By Sandra Tanner

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Some people regard Mormonism’s past as irrelevant to its validity as a church today. However, Joseph Smith and his successors have always maintained that the LDS Church is both historically and doctrinally true. Below are several examples of historical events necessary for the validity of Mormon truth claims.

First Vision

Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, wrote that in the spring of 1820, when he was fourteen years old, there was a significant revival in his neighborhood. He recounted that “Some were contending for the Methodist faith, some for the Presbyterian, and some for the Baptist.” His mother, two brothers and his sister joined the Presbyterian Church. Then Smith went out into the woods to pray for wisdom concerning which church he should join. In answer to this prayer God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him as two separate, distinct beings. They told him not to join any of the churches “for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt” (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith—History 1:5-19). Mormon claims still stand on the historicity of that 1820 vision.

In 2002 LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley proclaimed:

Our whole strength rests on the validity of that vision. . . . It either occurred or it did not occur. If it did not, then this work is a fraud. If it did, then it is the most wonderful and important work under the heavens.
(Salt Lake Tribune, October 7, 2002, p. A6)

On the basis of Smith’s 1820 vision, Mormonism claims that God has rejected all other churches, and that no one outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the authority to baptize or act for God. (See Joseph Smith’s story at the back of any Pearl of Great Price.) Speaking in 1998, LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley declared that the Mormon Church is “the only true and living Church upon the face of the whole earth” (Deseret News, Church News, June 20, 1998, p. 7).

[Bold in quotations is added for emphasis and does not appear in originals.]

While the LDS Church claims to believe in God and Christ, they admit that their definition is very different than that held by historic Christianity. Latter-day Saints point to Smith’s first vision as proof that God the Father and Jesus Christ both have physical, resurrected bodies and are totally separate gods. In 1998 the Deseret News reported on President Hinckley’s comments while visiting Switzerland:

In bearing testimony of Jesus Christ, President Hinckley spoke of those outside the Church who say Latter-day Saints “do not believe in the traditional Christ. No, I don’t. The traditional Christ of whom they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak. For the Christ of whom I speak has been revealed in this the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. He, together with His Father, appeared to the boy Joseph Smith in the year 1820, and when Joseph left the grove that day, he knew more of the nature of God than all the learned ministers of the gospel of the ages. . . .”
(Deseret News, Church News section, week ending June 20, 1998, p. 7; PDF available here)

Thus Smith’s subjective experience carries more weight to a Mormon than all the Bible verses a Christian may quote. However, since the vision is also tied to certain historical events, one can challenge the story at those points, which present a number of inconsistencies. For further reading see:

• “Evolution of the First Vision and Teaching on God in Early Mormonism”
• Inventing Mormonism
• Mormonism and the Nature of God

Total Apostasy and Loss of Priesthood

Mormonism claims that the early Christian church contained all the same teachings the LDS embrace today, including temple marriage and the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods. However, with the death of Christ’s apostles, they believe the church fell into total apostasy, instituted false doctrine, changed the scriptures and lost the authority to minister in God’s name. Mormonism declares that God rejects every baptism performed by a minister outside of the LDS church. Not until Joseph Smith restored the “only true church” with the priesthood authority could a person have a valid baptism.

Joseph Smith stated that on May 15, 1829, John the Baptist appeared to him and his associate, Oliver Cowdery, and bestowed on them the keys of the Aaronic priesthood, thus giving them the authority to perform valid baptisms. Smith claimed that a month later (specific date unknown) Peter, James and John appeared to him and Cowdery and bestowed on them the Melchizedek priesthood. This priesthood authority, lost since the time of the original apostles, is supposed to be necessary to ordain any man as a minister of God. With these two priesthoods restored Smith had the correct authority to reestablish the “only true church” (Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 22:1-4; 13; 27:8; 84:18; Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith—History 1:68-70).

However, there are many historical problems with these alleged events. See:

• “LDS Priesthood — Invention or Restoration?”
• “By Whose Authority? Problems in LDS Priesthood Claims”
• “Priesthood” (mormonthink.com)

New Scripture

Joseph Smith set up his new church on April 6, 1830, in New York. Two months later the Book of Mormon was published, financed by Book of Mormon witness Martin Harris. This book purports to be a translation of an ancient record. The 1981 Introduction to the book states:

The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It is a record of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains, as does the Bible, the fulness of the everlasting gospel.

While this sounds like Mormonism gives the Bible equal authority with the Book of Mormon the LDS Articles of Faith qualify the Bible’s reliability. Article eight states:

We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

The Introduction to the Book of Mormon goes on to promise that if one prays for spiritual confirmation God will reveal the truthfulness of the record to him or her. It states:

Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is his revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the second coming of the Messiah.

Here we see the domino effect of praying about the Book of Mormon. Once it is believed it opens the door for full endorsement of Joseph Smith as God’s mouthpiece and the LDS Church itself as God’s only approved organization. It will also destroy a person’s confidence in the Bible. The Book of Mormon declares:

And the angel of the Lord said unto me: Thou hast beheld that the book [Bible] proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew; and when it proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew it contained the fulness of the gospel of the Lord, of whom the twelve apostles bear record; . . . Wherefore, these things go forth from the Jews in purity unto the Gentiles . . . And after they go forth . . . thou seest the formation of that great and abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away.
(1 Nephi 13:24-26)

But what physical evidence is there that the Book of Mormon is an historical document written by early inhabitants of the Americas? Scholars have raised many questions regarding these claims, presenting many well-researched problems in such works as:

• New Approaches to the Book of Mormon
• American Apocrypha
• The Creation of the Book of Mormon
• Also see our article, “Who Are the Lamanites?”

Besides the Book of Mormon the LDS Church has added two other books to their canon of scripture. LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie explained:

By the standard works of the Church is meant the following four volumes of scripture: The Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. The church uses the King James Version of the Bible, but acceptance of the Bible is coupled with reservation that it is true only insofar as translated correctly. (Eighth Article of Faith.) The other three, having been revealed in modern times in English, are accepted without qualification. (Mormon Doctrine, 1979, Bookcraft, p. 764)

However, there have been numerous changes in their scriptures. For more information, see:

• “Saintly Scissors: The Cutting Away of Unwanted Revelation”
• “Joseph Smith’s Changing Scriptures”
• Introduction to 3,913 Changes in the Book of Mormon
• “Changing the Revelations”
• Flaws in the Pearl of Great Price (PDF)

Also, the Book of Abraham, part of the Pearl of Great Price, has been shown to be a spurious document. Smith claimed that it was a “translation” of ancient papyrus, purchased by the Mormons in the 1830’s. However, Egyptologists have demonstrated that the actual text reads nothing like Smith’s “translation.” See:

• “Fall of the Book of Abraham”
• “The Oldest Biblical Text?”
• The Lost Book of Abraham (YouTube)
• By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus (online book)

Mormon Doctrine Today

Evangelicals and Mormons both struggle with the level of doctrinal maturity among their followers. However, Mormonism seems to make a deliberate effort to mask its more heretical teachings from potential converts and the press.

In the September 1994 Ensign magazine President Hinckley was quoted as saying that Joseph Smith’s 1844 King Follett sermon was “an important doctrinal document in the theology of the Church.” In this sermon Joseph Smith proclaimed:

I will prove that the world is wrong, by showing what God is. . . . God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! . . . I am going to tell you how God came to be God. . . . God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did; . . . and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, . . .
(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Deseret Book, pp. 345-346)

Joseph Smith’s sermon is very clear that there are multiple gods, that our god was once a mortal and achieved godhood after valiant effort. Yet when President Hinckley was asked about this doctrine in various interviews in 1997 he seemed to dismiss it. Time magazine reported:

On whether his church still holds that God the Father was once a man, he sounded uncertain, “I don’t know that we teach it. I don’t know that we emphasize it . . .” (Time, August 4, 1997, p. 56)

This raises the question: Is this a public relations ploy or is Mormonism truly moving away from Joseph Smith’s doctrine of plural gods?

Obviously many new converts are unaware of this teaching and would probably tell you they have never heard it. Surprisingly, the February 2002 Ensign reprinted the 1909 First Presidency statement affirming that

God himself is an exalted man, perfected, enthroned and supreme.

This statement reinforces Joseph Smith’s teaching that God was a mortal who advanced to Godhood. The First Presidency’s statement also teaches that we were born in a pre-earth life to “Heavenly parents” thus proclaiming the belief in a Heavenly Mother as well as a Heavenly Father (both of whom have resurrected bodies from their prior mortal life). Also, the LDS Melchizedek Priesthood manual for 2002 focused on the teachings of past president John Taylor. Throughout the manual Taylor affirmed there are “Gods that exist in the eternal worlds,” that God and man are the same “species” and that man’s goal is to become a “God” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: John Taylor, pp. 2-5, 82).

The manual also presents the LDS Church as the “Church and Kingdom of God,” the only church containing the “everlasting Gospel” and the only ones holding the “priesthood” authority to act in the name of God (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: John Taylor, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, pp. 17, 33, 35, 70, 72, 80, 84).

Since the LDS Church continues to print and distribute these older sermons, they obviously still endorse them. However, the Bible declares that there is only one God (Isaiah 43:10-11; Isaiah 44:6, 8) who has always been God (Malachi 3:6; Psalm 90:2).

For further reading on LDS historical matters see:

• “Grappling with the Past — LDS Church’s New Statements on Gospel Topics”
• “What’s Hidden in the New Headings? Changes in the LDS Scriptures”
• “Did Brigham Young Teach False Doctrine?”

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