to mormons.. please explain more about joseph smith?

Question

and how you know he is a true prophet!

i am asking this out of curioisty, not to insult anyone. i am a christian [catholic] btw, altho opening my mind to all religions.

Answer 1

It is hard to explain how we "know"...unless you have had the Holy Ghost testify of something to you, it's hard to understand the comforting, peaceful feeling you get. Also, sometimes, questions (such as is Joseph Smith a true prophet) can come with a very clear answer in your mind and in your heart.
People who are led away from the truth will claim he was false, a treasure hunter, and all sorts of loathsome things about him. These are all rumors and slander that have been around since Joseph told of his vision. Joseph knows, God knows, Christ knows and Satan knows...Satan is trying his hardest to lead people away from the light. misery loves company you know.

I know he is a true prophet of the Lord, I know he saw and spoke with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I know all the keys, rights, and powers of the Priesthood were restored to him from ancient prophets. I live in Utah and just watched "Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration" at temple sqaure in SLC...the first thing I though after watching that is I cannot wait to meet him and thank him for what he did for us.
This is a quote about Joseph...
"Let us not be ashamed of the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Let us teach with great faith and power the reality of the Apostasy and of the need for the Restoration. Let us not shy away from teaching the simple truth of the reality of the First Vision and of all that the Lord did by and through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith."
"President Brigham Young (1801-77) declared: 'It
was decreed in the councils of eternity, long before the foundations of the earth were laid, that [Joseph Smith] should be the man, in the last dispensation of this world, to bring forth the word of God to the people and receive the fullness of the keys and power of the Priesthood of the Son of God. The Lord had his eye upon him, and upon his father, and upon his father's father, and upon their progenitors clear back to Abraham, and
from Abraham to the flood, from the flood to Enoch and from Enoch to Adam. He has watched that family and that blood as it has circulated from its fountain to the birth of that man. [Joseph Smith] was foreordained in eternity to preside over this last dispensation.'
I challenge you to read the Book of Mormon, speak with some missionaries, read info about Joseph on LDS.org or Mormon.org.
Whatever you do, PLEASE at least go to the direct source. Do not listen to slander, that is Satan's doing.
Find out for yourself, what will it hurt? If you don't believe it, no harm done. If you do find out the truth, you will be blessed in so many more ways than you ever knew possible.

Answer 2

Well, it's all based on faith and the testimonies of Joseph Smith and those who knew him.
It's pretty much like asking a catholic how he knows the pope is Gods representative on earth. It's a faith thing.
Even when Jesus walked the earth there were people who said "How do you know he's the son of God?"
You could try going to www.lds.org there's plenty of info there, or if I remember rightly there are a lot of latterday saints who use the christian chatrooms on yahoo, mainly room 25 I think. Friendly bunch and happy to answer questions.

Answer 3

Joseph Smith was a con man who lived in the 1800's and formed a religion based on lies and false promises. It is a cult religion, very controlling of its members.

Smith claimed to read the word of god by looking into his hat and reading letters on a stone. Once Smith had read the words exactly as god dictated, the words would disappear and be replaced by new words. So, Smith was (supposedly) dictating exactly the word of god.

Problem is, god had really bad grammar as the Book Of Mormon that Smith dictated has had to be secretly revised over 3000 times to correct god's (well, Smith's) bad grammar and spelling. It becomes very apparent, upon reading the original text that Smith dictated, that Smith and not god was the author.

Smith also took it upon himself to correct "inaccuracies" in the original bible. Of course, what he was doing was going back and revising the bible to support his own outlandish claims.

There are so many problems between Smith's original proclamations from god and reality that the Mormon's can barely keep up trying to make sense of them. For example, there was supposed to be a huge civilization here in North America about 2000 years ago that was destroyed. Yet, there has been no archeaological evidence ever found to support this claim. No structures, human remains, not even a broken pot. Nothing. Totally made up by Smith and sold to gullible followers.

I could go on and on, but I would recommend reading "One Nation Under Gods" by Richard Abanes for a complete discussion of how millions of people have been hoodwinked into this bogus religion.

Answer 4

I am LDS
The best site to find out about Joseph smith is www.mormon.org
or if you want to read a book I recommend Truth restored by Gordon B Hinkley or the book Our Heritage or the missionaries if they are in your area.
Hope this helps

Answer 5

http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/falseprophecies.htm