According to Mormon history, the validity of the religion is based on the discovery of golden tablets by Joseph Smith and witnessed by three people: Oliver Crowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris. When first apprised of their duty to validate the golden tablets, they naturally asked to see them. This legitimate request gave rise to a new revelation by Smith for them. "Ye shall testify that you have seen them, even as my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., has seen them, for it is by my power that he has seen them, and it is because he had faith" (Hill, Donna. Joseph Smith: The First Mormon, p. 90).

What is important to note is that the testimony of the three witnesses is not that Joseph Smith actually showed them the gold plates, but rather, while they were in the woods the plates were shown to them "by the power of God, and not of man". According to the testimony, "an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes that we beheld and saw the plates and the engravings thereon" (The Testimony of the Three Witnesses, Book of Mormon). How clever is that? Without saying they actually saw the gold plates the three witnesses could testify that an angel told them they had seen the gold plates! Is it any wonder the apostle Paul warned the church more than two thousand years ago to beware of any man or angel from heaven proclaiming another gospel? Galatians 1:8, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed."

Mormons are not the only people on whom this deceptive technique has been used. The Word of Faith movement advocates Positive Confession, which tells people to believe in things they have not received or even seen. And what shall we say of our dispensational brethren who "see" a secret, seven-year rapture of the church in 1 Thessalonians 4:16ff? In dispensationalism, many do not know they are advocating a theological system rather than the simplicity of the Scriptures that Jesus Christ is coming the second time for all who believe (Heb 9:28), and not merely in "stages" or "phases" with intervals of time. Ah, the enemy of the historic Christian faith is sly. We have to ask in amazement at his cunningness, "How clever is that?"