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Some Strange Things: About Mormonism

I was watching some [online videos] the other night [..] and I came across an anti-mormon video. It brought up some points that sounded pretty strange to me. I'm ashamed to say that they make me doubt a little. Can someone help me resolve these? I'm very active in the Church. There are 4 of them below.

1. Joseph Smith Sr., the patriarch of the church soon after organization, gave Oliver Huntington a blessing that he would preach to people on the moon. This is supposedly Oliver Huntington's statement:

(The Young Women's Journal 3:264, 1892).

Granted, there was a response to the video that said this:

Brigham Young, however, talked about the same topic in his Journal of Discourses, vol 13, p 217. Its on google books. The Journal of Discourses is on Google Books. Go and search for it there if you don't have a copy of them at home.

(if anyone has the Journal of Discourses vol 13 it would be good to look this up to make sure that Harvard Library (the place google books got it from) didn't change it or anything)

This sounded very strange to me. The moon? Inhabited?

2. Brigham Young also said that the Sun is inhabited. Its actually right after what he said above about the moon. Again, go to google books and search "journal of discourses." One of the first ones that comes up should be volume 13.

This is weird. Do you think he means that its spiritually inhabited?

3. The next thing is a statement made by Joseph Smith in The History of the Church, vol 2, p 182.

Again, this stuff is on Google Books. Search "history of the church" there and go to the right volume and page.

I may be looking at this out of context or something, but it seems like Smith is saying that Christ would come 56 years after he made that statement. He said "fifty six years should wind up the scene." The video made the point that if President Smith was prophesying that Christ would come in 56 years, this obviously didn't happen, and the video said that this proves that Smith was not a prophet. I was wondering how to refute the claim that Joseph Smith was not a prophet if he did make this statement.

4. David W. Patten-D&C 114:1

Patten died before he served that mission.

I was really disturbed by this stuff just because it caught me completely off guard. Has anyone ever heard this stuff before?

Message Edited...
JB: This is not for Public LDS Board - moved to Mature.

Mormonism Things Strange Some

I am quite familiar with your points so I would try my best to answer your questions. In the quote provided there are a couple of inconsistencies. For some reason, it is reported that Oliver Huntington received his patriarchal blessing from Joseph Smith Sr when in records show it was actually Huntington's father who gave him a blessing. The source of the statement attributed to Joseph Smith comes from Oliver's journal where he claims he had the information from Philo Dibble. So, we're speaking about a third hand account. We can also keep in mind he received this patriarchal blessing when he was only 10 years old and his claims were made fifty years later.

There is no where in the scripture where it states that prophets are not allowed to have a personal opinion. In the nineteen century, these ideas were not crazy at all but quite popular. So it is well possible that Joseph Smith, Brigham Young as well as others believe what science believed at that time and they in fact believed the sun and the moon were possible inhabited. There were also many hoaxes that I am sure many brethren also believed.

William Herschel who was a German Astronomer held these views many years before this incident when he told a disbelieving astronomer:

If you think about it, can you certainly state you're 100% sure (based on facts) that the moon or the sun don't have inhabitants? I don't think anyone can. Man landed in the moon and covered only a little portion of it, we really don't know. Didn't John the Revelator stated that he saw an angel standing in the sun? I think there is so much more to see that we really don't have the answer for.

Again, we're getting third hand information. We do not have a copy of the talk where he supposedly said that but just a compilation of different diaries of people who claimed to be there, one of them....Oliver Huntington. So if the antis want to accuse Joseph Smith of being a false prophet, shouldn't they have at least a FIRST hand account? But assuming he did, there are some inconsistencies with a key word in that statement. In History of the Church II: 182 states:

Klaus Hanson incorrectly stated that Joseph Smith said that fifty-six years wouldwind up the scene. See? Just one word makes a whole difference, isn't? Unfortunately in Church history, we have several scholars making similar mistakes or contradicting each other.

There are many, many quotes if you search after this incident that indicates that Joseph Smith never prophesied the Lord's coming would be in fifty-six years. Did he have an opinion on the issue? It seems like he did. In Doctrine and Covenants 130:14-17, he mentioned that the second coming would not occur before 1891, but left open the actual time of Christ's return.

The section is not a prophecy but just a mission call. It is interesting though the emphasis on setting all his affairs in order which he did when he died, so his family was took care of. Plus, who knows if Brother Patten's mission was not in the other side of the veil?

I hope these answers may help a bit.

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As LDS Forever said, this statement was quoted some 30 or more years after the fact, by a third-hand account, with no original records to go by, it would make me wonder how accurate the statement is. Even if the account is accurate, just because one prophet said something well over 100 years ago, especially something about scientific things, doesn't mean that the Church believes it now.

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I have access to both the Journal of Discourses, and History of the Church, I can't see anything in ether cited source talking about the Moon, if you do know where the quotes are, please post the quote, the volume, and page number. Thanks.

Mormonism Things Strange Some

From what I understand most of the supposed teachings about the moon from Joseph Smith based on third party information.

Some Strange Things: About Mormonism

The problem with most of these quotes is finding the real source and what was being said. They did the same thing with Jesus taking his words out of context and using it against him.