Dan Vogel > Quotes

“Smith apparently did not submit his own land in Harmony, Pennsylvania, to the Law of Consecration. Prior to leaving Harmony, Smith made the final payment for the property to Isaac Hale, his father-in-law, by borrowing money from George H. Noble & Co. for $190.95. This debt was satisfied before June 3, 1831, but it is unknown where Smith got the funds. Sometime before June 1833, Smith sold the Harmony land to Joseph McKune for $300. What happened to this money is also unknown.37”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“Thus these statements in the text seem to be nineteenth-century additions approved by, if not made by, Joseph Smith.”
― Dan Vogel, Book of Abraham Apologetics: A Review and Critique

“In his study of the Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon, Hebrew scholar David Wright concluded that the Book of Mormon’s use of “Isaiah derives directly from the KJV text with some secondary modifications by Smith and that it does not derive from an ancient text through translation.”3 He also noted that the variant readings “can be explained as modifications of the KJV text, especially where there are italics,” and that Smith’s alterations of these italicized words often produced “incomplete and conceptually difficult or impossible readings” that were “incompatible with the Hebrew text” of Isaiah.4 New Testament scholar Stan Larson, in his study of the Sermon on the Mount in 3 Nephi 12–14, similarly concluded that the Book of Mormon’s text “originated in the nineteenth century, derived from unacknowledged plagiarism of the KJV,” which “Smith copied [from] the KJV blindly, not showing awareness of translation problems and errors in the KJV.”5 Larson also noted that some alterations were made to italicized words, but that “the Book of Mormon fails to revise places where the KJV text ought to have been printed in italics but is not.”6 Wright observed that the character of the alterations Smith made in his Bible revision are the same as what has been found in the Book of Mormon and that Smith’s 1829 efforts could be considered a “training ground” for his subsequent work on the Bible.7”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“The revelation defended church leaders and placed the blame squarely on the membership.”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“traditionalists have already equivocated on fundamental definitions of key terms like translation and revelation. Clearly, there are other ways to construe the evidence, even for traditionalists.”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“While Smith tried to explain how the records of two Hebrew prophets came into the possession of an Egyptian royal family, he left unexplained why, after being handed down for several generations, they should be buried with mummies.”
― Dan Vogel, Book of Abraham Apologetics: A Review and Critique

“Tying Zion to a geographic spot by revelation was a miscalculation from which he would never fully recover.”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“suggested a “compensating fantasy” here that builds on Smith’s arrest and trial in South Bainbridge”
― Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet

“The anti-Semitism of the New Testament is reflected in the Book of Mormon when Jacob states that Christ will come among the Jews—“who are the more wicked part of the world … [for] there is none other nation on earth that would crucify their God” (10:3; cf. Acts 3:12-18). It was to the advantage of early Christians to blame the Jews and not the Romans for Jesus’ crucifixion—a peculiarly Roman form of capital punishment—and in other ways to disassociate themselves from the Jewish nation. Nevertheless, Jacob declares that because of priestcraft and iniquity, the Jews will harden their hearts against Jesus and crucify him (v. 5). For this evil deed, Jerusalem will again be destroyed and the Jews scattered among all nations (v. 6).”
― Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet

“Ezra and Dorcas Booth were also converted by the exhibition of Smith’s apparent healing power. Reflecting on his conversion to Mormonism, Booth did not mention Elsa’s healing but described his emotions: “When I embraced Mormonism, I conscientiously believed it to be of God. The impressions of my mind were deep and powerful, and my feelings were excited to a degree to which I had been a stranger. Like a ghost, it haunted me by night and by day, until I was mysteriously hurried, as it were, by a kind of necessity, into the vortex of delusion.”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“You will not sell the books for less than 10 Shillings.”51 This was equal to $1.25, which was 50 cents lower than the original price. At twice the amount a common laborer earned per day, the sale of books was slow even at a discounted price.52 Moreover, due to an agreement with the Smith family on January 16, 1830, Harris was only entitled to half of the proceeds from sales until his debt to the publisher, Egbert B. Grandin, was paid off, which meant that Harris would not recoup his original $3,000 investment until the entire print run of 5,000 copies was sold.53 According to Henry Harris, the original price for the Book of Mormon was set by revelation and Martin told him that another revelation reduced the price.54”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“the illusion of a group hallucination is achieved through the following mechanisms: expectation, anticipation, suggestion, and cross-infection that can begin prior to the hallucination, operate during the experience, and continue to modify the memories of the participants long afterward.”
― Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet

“It is both unprecedented and unreasonable to assume that an intrusive text about a completely different matter, a narrative history of Abraham and his descendants, would have been inserted into a document whose beginning, middle, and end is devoted specifically to the resurrection of an Egyptian priest.”
― Dan Vogel, Book of Abraham Apologetics: A Review and Critique

“supporters of John Quincy Adams in New York quickly exploited the situation by attempting to draw the Masonic issue along factional lines. This strategy proved especially potent in western New York, where William Morgan,”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“Sounding very much like the apostle Paul, Nephi exhorts both the Lamanites and Nephites to be “reconciled to God” (25:23; cf. Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:20), for “it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do” (v. 23; emphasis added; cf. Eph. 2:5, 8). By strip quoting Paul’s statement to the Ephesians about salvation by grace, Smith added words that reversed the ancient apostle’s meaning, showing that the author is neither Calvinist nor Antinomian but an Arminian.”
― Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet

“Not long after Oliver Cowdery, Parley Pratt, Ziba Peterson, and Peter Whitmer Jr. left Kirtland to continue their journey to Missouri in mid-November 1830 the area was set ablaze by an uncontrollable fire of religious enthusiasm.”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“To return to the either/or definition of prophet, Smith could believe himself to be an inspired prophet and the Book of Mormon a true revelation even if it were not ancient history so long as he had a testimony of Jesus and viewed the book as an extension of that testimony.”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“Statistically, people recover or die at the same rate with or without attempted faith healing.”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“The attraction to a charismatic leader, according to Weber, “may involve a subjective or internal reorientation born out of suffering, conflicts or enthusiasm,” and that this seems to occur “in times of psychic, physical, economic, ethical, religious, political distress.”100 Post also recognized that historical situations can be conducive to the rise of charismatic leadership: “At moments of societal crisis, otherwise mature and psychologically healthy individuals may temporarily come to feel overwhelmed and in need of a strong and self-assured leader.”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“I say unto you that if you desire the mysteries of the Kingdom provide for him food & raiment & whatsoever thing he needeth to accomplish the work which I have commanded him.”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“The fact that Smith called his revisions of the New Testament a “translation” seemed to imply that he was restoring the text to its original reading through the spirit, although evidence indicates he was reacting to the English text before him, not to the original Greek, which he could not read.”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“In the Spring they put him up a small frame house to live in while he stayed there.”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“the “majority of … changes” in Smith’s inspired “translation” of the Bible “lack ancient textual support” but are instances where Smith “solves a problem created by the English translation in the KJV.”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“he proclaimed his spiritual superiority: “I know more than all the world put tog[ethe]r. & If the h[oly]. G[host]. in me com[municates]: more than all the world I will associate with it.”83 Charlotte Haven, who visited Nauvoo in 1843, noticed that Smith “talked incessantly about himself, what he had done and could do more than other mortals, and remarked that he was ‘a giant, physically and mentally.’ In fact, he seemed to forget that he was a man.”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“Alma’s dependence on Hebrews 7 is not a matter of plagiarism but one of interpretive and conceptual borrowing.”
― Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet

“Smith was willing to pay a high price to maintain his charismatic integrity.”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“I believe that Smith probably had in mind a number of shifting geographic models:”
― Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet

“Indeed, this was the lowest point of his career since the failure of Zion’s camp, having lost half of his apostles and many others in leadership positions and, most of all, having lost everything in Missouri, especially the holy land of Zion. His dream of establishing a New Jerusalem, of converting the Indians, of amassing a great army of holy warriors, and of saving the United States was virtually dead.”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“Once the consecration of property was made, there was no retrieving one’s former holdings should there be a loss of faith—“Behold thou shalt conscrate all thy properties that which thou hast unto me with a covena[n]t and Deed which cannot be broken & they Shall be laid before the Bishop of my church … & it shall come to pass that the Bishop of my church after that he has received the properties of my church that it cannot be taken from you.”26”
― Dan Vogel, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839

“Smith’s procedure is similar to that of ancient pseudepigraphists who, in the words of one scholar, “created something new, an imaginary Sacred Past, the way it should have been.”
― Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet