83 Rembrandt vs. Picasso - The CES Letter: A Closer Look

An examination of hostile claims against Joseph Smith and the Church demonstrates inconsistencies within their own body of accusations as well as with documented history.

Authors that are hostile to the Church regularly portray Joseph Smith as a fraud, with a variety of descriptions. However, when these depictions are strung together to form an historical narrative, it is fraught with internal inconsistencies as well as contradictions to the historical record.

As artwork, it creates a Picasso painting that is disjointed and fragmented. In contrast, the historical record without the antagonistic overlay portrays a more even unfolding of the organization of the Church and the expansion of Joseph Smith’s teachings, more like a Rembrandt masterpiece.

For example, according to The CES Letter, Joseph Smith was supposed to have incorporated the following in producing the Book of Mormon:
- Borrowing verbatim from the King James Bible although no accounts describe him using any papers or books in the process.
- Borrowing names from maps published in foreign countries that he doubtless never saw.
- Borrowing from a book, View of the Hebrews although more differences than similarities are found.
- Been influenced by Captain Kidd novels that he undoubtedly never read.
- Been influenced by The Late War, although it is unlikely he ever saw a copy.
- Been influenced by The First Book of Napoleon, although it is unlikely he ever saw a copy.
Joseph Smith had perhaps a year of intermittent frontier schooling. His mother Lucy Mack Smith, wrote that young Joseph “was less inclined to the study of books than any child we had, but much more given to reflection and deep study” (History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, 111). His wife Emma recalled in “Joseph Smith could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter; let alone dictating a book like the Book of Mormon.”
In other accusations Joseph Smith is portrayed as having the power to enter sexual polyandry, with a woman so that he is her second husband, and by the power of his command she never mentioned it, her family never mentioned it, her legal husband never mentioned it, and the officiator at the alleged polyandrous ceremony never mentioned it. And when Joseph later taught it was adultery, she never complained, members of her family who were aware never complained, the officiators and other Church leaders never complained.
With the Book of Abraham, we know nothing of how the text actually relates to the Egyptian scrolls, but modern interpreters freely tell us the missing details and then elaborate without explaining how the text contains details about Abraham’s life that Joseph Smith could not possibly have known independent of supernatural assistance.
The Three and Eight Witnesses never denied their testimonies. To dim the importance of this fact, The CES Letter attempts to assassinate their characters. With Martin Harris, they may have some success, but with David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery, they fail because these men were highly respected and died reaffirming their testimonies.
Joseph Smith is supposed to have “translated” the Kinderhook plates although the only “translation” available is a few sentences paraphrasing a paragraph found in the Grammar and Egyptian Alphabet Lexicon that is positioned next to a symbol that is similar to a symbol on the Kinderhook plates. There is no official "translation" and the process is entirely unrelated to how the Book of Mormon was translated.