What did Joseph Smith find inside the stone box with the gold plates?
1-Gold Plates. 67% was sealed and 33% was loose pages of metal.
2-Ancient Jaredite Breastplate
3-Two stones set inside a silver bow like a pair of very large glasses.
There are two additional items that Historians and Intellectuals say was in the stone box.
4- Sword of Laban
5. The Liahona
These last two items were in the large “Cave at Cumorah” and not in the small stone box. Revisionists Historians want you to believe these two items were in the stone box because they don’t believe there was a “Cave at Cumorah”. They say the large room of records that Brigham Young and others mentioned, was just a dream somewhere in Mesoamerica. Remember the Intellectuals always want to validate their theory that there were two Hill Cumorahs so they can then say the Book of Mormon events happened somewhere in Mexico.
The following statement lets you know there were two distinct places at the Hill Cumorah in New York. Orson Pratt said, “The particular place in the hill, where Moroni secreted the book, was revealed, by the angel, to the Prophet Joseph Smith, to whom the volume was delivered in September, AD. 1827. But the grand repository of all the numerous records of the ancient nations of the western continent, was located in another department of the hill, and its contents under the charge of holy angels, until the day should come for them to be transferred to the sacred temple of Zion.” .” The Latter-day Saints Millennial Star Vol. 28; publisher Liverpool: July 7, 1866 Orson Pratt (Italics added)
Did ancient prophets write the plates of the Book of Mormon or did the Lord write it, or did the Lord tell the prophet what to write? Prophets have said, If there are imperfections they are of man, which means the Lord did not tell them what to write, but gave them inspiration to record the events. Ancient prophets wrote as inspired by the Lord, The Lord did not write for them. In the same way Joseph translated the ancient language by using the knowledge bank in his own head assisted by the Power of God with the help of the Urim and Thummim.
Definition of Translate
1a: to turn into one’s own or another language
b: to transfer or turn from one set of symbols into another : TRANSCRIBE
c(1): to express in different terms and especially different words : PARAPHRASE
(2): to express in more comprehensible terms : EXPLAIN, INTERPRET
2a: to bear, remove, or change from one place, state, form, or appearance to another : TRANSFER, TRANSFORM https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/translate#synonyms
Definition of Dictate
intransitive verb
1: to utter words to be transcribed : to give dictation dictate for the stenographer
transitive verb
1: to speak or read for a person to transcribe or for a machine to record dictating a letter to her secretary
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dictate
Why do we say that we believe Bible to be word of God as far as is translated correctly, A of F 1:8. Is there a possibility it was translated incorrectly? In other words are there mistakes in it? Of course there are mistakes. Remember how Mormon said
Mormon 8:12 “And whoso receiveth this record, and shall not condemn it because of the imperfections which are in it, the same shall know of greater things than these. Behold, I am Moroni; and were it possible, I would make all things known unto you.”
Ether 12:23 “And I said unto him: Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing; for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, but thou hast not made us mighty in writing; for thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them;”
Quote below from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
“Some minor errors in the text have been perpetuated in past editions of the Book of Mormon. This edition contains corrections that seem appropriate to bring the material into conformity with pre publication manuscripts and early editions edited by the Prophet Joseph Smith.” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/explanation?lang=eng&clang=eng#p9
Why were many editions of the Book of Mormon edited by Joseph Smith if they came from the Lord who wrote the words on a stone in a hat? Why then did Joseph edit the perfection of the Lord? He didn’t, Joseph edited his own words that as he learned using his own knowledge bank that seemed to need to be corrected.
If the words on the gold plates were put onto a seer stone in a hat, who is it that was putting these words there? Was it the Lord? If so there would be no errors and if there were errors that Oliver wrote, the Lord could have stopped and corrected the word, correct? If it was an angel who put the words on the stone where did he get the words from? Or if it was a prophet, who was a greater prophet than Joseph Smith? Wouldn’t the Lord have the Prophet of this dispensation actually translate the words and not transpose or transliterate or just repeat back the words? Wouldn’t the Lord only step in after all Joseph could do? Didn’t Joseph have his own vocabulary, and didn’t he learn Hebrew and he practiced with and was instructed by Moroni and other angels and prophets? Would Joseph learn all he could about translation with this heavenly help? Why would the Lord just give it to him? The Lord could have given the text of the Book of Mormon on any item including a mirror or having the words revealed on a piece of wood, etc. Why would Joseph need a stone and a hat? Then again why would the Lord place a breastplate and two stones in a bow with the plates, if he didn’t want Joseph to utilize them in helping him translate the record?
Ether 2:22 And behold, when ye shall come unto me, ye shall write them and shall seal them up, that no one can interpret them; for ye shall write them in a language that they cannot be read.
23 And behold, these two stones will I give unto thee, and ye shall seal them up also with the things which ye shall write…
Ether 2:28 And it came to pass that the Lord commanded him that he should seal up the two stones which he had received, and show them not, until the Lord should show them unto the children of men.
So based on common sense, Joseph Smith Translated the Gold Plates, he did not dictate them from a stone in a hat.
Two Quotes that mean Everything!
Below are first hand accounts that share the truth about the method of translation. All other quotes are 2nd and 3rd hand accounts from sources who didn’t necessarily like Joseph Smith or had an axe to grind against him, including Emma Smith, David Whitmer, Martin Harris, William McClellan and today many BYU professors and intellectuals who want to deningrad Joseph just a little in order to elevate themselves as smarter than Joseph.
-1- “In the Wentworth Letter, the Prophet wrote: “With the records was found a curious instrument, which the ancients called “Urim and Thummim,” which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim of a bow fastened to a breast plate. Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record by the gift and power of God” (History of the Church, 4:537).
-2- In the October 1834 Messenger and Advocate [the Church newspaper in Kirtland, Ohio], Oliver Cowdery wrote: “These were days never to be forgotten to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated, with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called ‘The Book of Mormon’” (Messenger and Advocate, 1:14; Also known as Letter I Oliver Cowdery to William W. Phelps, 7 September 1834).
It is sad and hard to believe that those intellectuals of the Mesoamerican Theory, say some hard to believe things about the process of translation. Below is a quote from Book of Mormon Central.
Why Were the Plates Present During the Translation of the Book of Mormon? Post contributed by BMC Team September 21, 2017 KnoWhy #366
“People are sometimes surprised to discover that the plates of the Book of Mormon were not regularly used during the process of its translation.1 While translating, Joseph Smith would typically place his face into a hat to block out ambient light.2 He would then, according to witnesses, read aloud the words which miraculously appeared in a seer stone or in the interpreters, and a scribe would record them.3
As for the plates themselves, Emma Smith reported that they “often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen table cloth.”4 Other witnesses recalled that on a few occasions they were kept “in a nearby box under the bed or even hidden in the Whitmer’s barn during translation.”5 This has caused some to wonder why the plates were necessary at all. If Joseph Smith wasn’t actively consulting them during the translation, then why were they covered with a cloth and placed in some nearby and usually visible location? “BMC
President Ezra Taft Benson offered this advice, “Sometimes rom 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.
“Does it Really Matter?
Some may wonder, “Does it really matter how Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon? What difference does it make if he used the Urim and Thummim or a seer stone?” Upon closer inspection, however, the implications have a far greater impact than we might realize. If we accept that Joseph Smith dictated the Book of Mormon using a dark occultic seer stone he presumably found from an alleged career in treasure digging, scrying, and magic, this means the Book of Mormon was revealed through an occultic instrument and not by revelation and instruments provided by God. No true Christian can accept as God’s word, a book which came from this “bitter fountain.”13 The very foundations of our faith crumble.
Additionally, if we accept that Joseph Smith dictated the Book of Mormon from words magically appearing on a seer stone, even a stone that was not occultic, Joseph Smith’s character and integrity are shattered and ou history is not viable. Consider the following:
• If Joseph Smith never used the plates, why did the Lord burden generations of Nephite prophets with the painstaking recording and preservation of their history? Why was Moroni doomed to spend years on the run, hunted by the Lamanites, while he finished his father’s abridgment and hid the record from those who were seeking to destroy it? Why was Joseph Smith warned by Moroni that he would be “cut off ”14 if he lost the plates, if he never used them? Was the Lord just wasting everyone’s time?
• If Joseph Smith never used the plates, relying instead on words that appeared on a stone, to what degree does the Book of Mormon text we read today correspond with the original Nephite plates, if there is any correlation at all? Is the Book of Mormon even an historical text? Why not simply an inspired parable with heart-warming lessons “for our day”? How can we know the book’s validity, the book’s authenticity, and the book’s truth, if this is our foundation
• The “seer stone in a hat” narrative contradicts the testimonies of
the only legitimate mortal eyewitnesses, Joseph Smith and Oliver
Cowdery. Were Joseph and Oliver lying? Whom should we trust?” Seer Stone vs Urim and Thummim by James and Hannah Stoddard Page 4-5
Inside of the Stone Box is Described!
“The manner in which the plates were deposited: First, a hole of sufficient depth, (how deep I know not) was dug. At the bottom of this was laid a stone of suitable size, the upper surface being smooth. At each edge was placed a large quantity of cement, and into this cement, at the four edges of this stone, were placed, erect, four others, their bottom edges resting in the cement at the outer edges of the first stone. The four last named, when placed erect, formed a box, the corners, or where the edges of the four came in contact, were also cemented so firmly that the moisture from without was prevented from entering. It is to be observed, also, that the inner surface of the four erect, or side stones was smoothe. This box was sufficiently large to admit a breast-plate, such as was used by the ancients to defend the chest, &c. from the arrows and weapons of their enemy. From the bottom of the box, or from the breast-plate, arose three small pillars composed of the same description of cement used on the edges; and upon these three pillars was placed the record of the children of Joseph, and of a people who left the tower far, far before the days of Joseph… I must not forget to say that this box, containing the record was covered with another stone, the bottom surface being flat and the upper, crowning. But those three pillars were not so lengthy as to cause the plates and the crowning stone to come in contact. I have now given you, according to my promise, the manner in which this record was deposited; though when it was first visited by our brother, in 1823, a part of the crowning stone was visible above the surface while the edges were concealed by the soil and grass, from which circumstances you will see, that however deep this box might have been placed by Moroni at first, the time had been sufficient to wear the earth so that it was easily discovered when once directed, and yet not enough to make a perceivable difference to the passer-by.” Oliver Cowdery, “Letter VIII,” October 1835
A VIEW OF THE PLATES AS IF THE FRONT OF THE STONE BOX WAS SEE-THROUGH
