Joseph Smith and revelation

Stub. Do not lead with a fraud accusation. Ask what kind of revelation is being claimed, and read the account they actually use.

The question

Latter-day Saints are not only readers of the Bible who reached an unusual conclusion. They confess that God called Joseph Smith in the nineteenth century, that the apostolic church had been lost, and that scripture and authority were restored through him. The Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price stand beside the Bible in their canon. A conversation that never mentions Smith is not yet a conversation about their faith.

A fair statement of the claim

Joseph Smith—History tells of a vision of the Father and the Son, of confusion among the churches, and of a later commission to translate an ancient record. Doctrine and Covenants 1 presents the book as a voice of warning and as commandments given through Joseph. For a believing member, this is not a hobby. It is how they say God spoke again so that plain truths could be recovered. They will often add that you can ask God yourself, appealing to a promise in the Book of Mormon (Moroni 10:3–5).

Critics, including many Christians, raise historical questions about the translation, the witnesses, and changes in the telling of the First Vision. Those questions exist. A stub is not a verdict on them. Using them as a sneer (“he made it all up”) before you have read the account is unworthy of the person you are speaking with, and it is weak even as an argument.

A Christian starting point

Hebrews 1:1–2 says God spoke by the prophets in many times and, in these last days, has spoken by his Son. Christians who cite that verse need to say what they think it allows. It does not by itself prove that no one after the apostles could be told anything. It does set Jesus, not a later restorer, as the definitive word. The argument is whether Smith’s message fits that Son or revises him.

Ask a concrete question and stay with it. How does a new revelation relate to an apostolic letter when they seem to differ on God? What would count as a revelation that corrects an apostle, and what would count as one that only clarifies? Listen to the answer. Then open one place where you think the difference is real — often the Godhead — and read both texts.

If you accept their invitation to “pray about the book,” be honest about what you think that test can and cannot show. A warm feeling is not nothing in the Christian life. It is also not a method that can check a historical claim by itself. Say that gently.

Scripture to open together

• Joseph Smith—History, the First Vision account, in the Pearl of Great Price.
• Doctrine and Covenants 1.
• Hebrews 1:1–2.
• Galatians 1:8–9, which both of you will want, and which you should not fire before you have defined “another gospel” from the passage itself.

Keep reading

• The Book of Mormon
• The Godhead in Latter-day Saint teaching