A Spirit of Spite, a War of Words
by Robert Rosskopf
Satan literally means adversary in Hebrew. He opposes God. He is also known as the Devil, which is derived from the Greek word for an accuser. Satan is the father of unfounded allegations, particularly against God and his servants. He is the great accuser. He takes facts and then twists them, or presents them out of context with the sole purpose of destroying someone's faith in God. He appeared to Eve in the Garden of Eden, and told her that she would not surely die, but be as the gods knowing good and evil, thus planting doubt in Eve's mind, causing her to mistrust God. He has an army of spirits that follow him, and they are also known as devils. They take great delight in opposing God by sowing the seeds of doubt through a constant barrage of accusations.
The belief that we can hear those spirits that follow Satan is a belief that is taken for granted by biblical prophets, and very little is said about this ability. I don't know what else to call it except a type of telepathy. In the scriptures, it is called temptation. There are several scriptures that teach us to pray to avoid temptation. If we tune into the spirit of God we will be less susceptible to the temptations of devils. I myself have heard the voice of some unseen being in my mind, tempting me to rebel against God.
Our own nature is not dissimilar to that of devils; we too are spirits, although we are born into these physical bodies. And when we die our bodies will decay, and our spirits will return to the spirit world from which we came.
"For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it." ( Ecclesiastes 12:7)
It is a great gift that God has given us, to take on these mortal bodies, and the devils are jealous of it. Those devils can inhabit our bodies as easily as we can, if we open the door to them.
"In the synagogue, there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, “Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” “Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him. " (Luke 4:33-35)
I have learned for myself that the heart is the gateway to the soul. People have the ability to open their hearts to evil, and evil is invited in.
Jesus taught that the pure in heart would see God. (Matthew 5:8) The pure in heart are those who have not opened their heart to evil, or who, having done so, repent and close their heart to evil. We open our heart when we love something, and we close our heart when we stop loving something. We can also reject God, until our hearts are hardened against him, and we are beyond feeling the gentle peace of his spirit.
The War for the Hearts of Men
The war between God and Satan and his minions, is the war for the hearts of men.
When Joseph Smith, Jr. went into the woods to pray, in the spring of 1820, and poured out his heart to God, Satan recognized the threat to his kingdom, and he attacked Joseph Smith, attempting to stop his prayer to God. Joseph wrote of the experience:
"...I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction."(Joseph Smith History)
Joseph's sincere prayer was answered, and he was delivered from the dark spirit that had encompassed him. A pillar of light appeared over his head, and in the light he saw God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. They told him to join none of the churches.
"I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”(Joseph Smith History)
When Joseph shared his sacred experience with a Methodist preacher, a friend of his, he was told it was all of the Devil. As news of his vision was rumored about, ministers universally denounced the vision, and him as well. He later said that his talk with the minister brought upon him ridicule from all classes of men, both those that believed in God and also atheists. His brother William later said that people would throw sticks and rocks and mud at the house where they lived. According to Bushman(Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling), someone fired a shot at Joseph for no apparent reason. These reactions to Joseph's sincere testimony of seeing God seem extreme, to say the least. I suspect that it was precisely because Joseph was a sober boy, and because he had a good reputation, that the account of his vision incited so much emotion in people. It was a reproach to all the ministers and all the atheists, and they responded with bitterness.
Things only got worse when it was reported, several years later, that Joseph had seen an angel, and that God was about to do a great work among the children of men, and that a record of the former inhabitants of this land (America) was written on gold plates and deposited in a stone box in a nearby hill. The response was both ridicule, and attempts to steal the plates. On the day he went to recover the plates, from a log where he had hid them, three men assaulted him, one at a time, as he ran through the woods with that heavy bundle. Attempts on his life would only increase in years to come. Witnesses affirmed that Joseph had the plates, and other witnesses affirmed that the translation came from God, and that they, the witnesses, had seen an angel. Even before the translation was finished printing, critics took pot shots at the book, and ministers urged their parishioners to boycott it.
The boycott was relatively successful, and Joseph Smith and his followers had a hard time selling them. Never-the-less, some copies did get sold, and people read the book. One was a minister, who after reading the book, had a vision of the angel Moroni outside his barn. After a revelation from God, Joseph formed the Church of Jesus Christ and baptized the first six members. The fledgling church grew quickly, and some ministers, that were friendly at first, became alarmed as members of their congregations left for the new church.
In 1830 several ministers plotted to kill Joseph Smith as he was baptizing several people in Colesville, New York. They got the local constable to arrest him, for disturbing the peace, expecting that they could later intimidate the constable into relinquishing custody. While Joseph and the constable were on their way to jail, the mob surrounded the wagon, but the constable had no inclination to hand over his prisoner, and slapped the reigns to speed up the horses. They outran the mob, and that night the constable let Joseph sleep in a hotel bed while he slept on the floor, with his boots against the door. (Smith, History of the Church, p. 89)
Several prominent ministers read the Book of Mormon and asked to be baptized. They left their paid positions and joined the new church, some of them bringing their congregations with them. This sudden popularity caused a huge backlash, as other ministers responded negatively, starting a propaganda campaign which rages to this day. The need to prove the church false, to prove Joseph a false prophet, and to prove the Book of Mormon false as well, caused ministers to search for any cracks in the doctrine, any holes in the story, any alternate theories to explain the facts. They produced a flood of outrageous claims demonizing the Mormons or their prophet or their church. They caused a great deal of controversy which only seemed to make more people curious about the church.
At this point, there were many attempts on Joseph Smith's life. There were attempts to arrest him, and to put him in prison. He was sued almost constantly, although judges found him not guilty of any of the crimes for which he was accused. His one and only conviction was for improper banking. After being denied a banking charter, Joseph created a "non-bank" which issued script, and there was a run on the "non-bank", and a great many customers lost money. Joseph was found guilty in his absence, and assessed a fine.
In 1838, Governor Boggs of Missouri, issued his infamous extermination order. The leaders of the church were surrounded by a militia in Far West, and betrayed. The general of the militia intended to put Joseph in front of a firing squad, but was strenuously opposed by another general. Instead, they were taken to Liberty Jail. In Liberty Jail, the prophet and his brother Hyrum were administered poison repeatedly, and they would vomit the poison and lie near death for days. (Smith, History of the Church, 3:420.)
When newspaper reports told how Joseph Smith and his brother were imprisoned without even a trial, there was a public outcry. Pressure mounted on Missouri to either charge them or release them. After several months, they were released. Then they changed their mind, and sought, unsuccessfully, to re-arrest Joseph and his brother, but they had already escaped to a neighboring state. Other attempts were made to take Joseph back to Missouri, but they failed.
The propaganda machine was still in place, and ministers continued to lead mobs against the members of the church. Having been chased out of Ohio and Missouri, the saints went to Illinois. Their enemies followed them there, and eventually were successful in getting Joseph arrested, and then in inciting a mob to storm the jail, where Joseph and other church leaders were relatively defenseless, and murdering Joseph and his brother Hyrum.
The Polarizing Influence of Propaganda
It is said that there are two sides to every story, perhaps because we only want to hear stories where there is contention of some sort. But it would be more accurate to say that there are two conflicting stories, in this case, one history was recorded by faithful members of the church, and another history was reported by ex-Mormons, critics and other churches. These two stories don't have much in common. One cannot accept both histories as being accurate, because they tell very different stories. One story is told with kindness, patience and love. The other story is told with hate, rancor and bitterness. And each person is left with the decision of who to believe.
| Believers | Critics |
| Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. | Joseph Smith was a convicted con artist. |
| Joseph Smith was a family man. | Joseph Smith was a pedophile. |
| Joseph Smith was martyred at Carthage Jail. | Joseph Smith murdered people at Carthage Jail while attempting to escape. |
| Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus. | Joseph Smith made up stories. |
| Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God. | Joseph Smith plagiarized the Book of Mormon from dozens of different sources. |
| Witnesses testified that they saw both the gold plates and the angel Moroni. | The witnesses were all lying. |
| Joseph Smith instituted polygamy. | Joseph slept with other men's wives. |
| Joseph Smith was a righteous man who would often retire to the forest to pray. | Joseph Smith practiced witchcraft. |
| Joseph Smith restored the ancient Christian temple ceremonies. | Joseph Smith stole ceremonies from the Masons. |
The believers don't believe that Joseph Smith was guilty of any serious sin, but critics have accused him of the most vile crimes. I think it is human nature to assume the worst, and I suspect that the history on the right gets more scrutiny than the one on the left.
The wealth of eye witness testimony supports the history of the church as told by the members, but this has never been enough to dissuade critics. The church is still a threat to them. And the unbelievers are organized to the degree where one might think they have formed their own church where everyone is saved, except for the Mormons. Long and hard have they pushed the notion that the LDS worship a different god and a different Jesus than the rest of Christianity. They are actively pushing people towards opposite poles. It would seem that the whole of the Christian world has found a common enemy to unite them, and it isn't atheism, but Mormonism. And while every other church in the US is declining in numbers, the LDS church continues to grow. The propaganda war is taking its toll though, and many members have fallen victim to their clever rhetoric, false accusations, or spirit of spite. Hate is very empowering. Accusations wear away at a person, until they start to believe them. Clever rhetoric ensnares the innocent seeker of truth. It is critical that we learn to recognize the different spirits in the world, that we may distinguish between them. It isn't enough to assume that everyone is telling the truth, and then try to corroborate or disprove their claims. Jesus taught that it is what comes out of a mouth that defiles a man. We must find the source of the claims, whether they are born out of a love for us or out of a hate for the church.
For behold, a bitter fountain cannot bring forth good water; neither can a good fountain bring forth bitter water; wherefore, a man being a servant of the devil cannot follow Christ; and if he follow Christ he cannot be a servant of the devil."
(Moroni 7:11)
Websites critical to the LDS church are not hard to recognize.
1) They usually include accusations that have already been disproven - some over a hundred years ago.
2) They usually exhibit a spirit of hatred and bitterness.
3) They never say anything kind about the church or its prophets.
4) They put everything under a microscope looking for flaws, rather than believe the testimony of the witnesses.