The Occult and the Restoration Story: Joseph Smith and RLDS/LDS Origins

Joseph Smith wrote "Soon after the gospel was established in Kirtland...many false spirits were introduced, many strange visions were seen...men ran out of doors under the influence...some got upon the stumps of trees and shouted...[some] had the gift of tongues falsely, they would speak in a muttering, unnatural voice and their bodies be distorted..." (3)

"There were even phenomena similar to modern UFO's, but in a form that appealed to and could be recognized by viewers in that day. A large number of Mormons saw a huge "steamboat...painted in the finest style...filled with people...[sail] steady along over the city [of Kirtland]...right over the Temple..." One of the "witnesses" to this amazing event wrote in his journal: "Old Elder Beamon, who had died a few months before, was seen standing in the bow of the Boat swinging his hat and singing a well known hymn." (4)

"There were so many visions of angels, yet at the same time frightening demonic experiences, that Joseph Smith received a special "revelation" instructing the Saints in how to tell a devil from an angel or a glorified man."

Current focus -- The Occult History of Joseph Smith: The Interaction of the Mormon 'Earthly Spirit World' with 19th-Century Mormons: The 1830s

1836: The Haunting of Kirtland Temple:

From the article: Joseph Smith wrote "Soon after the gospel was established in Kirtland...many false spirits were introduced, many strange visions were seen...men ran out of doors under the influence...some got upon the stumps of trees and shouted...[some] had the gift of tongues falsely, they would speak in a muttering, unnatural voice and their bodies be distorted..."

Now where did this occur? One author says it was during the Mormon temple dedication in Kirtland, Ohio:
Temple dedications were often the scenes of such mysterious occurrences. Joseph Smith wrote of "many strange visions" that were seen when the first temple was dedicated at Kirkland, Ohio on 27 March 1836. It was noted that men would run about "under the influence," while others would "speak in a muttering, unnatural voice and their bodies [would] be distorted...."(49) 49. Joseph Smith, Times and Seasons, 1 April 1842, page 747. Source: GOD-MEN AND SPIRITUAL VEGETABLES: The Occult Worldview of Mormonism

Joseph Smith himself relayed that "Soon after the Gospel was established in Kirtland...many false spirits were introduced, many strange visions were seen, and wild, enthusiastic notions were entertained; men ran out doors under the influence of this spirit, and some of them got upon the stumps of trees and shouted, and all kinds of extravagances were entered into by them; one man pursued a ball that he said he saw flying in the air, until he came to a precipice, when he jumped into the top of a tree, which saved his life; and many ridiculous things were entered into... (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 213-214)

What kinds of "ridiculous things?"

The records of early Mormonism are replete with accounts of activity from the spirit world. According to John Whitmer, who was the official Church Historian in Joseph Smith's time, some converts to the new religion would "act like an Indian in the act of scalping," or would "slide or scoot on the floor with the rapidity of a serpent...."(46) During the ordination ceremony of Harvey Whitlock as a high priest in 1831, he was seen to have "turned as black as Lyman was white," his fingers "were set like claws," and, unable to speak, he went about the room with eyes "as the shape of oval Os...." (47) On another occasion, one man, who weighed over 200 pounds, was thrown through the air by an unseen force, and another "began screaming like a panther...."(48)

Cited sources: 46. John Whitmer, John Whitmer's History (Salt Lake City, Utah: Modern Microfilm Company, n.d.), Chapter Six. 47. Max H. Parkin, Conflict at Kirtland: A Study of the Nature and Causes of External and Internal Conflict of the Mormons in Ohio Between 1830 and 1838 (Salt Lake City: Max Parkin, 1966), pages 79-80. 48. Parkin, ibid. Secondary Source: GOD-MEN AND SPIRITUAL VEGETABLES: The Occult Worldview of Mormonism

Undecided readers,

If you peruse the Free Republic religion forums you will notice a pattern. There’s an anti-Mormon group of people here that spends a great deal of their time attacking the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They post regurgitated propaganda on an almost daily basis.

They have a misguided obsession. You can witness many different tactics employed that you might find quite interesting. The straw man argument is a big favorite and is frequently preceded by cherry-picking quotes or other material. After the “quotation” the attacker will misrepresent what has been said or what was meant and then attack their own interpretation.

Another favorite is posting scripture or statements which on their own really present no dilemma. They make something out of nothing while never bringing up a single objection that hasn’t been addressed a hundred times before.

Sometimes they cruise the headlines of the day seeking any story that might be twisted into making the Church look bad. Anything will do, just watch the progression of posts following it and see what I mean.

After reading their posts, I invite you to seek the truth about whatever “issue” they seem to be “revealing” or “exposing”. I promise that if you do so with honest intent, the “ahah” moments you will have will be many and frequent. You will start to recognize the tactics employed to cleverly twist and attack and will likely chuckle the more you see. In actuality, there’s nothing new here. It’s all been addressed many times before.

Here’s a few links to get your started from a different viewpoint. I have found that the vast majority of the “issues” brought up can be found and addressed at http://www.fairlds.org/ but here’s more:

http://scriptures.lds.org/
http://www.lds.org
http://www.fairlds.org/
http://www.mormonapologetics.org/
http://www.mormonwiki.com/Main_Page
http://www.lightplanet.com/response/index.html
http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDS_Intro.shtml
http://www.answeringantimormons.com/index.htm
http://promormon.blogspot.com/

Now you will likely notice the “you never address our points” posts pop up as usual. All after providing the answers just as you have here. Will you wear blinders too? Seek truth. Find out for yourself.

>>>

An Open Letter to Mormons who are reading this thread...

If you peruse the Free Republic religion forums you
will notice a pattern. There’s a group of Christians
who spend a great deal of time posting from Official
Mormon Sources - both the Book of Mormon as well as
Mormon Prophets and Church materials.

You will also notice that many of these Christians
are former Mormons who have left Mormonism and come
to know the Biblical Jesus Christ and His Gospel of Grace.

They have a passion to reach other Mormons to share what
they learned about Salvation by grace and apart from
human works. Part of this process is by necessity, negative.
To correct error, you must identify the error and explain how
it contradicts the truth.

Since you already believe in truth and falsehood, I’m
not telling you anything you don’t already know. Something
cannot be true when it contradicts something else that is
true. One must be false.

Of course, they are attacked regularly by a very small
group of self-styled defenders of Mormonism who are
zealous, but have little knowledge beyond what the Mormon
Church tells them.

You will notice that these mormons cannot identify ANY:

… Facts
… Evidence
… Logical support

... that any reasonable person could examine and conclude
that Mormonism is true.

They must content themselves with posting links from
the same official LDS sources that the Christians
quote.

Have you ever wondered why there are no facts that
can be verified? No evidence that supports the claims
of mormonism? No logical argument that supports the
claims of mormonism?

Every spade of dirt turned over in the Holy Land adds to
the facts, evidence and logical argument in support of
the Bible. Every spade of dirt turned over in America
fails to find any facts, evidence or basis for a logical
argument in support of mormonism.

If mormonism is true, there should be all three.

Right?

Yet none of those things exists to support mormonism.

None.

Why?

They do try to pass their feelings off as truth, which
of course, they cannot be, since they are subjective.

People deserve more than feelings, failure to respond,
and more official links that themselves contain no
facts, evidence, logical argument, etc.

The best the group of mormons have been able to do
is construct ad hominem attacks against Christians,
which is always a sign that they have no facts,
evidence of logical arguments.

You have certainly witnessed this here many times as
you read these threads, so I am not telling you
anything you haven’t verified with your own eyes.

After reading both sides on this thread and others,
you may very well be wondering about what you were
taught when you joined the LDS church.

You also may be wondering how to resolve the lack
of facts, evidence and illogical nature of Mormon
claims.

Many have approached those of us who are Christians
asking where to find out more and some, even, to ask
how to leave the Church and learn more about Christ’s
Gospel of Grace. How to get off the human works treadmill
and come to know the joy of salvation by grace through
faith. We’ve been happy to answer questions and share how
to know the Biblical Christ.

Many, after much honest examination of the facts, soul-
searching and wrestling, have left the LDS group to
pursue knowing the real, Biblical Christ and to accept
His Gospel of Grace.

We invite you to take a first step. If mormonism is true,
it should withstand thorough examination, right? If it is
false, it will fail the test of your mind and heart.

Christ identified the Greatest Command as “Loving the Lord
your God with ALL your heart, ALL your soul and ALL YOUR MIND.

Here is a chance to begin fulfilling His command:

Here are a few links to get you started in your quest
to love God with ALL your mind and come to know the
Biblical Christ.

http://www.irr.org/mit/default.html
http://www.exmormonsforjesus.org/
http://4mormon.org/ex-mormon.php
http://www.exmormon.org/
http://www.mormoncurtain.com/

We also invite you to private freepmail any or even
every Christian on this thread to ask questions about
the concerns you find. We will always do our best to
directly answer your questions with facts, evidence
and logical support from the Bible.

There is a wonderful God of Love and Grace who offers
you salvation by both - and apart from “all you can do”.

Gifts don’t cost anything, or they are not free.

There is the gift of salvation, set aside for you to
respond to. Today is the day.

best,
ampu

<<<

Dabbling in witchcraft..

Joey Smith and his family were into sorcery...and forune teeling...and divining for buried gold and treasure..

Joey Smith always carried his Jupiter talisman...a small disc with witchcraft symbols on it to give him luck, and power over other people..

Probably another valid reason the Christians in that town wanted the mormons to leave...

They wanted the evil out of their mist..

The mormons are lucky they werent all put to death...

Suffer not a witch or sorcerer to live..Exodus 22:18

For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or black magic, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft,

So Saul died because of his unfaithfulness to the LORD: He did not obey the word of the LORD. He asked a medium to request information [from a dead person]. 1 Chronicles 10:13

When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number of them who had been practicing sorcery brought their incantation books and burned them at a public bonfire. Acts 19:17-19

The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The happy voices of brides and grooms will never be heard in you again. For your merchants were the greatest in the world, and you deceived the nations with your sorceries. Revelation 18:23

Now you know full well the doings of our lower sinful natures. Fornication, impurity, indecency, idol-worship, sorcery; idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies, Envies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. Of the which I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Galations 5:19-21

Discerning, decided readers,

Some Non Defenders Non Defend by claiming what we say has been covered over & over @ links they provide...
These Non Defenders claim these are Non issues...
...and that all you need to do is click, pop in a word in the search, click again and voila!
...”needles of wisdom” just pour forth from your computer screen...

Some Non Defenders claim one such haystack link worth investigatin' is fairlds.org...
...So when you take up this defective deflective challenge...
...and put in a phrase like “Adam-God” [re: Brigham Young's teaching that the first man, Adam, was God] in the search box of that Web site, the second entry that pops up from that search is Church doctrine/Repudiated concepts/Adam-God [This is FAIR's WIKI format attempt to address some things]

Some Non Defenders claim such entries at their links both "address" and "answer" these claims...
...yet when you check under the hood of this lemon, you get varied Lds apologists' opinion about Brigham's "Adam is God" teaching...
...like: Brigham was wrong [Joseph Smith said the very “first principle” of the Mormon gospel was to know the character of God, (King Follet funeral sermon), yet Brigham couldn't get a kindergarten identity issue down in not being able to distinguish Adam from God?]

Some Non Defenders claim such entries at their links reinforce for us such attractive snapshots of Brigham Young, such as Lds apologist Van Hale's concession that Brigham was ”mistaken” about who Adam was and that Adam, after all, was a ”complex doctrinal subject.”

Some Non Defenders claim such entries at their links love to cite Lds “apostle” letters from almost 30 years ago, letters which concede THAT BRIGHAM YOUNG, CONTRADICTED BRIGHAM YOUNG, AND THE ISSUE BECOMES ONE OF WHICH BRIGHAM YOUNG WE WILL BELIEVE. [Lds "apostle" Bruce R. McConkie, 1981 letter cited on link above]

Therefore, instead of Non Defenders just telling you outright that Lds “apostles” concede that...
Brigham Young taught falsely who God was...
But didn't always identify Adam as God...
Therefore, Brigham Young was theologically schizophrenic...
And that Brigham Young was 100% untrustworthy, because we don't know (still) which Brigham Young to believe?
...he makes you click twice, type in a word, and read an entire Mormon FAIR Wiki entry!!!

Some Non Defenders claim such entries at their links don't all agree what Mormon apologists should do about Brigham's out-of-tune “glitches” … as if you – the spiritual inquirer – just warm up and tingle all inside whenever you hear admissions from “the faithful” that their flock front man “glitches” on basic Genesis quizzes like, “Who was Adam?” But, not wanting to psychoanalyze Brigham Young as spiritually schizophrenic, what's a Mormon apologist to do?

Well, that narrows down the conclusions left for the average Mormon apologist, if you follow the links provided by some Non Defenders.

Why, if Brigham wasn't schizophrenic, what then?
Final “options?”...
The summations below precede the bracketed {actual quotations found @ one of Non Defender's links -- FAIR's WIKI entry on Adam-God being "repudiated"}

#1 Brigham was PR-challenged {“A final explanation is that Brigham Young believed and taught Adam-God...but he...didn't live long enough to 'develop' the teaching [read: spin] into something that could be reconciled with LDS scripture...”}
#2 Brigham inspired a LOT of Mormon agnostic followers about who God was: {”We don't know...In this view, we simply don't know what Brigham Young meant...”}
#3 Brigham's plain English was non-interpretable minus either a decoder ring, or dark hat, or the Joe Smith special urim and thummim {"We simply don't know what Brigham Young meant."...why that could only mean they don't know plain English!!!}
#4 Brigham's “revelation receptor” was “glitch” prone – comparable to the Ford Pinto of a later era {”An anomaly is a glitch.... A classic example of an anomaly in the LDS tradition is the so-called "Adam-God theory." -- BYU professor Stephen Robinson}
#5 Brigham inspired in the average Mormon apologist this “confessional credo”: “How do we Mormons deal with these questions? We don't. We abandon them...like we abandon you the inquirer...like we abandon the questions on FR.” {”So how do Latter-day Saints deal with the phenomenon? WE DON'T; WE SIMPLY SET IT ASIDE.” – BYU professor Stephen Robinson}

Such “gems of wisdom” await you all...all at the multiple click of a mouse!

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