No, Smith said that the religion based on the Bible (Christianity) was completely true... but that over the centuries people fell away from the original teachings so that a restoration of the those original Biblical teachings was needed.
Go back to my example of your friend with the Bible that had Matthew, Luke, and John, but was missing Mark. Would you say that his Bible is false? I don't think so. That's how the LDS view traditional Christianity. So if you were to ask some random LDS members today, "do you think that traditional Christianity is false" nearly all of them would reply, "No, but it is incomplete."
Feel free to post more details if you'd like my opinions on them.
Response to the first: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" Luke 21:33. That's the most common interpretation. Another one is, "Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words shall never disappear" (NLT) is another one. How about Isaiah 40:8, "The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God will stand forever." Except ya know, for those thousand years or so, they won't stay for those years. Do you really think a sovereign God would allow the Bible to remain incomplete for over a thousand years (or whatever timeframe it was) before revealing it to His people? I just cannot believe that.
For the second, let me again refer to several verses.
Deuteronomy 18:20-22 "But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him."
Numbers 23:19 "God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?"
God does not lie, He does not change. All true prophecy comes from Him, therefore any prophecy that does not come true, cannot come from Him, making that prophet a false prophet.
"I prophecy in the name of the Lord God of Israel, unless the United States redress the wrongs committed upon the Saints in the state of Missouri and punish the crimes committed by her officers that in a few years the government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much as a potsherd left for their wickedness in permitting the murder of men, women and children, and the wholesale plunder and extermination of thousands of her citizens to go unpunished (History of the Church, Vol. 5, page 394)."
That prophecy was made by Joseph Smith in 1843. The US Gov't did not redress those wrongs, nor did they get overthrown. I think it's safe to say that a few years have passed by now. Smith prophecies in the name of the Lord here…so was God wrong, or was Smith a false prophet?
"Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Kirtland, Ohio, September 22 and 23, 1832. HC 1:286-295.
1. A revelation of Jesus Christ unto his servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and six elders, as they united their hearts and lifted their voices on high.
2. Yea, the word of the Lord concerning his church, established in the last days for the restoration of his people, as he has spoken by the mouth of his prophets, and for the gathering of his saints to stand upon Mount Zion, which shall be the city of New Jerusalem.
3. Which city shall be built, beginning at the temple lot, which is appointed by the finger of the Lord, in the western boundaries of the State of Missouri, and dedicated by the hand of Joseph Smith, Jun., and others with whom the Lord was well pleased.
4. Verily, this is the word of the Lord, that the city New Jerusalem shall be built by the gathering of the saints, beginning at this place, even the place of the temple, which temple shall be reared in this generation.
5. For verily this generation shall not all pass away until an house shall be built unto the Lord, and a cloud shall rest upon it, which cloud shall be even the glory of the Lord, which shall fill the house."
Safe to say that Joseph Smith, nor anybody from his generation build that temple in Missouri, as they were kicked out. Again, false prophecy.
I also have problems with how African-American members were first not allowed to become priests (because of prophecy), and then were allowed to become priests (because of prophecy). Does the Bible anywhere state that color of skin has anything to do with becoming an elder or deacon or priest? Does the Bible anywhere state that the color of skin has anything to do with discipling somebody? Does the Bible not state that God does not lie, and does not change His mind? How then can we believe that the flip-flopping of this prophecy is from God?
In summary, based on what the LDS church teaches and believes, God allowed His people to be abandoned of His true Word, He changed his mind, and lied, and allowed the commission of a prophet who has had multiple false prophecies. I cannot, and will not believe that to be true, because it contradicts the Bible.
