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| − | {{FirstVisionPortal}}
| + | #REDIRECT [[Moroni's visit/Siblings remained asleep]] |
| − | ==Criticism==
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| − | Critics claim that when Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith in his room on September 21, 1823 that his siblings who were sleeping in the same room should have woken up. They claim that this is evidence that Joseph's story is false.
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| − | ===Source(s) of the Criticism===
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| − | *''MormonThink'', "Moroni's Visitation". <nowiki>http://mormonthink.com/moroniweb.htm</nowiki>
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| − | ==Response==
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| − | {{Main|Website reviews/MormonThink|l1=FAIR's Analysis of the website "MormonThink.com"}}
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| − | ===Why didn't Joseph's siblings wake up during Moroni's visit?===
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| − | The site states, "Now the big question is when Moroni came and spoke with Joseph in the night of September 21, 1823, why didn't this wake up Joseph's brothers who were sleeping in the very same room with him?"
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| − | Let's start with the basics. {{s||Genesis|2|21}} tells us,
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| − | <blockquote>
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| − | And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
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| − | </blockquote>
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| − | Therefore, one might state, "Now the big question is that when the Lord God removed one of Adam's ribs, why didn't he wake up?" For anyone who believes that for God nothing is impossible, the question is simply ridiculous. Why, then, are they insisting Joseph's brother's should have been awakened? Yet, the entire argument presented rests on the assumption that Joseph's brothers should have woken up. Why is it unreasonable to assume that God just kept them asleep? Recall that Joseph was useless the next day on the farm. He was exhausted and totally drained from the experience. The family was very very poor, and they could not afford to take a day off of work. Had the other boys woken up with Joseph every time, they too would have been useless, and the farm would have suffered as a result. The animals wouldn't be fed, the cows wouldn't be milked, the crops wouldn't have been tended too. That would have created some severe problems for an already poverty stricken family.
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| − | ===Joseph didn't ''say'' that his family didn't wake up===
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| − | The site continues to drill down in detail by noting that "[t]here has never been anything recorded by Joseph Smith that the all-powerful creator used his powers to keep ten people from waking up during the night of September 21, 1823."
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| − | Why should Joseph Smith have recorded this mundane fact? Even the writer of the paragraph acknowledges that most people don't even think about it. Why should Joseph Smith have? .
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| − | ===Has God used his power to enforce sleep on other occasions?===
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| − | The site claims that there "no precedent for our Heavenly Father using his divine powers to keep people from waking up during spectacular events."
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| − | This is simply incorrect. Just a few examples from the Bible:
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| − | *Jesus sleeping in the boat during a storm
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| − | *Paul's companions not hearing or seeing Jesus appear to Paul
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| − | *Stephen's vision while being stoned
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| − | *The hosts of angels that Elijah couldn't see before him
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| − | *The angel that freed the apostles in prison
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| − | *Adam slept through his rib being removed
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| − | *The Lord calling to Samuel and Eli sleeping through it.
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| − | This is simply a bad argument is simply a bad one.
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| − | ===God altering people's consciousness?===
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| − | Now the site gets to the real point of this entire argument. The claim is presented that, "If God would actually use his powers to alter people's consciousness then how could anyone really ever trust their senses?" In other words, the entire argument is simply a setup to prove that you can't trust visions. Joseph's experience with Moroni is then characterized as "dream or a hallucination," or even a "inspired fantasy."
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| − | This entire hypothesis is based on their premature conclusion that there is no way Joseph's brothers could have slept through the experience.
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| − | ===Church artwork portrays Joseph as being alone===
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| − | ''Some'' Church artwork does indeed portray Joseph as being along—this is simply an artistic interpretation. The August 2009 ''Ensign'', page 54, however, shows a painting of Joseph sitting up in his bed looking at Moroni. Next to Joseph one can clearly see three of his siblings in the same bed...sound asleep. ''Even the official LDS web site'' has a painting that shows one of Joseph's siblings asleep in bed during Moroni's visit. See: [http://www.josephsmith.net/josephsmith/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=c08679179acbff00VgnVCM1000001f5e340aRCRD The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ].
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| − | ==Conclusion==
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| − | The entire argument is not only absurd, but it is clearly refuted by artwork presented by the Church itself.
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| − | ==Endnotes==
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| − | ==Further reading==
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| − | ===FAIR wiki articles===
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| − | ===FAIR web site===
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| − | ===External links===
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| − | ===Printed material===
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