Two Questions to Ponder

Elder Bednar says, “I emphasized that neither digital innovations nor rapid change in and of themselves are good or evil. Rather, I cautioned that the real challenge is to understand both innovations and changes within the context of the eternal plan of happiness. I also pose “two questions for consideration in your personal pondering and prayerful studying” about using these technologies properly.

1- Does the use of various technologies and media invite or impede the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost in your life?

2- Does the time you spend using various technologies and media enlarge or restrict your capacity to live, to love, and to serve in meaningful ways?…

The title of my message in 2009 was “Things as They Really Are.” That was then.”
Things as They Really Are 2.0 Elder David A. Bednar November 3, 2024

Opinion on AI?

We all likely have an opinion on Artificial Intelligence, (AI) as it is growing so rapidly today. Most new things or inventions can always fall into one of  two categories. They are either great or not so great. It always depends on how we utilize these new inventions but even more important than that, is what is our goal in using these inventions. Are we striving to better society and our fellow man or are we trying to take advantage of people or the world we live in? In my opinion AI is mostly good as I tend to try and obey the Lord and utilize things to benefit myself or our society.

Let’s see what AI has to say about one of the best articles I have found, about the proper translation method of the Book of Mormon.

The Process of Translating the Book of Mormon
Joseph Fielding McConkie (Professor of Ancient Scripture, BYU) Craig J. Ostler (Assistant Professor of Church History and Doctrine, BYU) For the complete article do a google search.

Question to AI about the above article by Ostler and McConkie:
Is this the correct translation process of the Book of Mormon?

AI’s response: May 10, 2025

“The document provides a detailed discussion of the translation process of the Book of Mormon, primarily based on firsthand accounts from Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, as well as scriptural references. ​ According to these sources:

Joseph Smith’s Account: Joseph Smith stated that he translated the Book of Mormon using the Urim and Thummim, a sacred instrument described as two transparent stones set in a bow attached to a breastplate. ​ He emphasized that the translation was accomplished “by the gift and power of God.” ​ He also noted that the process was sacred and declined to share all the particulars of how it was done. ​

Oliver Cowdery’s Testimony: Oliver Cowdery affirmed that he wrote the Book of Mormon as Joseph Smith translated it using the Urim and Thummim. ​ He described the experience as being dictated by “the inspiration of heaven.”

Doctrine and Covenants 9: This section explains the principles of revelation involved in the translation process, including the need to study things out in one’s mind and seek confirmation from the Lord. ​

David Whitmer’s Account: David Whitmer provided a different explanation, claiming that Joseph Smith used a chocolate-colored seer stone placed in a hat to translate the Book of Mormon. However, the document critiques Whitmer’s account as unreliable, inconsistent, and contradictory to the testimonies of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, as well as the principles outlined in Doctrine and Covenants. ​

AI continues, “the document concludes that the translation process involved the use of the Urim and Thummim and the gold plates, as described by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. ​ It dismisses alternative accounts, such as David Whitmer’s, as inconsistent with the divine pattern and the testimonies of those directly involved. ​

Thus, the correct translation process, according to the document, involved Joseph Smith translating the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God, using the Urim and Thummim and the gold plates.” AI- ​May 10, 2025

Elder Benson said, “For those concerned how this occultic “Joseph Smith” could make its way into Church publications, President Ezra Taft Benson offered this advice, “Sometimes from behind the pulpit, in our classrooms, in our Council meetings and in our church publications we hear, read or witness things that do not square with the truth. . . . Now do not let this serve as an excuse for your own wrong-doing. The Lord is letting the wheat and the tares mature before he fully purges the Church. He is also testing you to see if you will be misled. The devil is trying to deceive the very elect.” Ezra Taft Benson, “Our Immediate Responsibility” (BYU Devotional, Provo, October 25, 1996), https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/ezra-taft-benson_immediateresponsibility.

I believe that the old stories about Joseph being tied to the occult came from the 1834 anti-Mormon book “Mormonism Unvailed” by E.D. Howe. Most of this was due to the book talking about the rock in the hat and some sort of evil Joseph must have been doing. I grew up in the sixties and my mother told me the peep stone in a hat was evil and I believed her. The majority of the Church agreed, but the church didn’t discuss the way the Urim and Thummim looked, nor did they speak much about the Interpreters. We all just said, Joseph translated by the gift and power of God. [FYI In the Book of Mormon the term Urim and Thummim is never used. Instead, they are always called “Interpreters”] But now in today’s world, many people are trying to make Joseph and his method of peep stones evil, or strange again. That is why I share evidence in the scriptures to verify that Joseph only used the two stones attached to a breastplate as the scriptures say, “these two stones fastened to a breastplate” JSH 1:35, or he used the Interpreters, or he used the Urim and Thummim to translate, all three meaning the same thing.

People today define the Urim and Thummim in many different ways.

Various names of the proper instruments used, usually using a plural.
1- Interpreters (Word found in the Book of Mormon, and PGP)
2- Directors (Alma 37:21, 24. In 1920 “Interpreters” was changed to “Directors” in the Book of Mormon)
3- Urim and Thummim (Word found in the D&C, PGP, and the Old Testament, 4 times in The Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith in the preface of the BofM) Urim and Thummim in the Old Testament is a different one than the one found in the Book of Mormon.
4- The Key (Lucy Mack Smith)
5- These stones, fastened to a breastplate
6- Two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow (Words found similar in many places)
7- Spectacles (JSP Letterbook 1/11)
8- Glasses (Luck Mack Smith,
9- 2 smooth ​3 cornered diamonds set in glass and the glass was set in silver bows. (Lucy Mack Smith)
10- Two transparent stones, resembling glass, set in silver bows (Oliver Cowdery)

Here are other scriptural references to this proper method of translation: See, JSH 1:35,52,62,75*; Mosiah 28:13, 20; Ether 3:22-23; 4:5; Alma 37:21, 24-25

Nowhere in the scriptures does it say a stone in a hat was used to translate. It is an old story with no merit.

According to Professor Ostler and McConkie their article says, “The earliest known description of the process of translating the Book of Mormon is found in an article titled “History of the Mormonites,” published 9 June 1831, in Kirtland, Ohio. The writer, Josiah Jones, claims as his source the first Latter-day Saint missionaries to that territory Elders Cowdery, Pratt, Whitmer, and Peterson, from whom he learned that the book was translated by “looking into a stone or two stones, when put into a dark place, which stones he said were found in the box with the plates. They affirmed while [Joseph] looked through the stone spectacles another sat by and wrote what he told them, and thus the book was written. . . .

“A few days after these men appeared again, a few of us went to see them and Cowdery was requested to state how the plates were found, which he did. He stated that Smith looked onto or through the transparent stones to translate what was on the plates. I then asked him if he had ever looked through the stones to see what he could see in them; his reply was that he was not permitted to look into them. I asked him who debarred him from looking into them; he remained sometime in silence, then said that he had so much confidence in his friend Smith, who told him that he must not look into them, that he did not presume to do so lest he should tempt God and be struck dead. In describing the quote from Josiah Jones, Joseph looked through one or two stones, he didn’t mention a hat, the stones were found in the box with the plates, and he looked through stone spectacles, it is clear that while Mr. Jones had never seen the U&T he described the process as a U&T not as a single seer stone.” (Allen, “Historian’s Corner,” 308).  As told in: The Process of Translating the Book of Mormon Joseph Fielding McConkie (Professor of Ancient Scripture, BYU) Craig J. Ostler (Assistant Professor of Church History and Doctrine, BYU)

That unfounded story about the stone in a hat has also been a story from many anti Mormon sources since described in an 1834 book called “Mormonism Unvailed” by Eber D. Howe. Copy Here:

The Church and its Prophet and Apostles have not determined what the specific method of translation was, as just knowing the doctrine of the Church that the Book of Mormon is the word of God is most important, which I am in total agreement with. The Church is very supportive of anyone to have their own opinion about what instruments or method that Joseph Smith used. That is the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are blessed with knowing the Doctrine’s of the Lord’s Church through Prophets and Apostles, but on our personal opinions we have our freedom to choose.

My Complete blog about the proper method of translation is below: https://bookofmormonevidence.org/scriptural-evidence-interpreters-not-a-stone-in-a-hat/