LDS Apostle Admits Joseph Smith Translated the Book of Mormon Through a Rock in Hat
In the LDS Church's official organ, the "Ensign" magazine, a General Conference sermon by Mormon Apostle Russell M. Nelson is published, in which Nelson openly acknowledges--and invokes as true--the Book of Mormon rock-in-the-hat translation tale, as follows:
Nelson: "The details of this miraculous method of translation [of the Book of Mormon] are still not fully known. Yet, WE DO HAVE A FEW PRECIOUS INSIGHTS. David Whitmer wrote:
“'JOSEPH SMITH WOULD PUT THE SEER STONE INTO A HAT, AND PUT HIS FACE IN THE HAT, DRAWING IT CLOSELY AROUND HIS FACE TO EXCLUDE THE LIGHT; AND IN THE DARKNESS THE SPIRITUAL LIGHT WOULD SHINE. A PIECE OF SOMETHING RESEMBLING PARCHMENT WOULD APPEAR, AND ON THAT APPEARED THE WRITING. ONE CHARACATER AT A TIME WOULD APPEAR, AND UNDER IT WAS THE INTERREPTATION IN ENGLISH. BROTHER JOSEPH WOULD READ OFF THE ENLGLISH TO OLIVER COWDERY, WHO WAS HIS PRINCIPAL SCRIBE, AND WHEN IT WAS WRITTEN DOWN AND REPEATED TO BROTHER JOSEPH TO SEE IF IT WAS CORRECT, THEN IT WOULD DISAPPEAR, AND ANOTHER CHARACTER AND INTERPRETATION WOULD APPEAR. THUS, THE BOOK OF MORMON WAS TRANSLATED BY THE GIFT AND POWER OF GOD, AND NOT BY ANY POWER OF MAN.' (David Whitmer, 'An Address to All Believers in Christ,' Richmond, Mo.: n.p., 1887, p. 12)"
("'A Treasured Testament,' by Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles," published in "Ensign" magazine, July 1993, emphasis added, at:
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1993/07/a-treasured-testament?lang=eng)
Hats off to these goofs. It seems that the Mormon God's "prophets. seers and revelators" can't get on the same fool's-gold page when it comes to the basic question of how Joseph Smith "translated" the Book of Mormon gold plates. Next thing you know, we'll be finding out that there are multiple, inconsistent versions of what happened in the "First Vision."
Say it ain't so, Joe! In the meantime, that apostate apostle Nelson has got to go!
_____
Additional Sources::
1. Oliver Cowdery:
“[I] had seasons of skepticism, in which I seriously wonder whether the prophet and I were men in our sober senses when we would be translating from the plates through the ‘Urim and Thummim’ and the plates would not be in sight at all.”
(Cowdery, "Latter-day Saint Messenger and Advocate," October 1834)
2. Elizabeth Ann Whitmer Cowdery:
“He [Joseph Smith] would place the director in his hat, and then place his face in his hat, so as to exclude the light.”
(Elizabeth Ann Whitmer Cowdery, affidavit, 15 February 1870, in William E. McLellin. "To“My Dear Friends")
3. Emma Smith:
“Now the first that my husband translated, was translated by use of the Urim and Thummim, and that was the part that Martin Harris lost, after that he [my husband] used a small stone, not exactly black, but was rather a dark color.”
(Emma Smith Bidamon to Emma S. Pilgrim, 27 March 1876, RLDS library archives, see also Vogel, "Early Mormon Documents," vol. 1, p. 532)
4. George Q. Cannon:
“One of Joseph’s aidEs in searching out the truths of the [Book of Mormon] was a peculiar pebble or rock which he called a seer stone, and which was sometimes used by him in lieu of the Urim and Thummim.”
(Cannon, "Life of Joseph Smith," p. 56)
5. Hiel Lewis:
“[Joseph Smith] translated the Book of Mormon by means of the same peep stone, and under the same inspiration that directed his enchantments . . . .”
(Hiel Lewis, “Review of Mormonism: Rejoinder to Elder Cadwell,” in "Amboy Journal," Amboy IL, 4 June, 1879)
6. William W. Blair:
“The mode of procedure consisted in Joseph’s placing the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as to entirely cover his face, resting his elbows upon his knees, and then dictating, word after word, while the scribe – Emma, John Whitmer, O[liver]. Cowdery, or some other, wrote it down.”
(Blair, letter to “Editors, Herald,” 22 May 1879, in 'Saints’ Herald," vOL. 26, 15 June 1879, pp. 190-91)
7. William Stafford:
“Joseph [Smith] Jr., could see, by placing a stone of singular appearance in his hat, in such a manner as to exclude all light; at which time they pretended he could see all things within and under the earth – that he could see within the above mentioned caves, large gold bars and silver plates – that he could also discover the spirits in whose charge these treasures were, clothed in ancient dress.”
(Stafford, neighbor of the Smith family, quoted in "Mormonism Unveiled," by E.D. Howe, 1834)
8. "The Sun" (Philadelphia PA):
“So, in order to convince Harris that he could read from the plates, Jo deposits them [the seer stones] in his hat, applies the spectacles, and refers Harris to a chapter in the Bible which he had learned by rote; and which he read from the plates, with surprising accuracy; and what astonished Harris most, was, that Jo should omit all the words in the Bible that were printed in Italic. And, if Harris attempted to correct Jo, he persisted that the plates were right, and the Bible was wrong. . . . Harris commenced transcribing, as Jo dictated; and to avoid mistakes, Jo required his amanuensis to read what he had written; and nothing was allowed to pass, until Jo pronounced it correct.”
(“Mormonites,” in "The Sun," Philadelphia PA, 18 August 1831, original in Library of Congress)
9. Richard L. Anderson:
“Thus it should pose no religious difficulty that Joseph’s seer stone of his youth was later applied to the higher use of inspired translation of the Book of Mormon.”
(Anderson, “The Mature Joseph Smith and Treasure Searching,” p. 537)
10. Richard Van Wagoner and Steven Walker:
“The plates could not have been used directly in the translation process. The Prophet, his face in a hat to exclude exterior light, would have been unable to view the plates directly even if they had been present during transcription. A mental picture of the young Joseph, face buried in a hat, gazing into a seer stone, plates out of sight, has not been a generally held view since the early days of the Church. The view raises some difficult questions. Why, for example, was such great care taken to preserve the plates for thousands of years if they were not to be used directly in the translation process?”
(Van Wagoner and Walker, “Joseph Smith: ‘The Gift of Seeing,’” in "Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought," vol. 15, Summer 1982, p. 53)
Damn the all to hell.
Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2015 03:20AM by steve benson.