TWENTY-FIVE
(1830)
The LDS Church has sought to hide and protect itself from its own true history.
Its version of history, despite claims to accuracy, is tainted by revisions of what really happened. The modern
LDS leadership has been deceived by false histories. The leaders of the U.S. have also revised American history.
Joseph Smith, Jr., through this biography, sets the record straight. The truth behind the controversy over the
title page of the Book of Mormon, the organization of the LDS Church, the “casting out [of] devils,”
other early alleged LDS “miracles,” and other discrepancies is revealed.The Mark Hofmann Controversy
In 1985, a member of the LDS Church, Mark W. Hofmann, forged documents and
counterfeited items that, if authentic, would have been of historical significance to the
LDS/Mormon faith. He was successful at convincing LDS Church authorities, including
Spencer W. Kimball, the “prophet, seer, and revelator”^1 at the time, that his forgeries were
real. On that assumption, the Church purchased many of Hofmann’s documents. He ended
up killing two innocent people and injuring himself in an attempt to cover up his forgeries
and counterfeiting.^2
Mark Hofmann knew what all honest and forthright historians know about
LDS/Mormon history—that the modern-day information given about Joseph Smith, Jr. and the
early Latter-day Saints is a complete revision^3 made up by Brigham Young and those leaders
who followed in his footsteps.^4 The LDS Church has made it an important undertaking to obtain
or purchase any historical documents that might support this disturbing fact and then either to
destroy them or lock them away from public view.^5 For example, if the LDS/Mormon people
fully understood the disarray into which the Church fell leading up to and following the deaths
of Joseph and Hyrum, and the subsequent “politicking” for leadership thereafter, they would
have good reason to question the “tradition” of succession. Honest historians knew that many
of the early church documents potentially exposed these kinds of troubling facts. At least one
dishonest historian sought to exploit them.
Hofmann realized there was profit to be made by forging documents that were
consistent with the true original Church history, but which the modern leaders would want
suppressed. By his actions, Hofmann proved that a true “prophet, seer, and revelator”^6 does
not exist among the LDS authorities—owing to the fact that none of them discovered
Hofmann’s deception.^7
The significance and importance of a “prophet, seer, and revelator” has diminished
over time and has been replaced with a church hierarchy dense with bureaucratic offices of
power. Seldom do issues of great importance find their way to the desk of the one
appointed as “prophet, seer, and revelator.” Throughout the entire Mark Hofmann incident
(which largely involved some of the Church’s highest officials), Gordon B. Hinckley, a
counselor in the First Presidency at the time, took the reins and control of church affairs and
dealt with the media and legal authorities. Modernly, the role of seership is fulfilled through
“committee”; whereas the Book of Mormon says this: