Joseph Smith Was Eiether a Con-Man, Delusional, or a Prophet.

In all my research, I have found one thing is certain: Joseph Smith was a man.

Do not fall in the trap of thinking that he was somehow infallible or perfect like Jesus. Prophets make mistakes. Do you think Noah was perfect, or Moses was perfect? Yes, Joseph Smith was a treasure seeker in his youth, but that part of his life became insignificant when he took on the role of prophet and leader of a church. Yes, his behaviour regarding his first plural wife Fanny Alger particularly was very suspect at best. She was a 16 year old housekeeper in the Smith home when she became his first plural wife, and he did it without Emma's knowledge or consent. I struggle with this myself, but perhaps Joseph felt that Emma wasn't ready to receive the doctrine of polygamy, I mean if I told my wife that I received a revelation that I was to take on multiple wives, I would probably get smacked on the head with a hymnal after she laughed in my face. Perhaps Joseph did receive the revelation on celestial plural marriage, but the way he practiced it secretly demonstrated his own weakness. The church does not recognise plural marriage of living women at this time.

Although Joseph Smith denied publicly that he practiced polygamy, he never denied who he was as a prophet of God. After doing extensive research on the biography of Joseph Smith, there are really only 3 conclusions one can come to, Joseph Smith was either: a con-man, delusional, or a prophet.

If Joseph Smith was a con-man, I would say he was one of the worst con-men to have ever existed in the world. If Joseph Smith was a con-man, what exactly did he gain? He never made any money. The money donated to the church was constantly poured into buildings like temples. Why wouldn't he just take the money and run? Why would he feel the need to keep the con going even if it means building elaborate temples and establishing and colonizing entire cities like Nauvoo just to keep his "big con" going? Joseph Smith as a con-man just doesn't make any sense. Would any con-man ever REALLY die to keep their con going? At some point, if faced with death, any con-man that knows he is lying is going to waive the white flag and say "o.k, o.k., you got me, I made the whole thing up!". However, if Joseph Smith was a con-man, he was a lousy con-man because he never made any money, and he was a foolish con-man because he gave up his life to keep it going. I think that Joseph Smith really believed he was a prophet and experienced celestial visions, even if these visions were not visitations. This brings me to the only 2 other possible scenarios: Delusional or Prophet of God.

Was Joseph Smith just delusional? I am convinced that he did in fact believe what he was teaching. I think he was a prophet of God. I also believe that the way in which Joseph received his messages from God may be different than we are led to believe. I think Joseph was inspired by many aspects of his own culture and time period. The same can be seen of Jesus, how he used examples and cultural aspects of his own time period in his teachings. Jesus taught in parables. It isn't to say that the stories Jesus taught are to be taken literally. However, it is the spiritual message that can be applied to our lives. The same is found with the Book of Mormon. I believe that Joseph Smith received a spiritual revelation from God. The means at which Joseph gave us this revelation was given through Joseph by a means that people can understand. And yes, Joseph was inspired by things that were prevalent at the time. I am sure that Jesus had to learn about how the coinage system worked growing up before he could give his parable on the talents. Jesus used "props" if you will, to teach people in a way that they could understand at the time. It is my opinion that Joseph Smith simply did the same. However, as I stated before, I don't think Joseph Smith was in any way comparable to Jesus, but I think that he did have a message from God to give to us.