Joseph Smith was born December 23, 1805, he didn't "start" the Church until 1827 at age 22 and didn't incorporate the Church or publish the BOM until he was 25 in 1830. Are you disputing these facts? It is your cookie that crumbles when we clearly point to a grown man charlatan instead of a 14 year old youth. Joseph Smith himself didn't write about his youthful "vision" until many years after it occured. Do you have any proof it occured when he was 14?
The BoM was written in In June 1828 - Smith allowed Martin Harris to take 116 pages of the manuscript to Palmyra to show Harris' wife (remember). At this time Joseph Smith was 24 years old and not an unwitting 14 year old innocent youth, but a married man.
I kind of thought you might answer that way, but only because you've had your Mormon lenses on too long.
When you read all the LDS P.R. stuff about JS, it's age 14 this and age 14 that.
But Joe was born in 1805. At age 23 (1828) he joined the Methodist church. Whatever supposedly happened to him almost 9 years before wasn't solid enough for him to effect his church membership, even tho later he said he was told to "join none of them" well before he "joined one of them."
Even if you believe that two unnamed personages appeared to him during his mid-teens, at the very least JoeSmith was in apostasy through 1828. There was no was no LDS movement pre-1829 (and some would even say, pre-1830).
So, all I've done is point out that this man began a movement when he was 24-25 years old (even if its roots go a little deeper).
To emphasize this point: Take all of FastCoyote's "tales" about his divinity. Let's say FC is 14 now. Let's say that in a decade, FastCoyote binds up all of his sageness into a single volume called "The Wily Wiles of FastCoyote," and the disciples he seems slow of convincing on FR today mushroom in the year 2017.
Now you and I can argue over the true "root" date--was it 2007 or was it 2017?..but if FastCoyote had never shared any of his sageness from 2007 to 2016, I really don't think you would have much ground to stand on in opposing my contention that his movement began in 2017...and that any other date is pure myth. [Especially if no official & original Vision from Coyote's visit by his Coyote personages even emerges til he turned 30+ in the year 2023]
Well, you raise a good question, 'cause it's the same question raised about why the early disciples would be martyred.
But there's a big difference in their "martyrdom."
First of all, Joe was trying all he could do behind the scenes (via others) to be moved. He wasn't exactly a "volunteer" for such martyrdom. Hence, that's why he brandished a weapon in self-defense when his cell was attacked. Joe killed & wounded some of his attackers before being killed...understandable, mind you, but not exactly befitting his mythic martyr role if he was so "voluntary" in giving his life. If anything, he was doing all he could to avoid such martyrdom.
Well, to take your suggestion (since I hadn't even thought of that analogy until I wrote you), the cookie recipe dude making all the dough perhaps thought he was only making this cookie more "digestible" (ya gotta admit that the LDS faith just so "happens" to deal with several of the ongoing theological debates of the 1820s...age of accountability, eternal hell, the effect of baptism, etc...showing very plainly that this cookie was baked in the U.S. and not anywhere else--like from Kolob). In making this cookie more "digestible," said maker indeed added elements that were fatal--even if he wasn't sure what the end product would be.
If such a cookie-maker added one untested ingredient for digestibility, + another for addictive nature (what Bonaparte writes about), it would be a very potent cookie if it nabbed long-term customers. Even if they died 30 yrs down the line, I'll take a 30-year customer, especially if he comes to me because he tells me that the easy digestibility of the cookie helps his health and his stomach ailments.
Delf: I am not going to sit here and deny that many talks LDS leaders give would qualify as "inspiring." I will not deny that many portions of LDS "scriptures" also fall under this same category.
But if a secular pub like the NY Times can hold its own accountable for plagiarism (remember a certain Mr. Blair?), then the religious world can hold its own accountable for the same issue. If a secular writer can be "fired," then even a profit of old's status can be "fired."
And that dovetales w/your Q, "Is anything impossible for God?" No. Because look the Worldwide Church of God. Herbert W. Armstrong was this church's "prophet" & leader. It was a cult. He died. The leadership that followed not only reformed the church, but brought it into Christian orthodoxy. So is anything impossible for God? No way!!!
The Worldwide Church of God "fired" Herbie post-death. It did not do so without a cost. They lost members on this side of the veil; but they gained members for the other side.
Can God work through a 14 yo boy?
You're asking the wrong question. We don't need JoeSmith for that answer. (He already answered it w/a mid-teen girl named Mary, who delivered a certain babe otherwise known as "Josh" (Yeshua)].
The question isn't Can God...the question is Did God...?
You are correct. God can work thru whom He will. He doesn't need lowly FREEPERS telling him what He can or can't do. It's more of an evidential track record of "Did He?"
And if you examine ALL of the false prophecies made by Joseph, well, I just know my God isn't that sloppy. [Maybe that's where the term "Sloppy Joes" came from? :) Sorry, couldn't resist]
“Why would a Charlatan go to his death rather than admit he was “Just Funnin”? “
Cause he was a Thorazine candidate before Thorazine was invented??? Just a hunch. In which case he was both a charlatan AND a psycho. Sort of like Ti and Peep, or Jim Jones, or the Reverend Moon, or David Koresh etc. etc.
If that is a valid question, then why did Hitler fight to the bitter end when he could have been tanning on the beaches of Buenos Aires?