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The South Park depiction of
the Book of Mormon character Moroni appearing to Joseph
Smith in September 1823 reveals some holes in Joseph Smith's
story.
First and foremost, it shows
Joseph Smith sleeping alone in a cabin, which was not the
case. In fact, at the time of the appearance of Moroni in
1823, the Smith family was living in a two-room cabin and
Joseph shared one bedroom with his four brothers.
There
are no contemprary accounts of the appearance of Moroni
to Joseph Smith. In fact all of the earliest accounts, which
started in 1829 after publication of the Book of Mormon,
describe Moroni as a spirit coming in a dream, not an angelic
physical visitation.
Special Book of Mormon witness Martin Harris was among the
many who described Moroni as a spirit coming in a dream.
On September 5, 1829, the Rochester Gem reported on the
origins of Mormonism and quoted Book of Mormon Special Witness
Martin Harris: "he states that after a third visit
from the same spirit in a dream he (Smith)
proceeded to the spot."
- “A GOLDEN BIBLE” Gem, (Rochester, NY),
5 Sept. 1829. Source of reference: A New Witness for Christ
in America, (Zion's printing and Publishing, 1951)
Perhaps this explains why none
of Joseph Smith’s four brothers who were sleeping
in the same room with him that night ever left any accounts
of such an event occurring in their bedroom. Indeed, Martin
Harris never changed his testimony of the night Joseph Smith
first met Moroni. In 1842 Martin Harris again testified
what happened the night of September 21st, 1823:
"Consequently long before
the idea of a Golden Bible entered their minds, in their
excursions for money-digging, which I believe usually
occurred in the night, that they might conceal from others
the knowledge of the place, where they struck their treasures,
Jo used to be usually their guide, putting into a hat
a peculiar stone he had through which he looked to decide
where they should begin to dig."
"It was after one of
these night excursions, that Jo, while he lay
upon his bed, had a remarkable dream. An angel of God
seemed to approach him, clad in celestial splendor."
- Martin Harris Interview, “Testimonies of Book
of Mormon Witnesses” John Clark, Gleanings (1842),
p.226
For
more historical accounts that describe Moroni as coming
in a dream, see: http://www.i4m.com/think/history/moroni_dream.htm
In what the church now considers
the official history of Joseph Smith, written by James Mulholland
and first published in 1842, Moroni is indeed an angelic
visitor. Described as South Park represents, Moroni identified
himself as a Native-American yet appeared as a naked white
man wearing nothing but a "loose, open robe."
According to this 1842 official account, the Angel Moroni
told Joseph Smith that:
“there was a book
deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account
of the former inhabitants of this [American] continent,
and the source from whence they sprang. [The angel] also
said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained
in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants
[of the Americas].”
- Joseph Smith History, Verse 34
However, unlike the South Park
depiction, Moroni does not say that Native Americans were
cursed with red skin because they killed all the white-skinned
Native Americans. This in fact, comes from the Book of Mormon
itself, for example:
Book of Mormon, Alma
Chapter 3 Verse 6
"And the skins of the Lamanites (Native Americans)
were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their
fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their
transgression and their rebellion against their brethren,
who consisted of Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph, and Sam, who
were just and holy men."
The Book of Mormon also
tells the story of how Native-American "Indians"
are really Jews that came from Jerusalem and crossed the
Atlantic Ocean in a boat. The Book of Mormon says it
"...gives an account
of two great civilizations. One came from Jerusalem
in 600 B.C., and afterward separated into two nations,
known as the Nephites and the Lamanites. The
other came much earlier when the Lord confounded the tongues
at the Tower of Babel. This group is known as the Jaredites.
After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the
Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the
American Indians."
- The Book of Mormon, Introduction Page
But
the Book of Mormon does not say that the Garden of Eden
was in America. This in fact came from Joseph Smith many
years later when he and the Mormon Church settled in Jackson
County, Missouri. Smith taught that Adam and Eve lived there
in the Garden of Eden and this doctrine has been supported
by many other church leaders. According to the official
Church History, Joseph Smith even identified a mount of
rocks in Missouri as Adam's altar. (For more details and
photos, see "Garden
of Eden in Missouri" here.)
Although South Park shows Moroni
appearing to Joseph Smith only one time that night in 1823,
the 1842 official version says Moroni repeated his appearance
three times:
“After this third visit,
he again ascended into heaven as before, and I was again
left to ponder on the strangeness of what I had just experienced;
when almost immediately after the heavenly messenger had
ascended from me for the third time, the cock crowed,
and I found that day was approaching, so that our interviews
must have occupied the whole of that night.”
- Joseph Smith History, Verse 47
NEXT >> Finding the Gold
Plates
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