Mormon apologist wrote:The explanations of the facsimiles are not necessary for my salvation as are teachings and doctrines contained in the Book of Mormon. Besides we don’t even know if Joseph Smith authored them.
The source of the explanations is from that same Spirit and given in the same revelatory manner as always being authored and expressed by Joseph the seer who proudly published them in the Times and Seasons -- he stood by them and presented the translations to the world as revelations from God. They were published and expressed as a scripture-like revelatory restoration to the Church and it was received as such. They were heralded as being just as true as anything written in the Book of Mormon. What Smith considered a truth was part of all truth in one great whole. No truth was less true than another truth! All truth is within the bounds the Lord has set and salvation therefore depends on everything that is true together. Therefore, if it is discovered and proven that one of Smith’s professed truths is found to be untrue then it can be reasoned that there are others that are also untrue -- such as the entire content and fiction of the Book of Mormon which is no truer than the Explanations of the Facsimiles.