Was Joseph Smith's moon-man prophecy a bullsey

Post by **_SatanWasSetUp** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 8:46 pm

I was lurking over at the other board and noticed LDS apologists claiming the Civil War prophecy was a bullseye for Joseph Smith. It's going down the predictable path of the critics pointing out the apparent obvious misses in the prophecy with the apologists counter how those misses might actually be bullseyes, etc.

Anyway, this got me thinking. Is it possible, from an LDS standpoint, for any of Joseph Smith's prophecies to be wrong? For example, let's take his statement about how the moon is inhabited by really tall guys dressed as quakers. This isn't really a prophecy, more a statement of fact on his part, but since nobody had explored the moon at that time, they would not know if he was correct until the future. Therefore it is a kind of prophecy. Anyway, I think his moon-man prophecy might actually be pretty damn accurate. If Joseph Smith was sitting in the 1840s, with no knowledge of what our astronauts would look like, and god gave him a glimpse of astronauts walking on the moon, they would appear tall, because of their big boots and all their gear. He would have no understanding of the high tech space uniforms they were wearing, so he would try to correlate it with the closest thing he could think of, they looked like quakers. Now to me or you that might not seem to be a close comparison, 20th century astronaut uniforms and 19th century quaker outfits, but perhaps to Joseph they appeared similar. He has a right to believe they look the same. Besides, perhaps god didn't show him our modern astronauts on the moon, but actually showed him a still future vision of a space station on the moon. Perhaps when we have a space station on the moon, men will have evolved to be taller than we are now, and the current fashion trend will be 18th century quaker style.

Based on the reasons that the Civil War prophecy is a bullseye for Joseph Smith, his Moon-man prophecy is just as impressive. Why are apologists not writing about this? I think it's a good theory.

Post by **_Mercury** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 8:51 pm

misinterpret what you can as a hit and ignore the misses. that's the MO for most religious kooks.

Post by **_Moniker** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 9:38 pm

I posted this bullseye a year ago on MAD - should I get paid for this???

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=6582960

NASA announces plans to build a moon base that would house a new generation of lunar explorers. The plan calls for a return to the moon by 2020, with a rudimentary base camp established by 2024.

Post by **_bcspace** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 10:20 pm

I was lurking over at the other board and noticed LDS apologists claiming the Civil War prophecy was a bullseye for Joseph Smith.

I agree, it was.

Anyway, this got me thinking. Is it possible, from an LDS standpoint, for any of Joseph Smith's prophecies to be wrong?

No.

For example, let's take his statement about how the moon is inhabited by really tall guys dressed as quakers.

Is that really a prophecy of Joseph Smith?

Post by **_karl61** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:11 pm

I like the prophecies of the Old Testatment: they usally are fulfilled in the same chapter.

Post by **_SatanWasSetUp** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:41 pm

bcspace wrote:
Is that really a prophecy of Joseph Smith?

Probably not, since it wasn't canonized. Until the First Presidency and Q12 put their stamp of approval on things Joseph Smith said, they were just his opinion. I'm just theorizing that perhaps the church is too quick to dismiss His moon-man teachings as mere opinion when it can be easily proven using apologetics. 1) Men have walked on the moon. Therefore it has been "inhabited." The modern space suits would be strange to Joseph Smith, and he could've misinterpreted astronauts for Quakers. 2) We could have a future permanent space station on the moon, and it is plausible that Quaker outfits could become stylish again in the future when we are living on the moon. 4) Since the average height of man has increased over time, it is possible to have really tall guys in the future. It is such an easy thing to defend for apologists, compared to so many other issues, the church has no reason not to canonize it.

Post by **_Scottie** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:49 pm

SatanWasSetUp wrote:
bcspace wrote:
Is that really a prophecy of Joseph Smith?

Probably not, since it wasn't canonized. Until the First Presidency and Q12 put their stamp of approval on things Joseph Smith said, they were just his opinion. I'm just theorizing that perhaps the church is too quick to dismiss His moon-man teachings as mere opinion when it can be easily proven using apologetics. 1) Men have walked on the moon. Therefore it has been "inhabited." The modern space suits would be strange to Joseph Smith, and he could've misinterpreted astronauts for Quakers. 2) We could have a future permanent space station on the moon, and it is plausible that Quaker outfits could become stylish again in the future when we are living on the moon. 4) Since the average height of man has increased over time, it is possible to have really tall guys in the future. It is such an easy thing to defend for apologists, compared to so many other issues, the church has no reason not to canonize it.

You're quite right. Apologetically speaking, this is a hit.