If there’s ever been a group of people cut from the same cloth, the leaders of Mormonism surely fit the bill. Check out the vocabulary these so-called men of God have used to describe Cain, Joseph Smith and his parents, as well as their prophet Lehi.
Cain Born of Goodly Parents?
The Way to Perfection, pp. 97 – 98; “BORN OF GOODLY PARENTS Cain was born of goodly parents. Michael, the great prince, who helped form the earth, was his father. No man, save Jesus Christ, was ever blessed with greater honor or responsibility than Michael. No man deserved to be honored more than he. He had been given the first place in the history of the world and was taught directly from the heavens. Cain had the great honor of being Adam’s son, and he, too, was privileged with the same blessings as his father. What a mighty man he could have been! How his name might have stood out with excellent luster as that of one of the valiant sons of God! How he might have been honored to the latest generation! But he would have none of it!” – Joseph Fielding Smith [emp. mine]
1.Don’t know if the Bible ever describes Adam and Eve as ‘goodly parents‘, but apparently the 10th prophet of Mormonism thought they were.
2.Cain’s father, Adam, is NOT Michael the Archangel, and never has been.
3.Neither Adam, nor Michael the Archangel, helped God Almighty form the earth.
Joseph Smith Born of Goodly Parents?
Spelling as in the original –
The Early Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision by Dean C. Jessee, BYU Studies, vol. 9 (1968-1969), Number 3 – Spring 1969 279 – 280; “I was born in the town of Charon in the of Vermont North America on the twenty third day of December A D 1805 of goodly Parents who spared no the pains to instructing me in christian religion at the age of about ten years my Father Joseph Smith Siegnior moved to Palmyra Ontario County in the State of New York…” [emp. mine]
1.A cursory glance of history will tell anyone Smith’s parents weren’t exactly the picture of what we’d call ‘good’. They practiced witchcraft, so how good is that?
2.Smith’s father, Joseph Smith Sr., rejected Christianity.
Nephi Born of Goodly Parents?
1 Nephi 1:1; “I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father…” [emp. mine]
1.What are the odds that an Israelite living in Jerusalem c. BC 600, would use the same vocabulary as a guy from America in the 19th century, some 2,400 years later?
2.What are the odds an unknown form of Egyptian would contain the same vernacular as Jacobean English from the 19th century?
3.What are the odds the language of this unknown form of Egyptian wouldn’t change over time? You’ll notice from the very first verse in Nephi to the end of the Book of Mormon in Moroni 10:34, the same language conventions were used for more than 1,100 years.
4.How was Nephi born of goodly parents if his father Lehi defied God’s orders not to go into Egypt?
Jeremiah 42:15-17; “And now therefore hear the word of the LORD, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there; 16 Then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die. 17 So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.”
Leave a Reply