How To Perpetrate The Biggest Fraud In History

Wow, what an unusual title I have come up with! I must start by saying that the title is obviously a bit sarcastic, yet in a way, serious, very serious.  It is designed to get you to think, as I did, to doubt, as I did, and to honestly question, as I did.

How to set yourself up as a beloved man and also a reviled man all at once.  How to write a book many revere as scripture, equally to the Holy Bible. In fact claim it is a second witness, along with the Bible, to the divinity of Jesus Christ. How to pass yourself off as a prophet of God. How to overcome hatred, threats of death, lies of the mob and press, and start a church that claims it is Jesus Christ’s restored church.  How to do all of this without coersion but instead with love and instructing others to ask God himself for confirmation.

Set Yourself Up as A Prophet of God

Like Samuel, be a young boy, untainted by worldly views and ideas, an open vessel. Study the Holy Bible. Go ask God in prayer about which church to join (following James’ counsel in James 1:5-6), and actually get an answer to that question by God and Jesus personally.

Claim to the end of your life, even with great threats to your life and family, hold true to your claim that God and Jesus actually did appear to you, in answer to your humble prayer.

Claim angels have appeared to you to give instruction for restoring the true gospel and and restoring the church of Jesus Christ to the earth with all its ordinances and authority.

Fall under the same condemnation and ridicule of men (many preachers and so-called religious leaders), as prophets of old were, and even Jesus Christ did of the chief priests and Pharisees.

Throughout your life you must perform miracles on occasion, like the prophets and Apostles of old, and have many witnesses to them.

Follow These Steps To Write That “False” Book of Scripture

1. You must be between 23 and 24 years of age.
2. You cannot be a college graduate, in fact, you can have only three years of schooling in the early 1800’s. Growing up in a small community of New York.
3. Whatever you write must be on the basis of what you now know; no research to be done.
4. You must write a book with 239 chapters, 54 of them about wars, 21 about history, 55 about prophecy, 71 about doctrine, 17 about missionaries and 21 about the mission of Jesus Christ.
5. You must write a history of an ancient country, such as Tibet, covering a period from 600BC to 421AD.
6. You must include in your writing the history of two distinct and separate nations, along with the histories of different contemporary nations or groups of people, of which no one ever knew existed.
7. Your writings must describe the religious, economic, social, and political cultures and institutions of these two nations.
8. You must weave into your history the religion of Jesus Christ and the pattern of Christian living.
9. You must also claim this people were visited by Jesus Christ himself, after his ascension and ressurrection in Jerusalem, and taught them the same things he did in his life, including the sermon on the mount.  Fulfilling Jesus’ claim that “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” – John 10:16.
10. When you start to produce this record, covering a period over 1,000 years, you must finish it in approximately 80 days.
11. When you have finished, you must not make any changes in the text. The first edition must stand forever.
12. After pauses for sleep and food, if you are dictating to a stenographer you must never ask to have the last paragraph or last sentence read back to you.
13. Your record must be about 522 pages with over 510 words per page. You must add 180 proper nouns to the English language. William Shakespeare added only 30.
14. You must announce that your “smooth narrative” is not fiction but true, yes, even that it is a sacred record of history.
15. In fact, it must fulfill the Bible prophecies; even in the exact manner in which it shall come forth, to whom given, its purpose and accomplishments (respectively – Psalms 85:10-11, Isaiah 29:2-4, Isaiah 29:11-14, Ezekiel 37:18-21, etc.).
16. You must publish it to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, declaring it to be the Word of God.
17. You must include with the record itself, this marvelous promise: “And when you shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, He will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.” In other words, no coersion, no threats, no fear, but instead relying on asking God himself for the record’s truth.
18. Tens and hundreds of thousands must bear record to the world for the next 185+ years that they know the record to be true. Because they put the “promise” to the test and found it to be true, the truth manifested to them by the power of the Holy Ghost.
19. Thousands of great men, intellectual giants, and scholars must subscribe discipleship to the record and its movement even to the point of laying down their lives for it.
20. Your descriptions of the culture and people in these civilizations of which you will write include the manner of their written and spoken languages, types of buildings, geographical locations, governmental types, monetary system, types of tools and materials used, and many other facts completely unknown to the rest of the world.
21. There can be no flaw whatsoever in the entire record.
22. Yet, you must not make an absurd, impossible, or contradictory statement.
23. Even so, many of the facts, ideas, and statements given us as true in your record must be entirely inconsistent, even the direct opposite of the prevailing beliefs of the world where very little is claimed to be known about these civilizations and their 1,000 years of history.
24. You must invite the ablest scholars and experts to examine the text with care. You must strive diligently to see that your book gets into the hands of all those most eager to prove it a forgery and who are most competent to expose any flaw in it.
25. Thorough investigation, scientific evidence, and archaeological discoveries for the next 186+ years must verify your claims and prove even the minutest details of your history to be perfectly true, even to the types of roads they built.
26. After 186 years of extensive analysis, no claim or fact in the book is disproved, but all is vindicated. Other theories and ideas as to its origin, rise, and fall, leaving your claim as the only possible ones.
27. Internal and external prophecies must be confirmed and fulfilled in the next 187+ years.
28. Three honest, accreditable witnesses must testify to the whole world that an angel from heaven appeared to them and showed them the ancient records from which you claim your record is translated.
29. You must call out of heaven the voice of the Redeemer, Jesus Christ himself, (keeping in mind this is the early 1800’s with no amplifiers, no electronics) to declare to the three witnesses that your record is true and that it is their responsibility to bear their testimony. And they do it. They must handle and feel the engravings on the record.
30. Eight other witnesses must testify to the world that they saw the ancient records in broad daylight and they handled them and felt the engravings on the record.
31. The first three and the second eight witnesses must bear their testimony not for profit or gain, but under great personal sacrifice and severe persecution, even in their death.
32. You must find someone to finance your book with the understanding that neither he nor you will ever receive any monetary renumeration from it. You must sell the book at cost or at less than its production value. Note: It is now free.
33. You must tell the world that the written record you have translated was engraved on gold plates, even though up until the time you make this claim, no one has ever found anywhere in the past history any civilization using gold as a method of keeping records, and not until about 100 years later were any similar engraved gold plates found.
34. Many of the chapters and verses must be written in a chaistic style, characteristic of the Hebrew style of writing. This style of writing was discovered very recently, long after the publication of your book.
35. You must be able to write your record in over 36 different writing styles along with two different narrative styles by two abridgment authors.
36. Finally, after persecution and revilement for 20 years after you finish the book, you must willingly give your own life for your testimony that the record is from God.

Gather In Believers From All Four Corners of The Earth

Send messengers two by two, to preach the gospel, with authority given to them by others in authority, that same authority Jesus personally gave to his Apostles. That same authority you must claim John the Baptist and then Peter, James, and John (acting as Holy Messengers of God) personally laid hands on your head restoring this authority to you.

Build Temples

You must now claim God spoke to you to build temples, to restore important ordinances and sealing authority that can only be done in temples.

Then when the first temple is done, you must claim the ressurrected Old Testament prophet Elijah came to the temple, to you, to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers to the children, fulfilling Old Testament prophecy.  This visit restoring the sealing authority.

Other angelic manifestations and miracles must also accompany the completion of this temple, all to the witness of hundreds of people, both inside and outside the temple. This to the point of people from afar running to see it.

Those That Wish To Speak Ill Of You and This New Church

For those that do not believe, but claim themselves “Christians” or tell you that you aren’t “Christian”.  How about considering Christ’s own words:

38 ¶ And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us.

39 But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.

40 For he that is not against us is on our part

— Mark 9:38-40

God Does Not Change

Don’t we read from Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever?  So why would he not work with prophets and apostles today as he did since Adam?  Is God a respector of persons, or does he love us all?

God is not a coward.  In fact, God is loving and patient.  He actually encourages us to earnestly seek truth, study it out in our mind, and to come to him in prayer frequently to have confirmation for truth and his message.  He never punishes for doubt, but encourages you to use that doubt in your earnest search for truth, to turn that doubt into faith.

My Own Thoughts

I know this is all not a fraud, but true, and all the work of God.

The world may revile Jesus of Nazareth.  They may ridicule him.  They may laugh at his message.  They may do all manner of things to disrespect and mock him.

I, however, know that he is the son of God.  He is the creator of Heaven and Earth.  He is Jehovah of the Old Testament, the prophesied Messiah.  He was born of the virgin Mary.  He performed great miracles and fulfilled the Law of Moses, the very law he gave to Moses.  He personally set up his church, a church with his own name on it.  He gave authority to Apostles (prophets) to preach to perform holy ordinances in his name.

I know he personally gave Joseph Smith Jr. the power and authority to restore his church and called him as his prophet, and to gave him charge to bring forth the “Stick of Joseph”, the Book of Mormon, to testify to and affirm the “Stick of Judah” the Holy Bible’s claim that Jesus is the Messiah, the savior of the world, the Anointed One, to be a second witness to his divinity.

I know he has prophets and apostles on the earth today that administer his church, the church that bears his name, according to his instructions.

I know Jesus took upon himself the punishment for the entire world’s sins while he was suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane all the way through to his death on the cross.

I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me,
Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.

I tremble to know that for me he was crucified,
That for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died.

I marvel that he would descend from his throne divine
To rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine,

That he should extend his great love unto such as I,
Sufficient to own, to redeem, and to justify.

I think of his hands pierced and bleeding to pay the debt!
Such mercy, such love and devotion can I forget?

No, no, I will praise and adore at the mercy seat,
Until at the glorified throne I kneel at his feet.

Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me
Enough to die for me!
Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me!

      — Charles H. Gabriel