In a recent ant-Mormon book, one Evangelical apologist wrote the
following abut the number of Moroni’s appearances to Joseph Smith:
The first thing to be
said about these visitations of Moroni to Joseph Smith is that the sheer number
of them is implausible. A survey of people in the Bible who say angels (or the “angel
of the LORD”) reveals that angelic visitations were an extremely rare part of
the religious story of even the most renowned human beings . . .The statement
just made includes an important qualification, since it is important to avoid
arguing fallaciously from silence. It is certainly possible that various
individuals had numerous encounters with angels that for whatever reason did
not become part of the story of their role in the religious history of Israel in
the Old Testament or of the church of the New Testament. The point being made
here is that angelic visitations of relevance to the religious story of the
Bible happened generally one to three times in the life of any one individual.
Moses, Joshua, David, Isaiah, Mary, and Paul each had just one such encounter
with an angel that became part of the biblical narratives . . . Jacob in the
Old Testament and Peter in the New Testament had three such encounters each
(for Peter, two of these were in company with other apostles). Even Jesus had
only two encounters of angels important enough to be reported in any of the
four Gospels. Ye Joseph Smith supposedly had at least fourteen encounters with the angel Moroni, a dozen of which are
reported explicitly in Joseph’s own accounts (eight explicitly in Joseph Smith-History
alone).
One may broaden the
scope of reported angelic visitations beyond the confines of biblical history
and there still will be no significant example of a religious figure purported
to have had such frequent personal visitations with a particular angel. The
closest comparison might he Muhammad, who claimed to have seen the angel
Gabriel at least twice, and Islamic tradition suggests that he might have seen
him many more times, although these later experiences were apparently visions
rather than visitation (see Norman L. Geisler and Abdul Saleeb, Answering Islam: The Crescent in Light of
the Cross, 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2002], 91-93).
The large number of alleged appearances of
Moroni is enough to warrant at least some measure of scepticism. Of course, God
could send an angel to talk to a
specific individual a hundred times if he chose. The point is that the
unusually high frequency of the angelic visitations is in and of itself rather
implausible or unlikely. (Robert M. Bowman Jr., Jesus’ Resurrection and Joseph’s Visions:
Examining the Foundations of Christianity and Mormonism [Tampa, Fla.:
DeWard Publishing Company, 2020], 191, 194-95)
As with many
of his arguments against “Mormonism,” the above is loaded with many fallacious including the following:
One cannot
help, from the get-go, see that Bowman is operating with the assumption of Sola Scriptura, and not just that—even when
he allows for extra-biblical appearances of angels, he limits such to written sources implicitly. When he
writes:
One may broaden the scope of reported angelic
visitations beyond the confines of biblical history and there still will be no
significant example of a religious figure purported to have had such frequent
personal visitations with a particular angel.
He clearly
(implicitly) wishes to limit the discussion to extant written sources. I mean,
if angel appearances were only ever limited to oral narratives, not written sources, how
would us moderns ever know about such? To claim there was no such (genuine)
instance (for a prophetic figure in the Bible, for e.g.) is to argue
fallaciously from silence (something Bowman claims he wishes to avoid).
Furthermore, focusing only on extant written sources is also fallacious, as
only a minority of ancient texts are still extant, and, furthermore, I am sure
if one could find a written text stating a prophetic figure (e.g. Isaiah) had
an angel appear to him, say, 20 times in his prophetic career, such would be deemed by Bowman as “fantastic”
and that such a text is only evidence of it being not inspired and he would
draw a parallel with Moroni’s visitations to Joseph Smith, concluding Joseph
was influenced by such and/or the concept of an angel appearing many times is
part-and-parcel of uninspired works.
As for Sola
Scriptura itself, such is, ironically, anti-biblical.
For a thorough refutation, see:
Further,
Latter-day Saints will readily acknowledge that what took place during the
formative years of the Restoration were exceptional, so it will be no skin off
our nose even if one accepts Bowman’s (bogus) limiting of evidence to the Bible
and written sources--God was restoring the long-lost gospel, priesthood authority, teachings, and practices through Joseph Smith. Unlike Christadelphians, another 19th-century Restorationist group, who believe their founder, John Thomas, was raised up by God passively to revive "the truth," we believe that the Gospel was restored by Joseph Smith and God was active in such.
Finally, contra Bowman, there is a biblical precedent for "multiple angelic visitations," consider the following (which does not appear in Bowman's list of people who saw angels on p. 194):
Finally, contra Bowman, there is a biblical precedent for "multiple angelic visitations," consider the following (which does not appear in Bowman's list of people who saw angels on p. 194):
Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep
thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware
of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your
transgressions: for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice,
and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an
adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine Angel shall go before thee, and
bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the
Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off. (Exo
23:20-23)
Clearly, the
angel of the Lord (whom Bowman believes to be the premortal Jesus) in this text
appeared on multiple occasions to Moses and the Children of Israel throughout
their travels. This blows Bowman out of the water (probably why he does not
reference this text in his book). Even by going by the table on p. 194, Bowman admits that John, throughout the book of Revelation, had "several visions" of angels.
LDS apologists should be grateful that Bowman published this book, as it shows that, notwithstanding his often priding himself to be a "biblical scholar," his arguments are fallacious and disingenuous to the nth degree, and this book presents us with plenty examples of such.
LDS apologists should be grateful that Bowman published this book, as it shows that, notwithstanding his often priding himself to be a "biblical scholar," his arguments are fallacious and disingenuous to the nth degree, and this book presents us with plenty examples of such.
Further Reading
H. Donl Peterson, Moroni--Joseph's Tutor (cf. Peterson's book, Moroni: Ancient Prophet, Modern Messenger )
