Accounts of "Translation" of Book of Mormon

Accounts of Translation of Book of Mormon - Could Smith have really translated but given a doctored one to his secretaries who wrote down his "translation"?

 

Joseph Smith made it a core principle of Mormonism that the Book of Mormon supersedes the Bible for there are issues with the latters' translation. It is an article of faith that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. He said that the Book of Mormon was the most correct book on earth which suggests it is absolutely infallible and translated correctly. He said man can get closest to God through this book.

 

God gave Smith the power to translate this book from Gold Plates. He used magical glasses that showed him the translated text and then it was written down by a secretary. No unbiased person ever saw those items.

 

CASE FOR AN INVENTED TRANSLATION

 

If Smith had gold plates then this is the case against his being unable to translate.

 

Nobody ever saw the glass spectacles Smith used to translate or saw him using them. God supposedly put them with the plates for translation. Smith's claims are lies for how can you trust the translation when you cannot see what was provided to accomplish it? Even worse Smith used a common stone as a seer stone - an occult device! The Book of Mormon is a claimed occult translation rather than a religious one.

 

Despite the method being perfect - eg visions of the translated text given by God to Smith in a seer stone - the Book of Mormon needed a lot of fixing. It is not perfect. Smith himself did a lot of editing and revising even after publication.

 

Smith said his firstborn son would be the translator. That baby died.

 

Smith got false revelations through his seer stone - eg when he got a prediction that the Book of Mormon copyright would be sold. He admitted some of his revelations were from the devil.

 

Oliver Cowdery did some translating but it was more like imagination that was really at work. He showed no evidence of significant prophetic ability. Smith didn't show it either but that is not the point. Smith tried to predict the future etc. God supposedly told Oliver through Smith “Be patient my son, for it is wisdom in me, and it is not expedient that you should translate at this present time.” None of this inspires confidence in the Book of Mormon. It was alleged that Oliver could not understand the method given as follows, "You must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right, I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you." More likely it was the case that the technique failed!

 

Smith was blocked from translating by sin - and even when he said he was able to translate he was sinning worse than ever!

 

Smith failed to restore the Book of Lehi after much hard translating work. 116 pages were accomplished but lost and Smith lamely argued that God told him to use a different part of the plates instead. It could be argued that if he really translated Lehi then what he replaced it with could be his own invention Maybe God banned him from translating after that?

 

Smith's attempt to get Charles Anthon to verify his translation failed. Anton wrote that it was rubbish.