Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints—The Mormons

There are many unimpeachable sources which provide overwhelming evidence to the true nature of the founder of Mormonism. It amply demonstrates that if there ever is established a hall of fame for the world's greatest charlatans, Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormons is a shoo-in. A handsome, charismatic con artist, he wrote the book on how to flimflam a gullible public. To understand how Smith was able to perpetuate his scheme, it is important to appreciate the nationalistic fervor that characterized the United States during the first fifty years of its existence. For the thousands of migrants who continued to pour into our young nation, it was the promised land. All that these uneducated optimists needed was a messiah to forge a new religion in the New World. Like the immigrants, Joseph Smith had fertile ground to till-in the immigrants themselves.

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G: How could anyone believe such a preposterous tale?

J: As we shall see, it is no more unbelievable than the first five books of the Bible. Moreover, many historians of Smith's time, upon viewing the similarities between the Aztec and Egyptian cultures, and not knowing that there was a time when the people of Asia could walk across the Bering Strait to Alaska, theorized that the Indians might be descendants of the so-called Lost Ten Tribe of Israel. Joseph Smith no doubt was familiar with Ethan Smith's work, A View of the Hebrews, published shortly before the Book of Mormon, in which Smith described Indian inscriptions as "hieroglyphic records and paintings." In fact, virtually all the elements in the Book of Mormon were stolen from somewhere else, including Smith's father's own dreams, eighteen chapters of Isaiah, and hundreds of direct quotes from the King James version of the New Testament.