Berlin chronologist
Dr. Eduard Meyer
doubted Moses
Part Three:
Meyer described Mormons as “Mohammedans of America”
“It is possible without the slightest exaggeration to designate the Mormons both in their public activities and in their thought forms as the Mohammedans of America.
Eduard Meyer
At: https://sites.lib.byu.edu/nibley/1900/01/01/eduard-meyers-comparison-of-mohammed-joseph-smith/ we read about:
Eduard Meyer’s Comparison of Mohammed & Joseph Smith
January 1, 1900 by Ben Crowder • Book of Mormon, God, Islam, Joseph Smith Jr., Mohammed, Mormon(s), Mormonism, Qur'an, revealed religion, revelation(s), Three Witnesses
G-2 Report No. 4
In this report we follow Eduard Meyer’s Ursprung und Geschichte der Mormonen. (1912) Why?
Eduard Meyer (1855-1930): “His Geschichte des Altertums is considered to be the last word in modern historiography and the most perfectly documented and soundly reasoned resumé of what is actually known about the peoples of antiquity.” (Enciclopedia Ilustrada). “Possessing a perfect knowledge of the Classic World, both Greek and Roman, master of the languages of Hebrew and Egyptian) … he had the qualities necessary for the undertaking … The project was not original, but never before (or since) had it been undertaken by anyone with a comparable preparation.” (Enciclopedia Italiana). “He had a special preference for the History of Religion which never left him, from his Dissertation (at the age of twenty) to the great work of his old age, The Origin and Beginnings of Christianity.” (Brockhaus)
The great Classical scholar, Prof. W. Jaeger, says Meyer’s lectures were only interesting when he spoke about the Mormons. Only then, according to Jaeger, was the lecture-hall packed.
p. 1. “Among the religious innovations of our time, Mormonism excited my interest at an early age, before all else because of the surprising analogy extending even to the smallest details, between it and the fundamental drives, external forms, and historical development of Islam: here one might hope to discover significant clues for a proper understanding of Mohammed and his religion. But no less in its own right is Mormonism one of the most instructive phenomena in the whole area of Religious History; and it is most remarkable (though not without many parallels in every area in the most remote, inaccessible, all but incomprehensible religions of the past, have kept themselves strictly aloof from Mormonism and disdained the rich instruction it has to offer …”
67. “It is possible without the slightest exaggeration to designate the Mormons both in their public activities and in their thought forms as the Mohammedans of America. Hence, there is hardly another historical parallel as instructive as this one … It is impossible to undertake the scholarly investigation of the one without a closer acquaintance with the other. The parallels between Joseph Smith and Mohammed was often pointed out by the contemporaries of the prophet of the Mormons and it is indeed so striking, that it can hardly be overlooked … It is directly apparent in the fundamental idea in which the appearance of either prophet is rooted, and accordingly runs through the whole activity and achievement of both.”
NOT just another church:
2. “The uniqueness of Mormonism is … that it is NOT just another of countless sects, but a new revealed religion …. We can study its origin and history from an exceptionally rich contemporary store of documents both by its members and their enemies … What in the study of other revealed religions can only be surmised after painful research is here directly accessible in reliable witnesses. Hence, the origin and history of Mormonism possesses great and unusual value for the student of Religious history …”
50. The common claim that Joseph Smith borrowed from the sects around him will not hold up: “The agreements – literal interpretation of the Bible, nearness of the Millennium, baptism by immersion and the rejection of infant baptism – do not go beyond the scope of things which anybody can take directly from the Bible, and are hence frequently met with among the sectarians, for example, the Baptists.”
32. “It is a basic teaching of Protestantism that the times of miracles and revelations are past … In Joseph Smith’s revelations there is no sign of conscious deception or of outside influence.”
49. “But the Book of Mormon is nothing but religion; remove the religious parts of it, and the whole book collapses. The very skeleton of the narrative is full of religious tendencies and associations … In other words: if we remove from it what certainly comes from Joseph Smith, as good as nothing remains.”
Joseph Smith, a clue to all the Prophets:
11. “To say he was simply a swindler no more explains J.S. than it explains Amos or Isaiah or Mohammed or Jeanne d’ Arc … At all times J.S. has the same complete ascendency over his followers [including Sidney Rigdon] that Mohammed had over Abu Bekr and Omar; none of them ever expressed the slightest doubt of his inspiration, let alone laying bare any purported deception, even though many of them fell out with him and were put out of the Church.”
53. “Never has a seer or prophet described in such a lucid manner (as in D&C 9) what goes on in his consciousness (Innera), as it is here given in perfectly understandable terms. This is exactly the manner in which All prophetic utterances arise; these are the same spiritual things as those experienced by an Isaiah or Jeremiah, a Zoroaster or Mohammed, and countless others – or, for example, by the Maid of Orleans … Smith also mixes honest conviction with self-deception and with lies and forgery, which are entirely characteristic of this state of mind.” (Meyer believes that all prophets are self-deceived.)
13. It is easier to reach a confident conclusion about Mohammed, Abu Bekr, Omar, than about Joseph Smith or Brigham Young in spite of the relatively much greater amount of material surviving concerning the latter … But even where the material is as scarce as it is about Amos and Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah or Zoroaster and Hesiod, the psychological problem remains the same. It is the case of Joseph Smith that sheds light on all the others and helps us reach an understanding of the fundamental problem.”
[End of quotes]
My (Damien F. Mackey’s) belief is that the so-called Prophet Mohammed (Muhammad), or Mahomet, was not a genuine historical character of the C7th AD, but a (mainly biblical) composite. See e.g. my article:
White elephant in the realm: Birth of Mohammed, Reformation
Brother Andrew also finds “Islamic and Mormonism Similarities”:
- "Modern Mohammedanism has its Mecca at Salt Lake... Clearly the Koran was Joseph Smith's model, so closely followed as to exclude even the poor pretension of originality in his foul 'revelations.' " (The Women of Mormonism, Frances E. Willard, 1882, Introduction, p. xvi)
- "The student of Mormonism will be struck with the similarity of experience and claims of Joseph Smith and Mohammed." (The Rocky Mountain Saints, T. B. H. Stenhouse 1873, p 2)
- "even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed" Gal 1:8
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Islamic And Mormonism Similarities
Similarities between Joseph Smith and Muhammad:
1. The followers of Muhammad and Joseph Smith both killed innocent "infidel" on the same date of 9/11. On September 11, 1857, Mormon militia massacred about 140 men, women and children under the authority of Brigham Young. However 17 very young children were spared and adopted into Mormon families. They were in fact sold to the highest Mormon family bidder and resold and traded many times afterwords [sic]. This event is called "The Mountain Meadows" massacre. Mormon leaders engaged in a deliberate rewriting of history to deny they were behind the murders. On September 11, 2001 Muhammad's followers, using the Koran as a guide, sent two airplanes into the World Trade Center killing 3000 innocent men, women and children. Muslims today have a PhD in rewriting history and preach in the mosques that Jews were actually driving the planes, not Muslim terrorists.
2. Both were visited by an angel. Joseph Smith was visited by the angel "Moroni" and Muhammad by Gabriel. Galatians 1:6-9 says, "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed."
3. Both were given visions.
4. Both were told that no true religion existed on the earth. In the published account of his life, Joseph Smith related that he became very disturbed when he was a youth because of the "strife among the different denominations," and this "cry and tumult" led him to ask God "which of all the sects were right — and which I should join." He was told that he must "join none of them, for they were all wrong... that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt..." (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith 2:8-19) N. J. Dawood says that Mohammed was also concerned with the fact that the Jews and Christians had "divided themselves into schismatic sects." In the scriptures given by Mohammed, we read: "Yet the Sects are divided concerning Jesus.... Truly, the unbelievers are in the grossest error." (The Koran, translated by N. J. Dawood, Surah 19, p. 34) In Surah 30, page 190, this warning appears: "Do not split up your religion into sects, each exulting in its own beliefs." In Surah 3, page 398, we read: "The only true faith in Allah's sight is Islam. Those to whom the Scriptures [i.e., Jews and Christians] were given disagreed among themselves through jealousy only after knowledge had been given them."
5. Both were to restore the long lost faith as the one true religion. Islam makes claim that Adam and Abraham were Muslims, a claim that is as ridiculous as it is undocumented from either history or archaeology. Mormons make the unsubstantiated claim that the church in the first century were Mormon.
6. Both wrote a book inspired by God.
7. Both claimed to be illiterate or uneducated and used this as proof the book was inspired. "How could an illiterate man write the Koran or the Book of Mormon?" Joseph Smith is claimed to have only grade three education.
8. Both claimed the Bible was lost, altered, corrupted and unreliable.
9. Both claimed their holy book was the most correct and perfect book on earth.
10. Both claimed that their new "Bible" was based upon a record stored in heaven. With Islam, it is the "mother book" that resides in heaven with God. With Mormonism, it is the golden Nephi plates that the angel Moroni took back to heaven.
11. Both claim that the version we have in our hands today are identical to what the prophet revealed and that parts are not lost, altered and corrupted. Of course the proof that these claims are invalid is found in two books. The Mormon claim is proven false by a book called "3913 Changes to Book of Mormon" by Sandra Tanner. The Islamic claim is proven false by a book (In Arabic language) called, "Making Easy the Readings of What Has Been Sent Down" by Muhammad Fahd Khaaruun. Both books show that the copy of the book of Mormon and the Koran used today is different from what was originally used when each religion was started.
12. Both claimed to be a final prophet of God.
13. Both claimed they were persecuted because of their pure faith.
14. Both were polygamists who had many wives.
15. Both borrowed from paganism/polytheism. Muhammad incorporated that polytheistic moon god called "Allah" and "Allah's three daughters" into Islam. Basically Muhammad chose Allah from within 350 known gods that were worshipped in Arabia and proclaimed the moon god to be the greatest and only God. Smith borrowed from a doctrine called "pyramidology" and the Masons and other magic systems.
16. Both received "after the fact corrective revelations" from God. Muhammad retracted the Satanic verses and Mormons retracted Smith's divine order mandating polygamy. But for Mormons it there is even a closer parallel. Sounds exactly like Muhammad and his satanic verses.
"As many false reports have been circulated respecting the following work, and also many unlawful measures taken by evil designing persons to destroy me, and also the work, I would inform you that I translated by the gift and power of God, and caused to be written, one hundred and sixteen pages, the which I took from the Book of Lehi... which said account, some person or persons have stolen and kept from me, notwithstanding my utmost exertions to recover it again — and being commanded of the Lord that I should not translate the same over again, for Satan had put it into their hearts to tempt the Lord their God, by altering the words, that they did read contrary from that which I translated and caused to be written; and if I should bring forth the same words again, or, in other words, if I should translate the same over, they would publish that which they had stolen, and Satan would stir up the hearts of this generation, that they might not receive this work: but behold, the Lord said unto me, I will not suffer that Satan shall accomplish his evil design in this thing: therefore thou shalt translate from the plates of Nephi, until ye come to that which ye have translated... I will shew unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the Devil." (Book of Mormon, 1830 edition, Preface)
17. Immediately after the death of Muhammad and Smith, a fight broke out from among the "faithful converts" as to who would succeed Muhammad and Smith. Both groups were plunged into irreparable division that has endured ever since. Islam and Mormonism both have squabbles among themselves as to who is the one true splinter group of their prophet!
18. Mormons, contrary to the Bible, "baptize the dead" by gathering genealogies of all men who lived on earth. This contradicts the Bible: "But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and worthless." Tit 3:9 While the Bible says avoid focusing in Genealogies, the Mormon church makes it their central focus of mission. Mormons have even been criticized for baptizing, by proxy, the Jews had died in Nazi Holocaust camps. When lists of genealogies are collected, living Mormons are baptized, on behalf of, those on the lists, who have already died. In this way, Mormons view every man who lived, as being Mormons. In the same way Muslims claim that all men are born Muslims and when they learn the truth of Christianity, they are apostatizing from their first faith. Muslims re-write history by proclaiming Jesus and the Apostles were Muslims in a similar way Mormons baptize Jews (for example) with the expectation they will be Mormons in the next life. Yet gathering of large genealogical lists no more makes dead people Mormons in the next life, than re-writing history makes Jesus into a Muslim.
19. Both the Islam and Mormon religions have those who follow the "original doctrine" of the founding leaders and like these founding leaders, are violent, polygamists, and have revelations justifying their evil actions.
20. Both Muslims and Mormons (and Jehovah's Witnesses) have progressive revelation. Jw's call it "new light". Muslims call it "Nasikh". Jehovah's Witnesses were once instructed to celebrated Christmas, birthdays and salute the flag, but "new light" changed all that. Mormons like all Muslims, were originally polygamists until "The Manifesto" against polygamy came as a revelation to John Taylor, over 40 years after Smith's death, on the eve of the US government outlawing the practice of polygamy. New revelation always replaces older revelation that became inconvenient to the prophet.
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