If Joseph Smith were motivated by money, fame, or power, why did he never publish or profit from the Book of Moses during his lifetime? Dear CES Letter, Your critique repeatedly assumes that Joseph Smith’s religious production was driven by self-interest. Whether framed as deception, manipulation, or gradual consolidation of authority, the underlying claim is…
If Joseph Smith’s goal was to gain followers and authority, why introduce doctrine that structurally guarantees resistance rather than growth? Dear CES Letter, Your critique depends on a central assumption: that Joseph Smith shaped doctrine to persuade, attract followers, and consolidate authority. New teachings are therefore interpreted as inventions designed to serve that purpose. But…
How did Joseph Smith turn one of the Bible’s most obscure figures into a fully developed prophetic tradition that later discoveries showed was already ancient? Dear CES Letter, One of your recurring assumptions is that when Joseph Smith expands a biblical figure, he must be inventing material to serve his own theology. The logic sounds…
The CES Letter frames Joseph Smith’s productions as imaginative expansions of existing religious ideas. The underlying claim is that he was working within a familiar biblical world, borrowing themes, reshaping language, and building theology out of material already available to him. That framing encounters a problem when the Book of Moses is examined closely. Rather…
If Joseph Smith was inventing scripture, why does the Book of Moses share unique language with the Book of Mormon that appears nowhere else? Dear CES Letter, The problem with the Book of Moses is not belief. It is sourcing. Again and again, the Book of Moses behaves like it came from an older record…