Posted by:
madeguy
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Date: November 05, 2020 10:45AM
We’re told that God does not perform miracles needlessly, and that ‘it is a wicked and an adulterous generation that seeks for a sign.’
When Joseph’s family and friends asked for a glimpse of the plates that he’d claimed to have uncovered, he told them God would strike dead any person who glimpsed them. So, presumably, they remained in a box wrapped in a tablecloth to prevent casualties. Martin Harris, Mr. gullible, testified to hefting the wrapped box, which he was sure contained gold plates, but his fear would not permit him to open it and look inside. Neither did anyone else try to get a peek at the plates; they were all too afraid of being struck dead. Joseph, feeling the pressure, promised that witnesses would be allowed to see them at a later date, at which time they reported seeing them in a vision, not physically.
According to the Book of Mormon, these plates were written upon by many prophets including Nephi, Jacob, Mosiah, Alma, Helaman, Mormon, and Moroni. We’ve been taught they were written upon and physically handed down by prophets over a span of a thousand years (600 BC — 1400 AD), so why forbid latter-day prophets and other believers to see them?
Early Christian documents like the Dead Sea scrolls and Nag Hammadi texts were recently brought to light, and are on display for all to see. Many scholars have handled them in the process of translation. These are genuine, original Christian writings, most dating back to the first century AD. No one has been struck dead for seeing or handling them.
Wouldn’t the physical existence of gold plates stand as a glorious affirmation of the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ in the latter-days? And wouldn’t their existence be just the fuel needed to light the afterburners of missionary work that could swiftly gather the Lord’s elect from the four corners of the Earth? You would think so. So why the ban?
Allowing believers to physically see the plates would have required no effort on God’s part. No miracle or sign would have been needed, just let people see them. But preventing people from seeing the plates by striking them dead would require divine intervention by which God would counter his own efforts, namely, killing the very people who are attempting to bring about the restoration his true church.
So, why the ban on seeing the plates? The answer of course is obvious: The plates were imaginary. It’s obvious when statements of the ‘witnesses’ are investigated:
Martin Harris testified to Anthony Metcalf of Elk Horn Idaho, that “I never saw the golden plates, only in a visionary or entranced state… While praying, I passed into a state of entrancement, and in that state, I saw the angel and the plates.” (Martin Harris interview by Anthony Metcalf). (italics mine)
Warren Parrish, a seventy, wrote, “Martin Harris, one of the subscribing witnesses, has come out at last, and says he never saw the plates, from which the book purports to have been translated, except in a vision, and he further says that any man who has says he has seen them in any other way is a liar, Joseph [Smith] not excepted.” (Warren Parrish to E. Holmes, 11 Aug. 1838, The Evangelist) (italics mine)
In this letter by high priest Stephen Burnett to Lyman Johnson: “I have reflected long and deliberately upon the history of this church, and weighed the evidence for and against it—loath to give it up—but when I came to hear Martin Harris state in public that he never saw the plates with his natural eyes, only in vision or imagination, neither Oliver nor David, and also that the eight witnesses never saw them, and hesitated to sign that instrument for that reason, but were persuaded to do it, the last pedestal gave way, in my view our foundation was sapped and the entire superstructure fell in a heap of ruins… I was followed by W. Parish, Luke Johnson and John Boynton, all of whom concurred with me. After we were done speaking, Martin Harris arose and said he was sorry for any man who rejected the Book of Mormon, for he knew it was true, and said he had hefted the plates repeatedly in a box with only a tablecloth or handkerchief over them, but he never saw them only as he saw a city through a mountain. And said that he never should have told that the testimony of the eight was false, if it had not been picked out of him, but should have let it pass as it was…’. (Stephen Burnett to Lyman Johnson, 15 Apr. 1838, Joseph Smith Letterbook, 2:64-66) (italics mine)
Finally, Brigham Young comments on how the plates were returned: “…Oliver Cowdery went with the Prophet Joseph when he deposited these plates… When Joseph got the plates, the angel instructed him to carry them back to the hill Cumorah, which he did. Oliver says that when Joseph and Oliver went there, the hill opened, and they walked into a cave, in which there was a large and spacious room. He says he did not think, at the time, whether they had the light of the sun or artificial light; but that it was just as light as day. They laid the plates on a table; it was a large table that stood in the room. Under this table there was a pile of plates as much as two feet high, and there were altogether in this room more plates than probably many wagon loads; they were piled up in the corners and along the walls…” (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 19, p.36-38)
Will these plates ever be found? Occam’s razor states that all things being equal, the simplest answer is usually the correct one. Since there has never been evidence for the physical existence of any of these plates, the answer requiring the least effort is that the plates existed only in the minds of those who ‘saw’ them.