Joseph Smith Prophesied Himself

2 Nephi 3:11,14-15

11 But a seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and unto him will I give power to bring forth my word unto the seed of thy loins—and not to the bringing forth my word only, saith the Lord, but to the convincing them of my word, which shall have already gone forth among them.

14 And thus prophesied Joseph, saying: Behold, that seer will the Lord bless; and they that seek to destroy him shall be confounded; for this promise, which I have obtained of the Lord, of the fruit of my loins, shall be fulfilled. Behold, I am sure of the fulfilling of this promise;

15 And his name shall be called after me; and it shall be after the name of his father. And he shall be like unto me; for the thing, which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand, by the power of the Lord shall bring my people unto salvation.

To an LDS person, this passage of scripture is amazing. The Book of Mormon actually predicts that a seer would come forth named Joseph who's father was also named Joseph.

The Book of Mormon also predicts the discovery and founding of the United States of America.

Naturally, to myself this is not impressive at all.

Which is more likely, that Joseph Smith translated an ancient record that happens to predict him by name, OR that Joseph Smith made it all up?

If he made it up, he could have easily written in the prophesy about his own prophethood.

And since the BoM was published in 1830 and Columbus discovered the Americas in 1492, that prophesy doesn't count. A prophesy given after the fact is not a prophesy.

What if I claimed to find a book but would never let anyone see it? It was found in 2012 but was written in 1800. What if I told everyone that the book was written in a different language, but only I could interpret it? What if I shared a story out of this book where a tower is destroyed by an aircraft on Sept 11, 2001? What if I shared another story out of the book where it names me by name claiming that I would find it and interpret it? Would that make me a prophet? What that make the book true?

It must. Because that is exactly what Joseph Smith did.

Isn't it a little odd that Joseph Smith was "commanded" not to show the golden plates to anyone? Isn't it a little odd that they do not exist to be examined and scrutinized? Isn't it odd that two of the supposed "witnesses" of the golden plates left the church? Isn't it odd that before Joseph Smith found the golden plates he was convicted of "glass looking" and found guilty of fraud?

Yes, the golden plates story was just the next step up in Smith's gold digging scam, complete with magical peeping stones, or as the LDS like to call them, the Urim and Thummim.

A book that predicts itself. A prophet who predicts himself. Witnesses who can't stick around. No golden plates to examine...

Do the math.