INHABITANTS OF THE MOON

Astronomers and philosophers have, from time almost immemorial until very recently, asserted that the moon was uninhabited, that it had no atmosphere etc.. But recent discoveries, through the means of powerful telescopes, have given scientists a doubt or two upon the old theory.

Nearly all the great discoveries of men in the last half-century have, in one way or another, either directly or indirectly, contributed to prove Joseph Smith to be a Prophet.

As far back as 1837, I know that he said the moon was inhabited by men and women the same as this earth, and that they lived to a greater age than we do -- that they live generally to near the age of a 1000 years.

He described the men as averaging near six feet in height, and dressing quite uniformly in something near the Quaker style.

In my Patriarchal blessing, given by the father of Joseph the Prophet, in Kirtland, 1837, I was told that I should preach the gospel before I was 21 years of age; that I should preach the gospel to the inhabitants upon the islands of the sea, and to the inhabitants of the moon, even the planet you can now behold with your eyes.

From the verification of two promises we may reasonably expect the third to be fulfilled also.

One truth after another men are finding out by the wisdom and inspiration given of God to them.

The inspiration of God caused men to hunt for a new continent until Columbus discovered it. Men have lost millions of dollars, and hundreds of lives to find a country beyond the North Pole; and they will yet find that country -- a warm, fruitful country, and inhabited by the ten tribes of Israel, a country divided by a river on one side of which lives the half tribe of Manasseh, which is more numerous than all the others. So said the Prophet. At the same time, he described the shape of the earth at the poles as being a rounded elongation and drew a diagram in this form; (see graphic at link) which any one can readily see will allow the sun's rays to fall so near perpendicular to the center that part of the earth may be warmed and made fruitful. He quoted scripture and proof of his theory which says that "the earth flieth upon its wings in the midst of the creations of God," and said that there was a semblance in the form of the earth that gave rise to the saying.

I wonder how many other discourses have been provided without attribution.

I have confirmed quite a few.

Canned answers (such as post #23) require no thinking on your own. Just see an issue, and then cut and paste the canned response.

But then independent thinking is not necessarily a requirement for some religions.

"Any Latter-day Saint who denounces or opposes whether actively or otherwise, any plan or doctrine advocated by the prophets, seers, revelators' of the church, is cultivating the spirit of apostacy. One cannot speak evil of the lord's annointed... and retain the holy spirit in his heart. This sort of game is Satan's favorite pastime, and he has practiced it to believing souls since Adam. He {Satan} wins a great victory when he can get members of the church to speak against their leaders and to do their own thinking."

"When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done. When they propose a plan--it is God's Plan. When they point the way, there is no other which is safe. When they give directions, it should mark the end of controversy, God works in no other way. To think otherwise, without immediate repentance, may cost one his faith, may destroy his testimony, and leave him a stranger to the kingdom of God."

Ward Teachers Message, Deseret News, Church Section p. 5, May 26, 1945
Also included in the Improvement Era, June 1945 (which was the official church magazine before the Ensign)

Did Joseph Smith Teach That the Moon Was Inhabited?
Question: Didn’t Joseph Smith teach that the moon is inhabited?

The idea that Joseph taught the moon is inhabited comes from the writing of Oliver B. Huntington in 1881 (his journal) and in 1892 (the Young Woman’s Journal). Huntington claimed that Joseph Smith’s father had given him a patriarchal blessing in 1837 which promised that he would preach the gospel to the moon inhabitants.

Close examination reveals that Huntington was only ten years old when he was given this blessing and that his recollections were made over fifty years later. Also, it turns out that the blessing was given by his own father, not Joseph Smith’s father.

According to a copy of the blessing in the Church archives (Blessing Book, vol.9, pp.294-95), it was only one of many given the same day at the same meeting, and none were recorded in detail at the time. Orson Pratt took sketchy notes as the blessings were given, then filled in details later by consulting those who were there. An examination of the blessing shows that the recorded blessing was much more vague than Huntington remembered.

It also appears that Huntington may have picked up on a rumor that Joseph Smith had given a description of the inhabitants of the moon. This description, which Huntington recorded in his journal, is the original source of the anti-Mormon claim that Joseph described the moon inhabitants. Because his journal is also cited in a Young Woman’s publication of the Church, it supposedly gives more credibility to the critics. The statement, which appeared in a two-page article by Oliver B. Huntington entitled “The Inhabitants of the Moon” in the Young Woman’s Journal, is as follows:

As far back as 1837, I know that he [Joseph SmithJ said the moon was inhabited by men and women the same as this earth, and that they lived to a greater age than we d~that they live generally to near the age of a 1,000 years.
He described the men as averaging nearly six feet in height, and dressing quite uniformly in something near the Quaker style (Young Woman’s Journal, Vol.3, p.263).

From what is quoted here, the most we can conclude is that 0. B. Huntington was familiar with rumors of statements that were attributed to Joseph Smith. However, there is nothing in the writings of Joseph Smith or those who recorded his words prior to his death that even hints of any these views about inhabitants on the moon. This earliest recollection was recorded in 1881, 37 years after the prophet’s death.
Even if it turned out that the prophet held these views, nowhere does scripture suggest that a prophet is not allowed to speculate about things that haven’t been revealed. Many people during the Nineteenth Century, both the learned and not-so-learned, were speculating on this subject. Joseph Smith’s personal opinions and what he taught as revealed doctrine, however, are two entirely different things. The idea that he taught it as a revealed doctrine is based upon Oliver B. Huntington’s fifty-year-old, correct or incorrect memory of his blessing, and a rumor that was current in 1881.

Another aspect of the matter needs to be considered. At the present time, man has no scientific or revealed knowledge of whether or not there are inhabitants on the earth’s moon. The fact that a handful of astronauts didn’t see any inhabitants in the tiny area they viewed when they landed on the moon decades ago certainly gives no definitive information, any more than visitors to earth who might land in barren Death Valley would have any idea of the billions of inhabitants elsewhere.

John the Revelator “saw an angel standing in the sun” (Rev. 19:17). Perhaps we have much to learn about inhabitants of other heavenly spheres

The Nature of Prophets and Prophecy
by John A. Tvedtnes

The message of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that God continues to speak to mankind through prophets. It is the same message delivered anciently. But many have challenged this belief. Numerous anti-Mormon pamphlets have been published with the aim of proving that Joseph Smith is a false prophet. Several critics have compiled lists of dozens of supposed “false prophecies” uttered by Joseph Smith.

The typical critic makes light of the admonition of LDS missionaries that people should pray to know from God whether Joseph Smith was a true prophet. This, they insist, is not the “biblical” method of determining the truth. If this were true, however, the promise of James 1:5 is false, along with Jesus’ promise that those who ask will receive (Matthew 7:7) and that “all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matthew 21:22). Ironically, those who preach against praying for divine confirmation of truth often believe that one must pray and confess the name of Jesus in order to receive a witness that one has been “saved.”

The Biblical Test for Prophets
Joseph Smith’s critics typically cite Deuteronomy 18:20-22 as the biblical test for false prophets. The passage reads as follows:

But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

Here, the Lord describes both the false prophet and the false prophecy. A false prophet either speaks for false gods or attributes to the Lord things that the Lord did not command him to speak. The Deuteronomy 18 passage establishes two criteria for a false prophecy:

It must be uttered in the name of the Lord. This means that an off-the-wall comment by a prophet cannot be taken as a prophecy, pretended or otherwise, unless he declares that he is delivering the word of the Lord.
The prophecy must fail. But no timeframe is established for the fulfillment of a prophecy.
The Deuteronomy passage does not say that a man is a false prophet because his prophecy failed, only that the failed prophecy is false. This being the case, it is incorrect to conclude, as most critics do, that one false prophecy (even if some true prophecies are given) makes Joseph Smith a false prophet. The danger in so defining the Deuteronomy passage lies in the fact that there is a tendency on the part of non-believers to “explain away” the prophecy, while believers seek ways to defend it. Thus, the process of determining the truth or falseness of a prophecy becomes, to some extent, subjective.

Consequently, a critic of Joseph Smith can look at a hundred of his prophecies, find one that, in his judgment, is in error, and thereby conclude that Joseph himself was a false prophet. That this has, in fact, happened with true prophets is evidenced in the Bible itself, where we read Jesus’ statement about the stoning and rejection of the ancient prophets of Israel (Matthew 23:37). These men were undoubtedly stoned because, in the judgment of their contemporaries, they were false prophets. A good example of the rejection of a prophet is the story of Jeremiah, who was imprisoned and mistreated by the leaders of Judah, who refused to believe his message.

President Joseph Fielding Smith, commenting on the passage from Deuteronomy 18, wrote,

When is a prophet a prophet? whenever he speaks under the inspiration and influence of the Holy Ghost… When prophets write and speak on the principles of the gospel, they should have the guidance of the Spirit. If they do, then all that they say will be in harmony with the revealed word. If they are in harmony then we know that they have not spoken presumptuously. Should a man speak or write, and what he says is in conflict with the standards which are accepted, with the revelations the Lord has given, then we may reject what he has said, no matter who he is. ( Doctrines of Salvation 1:187)

The Double Standard
Based on the false premise that “all you need is one false prophecy to have a false prophet,” some critics have ignored many of Joseph Smith’s prophecies and have zeroed in on ones they consider to be false. But they typically identify unfulfilled commandments, opinions, and counsel as “false prophecies.” In doing so, they forsake the rules laid out in Deuteronomy 18:20-22, ignoring the fact that the passage defines a false prophecy as one uttered in the name of the Lord which does not come to pass.

The main problem is that the critics do not apply these same standards to biblical prophecies. And when we try to show that, by these standards, many of the biblical prophets fail the tests they have set up for Joseph Smith, we are accused of “Bible-slamming.” To those who ascribe more divinity to the Bible than to God, such a “sin” is worse than blasphemy itself. Honesty, however, impels us to submit the biblical prophets to the same tests as those applied to Joseph Smith.

For this reason, following the logic of the critics, we would have to conclude that Moses-to whom the revelation in Deuteronomy 18:20-22 is ascribed-was a false prophet. In Numbers 25:13, he said, in the name of the Lord, that Phinehas, his grand nephew, would hold the priesthood eternally. But if Hebrews 7:11-12 is correct, the Aaronic priesthood is not eternal. In this particular example, Moses fills the requirement for the test of Deuteronomy much more closely than does Joseph Smith in most of the examples of “false prophecies” cited by the critics. How, then, can Latter-day Saints accept both Joseph Smith and Moses as true prophets, regarding their prophecies as divinely-inspired? The answer lies in the fact that prophecy is typically conditional.

The Conditional Nature of Prophecy
It was the Lord himself, through the biblical prophet Jeremiah, who explained the conditional nature of prophecy:

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. (Jeremiah 18:7-10)1

Jeremiah himself exemplified the principle of conditional prophecy when he told king Zedekiah, in the name of the Lord, that he

http://www.fairlds.org/Bible/Nature_of_Prophets_and_Prophecy.html

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