> Greenleaf explained that the apostles had absolutely no motive for fabrication – and every human motive to recant their stories. But they did not.
Just like Joseph Smith and the early Mormons.
Mormons? What about modern evolutionists?
Hey...what about .....Democrats?
Is this an invitation for Mormon "bashing?"
I think there is hardly any comaparison between the foudners of Mormonism and the Apostles.
We are supposed to believe that an angle named Mormoni, never before mentioned in the Bible, appeared before an illiterate upstate New Yorker named Joseph Smith, provided him with a set of golden tablets written in an unknown language, gave him some magic glasses which allowed him to read said tablets through a cloth which covered them, that these tablets were transcribed into a "Book of Mormon", that several witneses, all of whom appear to be related to one another or to Smith himself, "witnessed" this and attested to its veracity, and finally - that an entire civilization - no traces of which have ever been found - existed in North America before the Europeans came and was detailed in the same Book of Mormon?
I don't think Mormons today are fools or insincere people. I believe most of them believe this - probably because cultural and family ties are strong. But that hardly makes the story of Joseph Smith and the Bible in any way, manner, shape or form analogous.
Smith wanted fame and forged the tablets.
What did Christ have to gain by dying and before death ordering his body removed from the tomb, an almost impossible feat to begin with?
With all due respect, Joseph Smith and the leaders of Mormonism did quite well out of the deal.
The author's argument actually falls apart because the same can be said about many political and religious movements down through history.
For instance, early socialists and communists showed devotion to their "cause" similar to that of early Christians despite great persecution. And for many decades the chance of their coming to power was very slim. Without the disruption to societies caused by WWI, they probably never would have gained power in any country.
Pick the cult of your choice and odds are that many of those following it do so despite great inconvenience or even persecution. That people are willing to suffer for their beliefs does not necessarily make their beliefs true.