Joseph Smith's Motives - The Prophet Puzzle - Dan Vogel

Joseph Smith founding prophet of the Mormon religion is among the most eggnog Matic and controversial figures of the 19th century he has been variously described as pretender after worldly power religious fanatic or God's mouthpiece on earth such strong reaction doubtless stems from Smith's own claims specifically his declaration that all churches are false and that those who reject the gospel he restored will be damned for Smith there was no middle ground and thus seemingly no middle ground for assessing him or his claims Boston's mayor Josiah Quincy who interviewed Smith in 1844 was less dogmatic such a rare human being is not to be disposed of by pelting his memory with unsavory epithets fanatic impostor charlatan he may have been but these hard names furnish no solution to the problem he presents to us phonetics and Impostors are living and dying every day and their memory is buried with them but the wonderful influence which this founder of a religion-- exerted and still exerts throws him into relief before us not as a rogue to be criminais 'td but as a phenomenon to be explained if the reader does not know just what to make of Joseph Smith I cannot help him out of the difficulty I myself stand helpless before the puzzle hi I'm Dan Vogel you know for some knowing that justement didn't really translate the Book of Mormon from anciently engraved gold plates is enough but if you're like me you want to know why he did it and what he believed he was doing when he was doing it was he simply a charlatan as some believe or something more complex in this video I will explore what I think were Joseph Smith's motives and offer a solution to what some have called the profit puzzle you in her 1974 essay the profit puzzle subtitled suggestions leading toward a more comprehensive interpretation of Joseph Smith non-mormon historian Jan ships confronted the anomalies in the historical record concerning Smith noting what we have in Morman historiography is to joseph´s the one who started out digging for money and when he was unsuccessful turned to profiteering and the one who had visions and dreamed dreams restored the church and revealed the will of the Lord to a sinful world to resolve what she called the schizophrenic state of Mormon history with its double interpretive strand of justice Smith as a man of God and Joseph Smith as a kind of fraud who exploited his followers for his own purposes ships called for a more fully integrated view of Smith one that allowed for the complexities of human personality unraveling the complexities of Smith's character and motives is difficult but before the puzzle can be assembled all the pieces or at least the most significant ones must be gathered and correctly interpreted some of these in my opinion have been overlooked ignored or mishandled pieces which I believe reveal previously hidden features of Smith's multifarious personality to my mind the most obvious solution to ships conundrum is to suggest that Smith was a well-intentioned pious deceiver or perhaps otherwise worded a sincere fraud someone who prevaricated for what he believed were good reasons today the term pious fraud is rarely used but it has a long history 17th century moral philosopher William Paley for example declared pious frauds pretended inspirations forged books counterfeit miracles are impositions of a serious nature it is possible that they though seldom have been set up and encouraged with a design to do good but the good they aim at requires that the belief of them should be perpetual which is hardly possible and the detection of the fraud is sure to disparage the credit of all pretension of the same nature Christianity has suffered more injury from this cause than from all other causes put together while Paley referred to medieval and post medieval religious forgeries one should not forget the many pseudepigrapha core suit anonymous and apocryphal writings like the assumption of Moses the Book of Enoch and the Ascension of Isaiah generally dating from 200 BCE to seee 200 these writers appended the names of ancient prophets and other Jewish figures to their books not only to conceal their own identities but to lend authority and prestige to their works while the pseudo anonymous author believed his writing was inspired he knew its ancient setting was fictional leading more than one interpreter to compare Smith's book of Mormon to the work of these pseudepigrapha stays in the Age of Reason Thomas Paine like Paley declared there have been men in the world who persuade themselves that what is called a pious fraud might at least under particular circumstances be productive of some good but the fraud being once established could not afterward be explained for it is with a pious fraud as with a bad action it begets a calamitous necessity of going on from the first preachers the fraud went on to the second and to the third till the idea of its being a pious fraud became lost in the belief of being true and mitad Lee the term pious fraud is not wholly satisfying nevertheless pious connotes genuine religious conviction and I apply fraud or deceiver only to describe some of Smith's activities the possible construction of plates from tin as well as his claim that the Book of Mormon is a translation of an ancient Li engraved record for example not to Smith's perception of himself in other words Smith may have believed that he was called of God yet occasionally engaged in fraudulent activities in order to preach repentance and God's Word as effectively as possible Lutheran minister rubber n Hollinger similarly argued in his 1980 book Mormon answer to skepticism why Joseph Smith wrote The Book of Mormon responding in part to ship's complaint that the Book of Mormon has by and large been neglected as a source which might facilitate a better understanding of Joseph Smith's early career Hollinger attempted to plumb Smith's motives by examining the books rhetoric and concluded Joseph Smith regarded himself as a defender of God even if one believes that Joseph Smith was at best a scoundrel he observed one still must account for the Book of Mormon indeed the books religious appeal its defense of God Jesus Christ and spiritual gifts and it's called repentance argue strongly against presuming that Smith's motives were malicious or completely self-serving Marvin s Hill at the time a professor of history at Mormon owned Brigham Young University cautioned against seeing Smith and either-or turns insisting that one balanced the implications of Smith's 1826 trial with his private and genuine expressions of religious concern in his 1972 review of Vaughn Brody's influential biography of Smith no man knows my history he'll criticized her for ignoring the religious side of Smith's personality and portraying him as essentially irreligious Brody says little about the rationalisations Joseph would have had to go through where his religious role was imposed upon him he'll observed Brody was never able to take us inside the mind of the Prophet to understand how he thought and why a reason for that may be that the sources she would have had to use were Joseph's religious writings and Herr Smith was supposed to be irreligious among the first line Smith wrote in his new journal which he began keeping in November 1832 was oh my god grant that I may be directed in all my thoughts Oh bless thy servant amen a few days later he added Oh Lord delivered I serve and out of temptations and fill his heart with wisdom and understanding such passages reveal his inner world and those who disregard them who failed to recognize a deeply spiritual dimension to Smith's character or who count his profession of belief as contrived discard a major piece of the Prophet puzzle at the same time one cannot ignore Smith's capacity to deceive one of the clearest evidences of this is his repeated public denial during the 1840s of teaching and practicing polygamy perhaps of more relevance to his early life is his activity as a treasure seer one of the pieces of the puzzle that I believe has not been fully exploited by Mormon scholars for example some dismissed this as irrelevant to his later prophetic career or view it as some kind of psychic or supernatural training ground for the developing prophet such perspectives while not entirely inaccurate are nonetheless incomplete despite his attempt to minimize his early involvement in treasure searching Smith was in fact an aggressive and ambitious leader among the competing treasure seers of Manchester New York it was his reputation as a treasure seer that drew Josiah Stowell to travel more than a hundred miles to hire the twenty-year-old not as a digger as he implied in his history but as a seer to locate treasure from November 1825 until his arrest and court hearing in south Bainbridge in March 1826 Smith was employed by Stoll and others to locate treasure not only in harmony Pennsylvania but also at various locations in southern New York and broom and Chenango counties during the 1826 legal proceeding Smith admitted that he had been actively engaged as a treasure for the past three years and that he had recently decided to abandon the practice because it strained his eyes it was not without reason that Smith tried to conceal these facts in his history if he did not consider them at odds with his role as a prophet he at least found them easier to omit than to explain when we examine specific examples of Smith's treasure seeing most attempts to minimize his involvement fail to persuade for example Jonathan Thompson testifying in Smith's defense at the 1826 court hearing reported that on one occasion Smith located a treasure chest with his seer stone after digging several feet the moon struck something sounding like a board or plank excitedly they asked Smith to look into his stone again for Smith would not look again pretending that he was alarmed on account of the circumstances relating to the trunk being buried which came all fresh to his mind that the last time that he looked he discovered distinctly the two Indians who buried the trunk that a quarrel ensued between them and that one of said Indians was killed by the other and thrown into the hole beside the trunk to guard it as he supposed despite failing to uncover the trunk Thompson remained a believer in Smith's professed skill explaining to the court that on account of an enchantment the trunk kept settling away from under them while digging any interpretation of Joseph Smith that is to be taken seriously must account for the details provided by Thompson's friendly testimony as I see it there are three possible interpretations none of which fits comfortably with traditionalist views of Smith and his subsequent role as a translator one Smith saw an imaginary treasure in his stone - Smith pretended to see a treasure in his stone or three Smith saw a real treasure which disappeared before being unearthed thus to be consistent apologists must either accept the treasure seeking lore of Smith's day as reality including belief in seer stones mineral rods guardian spirits bleeding ghosts enchanted treasures that slip through the earth and the like and thereby reject rationalist categories of historical investigation or come face to face with a man who either consciously or unconsciously deceived personally as both a rationalist and skeptic I find it easier to assume that the treasure never existed and that Smith deceived Thompson or was himself deluded rather than believe that the buried treasure supernaturally vanished or relocated itself to another hiding spot those who believed Smith literally translated the Book of Mormon from anciently engraved gold plates or dismisses previous treasure seeing activities as irrelevant have difficulty with Thompson's testimony central to this is the knowledge that Smith used the same stone to translate the Book of Mormon the implications are clear if Smith translated and received revelations with his stone didn't he also locate real buried treasure by the same means specifically in the instance that Thompson reported was there an actual trunk and did Smith really see the two Indians who fought over it if so why was no treasure recovered are we to believe it moved away by magic enchantment in the Book of Mormon Smith integrates the treasure seers worldview into his religious beliefs describing both the use of seer stones and cursed and slippery treasures Mormon for example writes that in his day the land became infested with robbers and the people began to hide up their treasures in the earth and they became slippery because the Lord had cursed the land that they could not hold them nor retain them again the Book of Mormon also describes Messiah as possessing two seer stones fastened in silver rims like spectacles for the use of translating em mentions a latter-day seer named Gaza Lamb who possesses a stone which shall shine forth in darkness unto light this integration of seer stones and slippery treasures in the Book of Mormon together with the fact that Smith's interviews with the heavenly messenger occurred while he was also seeking treasure that these interviews are easily contextualized with treasure lore about guardian spirits and that he subsequently used the same stone to translate the Book of Mormon makes any interpretation that separates the two roles incomplete determining the nature of Smith's treasure seeking activities is therefore essential in assessing his subsequent prophetic career the pious fraud theory suggests a conscious decision to deceive but what if Smith's deceit was unconscious this theory posits that Smith may have been a victim of his own delusions and that he truly believed he was receiving revelations when in fact they originated in his subconscious despite the appeal of the unconscious fraud thesis which seemingly relieves Smith of responsibility for his behavior the specifics of his actions both as a treasure seer and inspired translator demonstrate to my mind at least a major failing there is an important piece of evidence that Smith's treasure seeing was not an unconscious delusion it comes from Josiah Stowell who testified at Smith's 1826 trial according to Stoll Smith said that he saw in his stone a treasure on a certain root of a stump five feet from the surface of the earth and that with it would be found a tail feather after digging Stoll said they found the tail feather but the money was gone that he supposed that the money moved down the discovery of an object not normally found underground becomes either proof of Smith's true gift or evidence of his fraudulent activity for the deluded do not accomplish such feats in this instance rather than accept stoles explanation for the treasures disappearance it seems easier to suggest that Smith planted the tail feather during a previous visit to the area or more likely during the process of digging it may have been this kind of activity that gave Smith an edge over his competitors perhaps also explaining how he excelled them in reputation for me the most compelling evidence against unconscious fraud is the existence of the Book of Mormon plates themselves as an objective artifact which Smith allowed his family and friends even critics to handle while covered with a cloth are concealed in a box the plates were either ancient or modern despite what I see as compelling evidence of conscious misdirection I caution against viewing Smith's activities as a treasure seer in either or terms for it is possible that Smith was convinced of his ability and also deceptive in other words he may have been sincere in his claims about seeing treasures and guardian spirits in his stone but at times provided additional proof through nefarious means to either satisfy his followers or silenced his enemies although the evidence for deceit is more easily demonstrated Smith's complained about being persecuted for his gift may have been nevertheless Cerre likewise as a prophet Smith may have believed himself to be inspired it may have at times heard voices or experienced visions but still used some deception to convince others if mormon historians remain unpersuaded by the preceding analysis as i suspect they will they will at least better understand the dilemma of which ships speaks while hungers thesis harmonizes many disparities in the historical record concerning Smith I do not believe it goes far enough for like Brody's discussion it does not explore the inner moral conflicts of an individual who deceives in God's name while holding sincere religious beliefs the reason the price fraud concept has not been fully considered in the past is because it is difficult to imagine why someone would deceive in God's name while simultaneously holding two sincere religious beliefs yet history is replete with examples of this in 1748 skeptic David Hume asserted that a religionist may be an enthusiast and imagined he sees what has no reality he may know his narrative to be false and yet persevere in it with the best of intentions in the world for the sake of promoting so wholly a cause in rejecting Brodie's paradigm we need not confuse Smith's inner spiritual world with the Prophet image he projected to his followers many of those close to Smith eventually discovered the disparity between the mantle of the Prophet and the man himself or between the persona and the person historians too must distinguish between the public and private Joseph Smith between the myth and the man and carefully peel back the layers of Smith's public image created in large measure to satisfy the demands of his followers we should seek to discover the emotional spiritual and intellectual reality from which he operated it is not enough to know Smith was religious or that he had a spiritual dimension one must try to know what those particular beliefs were for what is privately believed as opposed to publicly taught as in the case with polygamy makes all the difference sometimes once private beliefs are unconsciously or unintentionally revealed in the implied or connotative meaning of text the remainder of this video examines the texts of the Book of Mormon in Joseph Smith's early revelations highlighting instances in which he articulated the ideas and philosophies of an apparent religious Pretender even the very principles upon which a pious deception could be founded one of the most important textual evidences of Smith's early state of mind is a revelation he dictated in March 1830 the month that the Book of Mormon came off the press directed at Martin Harris the revelation reveals not only a secret belief in universalism seemingly reversing the Book of Mormon doctrine but a glimpse into pious rationalizations despite scriptural references to the torment and suffering of the wicked the revelation declares it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment explaining that the terms eternal punishment and endless punishment simply mean God's punishment that eternal and inless are synonyms for God's name in other words endless and eternal have reference to the origin of the punishment not to its duration while one might wish to conclude that Smith was simply placating harris whose Universalist beliefs may have caused him some misgivings about the book he had promised a sponsor financially I would suggest that the restorationist tone of the revelation Smith's true theological leanings leanings he would develop further in his 1832 vision of three heavens the revelation itself suggests a reason for the conflicting doctrines stating that God has purposely used misleading language in order that it might work upon the hearts of the children of men in other words God sometimes deceives humankind for their own good this is exactly the kind of rationalization one expects of a pious deceiver not surprisingly the revelation invokes secrecy concerning its contents fearing that its teaching of a temporary hell would encourage sinners to remain unrepentant the revelation instructs its recipients to preach not but repentance and show not these things neither speak these things unto the world for they cannot bear meat but milk they must receive wherefore they must not know these things lest they perish despite publicly posing as a believer in the traditional heaven and hell Smith was privately a Universalist and therefore did not fear an eternal never-ending hell that would have troubled most pious deceivers like other religious pretenders Smith may have taken comfort in various biblical precedents such as the story of Abraham and Isaac lying about the marital status of their wives Abraham lying to Isaac about the true object of sacrifice jacob deceiving isaac to obtain his firstborn blessing Moses lying to Pharaoh one prophet lying to another Jihu pretending to worship bail and Paul's becoming all things to all people and circumcising Timothy Smith knew that God told Adam he would die in the day he ate the forbidden fruit that God sent a lying spirit to Ahab that God deceived Israel Jeremiah and other prophets in his book of Abraham purported to have been translated from some Egyptian papyri Smith purchased in 1835 Smith included a predictable variation on an already troubling story instead of Abraham telling his wife to lie about their marital status Smith has God instruct Abraham to tell Sarah to lie thus in excusing Abraham Smith introduced the more troubling proposition that God is sometimes the author of deception it was a concept that fit well with Smith's personal and private theology combined with universalism the belief that God sometimes deceives to save his children explains how Smith could perpetuate a religious deception while at the same time having the appearance of a deep and sincere faith those who overlook this aspect of Smith's private belief system cannot fully understand or appreciate his development as a prophet the opening portion of the Book of Mormon includes the story of Nephi obtaining the brass plates through deception and murder despite the spirits command Nephi is hesitant to kill the drunken and defenseless Laban never at any time have I shed the blood of man Nephi protests this is not unlike the moral dilemma that Abraham faced when commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac only that Nephi actually carries out the directive the spirit reissues the command and reasons with Nephi slay him for the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes it is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief overcoming his aversion to murder if I cut Slavens head off with his own sword dressed in laymen's armor Nephi like Biblical Jacob deceives Laban z' servant into giving him the brass plates thus by crossing moral lines Nephi accomplished the Lord's errand and thereby preserved the Hebrew Scriptures for future knee fight generations I suggest that on the evening of the 21st and 22nd of September 1823 rather than conversing with an angel 17 year-old justice Smith spent a sleepless night struggling with his own moral dilemma whether or not to proceed with his story of finding the gold plates on the following morning as the story goes while returning from the field an angelic messenger appeared to him and similar to the exchange between the Spirit and Nephi chastised him for not telling his father about the plates as previously instructed Smith had hesitated fearing that he would not be believed but the angel commanded him to tell his father and promised that he would believe every word this was a decisive moment in Smith's career although the story takes on a different cast if one views Smith as a pious pretender in this instance the event becomes the moment of Smith's resolve to cross moral lines perhaps with what he believed was the spirits urging to invent the existence of the plates for a good cause while Nephi pretended to be the evil Laban to gain access to the breastplates Smith would pretend to be Mormon the ancient editor of the gold plates the Book of Mormons version of atoms fall also lends itself to pious rationalizations a radical departure from Orthodox Christianity the Book of Mormon declares that the fall was part of God's plan that it would ultimately produce more good than evil Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy similar to Nephi joseph´s Adam found it necessary to violate God's commandment not to eat of the tree of knowledge in order to fulfill a higher law and bring about a greater good Smith was not the originator of what is sometimes called the fortunate fall but for more than obvious reasons he was attracted to another wise obscure idea the essence of what probably attracted the would-be profit to the fortunate fall is clearly set forth in the words of 5th century theologian st. Augustine the works of God are so wisely and exquisitely contrived that when an angelic and human creature sins it fulfills what He willed English poet John Milton portrayed Adam as uncertain if he should even repent of his sin since by it God had produced so much good that otherwise would have remained undone oh goodness infinite goodness immense that all this good of evil shall produce an evil turned to good more wonderful than that which by creation first brought forth in order that much more good shall spring from his sin Milton's Adam decides to delay repentance trusting in God's mercy thus unlike Eve Adam had willfully sinned and knowingly brought both spiritual and physical death upon himself all for the good of humankind the advantages of the fortunate fall for the pious deceiver are obvious and Smith perhaps attracted to it because it seemed to justify the ethically contradictory actions of his own mission assuming Joseph Smith a pious deceiver did he believed his deception was inspired of God specifically did Smith believe the Book of Mormon was inspired although he knew it was not ancient history despite Smith's claims that the Book of Mormon resulted from a purely mechanical process of translation one in which Smith simply read the translation from the seer stone he seems to have actually operated from a liberal view of revelation one that rationalizes the production of fraudulent scripture early in the work of translation Oliver Cowdery expressed a desire to translate and received permission through a revelation Smith dictated however without use of the translators stone Cowdrey did not know how to proceed a subsequent revelation explained his failure behold you have not understood you have supposed that I would give it unto you when you took no thought save it was to ask me but behold I say unto you you must study it out in your mind then you must ask me if it be right and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you therefore you shall feel that it is right but if it be not right you shall have no such feelings but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong therefore you cannot write that which is sacred say if it be given you from me now if you had known this you could have translated as an experienced rod worker and clairvoyant Cowdrey naturally expected the translation to be revealed to him from an outside source in a previous revelation God had promised him I will tell you in your mind and in your heart by the Holy Ghost now he is being told that you must study it out in your mind that the translation would come from his own thought regardless of the outcome the revelation hints that Smith privately-held a definition of translation and revelation that was more liberal than many of his followers one which is so internal that the seer stone and plates become mere props near the close of the Book of Mormon Moroni writes that everything which inviteth and entice a--the to do good and to love God and to serve him is inspired of God and again everything which inviteth to do good and to persuade to believe in Christ is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ wherefore you may know with the perfect knowledge it is of God in another place Christ is made to reason these things are true for it persuade if men to do good and whatsoever thing persuaded men to do good is of me for good cometh of none save it be of me I am the same that leadeth men to all good thus even if Smith wrote the book of Mormon himself under this definition it was inspired of God because it attempts to persuade humankind to do good and to believe in Christ Smith's reasoning was simple the Book of Mormon is of God because all things which are good cometh of Christ for the devil persuade a--the no man to do good no not one neither do his angels neither do they who subject themselves unto Him thus he would have extended this principle to include himself his desire to save others even if by deception was a good thing and therefore inspired of God not Satan for evil men do not perform good deeds in pursuing the profit puzzle I have sought to understand Joseph Smith not condemn him Smith to be sure presents historians with a formidable puzzle but as Shipp said the mystery of Mormonism cannot be solved until we solved the mystery of Joseph Smith the paradigm explored in this essay attempts not only to bring ships to joseph´s together but to search out his motives in her conflicts and rationalizations as suggested by hill because this model has the advantage of explaining the historical record more fully than previous attempts either pro or con I believe it may be destined to replace Brody's at least as far as non Mormon historians are concerned in refining hollingers thesis I suggest that Smith really believed he was called of God to preach repentance to a sinful world but that he felt justified in using deception to accomplish his mission more fully like the faith healer who uses Confederates to create a faith promoting atmosphere in which true miracles can occur Smith assumed the role of prophet produced the Book of Mormon and issued Revelations to create a setting in which true conversion experiences could take place it is the true healings and conversions that not only justify deception but convince the pious frauds that they were perhaps after all real healers and real prophets what did Smith hope to accomplish by his pious deception one goal as the March 1830 revelation shows was to bring humankind to repentance initially Smith hoped to frighten his fellow humans into repentance and therefore help them avoid the torments of even a temporary hill meanwhile if humankind were saved by incorrectly believing in an eternal hell to that end Smith believed his method was justified whatever the means he believed his followers were saved as long as their repentance and faith in Christ were sincere Smith's March 1830 revelation the Book of Abraham the story of Nephi and Laban and the fortunate fall demonstrate that Smith believed that God sometimes inspires deception that some sins are according to his will or that occasionally it is necessary to break one commandment in order to fulfill a higher law in an 1843 revelation the command to take plural wives was likened to Abraham's moral conundrum and in attempting to coax 21 year old Nancy Rigden into secretly becoming a plural wife in 1842 Smith argued that that which is wrong under one circumstance may be and often is right under another whatever God requires is right no matter what it is although we may not see the reason thereof to long after the events transpire we may never know exactly Smith's reasoning but we can at least say that if he wrote the book of Mormon became a prophet and founded the church as a pious deception it is evident that he had the psychological means of justifying such acts [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Dan Vogel

Views: 55,902

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Keywords: Joseph Smith Biography, Joseph Smith Mormonism miscellaneous topics joseph smith biography Joseph Smith Joseph Smith, Miscellaneous Topics, Jr. (Founding Figure) Miscellaneous Topics Joseph Smith Biography

Id: Z4JlJaD2fks

Length: 42min 38sec (2558 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 21 2014