Where Does Revelation Come From?

Joseph Smith Admits Revelation may be Wishful Thinking or of Devil

Smith tried to have the copyright to the Book of Mormon sold in Canada in order to raise money, but the trip utterly failed. He then declared the revelation he had received concerning the trip, to be a false revelation. He had been deceived after all. Both the revelation to send men to Canada to sell the copyright and the later revelation that the first revelation was false were obtained by Smith looking at his old money digging seer stone in his hat. Smith himself explained that some revelations are of God, some of man and some from the Devil. (Whitmer 1887:30-31. Available as a free online book from www.utlm.org). Naturally, when it came time to put his revelations into what is now the D&C, these are two of the many revelations Smith instructed should be left out, declaring that he had been deceived and they were not from God.

The upshot of this revelation is, Smith here confesses that when he had a revelation, he could not tell for sure whether it was from God, his own wishful thinking, or even Satan. How then could Smith, or his followers, ever rely on any of his other so-called revelations, when there was only at best, by Smith’s own admission, a one in three chance that they came from God? (The Mormon Delusion Vol. 3:30.)