Why would Joseph Smith say this?

Paul also boasted about things. The difference is who the credit was given to.

1 Corinthians 1:31 Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

The real question here is, have you read the entire speeches that these "quotes" came from? Have you seen what the critics who you actually read the quotes from, left out?

Concerning the quote from HC vol 6

Joseph read the congregation 2 Cor 11. Then he continued in his own words from which these quotes have been taken out of context. In the following sentence he said “I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A larger majority of the whole have stood by me.’ HC 6:408

The Prophet certainly did not consider himself greater than the Savior, who brought about the atonement, but correctly claimed that no one in so few years had organizationally accomplished what he, Joseph, had. Jesus said in Jn 14:12 “...he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do...”

Many of the Savior’s disciples had left him prior to his death. (Jn 6:67-68) After the crucifixion the Twelve also returned to the former occupations and it took the resurrection of Christ and the bestowal of the Holy Ghost to motivate them to ‘go into all the world’.

Joseph Smith seems to be speaking in the same sense as when Paul said, “I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak in not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in the confidence of boasting”. (2 Cor 11:16-17)

Now, concerning the second quote from JD vol.6 pg 5

Had you actually read this, and not some cut up, out of context quote the critics put out, you would find that Joseph is talking about the interpretations of the Bible. By this time in his life, Joseph had learned Hebrew, Latin, Greek and German as well as other languages. And he had read the Bible in all these language. He states that the German was the closest to the truth of any of the Bibles. He remarked that in these versions what we call James is written as forms of Jacob. And how, in Hebrew, it states that the ‘The head one of the gods brought forth the gods’.

He had many other things to say, but what he said, that the quote was farmed out of, was: “Now, I ask all who hear me, why the learned men who are preaching salvation say that God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing? The reason is, that they are unlearned in the things of God and have not the gift of the Holy Ghost. They account it blasphemy in any one to contradict their idea. If you tell them that God made the world out of something, they will call you a fool. But I am learned, and know more than all the world out together. The Holy Ghost does, anyhow; and he is within me, and comprehends more than all the world; and I will associate myself with him.

Joseph knows what the Holy Ghost has told him.

Do you understand the timing of these statements? Do you also understand the context? He had been persecuted,. falsely accused and thrown in jail repeatedly and illegally, beaten, tarred and feathered, seen his followers brutally murdered and raped, etc etc. All of this, in a land where the protection of religious freedom was a part of the constitution. When he appealed to the law to help, he was told, "your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you," by the one man who could...the president of the United States.

I have ample doucmentation, if you are interested, in the above facts.

In the depths of dispair and discouragement, you decline to give a man the right to boost himself up with a few words of postive self-talk? You face similar circumstances and see what you would do. There is an old native American saying that goes something like this: "Before you judge another, walk a mile in his moccasins."

There is a BIBLICAL statement about judging others as well. Are you familiar with Matthew 7:1?

Galations 1:8...Have you read the context of that scripture? I thinketh not. Paul is warning the members of what was ALREADY happening. He warned them not to fall away, and used the language he choose. Was it not Paul himself who saw an angel and was converted? Ironic that he would be implying what you (and so many misguided others) suggest when the very thing happened to him.

The key is "any other gospel." Mormons preach the true gospel of Christ out of the Bible and teach about doctrine so many seem to ignore and overlook.

He read Martin Luther and plagiarized him

Not for a thousand years has God bestowed such great gifts on any bishop as He as on me” (E61, 422). “God has appointed me for the whole German land, and I boldly vouch and declare that when you obey me you are without a doubt obeying not me but Christ” (W15, 27). “Whoever obeys me not, despises not me but Christ.” “I believe that we are the last trump that sounds before Christ is coming”. “What I teach and write remains true even though the whole world should fall to pieces over it.” (W18, 401). “Whoever rejects my doctrine cannot be saved.” “Nobody should rise up against me

Sounds to me that he is suffering a mental decease. Delusions of Grandeur.

Ego, man, ego.

L. Ron Hubbard had similar issues.

He was running an absolutist cult of personality -- what would you expect him to say, admit that he made it all up? :)

Peace.

dum dum dum dum dum

http://www.videosift.com/video/History-of-Mormonis...

Those who mock Joseph Smith are not changing His standing with God, Only their own.