Moonmen From a True Prophet?

Can a True Prophet REALLY Teach About MOONMEN???

Research by Kerry A. Shirts

A very good friend of mine, and myself, got together awhile back and told me about a friend of his who was concerned about Joseph Smith teaching about moonmen (!?). We decided to research the issue and I was writing a book review of a local anti-Mormon critic, Jim Spencer of his rather silly book "Have You Witnessed to a Mormon Lately?" In it I found that Jim Spencer thinks Joseph Smith prophesied that men live on the moon. (p. 24f). Now how on earth is this Smith's prophecy when the source Mr. Spencer uses is dated well over 40 years after Joseph had died? Can Mr. Spencer show us that this is Smith's prophecy? Can it be demonstrated that this is what Smith actually said? Does he have any primary sources to show us or does he always use dismal second and third hand evidence?

The source of the material he uses is 1892. It seems that the minute something is found which is ludicrous is automatically applied to Joseph Smith in order to make him look silly, dumb, ignorant, ridiculous, outrageous, incredible, etc.

Van Hale in 1983 wrote an article called "How Could a Prophet Believe in Moonmen?" (Mormon Miscellaneous) and has far different conclusions than Spencer came up with. Hale notes, after examining the primary resource material available, that the Oliver B. Huntington article on moonmen in the "Young Women's Journal" is at best "...a sensational, late, third hand reminiscence, and, by itself, a very poor source of dependable history." In other words, Mr. Spencer's contention that Joseph Smith said this bit about moonmen is not from any direct historical source, and the source Spencer used is at least 50 years old. I notice that the critic Wally Tope out of California (I used to wrangle with him every spring at Ricks College when he would come up there and strengthen our testimonies GRIN!) says the same thing in his article "Would You Risk Eternal Life For These Men?" p. 4. If it makes Joe Smith look bad, then critics can use anything because, after all, in their minds, the ends justifies the means by all accounts.

Hale notes that while it isn't possible to show that Joseph Smith believed in moonmen, some of his contemporaries did. Among others was Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and the prophet's brother Hyrum. But given the cultural context of the time this was perfectly acceptable, not ludicrously ridiculous as Spencer and others would have us believe.

The question is, was this an outlandish idea in the 19th century in Joseph's time? Had Mr. Spencer been more aware of the literature dealing with this he would have seen the plausible answer. Had he understood Michael J. Crowe, "The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750-1900", Cambridge Univ. Press, 1986; or Orson Pratt's "Wonders of the Universe," Nels B. Lundwall, ed., 1937; or Gilbert W. Scharffs, "The TRUTH About the God- makers," Publisher's Press, 1986; and even Hugh Nibley's "Old Testament and Related Studies," John Welch/Gary Gillum/Don Norton, eds., FARMS, 1986; "Enoch the Prophet," Stephen D. Ricks, ed., FARMS, 1986, he would have understood that Mormon cosmology is intimately intertwined with God, the universe, the planets, and the Plan of Salvation for His children.

Learned Bible commentators of Joseph Smith's day acknolwedged that "it is most rationally concluded that intelligent beings in great multitudes inhabits [the moon's] lucid regions, being far better and happier than ourselves." (Hale quoting the American theologian Dr. Timothy Dwight from his book "Theology").

The reverend Dummelow acknowledged that prophets don't necessarily have a higher knowledge of the sciences than their contemporaries, but the religious truths he teaches are irrefutable and eternal." (in Hale, p.6).

Scharffs in his text notes that prophets are human (who hasn't been more aware of their own weaknesses than the prophets!), but "that does not detract from their being men of God." (p. 120). He shows how some of the biblical prophets erred, i.e. Jeremiah, Paul and Barnabas, and ends by noting that even Joseph Smith charitably told his audiences that if they expected perfection from he, then he would also expect it from them. He also said that a prophet does not prophesy every time he opens his mouth ("Documented History of the Church" 5:265)

Mr. Spencer's attributing everything ever said by Smith as a prophecy is utterly ludicrous. No one makes that a necessity when dealing with the biblical prophets, then why should Joseph Smith be given such stringent and artificial boundaries?

Incidentally, E. Robert Paul noted in his article "Early Mormon Intellectuals: Parley P. and Orson Pratt: A Response," "Dialogue," Autumn 1982, p. 44, that "Nearly every religious thinker and minister at the time [1830's] held some version of the notion of plurality of worlds... area newspapers dealt occasionally with the plurality of worlds idea as did farmers almanacs. What makes Joseph Smith's version of the plurality of worlds idea unique, is that his full development of pluralism went far beyond the thinking of his contemporaries, both inside and outside the church. Taken together, Smith's ideas on astronomical pluralism evolved into a relatively complex set of interrelated notions. And under the pen of a gifted and articulate Parley P. Pratt these ideas were further refined and integrated into an increasing coherent theological system."

Why is it that only Mr. Spencer and most other dissatisfied Mormons and apostates attempt to make Joseph Smith stupid, possessing only duh-yup intelligence? Compare William P. Collins article (he is a non-Mormon) "Thoughts on the Mormon Scriptures: An Outsider's View of the Inspiration of Joseph Smith," in "Dialogue," Autumn 1982, pp. 49-59, where we find him concluding with the opposite conclusion of Jim Spencer.

"When I examine the Book of Mormon for truth rather than facticity, my reading reveals powerful, eternal, and relevant truths which are capable of changing and guiding men's lives." (p. 53) He continues: "The Book of Mormon breathes with the excitement of the cosmic confrontation of light and darkness [a very Dead Sea Scrolls trait], and is peopled by characters who have names and personalities that are archetypal... Joseph Smith, in founding a church... and in tapping and channeling the spiritual currents of a new age in unique scriptural canon, showed himself to be a religious genius of a most profound kind. An outside observer can, therefore, accept Joseph Smith as a seer - a man with considerable powers of insight... the Mormon scriptures can be seen as repositories of truth (either in the universal sense of the BOfM and PofGP, or in the particularized sense of the D & C)..." (p. 53, 58).

Is this the same Mormonism that Spencer says was "forged in the fiery councils of hell to lead men to eternal damnation."? ("Witnessed" p. 74). Is this the same Mormonism that Spencer contends was "hatched in hell and birthed in the occult necromanciens of Joseph Smith... the doctrinal abyss of Mormonism." ("Witnessed" p. 33). Are these two men describing the same Mormonism?

Erich Robert Paul's valuable study "Science, Religion, and Mormon Cosmology," Univ. of Illinois Press, 1992, notes that the claim of the inhabitants of the moon or sun (cf. Journal of Discourses, 13:271), where Brigham Young says he *thinks* the sun is inhabited, not that he prophesies it as Mr. Spencer would in all likelihood ludicrously claim. We now know that many theologians and scientists of that day were proclaiming this enlarging and excitingly engaging idea of God's creations spreading throughout the universe.

In fact, Walter Sullivan's text "We Are Not Alone" takes seriously the idea that there are other worlds which are inhabited and seriously quotes the "Pearl of Great Price"! He quotes the book of Moses, Worlds without number have been created... etc. (p. 280). This is a 1966 source folks.

D. Michael Quinn in his "brilliant, but flawed book" "Early Mormonism and the Magic World View," claims that there are magical connections with the moonmen idea (p. 130), but this is undone by the views of plurality of worlds in general in Smith's day according to Paul, "Science, Religion, and Mormon Cosmology," (p. 124, footnote 29).

And so we see another sorry little saga of silly story-telling on the prophet Joseph come to an end. What started out as looking ludicrous has actually come out as a strong point in the prophet Joseph Smith's theology namely that there are inhabited worlds out there and they all are participating in God's plan of salvation laid down before the beginning of this world.