[Colofornian]

From the article: Of course, there are a few problems with that characterization, aren’t there? Chief among them — if Joseph Smith is really just like John the Baptist, then why don’t we treat the two similarly? And despite doctrinal protests, we really don’t. In the current hymnal, there are no hymns about Moses. None about John the Baptist (though Jesus’s baptism is referenced a few times). A few cursory mentions of Peter, in places like What Was Witnessed (#11), and implied mention in #105, Master the Tempest is Raging. There are some mentions of Adam — more than any other Biblical prophet, probably — as well as Enoch. In contrast, we get two very well-known, oft-sung hymns focusing directly on Joseph Smith: Praise to the Man, and Oh How Lovely was the Morning. Prior hymnals contained many more: The Seer; Blest was the Day when the Prophet and Seer; O Give me Back my Prophet; and so on.

IOW, if the current Mormon hymnal is bad enough in directing direct worship to Joseph Smith, who Mormons believe can become a god (perhaps he has already???), the previous Mormon hymnals had many more!

[Colofornian]

From the article: The same goes for church art. The average church building might have pictures of Joseph Smith alone; of the First Vision; of the priesthood restoration; of translation. The Gospel Art kit reflects this. It contains ten pictures of Joseph Smith. There are six pictures of Jesus’ apostles, four pictures of Moses, Lehi, and Nephi, and three each of Adam and Daniel...

Mormon church art trots out this same iconic adoration of Joseph Smith.

Merry Smithmas!

[varmintman]

The last real prophet died around 2600 years ago i.e around the time of Zechariah or just before that. A monument to him would be like the tomb of the unknowns, since nobody could know his name for certain.

Ancient religious practices were meant to communicate with the spirit realm directoy; those included oracles, prophets, "familiar spirits" as with the case of the "Witch of Endor", and pure electrostatic devices like the ark of the covenant. All of those things involved trance states, all involved static electricity, and they all stopped working around the time of Zechariah.

The first paragraph of the book of Hebrews mentions prophets as a thing of the distant past on the day Jesus was born. Anybody claiming to be a prophet since that time is basically a BS artist.

[faucetman]

““No, more like Moses, or John the Baptist.” “

Both of these guys are in my bible. Joseph Smith is not.

[greyfoxx39]

From the article: "Hymnody and art about Jesus are several orders of magnitude higher than any other figure, including Joseph Smith. We may have two hymns about Joseph Smith, but there are scores and scores that talk primarily about Jesus.

The author fails to note that the "scores and scores that talk primarily about Jesus" are hymns that mormons have "borrowed" from Christian hymnals...not hymns that have been composed by mormons. A salient point, IMO.

[FateAmenableToChange]

Funny. The bible doesn’t have anything in it saying that I need John the Baptist’s or Moses’s approval to get into heaven. It’s explicit that Christ is the way, the only way, the entirely sufficient way to salvation. Any additional requirements added onto that are heresy and blasphemy.

The bottom line is that the mormons fall prey to Satan’s deception of Eve in promising that a man can be a god. Any attempts to paint Joseph Smith’s role in the Mormon church as anything other than replacing Christ or standing co-equal with Christ are false and deceiving.

[laweeks]

Joseph Smith is just a prophet.

A prophet is just that . . . a prophet! This Smith guy, if he were even for a moment talking to God about future events, would NEVER be wrong.

But this conman, stone reader, embezzler, child predator, adulterer, and polygamist was so horribly wrong on just about every prophecy. How anyone with any common sense could still adhere to his babbling is beyond me.

Admit you were conned, and return to the real ONE GOD, Jesus before you have a date in Hell.

[dragonblustar]

Keri

I totally agree with Marcus. I find the singing of the song “Praise to the Man” to be vaguely idolatrous as well, and I refrain from singing it. I don’t go out and campaign against it or anything, but if someone asks me why I don’t sing it, I’ll tell them that I’m not comfortable singing praises to anyone except a member of the Godhead.

Its nice to see some real responses instead of the same generic/no meaning responses by some mormons here.

[isthisnickcool]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA1IMSRN2Xk

[Elsie]

“No, more like Moses, or John the Baptist.”

JESUS: Hey Smith!       Remember that boast you made about doing more than even I had done to hold the 'church' together?

JOSEPH SMITH: Where am I?

JESUS: Don't you remember? A few seconds ago you were in that jail.

JOSEPH SMITH: Oh; yeah; but where am I NOW?

JESUS: Don't you remember? Does bang - bang ring a bell?

JOSEPH SMITH: Oh; yeah - that crummy gun I had was about USELESS!

JESUS: I hope you left instructions on how to hold your church together.

JOSEPH SMITH: Dang! I knew there was SOMETHING I was forgetting!

JESUS: Looks like there's a power struggle going on down there.

JOSEPH SMITH: Yeah; there was always SOMEone who wanted the power that I held - especially over the LADIES - wink wink.

JESUS: No need to worry about that now; remember what my friend Matthew wrote down?

JOSEPH SMITH: This? “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30)

JESUS: That's it.

JOSEPH SMITH: I thought that was mistranslated.

JESUS: Nah - it was right.

JOSEPH SMITH: Oh well; it was fun while it lasted. My buds will still get it on with the girls.

JESUS: Uh; I'm sorry; in just a few more years; your followers will cavein to the United States government and abandon the 'Eternal Covenant' that you came up with.

JOSEPH SMITH: ME!? YOU are the one that told me to do that!

JESUS: Sorry; but you must have mistranslated what I told you. What part of Do NOT commit ADULTERY did you not understand?

JOSEPH SMITH: mumble....

JESUS: What did you say?

JOSEPH SMITH: Oh, nothing.

JESUS: Well; it was interesting talking to you; but now I must get back to perparing a place for those who believe in Me.

JOSEPH SMITH: Oh, yeah; the Celestial Kingdom.

JESUS: No...

JOSEPH SMITH: The Telestial one?

JESUS: Nope.

JOSEPH SMITH: SUREly not the TERRESTRIAL one!!

JESUS: Nope. Didn't you read that the mind of man had NOT conceived of it? Paul wrote it down in 1 Corinthians 2:9.

JOSEPH SMITH: I thought that was mistranslated.

JESUS: No; it wasn't.

JOSEPH SMITH: You SURE?

JESUS: Yes. Now I must be going: what did you say your name was again?

JOSEPH SMITH: Joseph Smith.

JESUS: Hmmmm. According to my Heavenly FAITHbook, you didn't sign in as one of my friends - sorry, I never knew you.

JOSEPH SMITH: But.... 

[Elsie]

“No, we don’t worship Joseph Smith,” I explained to the investigator. “We respect him as a prophet.”

Looks like things have CHANGED; down Zion way...

---

 

"He (Joseph Smith) is the man through whom God has spoken... yet I would not like to call him a savior, though in a certain capacity he was a god to us, and is to the nations of the earth, and will continue to be."

 - Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 8:321

 

 

"You call us fools; but the day will be, gentlemen and ladies, whether you belong to this Church or not, when you will prize brother Joseph Smith as the Prophet of the Living God, and look upon him as a god..."

- Herber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 5:88

 

 

"If we get our salvation, we shall have to pass by him [Joseph Smith]; if we enter our glory, it will be through the authority he has received. We cannot get around him [Joseph Smith]"

- (as quoted in 1988 Melchizedek Priesthood Study Guide, p. 142)

 

 

There is "no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith. If Joseph Smith was verily a prophet, and if he told the truth...no man can reject that testimony without incurring the most dreadful consequences, for he cannot enter the kingdom of God"

- Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, p.190

 

 

"I tell you, Joseph holds the keys, and none of us can get into the celestial kingdom without passing by him. We have not got rid of him, but he stands there as the sentinel, holding the keys of the kingdom of God; and there are many of them beside him. I tell you, if we get past those who have mingled with us, and know us best, and have a right to know us best, probably we can pass all other sentinels as far as it is necessary, or as far as we may desire. But I tell you, the pinch will be with those that have mingled with us, stood next to us, weighed our spirits, tried us, and proven us: there will be a pinch, in my view, to get past them. The others, perhaps, will say, If brother Joseph is satisfied with you, you may pass. If it is all right with him, it is all right with me. Then if Joseph shall say to a man, or if brother Brigham say to a man, I forgive you your sins, "Whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them;" if you who have suffered and felt the weight of transgression—if you have generosity enough to forgive the sinner, I will forgive him: you cannot have more generosity than I have. I have given you power to forgive sins, and when the Lord gives a gift, he does not take it back again."

 - Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 6, p.154-155

 

 

 

"It is because the Lord called Joseph Smith that salvation is again available to mortal men.... If it had not been for Joseph Smith and the restoration, there would be no salvation,"

 - Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 396, 670

 

---

---

They succeeded in killing Joseph, but he had finished his work.

He was a servant of God, and gave us the Book of Mormon.

He said the Bible was right in the main, but, through the translators and others, many precious portions were suppressed, and several other portions were wrongly translated; and now his testimony is in force, for he has sealed it with his blood.

As I have frequently told them, no man in this dispensation will enter the courts of heaven, without the approbation of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jun.

Who has made this so?

Have I?

Have this people?

Have the world?

No; but the Lord Jehovah has decreed it.

If I ever pass into the heavenly courts, it will be by the consent of the Prophet Joseph.

If you ever pass through the gates into the Holy City, you will do so upon his certificate that you are worthy to pass.

Can you pass without his inspection?

No; neither can any person in this dispensation, which is the dispensation of the fulness of times.

In this generation, and in all the generations that are to come, everyone will have to undergo the scrutiny of this Prophet.

They say that they killed Joseph, and they will yet come with their hats under their arms and bend to him; but what good will it do them, unless they repent?

They can come in a certain way and find favor, but will they?

 Brigham Young,

--JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, vol. 8, p. 224

[Rashputin]

The Mormons I’ve known seem to care about Martha Smith a lot more than they do about Joseph Smith, so does that mean they’re not very good Mormons or is there some sort of substition allowed?

[SENTINEL]

You don't even need to enter an church of the breakawy LDS sect of Mormonism to see they don't worship Christ

Even the simplest Christian Churches have a CROSS.

Even the most extravagant LDS "Temples" do not.

The Nauvoo "temple" has a graven image of Baal however...

Some LDS "temples" even have pentagrams...