THE MAGIC GLASSES THAT JOSEPH SMITH USED TO DIVINE THE BOOK OF MORMON TRANSLATION

Joseph Smith made it a core principle of Mormonism that the Book of Mormon supersedes the Bible for there are issues with the latter's translation. It's 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.

 

THE MAGIC GLASSES

 

Smith when he first translated the Book of Mormon used magic glasses, two clear stones called Urim and Thummim set in bows that were worn like spectacles. Sometimes Smith called them the Interpreters. We read in the Book of Mormon that these Interpreters were used about 121 BC and we are told that God had forbidden any man to look into them without authority for he might look for what he was not supposed to look for and perish (Mosiah 8:13). That means then the stones could work on their own even when God didn’t want them to. What kind of God is this? Could he simply not let the stones fail to work unless the right person was looking in them? The Book of Mormon itself implies that its translation is not to be trusted. Perhaps Smith used the stones to dictate a fictitious book, a pretended translation of the plates?

 

The angel Moroni took away the translators the Urim and Thummim. After that Smith translated with the magic stone with which he used to do money digging. The Urim and Thummim were removed after Smith gave out 116 pages of the Book of Mormon that were lost and never recovered as a punishment from God. Strange punishment!

 

Smith only made all this up because it was necessary to explain why nobody saw this Urim and Thummim and they were a problem for they were supposed to be diamonds in silver frames and where was he going to get diamonds or even good cut glass?

 

When Smith used his own stone instead of the Urim and Thummim how do we know that the translation was correct? Perhaps he lost the power to translate and used it instead to fake. When God told Smith through the same stone that he would sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon and the prophecy proved false Smith said it was a revelation from the Devil (page 41, An Address to All Believers in Christ). What else was the Devil telling him? Was he telling it when he translated the Book of Mormon? Obviously, Joseph did not know the difference. David Whitmer stated that the revelations given through the stone which was used to translate the Book of Mormon though reliable are not as authorative as the Bible and the Book of Mormon (page 68, An Address to all Believers in Christ). He had no reason to say this and every reason not to so his evidence is very strong that the Book of Mormon translation is iffy though that is not what he meant to say but he certainly accidentally made it clear that it had to be. A stone that gives revelations from God that do not have full divine authority cannot give out a translation of a holy book that is fully reliable. Even if the Book of Mormon is regarded as reliable one cannot stake too much on it so it cannot be made scripture and people can reject it if they want while they are obliged by their duty to God to uphold real scripture. Deuteronomy 18 forbids depending on prophets that are not exercising full divine authority in their statements that they say God is inspiring and who are not totally right in these statements for God makes no mistakes. Joseph Smith used a stone that functioned itself as a prophet and which admitted that it was not fully trustworthy like God would be.

 

Whitmer wrote, "We were waiting on Martin Harris who was doing his best to sell a part of his farm, in order to raise the necessary funds. After a time Hyrum Smith and others began to get impatient, thinking that Martin Harris was too slow and under transgression for not selling his land at once, even if at a great sacrifice. Brother Hyrum thought they should not wait any longer on Martin Harris, and that the money should be raised in some other way. Brother Hyrum was vexed with Brother Martin, and thought they should get the money by some means outside of him, and not let him have anything to do with the publication of the Book, or receiving any of the profits thereof if any profits should accrue. He was wrong in thus judging Bro. Martin, because he was doing all he could toward selling his land. Brother Hyrum said it had been suggested to him that some of the brethren might go to Toronto, Canada, and sell the copy-right of the Book of Mormon for considerable money: and he persuaded Joseph to inquire of the Lord about it. Joseph concluded to do so. He had not yet given up the stone. Joseph looked into the hat in which he placed the stone, and received a revelation that some of the brethren should go to Toronto, Canada, and that they would sell the copy-right of the Book of Mormon. Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery went to Toronto on this mission, but they failed entirely to sell the copy-right, returning without any money. Joseph was at my father's house when they returned. I was there also, and am an eye witness to these facts. Jacob Whitmer and John Whitmer were also present when Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery returned from Canada. Well, we were all in great trouble; and we asked Joseph how it was that he had received a revelation from the Lord for some brethren to go to Toronto and sell the copy-right, and the brethren had utterly failed in their undertaking. Joseph did not know how it was, so he enquired of the Lord about it, and behold the following revelation came through the stone: "Some revelations are of God: some revelations are of man: and some revelations are of the devil." So we see that the revelation to go to Toronto and sell the copy-right was not of God, but was of the devil or of the heart of man. When a man enquires of the Lord concerning a matter, if he is deceived by his own carnal desires, and is in error, he will receive an answer according to his erring heart, but it will not be a revelation from the Lord" David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, Chapter IV, pp 30-31.

 

Clearly the stone could give false revelations. Smith could have got a faulty translation.

 

PROOF OF SPELLING ERRORS IN THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT

 

"he pitched his tent in a vally beside a river of water & it came to pass that he built an altar of stones & he made an offering unto the Lord & gave thanks unto the Lord our God & it came to pass that he called the name of the River Laman & it empted into the Read Sea & the vally was in the borders near the mouth thereof & when my father saw that the waters of the River empted into the fountain of the Red sea he spake unto Laman saying O that thou mightest be like unto this River continually"

 

None of this stopped people involved in this imposture lying that it was the most perfect book on earth and that God prevented errors during translation. The errors speak loudly against the witnesses. They are hard evidence against mere testimony.

 

ERRORS IN THE BOOK OF MORMON

 

Whitmer stated that Smith used his stone to translate and that a character from the plates and its interpretation or translation would appear and remain visible until the scribe Smith was dictating to wrote it down correctly. Harris also said that the translation remained on the stone until it was written down correctly. They were taking Smith's word for this. But it was a lie as we shall see.

 

Joseph Smith told his scribe to write Benjamin in Mosiah 21:28 which says that this man had a gift from God to translate though it should have been Mosiah for King Benjamin had been dead. This error was corrected in the second edition of the Book of Mormon. What else did Joseph change from what he saw in the Urim and Thummim?

 

The way the witnesses were keen to adopt heretical doctrines that were not in the Book of Mormon shows they knew the Book of Mormon was a revision of what was on the Plates or that it was not supernatural. Why? Because only people who do not sincerely believe in a revelation from God suffer it to be altered. The Mormon Church came to deny that there was only one God though the Book of Mormon stresses that there is no God but one and even goes as far as to deny that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three persons and says they are one person. Its monotheism is stricter than Christian monotheism - assuming Christians have a right to be called monotheists.

 

SMITH NEVER USED THE PLATES

 

There is the problem that Smith never used the Plates to translate from. He just used the seer stone and it is certain that that the plates were hardly ever there (God’s Word Final Infallible and Forever, Book 3, page 89). They were covered with a cloth when they were allegedly present. Smith was supposedly taking great care of these plates to prevent them being stolen so what were they doing in the room when they were not needed? The only thing that lay under the cloth was perhaps just an ordinary book.

 

Smith did not use the Plates much when he translated. He just focused on his magic stone. This would suggest that he had little interest in what was on the Plates. He was going to write his own word of God. Smith sometimes had the Plates present but covered with a cloth which shows he knew he should use them if he was planning to make an honest translation.

 

WAS SATAN DOING THE TRANSLATING?

 

If the Devil led Smith to find the Plates and decipher some of them it would follow that God would prevent Smith from translating them all. This is what could have happened for two thirds of the Plates could not be opened (page 39, An Address to All Believers in Christ). God did not trust Smith. This claim that he had only access to one third of the book is supposed to be an indication of Smith’s sincerity. But Smith might have made up the story and not seen the sealing this way. Smith had always said that if he showed the plates to anybody God did not approve of they would be struck dead. That was his excuse for saying the book was not to be seen which was odd for it was only a set of gold plates with inscription on them. Smith’s purpose was to write the rest of the Book of Mormon later on in life if the first part came to be accepted as scripture by a good number of people. There is no way anybody could translate the long and tedious Book of Mormon from the third which shows that if Smith did translate the plates that he must have reworked what was on them into a longer book.

 

It is suspicious that the Book of Mormon has a sealed portion according to 2 Nephi 27 and the witnesses said the book had a locked up section that nobody could get into. It is as if God had to physically lock a portion of the book to keep Smith from reading it. That clearly suggests that Smith was claiming that it was not almighty God that was giving him the power to translate for once Smith had the power he could do what he liked with it. Who gave it to him then? Satan? Smith having satanic powers would mean he could use them to make the witnesses hallucinate visions of the plates.

 

The devil and God both gave Joseph Smith the power to dictate the Book of Mormon. Smith admitted once that he mistook a revelation he got from the seer stone, which he used to translate the Book of Mormon, from the Devil that he would sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon for one from God (page 41, An Address to All Believers in Christ). He had to say this for his prophecy proved false. He did not know how to distinguish between the revelations of God and the Devil.

 

In Doctrine and Covenants 129, Smith, we are told, received a revelation in 1843 which disclosed that if anybody has a vision they must ask it to let them shake its hand. If it tries and you feel nothing then it is the Devil. If you feel a hand in yours then it is from God. There is no evidence that this test was employed when the angel allegedly appeared with the golden plates. The Church did not teach that God had a body in the first few years which proves that it was not used. Smith did not check out the Father and the Son when they appeared to him. Smith never shook Moroni’s hand or the hands of the Father and the Son when they allegedly appeared. The three witnesses did not shake the hand of the angel who showed them the Plates. Smith could not even be consistent with his own religion. The test was more than a bit late. The revelation admits that the Devil can appear as an angel of light. Anybody who does not know that there should be a body if the being is heavenly will be fooled. This is admitted. Smith was refuted by his own revelations. Philosophically speaking, the Devil should be able to make you think you can feel his hand by sending a telepathic transmission to your mind so Smith’s test is worthless. What gets even worse is that Smith said that a message from God might be delivered by a man who has not been resurrected yet and he cannot shake hands with you. That gives Satan an excuse for not shaking hands with you so that you won’t know who is from him or not. Yet God calls this handshake test a key to which you can know if an administration is from God. When Smith did not state that the test was used when the angel appeared with the golden plates to the three witnesses it is clear that he accidentally gave us the right to disbelieve.

 

PLATES WOULD STILL BE WITH US

 

If the translation is so great why were the plates taken back to Heaven by Moroni? Now the translation cannot be checked. Why show the plates to some and not all? Mormons say the plates would only have been used to make money if they had remained. So what? Much of the wealth in the world came from sales of the Bible. If the Book of Mormon had been true God would have proven it by letting the Plates stay. God did not trust Joseph Smith to keep them or trust himself to be able to guard them.

 

The plates were never looked at during the translation. They were either not in the room or they were covered with a cloth. So why trust the translation?

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

The notion that Smith used magic glasses strains all credibility and is worse than any other problems with the Book of Mormon. If God was showing him the words like he claimed then God is the bad translator.