The Second Book of Nephi Chapter 3; “Joseph in Egypt saw the Nephites in vision—He prophesied of Joseph Smith, the latter-day seer; of Moses, who would deliver Israel; and of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. About 588–570 B.C.”
2 Nephi 3:8-10; “And I will give unto him a commandment that he shall do none other work, save the work which I shall command him. And I will make him great in mine eyes; for he shall do my work. 9 And he shall be great like unto Moses, whom I have said I would raise up unto you, to deliver my people, O house of Israel. 10 And Moses will I raise up, to deliver thy people out of the land of Egypt.”
Deuteronomy 18:18; “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.”
Yesterday we looked at the supposed prophecy of Joe Smith’ s genealogy in the Book of Mormon. Without belaboring the issue, there’s something we wanted to point out in this whole saga.
The so-called prophecy in 2nd Nephi is important because it disses Moses, and exalts Joseph Smith.
That one verse in Deuteronomy is crucial when witnessing to Mormons because they believe it’s about their founder, not the biblical prophet who was a foreshadowing of Christ the Lord.
Take a quick look over the prophecy again that from 2nd Nephi that we’ve listed below, and compare it to the prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:18.
Problem –
Here’s a few other problems with this ‘prophecy’ –
If the scenario with Nephi supposedly took place c. BC 588-570, why are they talking about Moses in a future tense? In the heading of 2nd Nephi it said, ‘of Moses, who would deliver Israel…’
The Moses of the Bible was born c. BC 1525, which is 937 years before Nephi.
Problem –
There is no verse in the entire Bible where God said He would make someone great in His eyes. He did however, say that He wouldn’t share His glory! Isaiah 42:8.
Problem –
Joseph Smith was not ‘great like unto Moses’ as the prophecy claims. The vast majority of the world has never heard of Joseph Smith.
In conclusion beloved –
What does that passage in the BoM do for the everyday Mormon? How do they apply it to their own life? It can’t help my mother, and I’ve never heard her speak of this passage, or prophecy. Ever.
In addition to sharing the insights about the verse in Deuteronomy, I learned a really cool new thing about the Bible while doing research for this article. I found the following info at Assoc. for Biblical Research. It’s pretty cool when we can point to one verse in the Bible and know when an historical fact took place!
Associates for Biblical Research
“1 Kings 6:1, a pivotal reference for all Old Testament chronology, dates the Exodus 480 years before the fourth year of Solomon, accepted by virtually all scholars as 966 BC. This places the Exodus in ca. 1446 BC; a date which agrees with the so-called Early Date for the Exodus.
…relying on the Biblical chronology and the historical material, we will place Joseph in the Middle Kingdom Period, under two great rulers, Sesostris II (1897–1878 BC) and Sesostris III (1878–1843 BC).”
Leave a Reply