Seriously, amongst the LDS records (and early on God commanded them to be record keeping people) of their early days, there are so many variations and versions of their early years that it will never be known where or when most all of their formative events occurred.
Joseph Smith told, wrote, and approved so many versions of his first visitation that we don't even know to within 5 years of when it actually occurred. And most bizarrely, although it is an event of importance to Mormons nearly as great as Jesus resurrection, the church will actually excommunicate you for professing sincere belief in the one version that was penned entirely by Joseph Smith himself.
As for a 'grand conspiracy', just my take on human nature, but at the beginning I think old Joe was looking for an easy indoor job with no heavy lifting, and would say and claim anything in furtherance of that goal. I think over time, Joe started to believe his own lies. Now, he didn't go whole hog there, any time a prior pronouncement turned out to be inconvenient for him in some way, he wasn't above doing a quick ret-con. Joe never made a revelation that he didn't change at least once, and there weren't very many revelations, if any, that the LDS didn't also modify later on too. And their reasons for doing so had damn little to do with sincerity of belief, but rather increasing the bottom line, increasing membership, or a few times attempting to fix a contradiction, but of those instances, they frequently made it worse and/or were still caught doing it.
And note, from day one, ALL revelations were advertised as being received entirely correctly in their first transmission, direct from a perfect God.
Joseph Smith told, wrote, and approved so many versions of his first visitation that we don't even know to within 5 years of when it actually occurred. And most bizarrely, although it is an event of importance to Mormons nearly as great as Jesus resurrection, the church will actually excommunicate you for professing sincere belief in the one version that was penned entirely by Joseph Smith himself.
As for a 'grand conspiracy', just my take on human nature, but at the beginning I think old Joe was looking for an easy indoor job with no heavy lifting, and would say and claim anything in furtherance of that goal. I think over time, Joe started to believe his own lies. Now, he didn't go whole hog there, any time a prior pronouncement turned out to be inconvenient for him in some way, he wasn't above doing a quick ret-con. Joe never made a revelation that he didn't change at least once, and there weren't very many revelations, if any, that the LDS didn't also modify later on too. And their reasons for doing so had damn little to do with sincerity of belief, but rather increasing the bottom line, increasing membership, or a few times attempting to fix a contradiction, but of those instances, they frequently made it worse and/or were still caught doing it.
And note, from day one, ALL revelations were advertised as being received entirely correctly in their first transmission, direct from a perfect God.
The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it.
