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About That Joseph Smith Video (October 29, 2019) ​ On October 25th, 2019, the LDS church released a new video on Joseph Smith, which is part of their series of "now you know" videos that attempt to use simple graphics to portray their history in a slightly more open manner than before Google made information so easily accessible. If you have not seen it, the church published it on YouTube and you can view it here. ​ It's a short video and we're not going to spend a ton of time here rehashing it, but I want to point out some of the ways that it feels like the church is still dodging and skirting difficult issues. This video feels much more dishonest than the previous videos we have covered (seer stone video and the Word of Wisdom video), and we'll highlight the reasons we feel that way as we go. ​ Below I am going to have the text of the video with some comments about why the church is still being misleading about the works of Joseph Smith even in the year 2019 when the information is so readily available. If you have not read our annotated essays, I highly recommend them as they provide so much more information than this blog post on the specific issues. ​ Before I start with the video, I want to note the definition of honesty that the church has declared in its own Gospel Principals Manual (lesson 31): ​ "Complete honesty is necessary for our salvation. President Brigham Young said, “If we accept salvation on the terms it is offered to us, we have got to be honest in every thought, in our reflections, in our meditations, in our private circles, in our deals, in our declarations, and in every act of our lives” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young [1997], 293).”



Satan would have us believe it is all right to lie. He says, “Yea, lie a little; … there is no harm in this” (2 Nephi 28:8). Satan encourages us to justify our lies to ourselves. Honest people will recognize Satan’s temptations and will speak the whole truth, even if it seems to be to their disadvantage.



There are many other forms of lying. When we speak untruths, we are guilty of lying. We can also intentionally deceive others by a gesture or a look, by silence, or by telling only part of the truth. Whenever we lead people in any way to believe something that is not true, we are not being honest." ​ From the video: ​ "Who was Joseph Smith? He is most well known as the first prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Latter-day Saints believe that God called Joseph Smith to restore the fullness of His gospel to the earth.



Let's start at the beginning. Joseph was born on December 23rd, 1805. He was the fifth of eleven children born to Joseph Smith Senior and Lucy Mack Smith. They were a close knit family of farmers who struggled to make a living. They were often forced to move throughout the northeastern United States in order to support themselves.



Eventually, the family settled in upstate New York. The Smith family were devout Christians. They read the Bible as a family and attended several churches in the area, searching for one that fit their beliefs." ​ There's really nothing here that I care to get into without getting into the weeds a bit, but I want to put the full text in here to give full context. It is important to note the video's statement that the Smith family regularly studied the Bible, because we know that Joseph Smith knew the Bible as well as anyone and it plays heavily into the reliance on the Bible for the Book of Mormon. Back to the video: ​ "Yet Joseph was confused by the conflicting teachings. Joseph loved the Bible in the teachings of Jesus, but he was confused by the conflicting opinions of the various churches. One day, while studying the Bible, Joseph read a verse in the New Testament that said, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God."



After careful reflection, Joseph decided to do as the scripture directed: he would ask God which church he should join. On a spring morning in 1820 Joseph went to a grove of trees near his family's farm to pray. Joseph knelt and prayed. Joseph said that as he prayed, "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me, I saw two personages whose brightness and glory defy all description standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other, This is my beloved son. Hear him."



Joseph asked the Lord which church he should join. The Lord instructed him not to join any of them. That experience, which came to be known as the First Vision, set in motion what the Apostle Peter referred to as the restitution of all things that Jesus Christ would call Joseph to restore His true church to the earth.



Joseph would go on to learn that Christ's true church, the one with his authority that he founded during his time on earth, had been lost from the Earth after the martyrdom of the original church's leaders."

The video is making the very clear declaration that there is only one First Vision account, and that it happened exactly as the 1838 version from Joseph Smith claims. We recently wrote an overview of First Vision accounts which covers why it could not have occurred in 1820, and we also have our annotated LDS essay of the First Vision, which details the problems with the statement the church makes in this video. ​ In other words, the church is violating their own standard of honesty here by not speaking "the whole truth, even if it seems to be to their disadvantage." There were multiple First Vision accounts that contradict each other in very significant ways, it was written long after the event was claimed to have happened (18 years in this particular account), and the details around 1820 make clear it could not have happened then. ​ Back to the video: ​ "Three years after the First Vision, an angel visited Joseph and instructed him to unearth an ancient record hidden in a nearby hill, which Joseph translated by the power of God. This ancient record was the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon contains an account of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas, and Latter-day Saints believe it is scripture, another witness of Jesus Christ." ​ This is a huge area of dishonesty for the video. In the time between the claimed First Vision and translation of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith used a stone in a hat to hunt for buried treasure for profit. If the church wants to give a video about the origins of Joseph Smith, omitting this information goes against their own statement of honesty. ​ More problematic is that the church once again uses imagery in the video that is flat out false. To translate the Book of Mormon that we have today (excluding the 116 pages where it's more unclear how he translated), Joseph Smith would put his head fully in a hat and read words off the same stone he used for treasure digging. The gold plates were often not even in the room, which we cover in our annotated Book of Mormon LDS translation essay. ​ Yet here is the imagery the church uses for the translation:

The church wants to normalize Joseph Smith's practice in a faith promoting way, but in 2019 it is really easy to show how they are being willfully dishonest. To again quote their own definition of honesty, "Whenever we lead people in any way to believe something that is not true, we are not being honest." ​ But it doesn't end there as the next section makes the same unquestionable declaration for an event that did not happen. From the video: ​ "Along with the Bible, the Lord also sent Peter, James and John to restore his priesthood that is the authority to act in the name of God. Joseph Smith also received revelations from the Lord that taught and clarified eternal principles, such as the importance of baptism, the need for temples where we make sacred covenants with God, and that marriage performed by the restored priesthood can last eternally, not just until the end of our mortal life."