Originally posted by seven7up
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1) The prophecy was that Jesus would either return a) between Smith's 85th birthday and death or b) after Smith's death.
This was a rather curious prophecy, as God knew how long Smith would live and, unlike other conditional prophecies in the Bible, the condition depended on something that was not a matter of human choice. This would be like God saying, "If I decide to do A, then I will do B," as if he doesn't already know what he's decided.
Furthermore, if Smith had lived until 85, this would have greatly narrowed the timeframe for Jesus' return, in direct contradiction to Jesus' words and even Smith's words on the matter. It was highly unlikely for men in Smith's era to live to be 85; even if he lived to age 80, his life expectancy would be less than 86 (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005140.html, http://mappinghistory.uoregon.edu/en...S/US39-01.html).
7up, you argued that Joseph decided that 1) was not the correct interpretation:
Originally posted by seven7up
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Do you consider other parts of LDS scriptures to be only the opinion of the writer, and not authoritative?
Originally posted by seven7up
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2) The prophecy was that if Smith lived to be 85, he would see Jesus' face.
Originally posted by seven7up
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a) The prophecy was a lie, since Smith's seeing Jesus while he was alive had nothing to do with his age
b) The prophecy was meaningless -- "If you live to be 85, you'll see Jesus, but you also will if you don't live to be 85."
c) Smith didn't actually see Jesus
d) This interpretation of the prophecy is wrong
3) The prophecy was that if Smith lived to be 85, he would see Jesus when he died.
Again, Smith didn't live to be 85. Yet surely you and other LDS believe that Smith made it to whatever level of heaven would allow him to see Jesus. Again, the only logical conclusions are:
a) The prophecy was a lie, since Smith's seeing Jesus upon his death had nothing to do with his age
b) The prophecy was meaningless -- "If you live to be 85, you'll see Jesus when you die, but you also will if you don't live to be 85."
c) Smith didn't see Jesus when he died
d) This interpretation of the prophecy is wrong
It looks to me like you're stuck with interpretation #1.
Originally posted by seven7up
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If Smith had the Holy Spirit to guide him into all the truth and give him the mind of Christ, and was hearing directly from God, why was he still confused? How come he couldn't even use reason to rule out interpretation #3 -- surely he didn't think that he would only be saved if he lived to be 85?
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