife, Emma, allegedly told the wife of Apostle George A. Smith, Lucy, that Joseph Smith’s plural wives were “celestial” only, that he had no earthly marital relations with them. “They were only sealed for eternity they were not to live with him and have children.” Lucy later wrote that when she told this to her husband:
He related to me the circumstance of his calling on Joseph late one evening and he was just taking a wash and Joseph told him that one of his wives had just been confined and Emma was the Midwife and he had been assisting her. He [George A. Smith] told me [Lucy Smith] this to prove to me that the women were married for time [as well as for eternity], as Emma had told me that Joseph never taught any such thing.
Because Reorganized Latter Day Saints claimed that Joseph Smith was not really married polygamously in the full (i.e., sexual) sense of the term, Utah Mormons (including Smith’s wives) affirmed repeatedly that he had physical sexual relations with them—despite the Victorian conventions in nineteenth-century American culture which ordinarily would have prevented any mention of sexuality.
For instance, Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner stated that she knew of children born to Smith’s plural wives: “I know he had six wives and I have known some of them from childhood up. I know he had three children. They told me. I think two are living today but they are not known as his children as they go by other names.” Melissa Lott Willes testified that she had been Smith’s wife “in very deed.” Emily Partridge Young said she “roomed” with Joseph the night following her marriage to him, and said that she had “carnal intercourse” with him.
Other early witnesses also affirmed this. Benjamin Johnson wrote “On the 15th of May … the Prophet again Came and at my hosue [house] ocupied the Same Room & Bed with my Sister that the month previous he had ocupied with the Daughter of the Later Bishop Partridge as his wife.” According to Joseph Bates Noble, Smith told him he had spent a night with Louisa Beaman.
When Angus Cannon, a Salt Lake City stake president, visited Joseph Smith III in 1905, the RLDS president asked rhetorically if these women were his father’s wives, then “how was it that there was no issue from them.” Cannon replied:
All I knew was that which Lucy Walker herself contends. They were so nervous and lived in such constant fear that they could not conceive. He made light of my reply. He said, “I am informed that Eliza Snow was a virgin at the time of her death.” I in turn said, “Brother Heber C. Kimball, I am informed, asked her the question if she was not a virgin although married to Joseph Smith and afterwards to Brigham Young, when she replied in a private gathering, ‘I thought you knew Joseph Smith better than that.’”
Cannon then mentioned that Sylvia Sessions Lyon, a plural wife of Smith, had had a child by him, Josephine Lyon Fisher. Josephine left an affidavit stating that her mother, Sylvia, when on her deathbed, told her that she (Josephine) was the daughter of Joseph Smith. In addition, posterity (i.e., sexuality) was an important theological element in Smith’s Abrahamic-promise justification for polygamy.”
(Todd Compton, “In Sacred Loneliness”)
The Wives of Joseph Smith (click to view full image)
Test 4: Denying that God eternal was incarnated as Jesus Christ
Of the four tests, this test, in the case of Joseph Smith, is the most interesting because a case can be made for it either way. On one, hand if taken purely at face value, Joseph Smith really did affirm and confess that “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh”. In fact, the Book of Mormon hammers this point home over and over and over again.
However, on the other hand, when you consider the historical context of this passage the nuance that John was also saying that Jesus Christ was, is, and always will be God eternal who has come in the flesh some problems emerge.
The first stop in considering this nuance can easily be found in John’s other writings for example:
John 1 (KJV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
1 John 1 (KJV)
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
So it’s very clear that the Apostle John believed and affirmed that Jesus Christ was indeed God eternal, a spiritual being, who was now tabernacled in human flesh: Fully God and fully man. This is just as another Apostle, Paul, described:
Philippians 2 (KJV)
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
This is what the Apostles taught. What John was writing against in this passage was the encroaching heresy of the Gnostics, which the NIV, Essentials Study Bible explains was as follows:
• 1Jn 4:2 •
As Christianity spread across the Mediterranean, it came into contact with other religions. Greeks and Romans tried to absorb the faith into their own philosophies, just as some Jews had initially done. Intellectual centers of the Mediterranean raised questions about Jesus: Who was he? If he was God, how could he die? And a popular new cult called Gnosticism (from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis) gained ground in an attempt to explain these things. The cult thrived, especially among the intellectual elite.
Could God Have a Body?
Gnostics balked at the Christian concept of God becoming human. Because they believed a physical body was intrinsically evil, they denied that a pure God could take on a body. Some dealt with the problem by claiming that Jesus was never a real human being, but a phantom, a temporary appearance of God who only looked human. Others proposed that God had descended on Jesus at his baptism, but left him before his death.
The apostle John debated in person with Gnostics of his day, and he had Gnostic thinking in mind when he wrote this letter. The very first sentence expressly states that the author has seen, heard and touched Jesus— implying that he could not have been a phantom or pure spirit.
Throughout the letter, and especially in 1 John 4: 2–3, the author lambastes those who deny that Jesus came in the flesh.
(“NIV, Essentials Study Bible”, Kindle Locations 123283-123308, Zondervan. Kindle Edition)
So, again, the controversy in John’s day, wasn’t Christ’s divine nature as spirit – the Gnostics had no problem with that – the problem was His human nature as a material, corporeal Being. Again, the issue wasn’t, “Is Jesus Christ, a divine spirit?”, the issue was, “Is Jesus Christ, a material human being?” To the latter, the Gnostics, said, “No!” Hence John’s words.
Ary Scheffer, “The Temptation of Christ” (1854)
THE CASES BOTH FOR AND AGAINST JOSEPH SMITH
This is the exact opposite of the question of 19th Century higher criticism (and I might add today) which was, “Was the human Jesus a divine spirit – that is God?” The Higher Critics said, “No!” Joseph Smith’s answer was, “Well, yes, but not the way that you think, he was, in reality, an Exalted Man, just like Heavenly Father – and they both have human bodies just like yours and mine.”
This explains why Joseph Smith in the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible changes the Apostle John’s words so they read like this:
John 1 (JST)
1 In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made which was made.
4 In him was the gospel, and the gospel was the life, and the life was the light of men;
5 And the light shineth in the world, and the world perceiveth it not.
Can you see what Joseph Smith did there? He changed Jesus Christ from God Eternal to just a man who brought the gospel. All of a sudden “the Word” is no longer, God Eternal incarnated in Jesus Christ, but rather “the word” – the gospel that the man Jesus Christ taught.
The Christ of Joseph Smith’s diminished, subordinated, nature is reiterated and revealed in the Books of Abraham and Mose where he is revealed to be just another pre-existent son of God and the brother of Satan:
Abraham 3
23 And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast before thou wast born.
24 And there stood among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and will make an earth whereon these may ;
25 And we will them herewith, to see if they will all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;
26 And they who their first shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second shall have added upon their heads for ever and ever.
27 And the said: Whom shall I ? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will the first.
28 And the was angry, and kept not his first ; and, at that day, many followed after him.
Moses 4
1 And I, the , spake unto Moses, saying: That , whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the , and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely will do it; wherefore me thine honor.
2 But, behold, my Beloved , which was my Beloved and from the beginning, said unto me—, thy done, and the be thine forever.
3 Wherefore, because that against me, and sought to destroy the of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be ;
4 And he became , yea, even the , the father of all , to and to blind men, and to lead them at his will, even as many as would not unto my voice.
Thus when you look at the 1 John 4:1-3 test, did Joseph “confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh”, well technically, yes. However, practically, no, since he did not confess that that that Jesus Christ who came in the flesh was, is, and ever shall be, God incarnate, he didn’t. A case can be made either way depending on whether the historical context is considered (which Mormons tend not to do) or ignored (which Mormons tend to do).
All this is why of the four biblical tests for a False Prophet, this last one is the “go-to” proof text for Latter-day Saints who want biblical support for Joseph Smith’s prophetic credentials. With the first three, there isn’t much “wiggle room” but with this last one, there is, so that’s the one that they tend to fixate on.
CONCLUSION
Joseph Smith is unquestionably a False Prophet according to the Biblical Criteria. Remember, you only have to fail one of these four tests to qualify as a False Prophet. Joseph Smith clearly fails three of the four, and a good case can be made that he failed the fourth one. Feelings aside, the evidence is clear: Joseph Smith, according to the Bible, is a False Prophet.
Beggar's Bread 
Dear Fred,
I’m so sorry that this comment is not relevant to your article. I just wanted to let you know that I had sent you an email with a few questions in case it got stuck in a spam filter or anything else may have happened. Thank you for your time.
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I sent you another email. Maybe my message went through this time.
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Again, nothing. Sorry.
Are you sending it to Information@BeggarsBread.org if not, please send it there. I have tested that email address and it’s working fine.
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I sent it to the email address you left. If it doesn’t show up this time, I’ll just have to leave my question here.
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Please just leave it here. That’s what we prefer anyhow.
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The angel Moroni? I never doubt any of Heavens visitations. We have many religions with the many Christian sects to lead the with the gospel. We can know one another by our fruits in spirit.
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“The angel Moroni? I never doubt any of Heavens visitations.”
Why not? The Apostle Paul said that we should:
“…though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”
— Galatians 1:8&9 (KJV)
Heck, he even said that, “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” in this passage, didn’t he?
“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
…
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.”
— 2 Corinthians 11:3-4; (KJV)
So I’m thinking that we should very much doubt visitations from heaven based on that, what do you think?
All that leads to my next point: a) What makes you think that it was a legitimate heavenly visitation based on what Paul said alone, and; b) Why do you believe that it happened at all given all the evidence pointing to the contrary?
“We have many religions with the many Christian sects to lead the with the gospel.”
OK, but again, how does one determine if “the gospel” that they lead with is the biblical gospel that Paul and the other Apostles taught? After all, Paul was clear that false, even Satanic gospels, can be and are taught. So how do you determine if any particular sect’s gospel is the true one?
“We can know one another by our fruits in spirit.”
Where do the biblical tests tell us to determine if knowing one another by “our fruits in spirit”, don’t they tell us to discern based on the content of our teachings and the character of our lives?
And based on the superb body of evidence that we have on Joseph Smith can you explain to us how he passes muster given the fact that he fails at least three of the four tests for a true prophet and possibly the fourth one too?
Thanks.
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