General Conference, ‘A Choice Seer Will I Raise Up.’ October 2016;“Perhaps the most stunning passage in the Book of Mormon to young Joseph may have been the third chapter of 2 Nephi. This chapter contains an ancient prophecy about a “choice seer” whom the Lord would raise up in the latter days—a seer named Joseph, named after his father. This future prophet would be “esteemed highly” and would do a work “of great worth” unto his people. He would “be great like unto Moses” and would be given “power to bring forth [God’s] word.”15 Consider how Joseph Smith must have felt as he realized that this prophecy was about him! He was not just translating history; he was translating a vision of the last days, of the miraculous Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ—and Joseph himself would help fulfill it!” – Craig C. Christensen
Daniel 9:24-26; “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”
This is one of the most incredible prophecies in all of the Bible. There’s no other prophecy that gives the actual year for when the Israelites could expect to receive their Messiah, and arguably, it’s the most debated as well.
Circa 531-530 BC Daniel read what Jeremiah told the Israelites about being in captivity for 70 years, and knew that only four years remained of their captivity. (See Jeremiah 25:10-14; 29:10-14.) In Daniel 9:2-19 he reminded God of His faithfulness through history, telling Him if ever there was a time they needed mercy, it was now.
From Daniel 2:24-27 we see a miraculous event when God told Daniel to deliver a message to the nation. The Lord basically gave the Israelites a game plan stretching out for the next 600 years, beginning at the end of the 70 years. The Lord’s interaction with His people is just amazing, and serves as a great reminder He’s always watching out for us!
The fulfillment of these events went on as predicted in stages from that time, until 70 AD with the complete destruction of the temple, and the dispersing of the Jewish people. They were a misplaced people group until 1947 when they began returning to Israel.
Notice in the biblical text how every stage of Daniel’s prophecy came to pass! The Israelites were taken captive and exiled to Babylon when Daniel wrote this. Around 445 BC Persian king Artaxerxes gave the Israelites permission to rebuild the temple, as well as Jerusalem, which had been sitting in ruins since the Babylonian takeover c. 586 BC.
All the adjectives we could use would seem redundant to many, however, the way in which the God of the Bible operates is much, much better than anything we’ve seen in Mormonism!
The Mormon reference today claims Joseph Smith was the 2nd fulfillment ofDeuteronomy 18:15-18, and the Church will also try and tell you Smith would be the one who will bring everything to pass that needs to happen during the end times.
In order for his prophecy to be true, one would have to ignore everything in Daniel, Genesis, Nehemiah, Isaiah, and Revelation, to name a few. See 2 Nephi 3:6-17 for more info. If I were witnessing to a Mormon on this subject, I’d ask them where Smith fits into the story we read about just in Daniel alone. Smith’s name isn’t mentioned there.
You see, the BoM is trying to take away the glory in the absolute rock solid evidence of how great God is, and the work He’s done throughout history. They’d love to overshadow Daniel’s prophecy, and insert 2nd Nephi. From the outside looking in, does the prophecy in the BoM sound real to you?
Sadly, there’s no mention of Jesus in this whole thing. Our hearts hurt for the Mormon people who have unfortunately bought into many of the lies Mr. Smith passed around. Pray that God will cause them to ask questions about Mr. Christiansen’s talk and wonder where Jesus fits into this.
With Love in Christ;
Michelle
Again, I will state that reviewing, understanding, and arguing with Mormon apologists about the obviously false prophecies of Joseph Smith is not as effective in confirming the polytheistic paganism of Mormon theology as is the 1984 “Lesson 21-Man May Become Like God,” the statement of the REAL polytheistic theology of Mormonism. Nevertheless, I will refer you to Deut. 18: 20-22, which was proclaimed by the God of Israel through Moses, a true prophet of God.
“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.”
This means that every jot and tittle, every detail, spoken by the prophet in the name of God must come to pass; every detail. If a part of a prophecy is generally correct through guessing or human reason, but the remaining parts false, the entire prophecy is false. For God does not give partially correct information to his REAL prophets, like Moses. Case in point, Joe Smith’s Section 87 of his Doctrine and Covenants. In this section, Smith supposedly, in the name of God, predicts the American Civil War in 1832.
On reading this, one must realize that Smith read numerous newspapers and was not as illiterate as the Mormon historians have made him out to be. His recitation of the condition of the Northern and Southern states twenty-eight years before 1861 were almost the same the as the published opinions of essayists and journalists in the newspapers available in New England in 1832, which forecasted the inevitable conflict that was going to occur. These were the general details known not only to Smith, but to many other literate men and women. 1) Division of the Northern and Southern states; 2) The Southern States seeking allies, from Great Britain; 3) Slaves rising up against their masters. Like I’ve said, many other people during this timeframe predicted that these three things would occur, and they did. But what about the specific details, said in the name of God, that did NOT occur? 1) Verse 3 of 87-“war shall be poured out upon all nations;” 2) Verse 5 of 87 – “And it shall come to pass also that the remnants who are left of the land will marshal themselves and shall become exceeding angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation:” 3) Verse 6 of 87- “. . .the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of ALL nations.”
What was not true, that Smith said in the name of God? War was not poured out on ALL nations. There was relative peace in other parts of the world, other than in the USA, from 1861-65. All nations were not affected by the American Civil War. The vexation spoken of in verse 5 was referring, by Smith, to the Gentiles, who were not specifically named, so the vexations mentioned were of no real consequence. The inhabitants of the entire EARTH did not mourn because of the American Civil War. Things went on as usual around the world while the fighting was occurring between the Northern and southern States. During the years of the American Civil War, no unusual lightning was noticed in any part of the USA, and no earthquakes, famine, or plagues, or intense periods of thunder, were recorded in other parts of the earth from 1861-65; and All the inhabitants of the earth were not exposed to the wrath, indignation, and chastening hand of God from 1861-65.
Hence, if, in Moses time, a person claiming to be a prophet of the Lord God came forth and delivered a prophecy in the name of God in several parts, saying things that most of the people knew would come to pass, but also saying other things that would not, and did not, come to pass, the prophecy, in and of itself, would be regarded as a false prophecy, and the prophet would be put to death, even if he protested and said, “I got part of the prophecy correct!” God does not deal with partial correctness, but total correctness and truth. Everything that God revealed to Moses was true and correct, and came to pass. There were other false prophecies made by Joseph Smith. This is merely one of them. So, if Smith had lived in the time of Moses, would he have been permitted to live after making such a prophecy in the name of God? I believe that every Latter-day Saint with a spark of reasoning can answer this question with a big NO!
The degree of deception that I, a frenetically zealous, though ignorant and misled, Mormon stake/district missionary and ward mission leader during most of my 30 active years in Mormonism, witnessed from the cream of the LDS ward, stake, regional, national, and international leadership hierarchy was startlingly revolting. I was personally discouraged, if not forbidden, at numerous times, between 1970 and 2000, by ward bishops, stake presidents, elders’ quorum presidents, seventies group leaders, stake high councilmen, regional representatives of the twelve apostles, GA seventies, and Mormon apostles from reading 19th Century Mormon scriptures that were regarded as canon LDS scripture, theology, and was personally instructed in a personal letter from Mormon Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, in 1975, to refrain from reading the “Journal of Discourses,” the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, the 1833 Book of Commandments, and to only give heed to the day-to-day admonitions of the current Mormon prophet.
I had been writing letters to McConkie since around early 1975 about the contradictions between the Book of Mormon and the statements and proclamations of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young after 1835, and about the discovery of the Joseph Smith Papyri in 1968, and their authoritative translation by the University of Chicago’s Egyptologist, Dr. Klaus Baer, which totally refuted the content of the Book of Abraham. McConkie warned me sternly not to read any materials that would refute current Mormon doctrine. His words in the letter were, “the less you know, the less you will question.”
These letters that I received from McConkie had not contained the kinds of words that corresponded to what I had heard in the old Mormon missionary film, “Man’s Search for Happiness,” which I had shown to hundreds of struggling Christians investigating the Mormon Church. “Prove all things. Hold fast that which is true.” It was a though McConkie was telling me to refrain from proving all things and accepting and holding fast to that which was true. I could tell the difference between black and white and facts placed into print as scripture and direct contradictions of those facts. I figured that if God had commanded something to be scripture and doctrine in 1835, it would remain as scripture and doctrine and not change; that was what the Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon stated. So I had decided to prove all things and to hold fast to those things that were true, even in the face of McConkie’s instructions.
So, after I began reading the Holy Bible as a child would read it, I realized, through the Holy Spirit, some pure and simple truths about biblical theology and Jesus’ precious gospel that I had abandoned in Mormonism. Most true-blue Mormons in the 21st Century will refuse to read “Lesson 21-Man May Become Like God,” even though it was read and accepted as canonized scripture and commandments in 1984 as a restatement of Joseph Smith’s 1844 “King Follett Discourse and Lorenzo Snow’s refinement of it in the late 1890s. If they read it, they would realize that it contradicts the theology of the Book of Mormon and of the canonized doctrines and theology of the Mormon Church, from 1835 to 1925, the “Lectures on Faith.” Most, that is 99 percent of, TBMs won’t take the time to request via inter-library loan a copy of one of the Doctrine and Covenants prior to 1925, in which the doctrinal section comprises only the canonized “Lectures on Faith.” If they are told by the current defenders of the faith that the “Lectures on Faith” were not canonized by Joseph Smith in the 1835 School of the Prophets, they will accept it as fact, without questioning the statement. It is very apparent that the Berean approach to studying the true Gospel of Jesus, as delineated in Acts 17, is not what is approved for Mormons. The writer, Luke, stated that “the Bereans were more noble in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
I believe that the deceiving defenders of true Mormon theology and doctrine, the defenders of the faith, are truly the enemies of truth, for they want the rank-and-file LDS Church membership to follow them to perdition on what might seem as road paved with good intentions. All they want is obedience to what they make appear as the word of their Mormon god, and when that obedience is questioned, they call the questioner a potential heretic. I recall what Mormon Apostle Bruce R. McConkie stated in an LDS General conference in 1976. He said that “if Joseph Smith was not a seer, a prophet, and a revelator, then his words and the words of other prophets about him will prove the untruth and falseness of the Mormon Church. No one should fear an investigation of the truths that Joseph the Seer produced in word and in print during his lifetime.” Was this not a blatant contraction in instruction from a Mormon apostle?