It is very interesting to note that Joseph Smith referred to the religious freedom that would allow him to be either a false prophet or a true prophet. He said, “Every man has a natural, and, in our country, a constitutional right to be a false prophet, as well as a true prophet.” (Teachings, p. 344.)
That statement alone should have motivated people, then and now, to test him before committing themselves to him. The Bible gives a criteria for testing prophets in Deut. 18:20-22. One false prophecy is enough to dismiss a person as a false prophet - forever! The penalty in Israel for pretending to speak for God was death! We examined a prophecy of Joseph Smith that would have given him the death penalty had he lived in the Old Testament times: When Joseph Smith was questioned as to why his prophecy regarding going to Toronto, Canada, to sell the copy-right for the book of Mormon had failed, (this was before the organization of his church and the publishing of the Book of Mormon), he received another revelation from his Lord that said, “Some revelations are of God, some are of man: and some revelations are of the devil.” (Reported in Comprehensive History of the Church, vol. 1:163, also in Address To All Believers In Christ, by David Whitmer, p. 31.)
This should have caused his followers to run away from Joseph Smith! A man who claimed to be a prophet of God but yet did not know the source of his revelations!!
One of these prophecies that Joseph Smith claim to have received in September 1832 is recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants as Section 84. Verse one proclaims that it is “A revelation of Jesus Christ unto his servant Joseph Smith Jun….”. Verses 2-5 declare that the city of New Jerusalem and the temple will be built on an appointed lot in Independence, Missouri, and that this temple will be “dedicated by the hand of Joseph Smith.” He also said, “…beginning at this place, even the place of the temple, which temple shall be reared in this generation. For verily this generation shall not pass away until an [sic] house shall be built unto the Lord” (D&C 84:4-5). Joseph Smith was killed about 12 years later, and 178 years later, no temple has been built. The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (RLDS), (later named “Community of Christ”), built their temple (which is not for secret ceremonies for the living and the dead, as LDS temples are, but is just a meeting house open to all people) directly across the street from “Joseph Smith’s temple lot.” By the way, this temple lot is not even owned by the Mormon Church but by another splinter group, The Church of Christ (temple lot).
(Higley, H.I.S. Ministries July/August 2010 Newsletter, Sandy, Utah).
