ACCUSATION: "Joseph Smith falsely prophesied that the Leonids Meteor Shower of 1833 was a sign of the Second Coming shortly coming to pass."

In November of 1833, there was a huge meteor shower visible all over the world that amazed and frightened lots of people. It was so impressive that many cowered in fear, thinking that the following day would be Doomsday.

Many skeptics point to the fact that Joseph Smith remarked that the meteor shower was a sign of the Second Coming soon coming to pass. However, though they like to quote this remark that he made after the meteor shower had already started, they always fail to relate this little piece of Mormon history from before the event:

On one occasion Joseph was preaching in Kirtland sometime in the fall of 1833. Quite a number of persons were present who did not belong to the Church, and one man, more bitter and skeptical than others, made note with pencil and paper of a prophecy uttered on that occasion, wherein Joseph said that "Forty days shall not pass, and the stars shall fall from heaven."

Such an event would certainly be very unusual and improbable to the natural man, and the skeptic wrote the words as a sure evidence to prove Joseph to be a false Prophet.

On the thirty-ninth day after the utterance of that prophecy a man and brother in the Church, by the name of Joseph Hancock, who is yet living, in Payson, Utah, and another brother were out hunting game and got lost. They wandered about until night, when they found themselves at the house of this unbeliever, who exultingly produced this note of Joseph Smith's prophecy, and asked Brother Hancock what he thought of his Prophet now, that thirty-nine days had passed and the prophecy was not fulfilled.

Brother Hancock was unmoved and quietly remarked, "There is one night left of the time, and if Joseph said so, the stars will certainly fall tonight. This prophecy will all be fulfilled."

The matter weighed upon the mind of Brother Hancock, who watched that night, and it proved to be the historical one, known in all the world as "the night of the falling of the stars."

He stayed that night at the house of the skeptical unbeliever, as it was too far from home to return by night, and in the midst of the falling of the stars he went to the door of his host and called him out to witness what he had thought impossible and the most improbable thing that could happen, especially as that was the last night in which Joseph Smith could be saved from the condemnation of "a false prophet."

The whole heavens were lit up with the falling meteors, and the countenance of the new spectator was plainly seen and closely watched by Brother Hancock, who said that he turned pale as death, and spoke not a word.

That's right: Joseph Smith correctly prophesied of one of the greatest celestial events that has taken place in the modern era.

However, what of this piece that the critics love to quote?

About 4 o'clock a.m. I was awakened by brother Davis knocking at my door, and calling on me to arise and behold the signs in the heavens. I arose, and to my great joy, behold the stars fall from heaven like a shower of hailstones; a literal fulfillment of the word of God, as recorded in the holy scriptures, and a sure sign that the coming of Christ is close at hand. In the midst of this shower of fire, I was led to exclaim, ''How marvelous are thy works, O Lord! I thank Thee for Thy mercy unto Thy servant; save me in thy kingdom for Christ's sake. Amen."

Well, the fact that Joseph Smith prophesied of the event before the fact stands as evidence that he was really a prophet of God, sent to restore the Church in this last dispensation of the fullness of times - and that is evidence that the Second Coming is soon at hand.

The insinuation of the critics is that the Second Coming would have occurred already if that meteor shower were the sign of it. However, we must remember that Joseph Smith also prophesied that the Church would eventually settle in the Rocky Mountains and that it would fill the entire world. Even the sharpest critics of the Prophet will admit that he was no idiot: he would have known that filling the entire world with the Church would take a good long time relative to his own lifespan (even with conversion occurring at the breakneck rate at which it was occurring during Joseph Smith's time), though it would still be a very short time in relation to the scope of human history.

So yes...yet again, what the critics think is an argument against Joseph Smith is actually strong evidence showing that he was, in fact, a prophet called of God.