Joseph Smith's "Second Vision" and the Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon 

Earth, Wind & Fire's song September will now & forever remind me of Joseph Smith's second vision! Love it! 😉

Wonderful podcast! Thanks. By the way, noticed at the end you mention "the seer stones." I would proceed with caution. Even the latest version of "Come Follow Me" for the Doctrine and Covenants was unwilling to state that the separate seer stone was a major translation factor in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. There is NO documented, first-hand evidence that a seer stone was used in translating the bulk of the Book of Mormon - I mean testimony from the two principle men who worked together on its translation: Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. Cowdery wrote the near-entire manuscript of the Book of Mormon as it fell from the lips of the Prophet Joseph. In a documented (JS Papers Minute Book, 2,3) meeting, Oct. 25-26 1831, Hyrum Smith, Joseph's brother, introduced Joseph as the next speaker, saying essentially that Joseph would lay out the details of how the book was translated. Instead, in a kind of gentle rebuke, he said he would do no such thing. Joseph said, "it was not intended to tell the world all the particulars." And in fact, he never did, instead saying "I translated it by the gift and power of God through the means of the Urim and Thummim." And Oliver testified of just what this "Urim and Thummim" consisted of: "I wrote with the entire Book of Mormon (save a few pages) as it fell from the lips of the prophet, as he TRANSLATED it by THE GIFT AND POWER OF GOD, BY MEANS OF THE URIM AND THUMMIM, or, as it is called by the book, HOLY INTERPRETERS. I beheld with my eyes, and handled with my hands, the gold plates FROM WHICH IT WAS TRANSLATED. (October 21, 1848, Reuben Miller journal recounting Oliver's testimony. Caps added of course.) It is possible that Joseph later on in the translation process used the separate stone, but we don't know that as an actual fact - only from statements made 40+ years afterward by Emma, (who basically assisted only with the lost Book of Lehi) and David Whitmer (who didn't translate at all and wasn't in town for 2/3rds of Oliver's work). We should not state or imply things, even as historians, that we do not know as actual facts. The Lord clearly withheld the mechanics of translation from the world and the Church, for his own reasons.

Brothers of singular stir, fascinating telling! Thanks for this discussion, Scott & Casey!

This is an amazing podcast! I am looking forward to the next episode!!!!❤

In 1827 Rosh hashanah, the first of the Jewish High Holy days, began at sundown on September 21st. As the new day starts at sundown according to the Jewish calendar both Moroni's visits in 1823 and the reception of the plates would have been considered as the 22nd of September. Joseph would have received the plates on Rosh Hashanah, which precedes Yom Kippur, the day of atonement by 10 days.

Great interview !

We hope and pray that in this series you will be true and faithful to Joseph and Oliver's testimonies that the means of translating the Book of Mormon plates was the Jaredite/Nephite interpreters (sometimes referred to as the Urim & Thummim) which came with the plates for the purpose of translating them (JS-H 1:35), rather than the dubious late claims by David Whitmer and a few others that this sacred record was translated using a folk magic seer stone Joseph came across while employed by treasure diggers.

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I take great umbrage with your "stone in the hat" illustration. The Lord stated that Joseph used the Urim and Thummin and Joseph and Oliver responded to newspapers whose articles stated that he used a Stone in the Hat to translate. Joseph and Oliver were emphatic about the Urim and Thummin as the "by the gift and power of God" using the "Nephite Interpreters". The U&T was prepared by God, not man. It was a link to heavenly Light (Knowledge) and Perfections (exactness). You will find parallel symbols in the Temple. The stone has caused many to stumble-- linking Joseph to witchcraft.

Isaiah 45:5-6 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. Joseph Smith, Jr. The head God called together the Gods and sat in grand council to bring forth the world. The LDS is a Polytheistic Occult Cult.