Reason #75: Can you uncult a cult?
What follows is the fifth of a five-part series that Zondervan published on their academic blog, Koinonia. The subject matter may repeat some previous “365″ posts, but I will nonetheless publish them for those who might not want to scroll back through all the previous posts. The Mormon Mirage 5 of 5 by Latayne C. Scott A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today 5 of 5: “Can You Un-Cult a Cult?” I know that many people are unsure today of the definition of the word “cult.” When I was writing one of my books, Why We Left a Cult: Six People Tell Their Stories (Baker), several challenges arose. First, of course, was to formulate a working definition of a pseudo-Christian cult.1 Second (and, I thought at first, easiest) was...
Reason #73: The cost of losing one’s God
What follows is the third of a five-part series that Zondervan published on their academic blog, Koinonia. The subject matter may repeat some previous “365″ posts, but I will nonetheless publish them for those who might not want to scroll back through all the previous posts. The Mormon Mirage, pt. 3 of 5 by Latayne C. Scott Agreeing with Spurgeon The Mormon Mirage is not the only book I wrote about Mormonism. In another, Why We Left Mormonism: Eight People Tell their Stories(Baker), I interviewed seven other people to find out what was effective in reaching them while they were LDS, what mistakes Christians made, what advice they offered. In another, After Mormonism, What? Reclaiming the Ex-Mormon’s Worldview for Christ(Baker), I applied the...
Reason #41: Because of the Sheer Number of Joseph Smith’s False Prophecies
Because of the Sheer Number of Joseph Smith”‘s False Prophecies: False prophecy became a habit for Joseph Smith. Most estimates of the number of recorded false prophecies that Smith made range from 50 to 60. Edmond C. Gruss and Lane A. Thuet in What Every Mormon (and Non-Mormon) Should Know have documented the fact that Smith made at least one false prophecy per year from 1829 until the year of his death. Wow. For more information, see The Mormon Mirage 3rd Edition: A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today (Zondervan, 2009). Also available as an audiobook and as an expanded-text E-book for Nook, Kindle and other reading...
Reason #40: Joseph Smith’s Prophecies and Failed “Miracles”
False Prophecies and Failed Abilities of Joseph Smith: While at Kirtland Ohio, Joseph made a prophecy that is unfamiliar to most Mormons. Just before the first general church conference, he predicted that “not three days should pass away before some should see the Savior face to face.” At this conference a man seemed to have been suddenly stricken deaf and dumb, so Joseph exorcised the devil from him. Then Joseph tried unsuccessfully to heal a crippled man”‘s hand, and another”‘s lame leg, and finally to raise a lifeless child from the dead. For more information, see The Mormon Mirage 3rd Edition: A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today (Zondervan, 2009). Also available as an audiobook and as an...
Reason #35: The Gold Plates Never Existed
One LDS author, Dan Vogel in American Apocrypha:Essays on the Book of Mormon stated: “Given the fact that the three witnesses saw a vision and that the experience of the eight witnesses seems to have been similarly visionary, there is no compelling evidence that Joseph Smith actually possessed anciently constructed plates.” Perhaps we could at most give the witnesses credit for being gullible. Jerald and Sandra Tanner have explored the possibility that Joseph Smith, with the aid of Oliver Cowdery (who had been a blacksmith when young), had made some sort of metal plates which they covered up and presented to the witnesses to touch as “proof” of Joseph Smith”‘s golden plates theory. Richard Abanes, in One Nation Under...
