If you’ve ever tried to wade through all the historical debates about Mormonism (which we have done quite a bit of to this point), you know how exhausting it can be. It’s like a never-ending game of whack-a-mole with Mormon apologetics.
For now, it’s time to move past the nerdy inconsistencies and start looking at the man behind it all. The whole thing unravels even faster when you start looking at Joseph Smith himself.
Before he was a “prophet,” Joseph Smith was a treasure hunter, a fraud, and a manipulator. The thing is, he didn’t stop once he became the leader of a new religious movement. He just swapped out treasure maps for golden plates, kept his trusty seer stones, and built a religious empire using the same tactics he had used to scam gullible farmers out of their money.
Now, don’t get me wrong—God does redeem sinners. Some of the most significant figures in scripture had dark pasts. But redemption comes with repentance—a real, lasting change in character. Joseph Smith? He just got better at the con.
This is the Joseph Smith story that the LDS Church doesn’t want you to hear.
The Young Treasure Hunter
Before he claimed to see angels or translate golden plates, Joseph Smith was deep into folk magic—the kind that would make LDS missionaries squirm if you mentioned it.
The Smith family didn’t just dabble in this; they were fully invested. Joseph Smith Sr., his father, was known for his obsession with buried treasure and magical practices, and young Joseph followed in his footsteps.
Smith claimed he had a special seer stone—a rock he could place in his hat to block out light and then receive supernatural visions.
If Joseph had just been a superstitious teenager messing around with magic rocks, that’d be one thing. But he wasn’t just playing make-believe—he was actively scamming people.
Locals actually paid him to find buried treasure on their land. He’d use his seer stone, make a big show of receiving a revelation, and send people digging.
There was always an excuse for why they never actually found anything. Supposedly, the treasure would “sink deeper into the earth” whenever they got close—convenient, right?
He pulled this stunt so many times that people eventually caught on. In 1826, Smith was hauled into court in Bainbridge, New York, charged as a “disorderly person” for being a con artist. That’s right—he had a criminal record as a manipulator before he ever claimed to be a prophet.
Same Scam, Bigger Stakes
Joseph Smith didn’t leave his conman ways behind—he just upgraded them. The same manipulation, secrecy, and magical claims he used in treasure hunting were repackaged into his story of the golden plates.
He claimed an angel led him to buried scripture, but just like his treasure digs, only he could see it. His trusty seer stone made a comeback, now supposedly helping him “translate” the Book of Mormon instead of locating imaginary treasure. And when people wanted proof? Conveniently, God forbade him from showing the plates to anyone.
Smith controlled the entire narrative—he alone saw the plates, received the revelations, and dictated what others could know. If anyone doubted him, he always had an excuse. When early followers lost faith in his translation abilities, he conveniently “reproduced” the lost 116 pages, but they didn’t match the original. Instead of admitting fraud, he pulled a classic move: “Sorry, my dog ate my homework.”
The truth? Smith didn’t stop chasing treasure—he just found a new one: people who would believe and follow him without question. This wasn’t a divine calling; it was a local grift turned full-blown religious movement.
A Lifetime of Fraud
By now, it should be obvious that Joseph Smith wasn’t some innocent farm boy who suddenly became a prophet—he was a lifelong fraudster who swapped one scam for another. And if you think the deception ended once he had his new religion rolling, think again.
Once he had followers, power, and money, he started pulling even bigger cons—and this time, people weren’t just losing a few bucks on a failed treasure dig. Some lost their savings, marriages, and even their lives because of Smith’s deception.
The Kirtland Banking Disaster
By the 1830s, Joseph wasn’t just running a church—he was running an entire town in Kirtland, Ohio. And like any good conman, he figured, “Why stop at religious scams when I can pull off a financial one, too?”
In 1836, Smith set up the Kirtland Safety Society, a bank that was supposed to make his followers rich. The problem? It was totally illegal. He didn’t have the proper banking charter, so he printed fake money and handed it out to his followers, promising it would hold value.
Within a year, the whole thing collapsed, leaving many of his followers in financial ruin—while Joseph conveniently had already fled town.
Be real—this was straight-up fraud. He made big promises, lied about the bank’s legitimacy, and bailed when it all fell apart. There’s no difference between this and a crypto rug pull.
Polygamy
Now, let’s talk about polygamy—one of the most disturbing aspects of Joseph Smith’s life. Mormons get a lot of heat for this one, and for good reason, but as the progenitor of the practice, Smith’s intentions were nothing but sinister.
Smith didn’t just practice polygamy; he lied about it for years, even to his own followers. He secretly married over 30 women, some as young as 14, and even took other men’s wives as his own. And when women refused him, he used spiritual manipulation, claiming an angel with a sword had threatened to kill him if they didn’t obey.
This wasn’t some holy revelation—it was a textbook case of abuse and power. And once again, it followed his usual pattern:
- Make a supernatural claim (God revealed this doctrine to me).
- Keep it secret at first (to avoid immediate backlash).
- When caught, double down and say the revelation was divine and unavoidable.
Polygamy wasn’t about holiness—it was about control and lust. And just like his financial schemes, Smith lied to cover his tracks when things got messy.
The Kinderhook Plates
If you need absolute proof that Joseph Smith was a fraud, look no further than The Kinderhook Plates Hoax of 1843. By this point, some people were suspicious of Smith’s translation abilities. So, a group of skeptics decided to put him to the test.
They created fake plates with meaningless engravings and “discovered” them, presenting them to Joseph to see if he could translate them. Sure enough, Smith took the bait, claiming the plates told the story of a descendant of Ham who had come to the Americas. When the plates were scientifically examined, they were proven to be fakes, meaning Smith had entirely made up his translation.
This should have been the final nail in the coffin for Smith’s credibility, but his movement was too big by then. His followers had already invested too much in his claims. Instead of questioning their “prophet,” many just looked the other way.
The Pattern Never Changed
It’s impossible to deny that Joseph Smith was not a misunderstood prophet—he was a scam artist through and through.
He started as a conman, using a magic rock to convince people he could find treasure. He used the exact same methods to create his religious movement. He kept deceiving people, whether it was through fake scripture, financial fraud, or spiritual manipulation.
And unlike someone who has truly been redeemed by God, Smith never changed. Instead of leaving his deception behind, he just got better at it.
The Inevitable Downfall of a Fraud
Joseph Smith built his entire life on deception. He started as a small-time con artist, tricking farmers into pointless treasure digs. He ended up as the leader of a massive religious movement, tricking thousands into following his so-called revelations. But no matter how much power he gained or how many people he convinced, one thing was always true: the lies never stopped.
And as with all frauds, his downfall was inevitable.
The weight of his deceptions grew heavier with time. His false prophecies piled up, his financial scandals wrecked lives, and his moral corruption became harder to ignore. Eventually, even some of his closest followers started asking questions. When they did, Smith did what all frauds do when backed into a corner: he lashed out.
That part of the story—the final unraveling of his empire—is a tale for another day. But let’s just say this: Joseph Smith spent his whole life running from consequences. In the end, he couldn’t run anymore.
Don’t be fooled; Joseph Smith wasn’t a misunderstood prophet. He was a conman from beginning to end. He used people, manipulated faith, and lived a double life of deceit. He claimed divine authority, but his actions revealed a man more interested in power and control than truth.
If you’re reading this and still on the fence about Joseph Smith, here’s the challenge: Do what the LDS Church doesn’t want you to do. Look at the real history, not the sanitized version. Ask challenging questions, and don’t accept lame excuses. Test everything by scripture, not by “burning in the bosom” spiritual manipulation.
The truth is, God doesn’t need a serial con artist to restore His gospel because it was never lost in the first place. If Mormonism was built on fraud from the very beginning, why would you trust anything that came from it?
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