Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, claimed to be a prophet of God, just like Muhammad. But much like Muhammad, Smith used a fraudulent tactic to back up his claims, a tactic we'll call the self-certifying strategy. It's simple, deceptive, and honestly a bit absurd: claim you're prophesied in some ancient text, but conveniently, the only proof of that prophecy is in your own hands.
Let’s break down how this makes Smith's prophetic claims fall apart. In 1830, Smith declared he was a true Prophet sent by God to restore the Lost gospel. To back it up, he claimed that the patriarch Joseph had prophesied his coming in the Bible. Where, you ask? He pointed to Genesis 50:33. Here's the problem: there is no Genesis 50:33; Genesis stops at verse 26. But no worry, Smith has an answer. He said that verse had been lost; luckily for him, he re-revealed it in his own revised translation, the Joseph Smith Translation. How convenient that the only evidence of Smith's prophetic claim was in the text he alone could provide.
Think about how crazy this is for just a second. To believe in Joseph Smith, you have to believe in this lost verse, and to believe in this verse, you have to trust Joseph Smith. It's a circular argument that demands blind faith. But more than that, it's an obvious red flag for fraud. Here’s the kicker: it makes God look totally foolish. We're supposed to believe that God gave a prophecy about Joseph Smith, then let the whole world forget it, only to send it down again to the very person the prophecy was about. What's the point of a prophecy if the only person who knows it is the one who it's about? It’s like walking around with a name tag that says, "I'm foretold, guys, just ask me."
Now let’s apply some basic logic. If God really foretold a prophet's coming, the prophecy would be verifiable; people could check it. God wouldn’t let the prophecy vanish only to re-reveal it to the person it's supposed to be about. That's absurd. No prophet in the Bible ever did this. They relied on either verifiable miracles, their own fulfilled prophecies, or existing scriptures that could be confirmed by others. But Smith did exactly what a false prophet would do: he wrote himself in the Bible.
And here’s the thing: most Mormons would rightly reject Muhammad because he did the exact same thing in the Quran. Look at Surah 61:6. Muhammad claims that Jesus foretold his coming by name, no less, but the only place that prophecy shows up is in the Quran itself. No historical source backs it up; it's basically Muhammad's "trust me, bro." Think about it: if Mormons reject Muhammad as a false prophet for using the self-certifying strategy, they should reject Joseph Smith for the same reason. Both men created a prophecy about themselves that was conveniently lost until God supposedly gave it to them again. But that's not how real prophecy works.
Speaking of prophecies, one of the clearest examples of Joseph Smith's failed prophecies comes from a revelation he claimed to receive in September of 1832. In Doctrine and Covenants section 84, Smith declared that a temple would be built in Independence, Missouri—the future New Jerusalem. According to this revelation, the temple would be constructed within the lifetime of the generation alive at that time: "For verily, this generation shall not pass away until a house shall be built unto the Lord." Smith’s prophecy was super specific: a temple would be built in that very spot, and it would happen within the lifetime of those alive in 1832.
Here’s the problem: that temple has never been built. Nearly two centuries have passed, and the temple lot in Independence, Missouri, still remains empty. Moses warned us about false prophets in Deuteronomy 18:22: "When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken." Smith's failed prophecy about the Missouri Temple is exactly what Moses was talking about: a clear sign of a false prophet.
You might argue that there are other reasons to trust Smith. After all, he claimed to have found the Golden Plates and miraculously translated them using the Urim and Thummim. Surely, that proves his prophetic gift, right? Well, not so fast. Perhaps the biggest apologetic nightmare for Mormons is the Book of Abraham, a supposed translation by Joseph Smith. In 1835, Smith purchased some ancient Egyptian papyri from a traveling exhibition. At that time, no one could read ancient Egyptian; this was before the Rosetta Stone was properly deciphered. So, Smith confidently claimed that the papyri he bought contained the writings of none other than the patriarch Abraham. Soon he released the Book of Abraham, and it was quickly canonized in the Pearl of Great Price, a central text in Mormon scripture.
Now let's talk about the famous facsimiles included with the Book of Abraham. Smith presented these as illustrations of the story he was telling, like facsimile 1, which he said showed Abraham about to be sacrificed by an Egyptian priest. The problem: that's not what the image shows at all. First off, even a casual observer can see that the priest's head looks off—it’s not even Egyptian. Turns out, when the original papyrus was rediscovered, experts confirmed that Smith added those details himself. The real image is a common Egyptian scene showing the god Anubis resurrecting Osiris on a lion couch. The knife and human head Smith included were totally invented.
But it gets even worse. The actual Egyptian text on the papyrus is now easily translatable, and it has absolutely nothing to do with Abraham. Abraham's name isn’t even mentioned in the text; it's just a standard funerary text known as the Book of Breathings, meant to guide the dead into the afterlife. Even the LDS Church admits now that the characters on the papyrus don't mention Abraham and that the text dates from 200 BC, 1800 years after Abraham would have lived.
Mormon apologists scramble to explain this away. Some argue that the key parts of the papyrus must have been lost—that's pretty convenient. Others say that Smith reinterpreted through revelation the Osiris scene to fit Abraham's story, but this is just pure speculation with no historical support. The reality is, the Book of Abraham is based on nothing more than Smith's imagination. And here's the thing: no Jews, Egyptians, or early Christians ever mentioned any Book of Abraham. If there was any book by such a great patriarch, you’d halfway expect to hear something.
Now, Mormons might point to the eleven witnesses who signed affidavits saying that they saw the golden plates, and yes, three of those men even claimed to have seen the angel Moroni. That’s pretty impressive on the surface.
Even if several people saw the gold plates, that says nothing about whether those plates contain Divine truth. The real issue isn't about the existence of the plates; it's about the content. Were they truly revealed by God? Of that, we have little evidence. In light of the Book of Abraham fiasco, Joseph Smith's miraculous translation skills are in serious doubt. If he could invent a text based on common Egyptian funerary scrolls, how can we trust his claims about the plates?
Let's not forget that the accounts from these witnesses are also extremely vague. There's very little detail about the appearance of Moroni or what these men's experiences were actually like. Compare this to the eyewitnesses of Jesus's resurrection. In the case of Jesus, his disciples didn't just have a quick, mysterious encounter; they touched him, they ate with him, they held conversations, and they spent time with him for 40 days before watching him ascend into heaven. Their experiences were concrete and spread out over time.
So, while the affidavits of Smith's witnesses might seem compelling at first, they really don't tell us much about the truth of the Book of Mormon. And the Book of Abraham gives us some serious reasons to question Smith’s so-called prophetic gifts. Subjective feelings of the spirit that a supposed witness might feel convincing, but they just can't override the overwhelming evidence against Joseph Smith's prophetic claims.
To my Mormon listeners, I've just scratched the surface here. I urge you to dig into the evidence that I presented in this video and also seriously research Jesus of the New Testament because the truth of the New Testament far outweighs the claims of Joseph Smith. As I talk about in these two playlists, be sure to check them out, and I'll see you over there. Thanks for watching.
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