Posted by:
Already Gone
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Date: September 23, 2014 01:40PM
Bushman get all the dots that lead one to believe the church is a fraud, but he never quite connects them. I am only up to Moroni (or was it Nephi *snicker snicker*) Here are the dots he gives that show that the church is not true and show that evil apostates are, in fact, correct on things.
1- Many versions of the first vision. Bushman says that he initially took the vision to mean that he was cleansed of sin. Right. I don't know how "initially" is 12 years after the fact in his first documentation of it.
2- He states that Joseph wasn't on the census in 1820, probably cause he was off helping his family by being a hired help. Then a few pages later, he describes the first vision "probably" being in early 1820. He totally forgot that dot, didn't he? If he wasn't home, how could he have gone to the sacred grove to pray at the time he said he did in the "official" version?
3- Joseph not being home is more likely when you read about the Smith's family issues. They moved to Palmyra the year before, cleared the land, and built a tiny log cabin for the 10 of them. They must have felt cramped, because in 1822, the man they were buying the land from died. Instead of spending the money that was for the land, they went and spent the money to build a bigger house. They were financially hurt and almost forclosed on when the land payment actually came due.
This shows me that if Joseph had a chance to be gone in 1820, he would have. In fact, his parents would have encouraged it. There was no room! And they needed him to help earn money for the family.
4- He admits that Joseph's persecution complex was probably blown up in his mind during the period after the first vision, when he said everyone hated him because of his vision.
5- He says that the men who wanted the plates were his treasure hunting buddies who thought that they were entitled to a share of his findings - not people driven by Satan to get rid of them.
6- He quotes people in the 1800s who said that they saw God and talked to him and God said that no church was true. In fact, it was pretty common. Bushman states that this softened Joseph Sr. to believe Joseph's true vision, not that Joseph just copied other visions that people had and conned a gullible father.
7- He states that he stopped treasure hunting, but he was hounded to continue. He indirectly admits that he was a leader in treasure hunting by saying that he backed off from treasure hunting, and didn't assume a leadership position anymore. It seems like he actually did continue to associate with them afterwards. Bushman admits Issac Hale didn't like Joseph because of the treasure digging scam, not his visions.
8- Joseph Smith Sr was a visionary man and always seemed to have dreams / visions. He states that Lucy's recount of the Lehi's dream as Joseph Sr's is wrong simply because she wrote it 30 years after it happened, but it is proof that she felt her husband was Joseph Jr.'s successor.