[Logophile]

Really ??? What exactly ???

What exactly did Joseph Smith do for the salvation of men? Off the top of my head, I can think of several things:

1. Joseph Smith translated, by the gift and power of God, the ancient record known as the Book of Mormon.

2. Acting under the direction Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith organized the Church of Jesus Christ.

3. Joseph Smith received additional revelations and commandments from Jesus Christ pertaining to important topics such as the plan of salvation.

4. Joseph Smith received the power from God to seal on earth and in heaven.

I could go on, but those accomplishments are enough to establish the importance of Joseph Smith's work.

[svcw]

Do you even know what Salvation means?

[Elsie]

 

1. Joseph Smith translated, by the gift and power of God, the ancient record known as the Book of Mormon.

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The "Caractors" are the only tangible evidence in existence related to Smith's story.

 

 No gold plates, no brass plates, no peep stones, no Urim and Thummim... only these "Caractors," not a single one of which is in the purported languages.

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Smith's translation of the Caractors. According to Martin Harris (Joseph Smith - History, 1:64), "I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet translated,* and he said they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic; and he said they were true characters."

Speak right up now in all truthfulness. Isn't it revealing how Smith started out making a stab at creating believable "caractors" but quckly gave up and produced nothing but squiggles, ending up wih a series of nothing more than crude little scribbles? Yet Professor Anthon supposedly translated them!

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*Harris must have had two or three pieces of paper with him—one with characters and a translation of them (on the same paper or a separate one) and one with untranslated characters—quite likely the "Caractors." Some Mormon "scholars" have gone out on a limb, sawed it off, and knocked themselves out trying to translate from these true Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic characters a segment that would correspond with a verse from 1 Nephi.

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Modern-day experts in Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic. In 1829, any knowledge of these languages possessed by U.S. scholars would have been rudimentary at best. Expertise in them has vastly improved since then. So go ahead, do it. Get any modern expert in these languages to identify which of these "Caractors" are Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac and Arabic. Better still, accept the claim of Mormon apologists that Anthon did indeed so testify and that his appraisal of the Caractors was correct. (Op. cit, pp. 73-75)

Save your money! Samples of Assyriac/Aramaic and Arabic writing:

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What say you? Which of Smith's "Caractors" resemble the Assyriac and Arabic ones? No need to pay experts for their analysis. A child could accurately check this out. These writing systems have remained constant for well over 3000 years.

[Elsie]

2. Acting under the direction Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith organized the Church of Jesus Christ.

Which fell apart after his death into different groups...

[Elsie]

4. Joseph Smith received the power from God to seal on earth and in heaven.

Oh??

Matthew 16:19
I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven."

[reaganaut]

LOL. Importance??

There is no proof that Smith did ANY of those things, and a great deal of evidence that HE did NOT do those things but was a charlatan, liar, and fraud.

Your ‘feelings’ don’t make the LDS church the Church of Jesus Christ.

[Tennessee Nana]

2. Acting under the direction Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith organized the Church of Jesus Christ.
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Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

The Bible records that Jesus Himself “organized” His Church once and for all but then What does the Christian Bible know...

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18

[SZonian]

Sorry, all of those “accomplishments” are based upon one simple fact. An unequivocal ability to overlook the false prophecies, and the obvious lack of virtue, morals and values of JS.

Faith in the truth of mormonism is predicated upon having faith that JS was a prophet of God. One must believe in him whole cloth or the whole house of cards comes down. Everything in mormonism is built around the teachings and writings of JS.

A prophet of God would not have behaved the way JS did.

[colorcountry]

Please define “translated.”
‘transmitted’ the Book of Mormon. JS didn’t even look at the characters on the gold page (if there were any) let alone “translate” from one language to another - since he most assuredly did not speak nor read “Reformed Egyptian” (neither did anyone else for that matter).

Joseph Smith placed his face in a hat and told a tall tale - he didn’t even have to write it down, let alone “translate” anything.

[ejonesie22]

Um...

Ok.