Joseph Smith's Seer Stone 

You weave geology, etymology, biology, and history together very well!

The gift of translation is most remarkable.

I'm a life long member and true believer. I've strayed away from the church when I was a younger man, but I always believed. Having said all that, it is really funny to see the pictures or paintings of Joseph Smith with his head buried in his top hat. It just looks odd. I can believe it all and still think it's kinda weird.

I grew up in the church, and spent many years deeply studying a variety of gospel topics, so I think I can humbly and truthfully say that I know a lot about many different church-related subjects. But this video totally blew me away! 🤯 There were lots of things you said that I didn't know before, so I'm going to watch it a second time now, to make sure I caught it all, and then go through and verify it all for myself. 🤩 Thanks for making this excellent video!

Fascinating! I always learn things I didn't know before with your videos! Many thanks!

Very educational brother, thanks!

Great video. Thanks for taking the time to share. On the subject of stones its Interesting that the Lord told Noah in Genesis 6:16 - A "window" shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; if you click on the word window there is this statement: HEB tsohar; some rabbis believed it was a precious stone that shone in the ark. A few years later the Brother of Jared comes along and is commanded to build small ships and the Lord says: "For behold, ye cannot have windows, for they will be dashed in pieces". It is believed the Brother of Jared KNEW that stones should be molten out of rock for the Lord to enlighten as had been done before... The Bible translation isn't as CLEAR as the BofM but we see another pattern of how the Lord used stones.

can't wait for you to make some of the other videos you mentioned in this video!

Another amazing video!!! Thank you so much!

Thank you for making these videos! So interesting!👌🏻

I’m glad I found your videos! Fascinating learning

Love this explanation!

Makes sense to me that God provides tangible objects for us to use to help strengthen our faith. Moses rod, clay Jesus formed, the Liahona, the brass serpent, consecrated oil, etc., etc., etc. all help/helped strengthen faith to work miracles!

I’m always a little amused at those who feel the seer stones are weird yet they will spend hours staring into a man made “seer stone” everyday as they use their cell phones. If God can give man the ability to create our smooth glass cell phones of course He could give Joseph (and others) the ability to read His words from a stone. It all seems so logical to me knowing He is all powerful. Also when the sun is shining brightly we can’t see our cell phones clearly either🧐

I was reading "The History of the Church", a collection of about 14 volumes that goes over church history. At one point Moroni goes to Joseph Smith while he is walking somewhere, tells Joseph that God wants to talk to him, and hands him the Urim and Thummim. In my mind it was like Moroni handed Joseph a phone and said you have a phone call.

Fantastic insights and research, and well-produced video. Thank you!

This is so encouraging! Thank you so much for your videos! Please keep making videos! Everytime you say your gonna make another video I get super excited!!!!

This is so interesting - thank you!

Thanks for this

This is awesome. Thank you for sharing.

You indeed did your homework Bro! I appreciate your research and the time it took to put this informative video together! I'm trying to learn about theses special stones as much as possible.

I'd like to hear from some Melchizedic priesthood holders what it's like for them to give blessings of comfort and instruction. I think there's a direct parallel there to what Joseph did in translating the scriptures. I've had some interesting and different experiences recently in this regard. With one blessing I gave recently, I had the first letter of a sentence appear in my mind, with a badly blurred line of writing after it. When I started speaking that first letter, the rest of the words appeared as I needed to speak them. In most cases, I get feelings I need to try and articulate, or I get images of ideas or things or events (in various degrees of fuzziness) that I then have to put into words. It flows as I need it, and I kind of get stuck on one point until I express it adequately, then the next point flows in. I think these experiences relate fairly closely to what Joseph would've experienced. I'm confident that as I get more worthy, the fuzzy images or ideas or words (etc) will become clearer and more easy to describe and express. I suspect the same sort of thing would've happened to Joseph.

This is AWESOME ❤️. I never knew it! I mean so many details were new to me. I think it is really cool and gives me hope that we won't have any technology but instead we will use this amazing stuff. (I know many people vote for the technology in eternity....but to me it seems more like hell)

A Urim & Thumin in the form of spectacles, a simple brown stone, Joseph using a hat as part of the transliteration…..it doesn’t matter at all. The only thing that DOES matter is that the Book of Mormon is true scripture from God and that every single person can and will find this out for themselves if they are humble and sincere. Great video!

Thank you for another great video. This is a subject that has fascinated me for years. I’m curious to know though, do the stones have an inherent power that is available to the person who finds it? Or, like the stones used by the brother of Jared, are they given power for a specific purpose, to be used by selected individuals?

So cool!

Thank you for crating this video about Seer stones and for their use and history. I hadn't noticed it before but when you quoted the verse in 2 Nephi 27:20 about "...I am able to do Mine Own Work; wherefore thou shalt Read the words that I shall Give thee." (capitalization for emphasis), I (like many others) assumed that when the Lord had Joseph Smith Translate the rest of the Book of Mormon that Joseph would be reading it from the plates themselves. Perhaps he had started out reading from the characters as mentioned in the Gold Plates from the Lost Manuscripts, but later it was enough for him to follow the directions from God, through the Holy Spirit. Also the part of this verse that talks about "I am Able to do Mine own work...", reminds us that the way We (mortals) might do something is Not the Same as what God will do. He often does things that might not make sense to our natural selves, which is so we can exercise our Faith in God. It reminds me of a 'Veggie Tales' episode with "Joshua and the Big Wall". In this episode one of the vegetable characters, named Junior, reminds the Children of Israel (some other vegetable characters) that "It didn't make sense when God had us go towards the Red Sea, but what happened?! God parted the Water, and the Water Dried up! And it didn't make sense to go into the Dessert when there's no food in the Desert, but what happened?! God gave us Manna!" Junior goes on to say, "I know sometimes when God tells us to do something like Walk around the City and the Walls will fall down, or when He asks us to be nice to someone who hasn't been nice to us. But when we Remember that God Loves us and wants what's best for us...We can be sure His Way is the BEST Way!" Here's a good video from this portion of the episode. If you want to skip to this part start at 2:30. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1J9R2Yy8GOk.html

The first step in accepting "these strange truths" is in having been given an undeniable testimony. The trust in THAT leads to having faith in the rest. Fpr ME, that lead to other testimonies and etc.

Thank you for all the work you put into these videos! You are making a difference for good!

I liked the image of the stone with “it came to pass” on it.. I imagine reading words straight from God/ heaven scrolling across a stone. Would be really exciting.

I’ve been waiting for this one for a while. It’s fascinating to me. I’m the 100th like on the video too. Thank you for these videos I appreciate them very much.

Completely unrelated: my puppy thinks it’s cool to swallow rocks. 😂

Super cool

It's amazing that we have technology that literally can translate languages at the palm of our hands and this generation doubts the translation process of the Book of Mormon.

Thank you for sharing such informations. The whole story of Joseph Smith has not arrived in Italy, we have only a few parts of the first chapter concerning the first vision. I have been trying for years to understand how the stones and the breastplate were made and put together, since the Roman pectorals are quite large and the Egyptian ones are more like large necklaces. Thank you so much

Is your Book of Revelation study guide from a year ago no longer available? The links you provided under the video doesn't work.

I didn't realize that Mormons were new age, cool!

off topic: That's really cool. Time well spent! (to grind down the stone!)

I have loved all of these videos and have watched and listened to them several times to get all the information you put into them. I finally heard of a discourse today and have never heard of it before-the King Follet discourse. I wonder if this would fit into your teaching style I would love to hear more about this sermon. Thank you so much for all the work you do.

Thank you for this treatise.

Interesting article. I am wondering where you got the information. Of course I know of the urim and thumin, and I had heard about Joseph finding a seer a stone, but I did not know any more than that about it. I used to look for stones that might have useful properties. I asked the Lord about getting a seer stone and he said to me that if I had needed one, he would have given me one. I have never needed one. He gave me the gift of revelation and vision and if I want to know something I just have to ask and I will have a revelation or see a vision. But the Lord told me how stones work. Everything is light energy which vibrates at different frequencies. Gold, especially stores energy and writing also contains energy which radiate light that with the use of the urim and thumin can be amplified and cause the pineal gland to receive the energy which the mind can interpret. So if the writer is using the Urim and thumin to convey the meaning of the writing, it is stored in the metal and the translator receives the understanding by looking through the stones. As far aa the translation of the book of Mormon, no, the writings did not magically turn into English. It is like what the Lord told Oliver. He was expecting the words to change into English but the Lord told him to work it out in his mind and when it was correct, he would get a burning in his bosom. I have had the gift of revelation since I was 12, but I did not get the gift of vision until I was 34. After Joseph learned to read the language, he did not need the urim and thumin anymore.

Awesome little thesis. Thanks.

Great video. Thank you for sharing. My understanding of the word transliteration is that it means to replicate or imitate sounds from one written language to another. So names, like Alma, Nephi, Helaman, Mormon, etc would all be examples of transliteration, because they likely sound similar to how they would have been called in their native language. However, the bulk of the Book of Mormon would not be a transliteration, it would actually be a translation. Perhaps Joseph did not translate the Book of Mormon, and if not, then the translation was at least given to him through seer stones and revelation.

Great content brother! 👍

I share your view that these are fascinating pieces of history and incredible tools. I read that Brigham Young stated this: "Joseph Smith, Jr. said, every man who lived on the earth was entitled to a seer stone, and should have one, but they are kept from them in consequence of their wickedness.” (Prophet Brigham Young, “History of Brigham Young,” Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, v. 26, February 20, 1864: What are your thoughts? Can we find our own seer stones and use them in our mortal lives, if we qualify through ridding ourselves of wickedness?

All cobblestones found in Western NY around the Great Lakes are derived from glacial till dropped from the continental glaciation that covered the area with ice two miles deep. Ultimately the both white and brown stones had to originate from bedrock in Canada.

So why don't the current LDS leaders use these stones like in ancient times and like Joseph Smith? Should the term "seer" in "prophet, seer, revelator" apply to current leaders as they don't use such stones (or the rock in a hat trick) anymore?

So if seer stones are sort of a class of objects used for the purpose of translation then could a Ouija board be used? Or Tarot cards? If the stone is just used for training the seer then does it matter what object is used to train?

I would love to have another video on supernatural objects used by God to bring forth His will.

They are amazing. They quoted Jesus as using the word "mile" in his visit to America. I am sure the Nephites made extensive use of British measurements.

Joseph of Egypt used a divining cup. Was crazy when I found that out.

The stone seen is a smoothed piece of gneiss, (pronounced 'nice'), a rock common in upstate New York, and known for its striped appearance. Joseph likely followed a process like that seen in the Book of Mormon in Ether, see the story about the stones that were touched to emit light.

Oh WOOOOOWWW ❤❤❤

Do you subscribe to a tight translation (exact words that God wanted appeared on the stone) or a loose translation (Joseph conveyed ideas using his own language)?

Your stuff is good… wanna collaborate on Midnight Mormons?

I remember the topic of the Liahona came up in Sunday School a couple years ago. The teacher asked the class to list on a chalkboard of what the Liahona represented symbolically. There were many answers, like, "the prophet", or, "prayer". I raised my hand and said, "well Nephi already had all those other things, so why did he need a Liahona?" My point was that we should not discount divine objects such as Seer stones, divining rods, and Liahonas as mere outdated metaphors for ancient times, but actual real divine objects to be taken seriously for what they are.

Have you looked at the research done by Hannah Stoddard and the Joseph Smith Foundation? You’ll want to read their findings concerning the seer stone used in the translation process.

Very good

Quando o senhor deu as placas com os mandamentos a Moisés ele deu na própria língua dos hebreus, e Moisés não precisou traduzir nda. Quando a mão do Senhor apareceu no templo que estava sob domínio dos banilonios e o rei bebeu vinho na taça sagrada, o Senhor desaprovou escreveu na parede do templo na língua do povo hebreu e Daniel traduziu p/ o rei sem precisar de pedra ou algo assim. Se a pessoa tem o Espirito Santo logo tem o Dom de línguas pqe ainda precisaria de uma pedra ??? Jiseph Smith precisou da pedra p/ traduzir as placas, no entanto não precisou para traduzir os pergaminhos que comprou do homem que vendeu a múmia e os pergaminhos a ele e Jiseph simplesmente traduziu sem a ajuda da pedra como entender isso. Please put this on translator and answer my dubt.

I think you may be off on this one. The Joseph Smith Foundation has a book (or two) specifically on the Urim and Thummim and Seer Stone and their history with Joseph which can provide more context to this topic.

Interesting presentation with a lot of speculative observations. For example, how the brown stone was formed, pure speculation. There is no question as to the existence of seer stones, but the speculations proposed are just that, speculation. As we have Seers today, the supposition that the seer stone would be needed to train a seer has no basis in historical fact. We do not read of Enoch the Seer having a Seer Stone, nor do we read of Nephi having a seer stone, or Lehi.

Seer stones may work in the same way that liquid crystals form and behave. Electron oscillation and resonance would be factors. After all we watch TV with no thought as to how they work. We read texts on our phones, read ebooks on kindle or nooks, and watch the ribbons on the lower portion of newscasts without considering how these messages form.

what is the point of having golden plates?

@2:30 Look at the timing and source of the Doctrine and Covenants section in question. It's worth knowing a few things about the timing of it and the interactions taking place then. The white stone in question references a chapter of the book of Revelations in the New Testament. In York Rite Freemasonry, there is a White Stone given to entrants at a certain degree from the results of an allegorical story in one of the degrees. Gotta know more to get that knowing more to be worth more, yo?

Mosiah also used the Urim and Thummim, or stones, to translate the plates of Ether. I just wonder if any stones are used today? I have a faded memory of someone describing our phones, or technologies, as in the stead of' seer stones, and are not so different in use. They're both easier to use in the darkness, but one is of spiritual nature (or physical nature, like the Gensesis Stone), whereas the phones are inspired by said spiritual things. Idk, but it's an entertaining thought

❤️

I think a lot of people have been taught that a lot of things are weird or unnatural or strange. On a personal note I feel that this has been to discourage, distract, divide, and ultimately destroy any connection that modern people have with the past and things that were done. If the spirit of Elijah is busy working miracles by turning the hearts of the children to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers to the children then it goes without saying that there is a need for this because it has been damaged or destroyed over centuries. Look at the Victorian era. I noticed a very sharp increase almost as if it were deliberately done in the amount of dissension, division, and idolatry as well as leaning on newfangled modern technology and doing away with anything from the past that came out during the Victorian era. In the 1820s a number of secret societies got their claws into university students by setting up chapters on campus in the United States and Western Europe. Interesting that this coincides with the chain of events that happens which leads to Joseph Smith receiving revelation and instruction and inspiration. The enemy is always at work doing anything and everything to counteract the works of our father. Something good comes into the world to shine a light into the darkness and immediately the enemy goes to work trying to divide, defuse, and deflect that light because he cannot destroy it. Taking a beam of pure white light and running it through a prism to divide it into many beautiful colors which are distracting to the average human. Divide and conquer. Stones are amazing things and just interesting when I talk about some thing I heard not that long ago about how the different cabinets from ancient times for bed mankind from making an altar to the Lord out of hewn stone because it would taint or pollute the stone in someway. This is why Adam perhaps built his first altar to the Lord out of a number of stones gather together rather than a piece of hewn stone which had been worked with other tools. I also find it interesting that a lot of the ancient North American people that built mounds and earthwards did not use stairs but instead used ramparts made of earth. Perhaps they were still trying to keep covenants? I recently found a beautiful quartz pebble out in the woods and it was amazing because the sun just happened to be shining right down on it and it looked as if it were glowing like fire. I picked it up and although it looks like in the past it may have been broken Naturally it was perfectly suited to fit in my hand. It even looks like it had a small point at one part of it that I used to inscribe my initials on a glass jar. We forget that quartz is extremely hard. Not as hard as a diamond but still it will cut glass and ancient people in North America and other countries used quartz to inscribe or make marks on other materials. These stone tools were called gravers, burins and borers. If stone was used for a mini thousands of years as tools why not a seeing stone? Certain kinds of stones have physical properties to gather and focus and regulate energy. Crystals are one of those materials. I’m pretty sure that the breast plate function in much that way. Those stones were Set and inscribed in a very precise manner within a breast plate of gold and fabric that was woven with a certain color and metallic thread mixed in with it. To me that sounds like an electronic circuit with a switch. Our father in heaven is the wisest of all the beings that ever existed. He knows what he’s doing.

👍

It may be the language you are using that alienates people. Magical is not a word that I'd typically used in referencing what seems supernatural events or properties. Magic in the more modern and quote possibly the times of Jesus, were more associated with soothsayer, witches, and the like. Thoughts?

I was never ever taught about him using a seer stone. In all the primary classes and beyond it was always the physical gold plates being translated with assistance from urim and thummim, and now the gospel topic essays are claiming other things and slowly it’s changing. If the seer stone was used in a hat, what was the point of the gold plates being carried around for hundreds of years and nephi chopping off labens head???

So… years of conning/directing people to buried treasure (gold) with the stone in the hat. And then using the same method to translate buried (gold) plates?

Thank you so much for clarifying some of the translation process. That is something I have wondered about, but haven't felt to dig through histories and journals to find all the details.

"And the words would appear on it" - I would like to know who said this and how they said it that isn't a scripture. Would he see things externally (with eyes) or internally (mind)? And if he saw it externally, I'd like to know exactly how. Very interesting!

According to the D&C and PoGP, only the Urim & Thummim was used to translate The Book of Mormon. This is what Oliver Cowdery wrote personally. So anything not Scriptural should be set aside as speculation.

I always thought that there was a Urim and Thummim in with the plates, and that Joseph started translating with them, later switching to the seer stone. If so, i would speculate that perhaps the U and T were an uncomfortable fit, Joseph being a large man, so he started using the stone in the hat instead. I might be wrong.

I'm so disappointed in so many of these comments. I understand that we all got to the point we are at completely differently, but at some point, a person (particularly a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), must come to a point where either they believe Jospeh Smith or they don't. We can't pick and choose which things we want to believe and which seem far fetched or beyond our own understand. This sounds like an example of Proverbs 3: 5-6. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Who are we to assume or believe that we have all the information?... that we know as much or more than God? Are we meant to know and perfectly understand all of the mysteries of God in this life? I stand firmly in the Joseph Smith camp and choose to believe that he was and is a prophet of God who restored Christ's church. I'm very grateful to him for all of the things he did and endured so that we could enjoy the fullness of the gospel.

An interesting question is: how does a seer stone become a seer stone? Obviously Joseph’s stone was one already for him to dig and find it. I would assume by divine intervention just like the Brother of Jared’s lighted stones. Therefore, we’d conclude Joseph’s stones were once used by Nephite or Jaredite or Adamic prophets.

Joseph Fielding Smith was the church historian for 60 years as well as the 10th Prophet. He said Joseph only used a Urim & Thummim. The seer stone was not used. He has more credibility to me than Whitmer who became an apostate.

What did you think of the newly found Joseph Smith photo? (I think it is authentic.)

Not a problem. All over the Old Testament.

Now I want to make a replica stone.

Ya didn't solomon use a stone or something to help build a temple or something. Some say it maybe was a worm but others say it was a small stone.

It can be confusing because the church mislead its entire community until recently about how the book of mormon was translated.

The question is "did Joseph Smith use his pretty river-rock to translate the Book of Mormon?" According to eye-witnesses he did, but according to Joseph Smith and the preface of the Book of Mormon, he did not. He was seen putting his head in his hat along with his rock, but I think the Urim and Thummim were already in the hat. How else could Joseph have been obedient to God's command to keep all ancient things from view, (even from his wife) and still continue the work of translation? The stone was a ruse and not unknown to God (see D&C 5:4) This is why Joseph always side-stepped questions regarding the actual translation process. This is my opinion and nothing I've ever read before. Subsequent Church statements and even RU-vids, are merely acknowledgments of the (non-LDS) accounts.

This is so insightful. I recently saw some really interesting insight on this from a lovely lady named Sandra Tanner. I encourage all active members to go and listen to her full story. As a faithful member I would search for truth and answers everywhere but never felt satisfied with the results I got. Until I discovered the Tanners and suddenly it all made perfect sense.

I feel like, if the church was not true they would never have created the seer stones or U&T. It's confusing and.. awkward. But i think it likely is meant to teach us to sit with ambiguous confusion, until God is ready to clarify (if ever). I see myself often covering or shading screens in bright light so i can read them better. Cell phones, the gas pump, etc.

Is the white Seer Stone still owned by the church?

Hummmm... so then we must believe Emma when she says that Joseph Smith didn't practice polygamy then? I'm very opposed to Richard Bushman's revisionist approach to history where all comments from any historical source must be given equal weight to deliver the special narrative that he wants to achieve. There is nothing wrong with sticking with the narrative that early church historians who were much closer to the events we're able to vet and corroborate. Emma Smith and David Whitmore were apostates and gave many contradictory statements about the translation process decades after the events. It is much better to base our history on more reliable sources. Joseph and Oliver both said they used the Urim and Thummin. Why is that not good enough?

I am 77 years old and was baptized at 8 years old. NEVER was the story of a Seer Stone shared with me. The Seer Stone is now part of a new narrative to explain where the BOM came from. This Stone was found by a neighbor boy of Smith while digging a well. Smith borrowed it and would never return it. Smith used the Stone early on as a tool to hunt for buried treasure.

Everything is true in this.🌹😘😇💕❤️🤩😍.

Sec 10:1-3 says that Joseph should continue to translate as he began before Martin Harris lost the 116 pages. The stone isnt mentioned in those versus but the Urim and Thummim is. Probably not important but interesting. 1 Now, behold, I say unto you, that because you delivered up those writings which you had power given unto you to translate by the means of the Urim and Thummim, into the hands of a wicked man, you have lost them. 2 And you also lost your gift at the same time, and your mind became darkened. 3 Nevertheless, it is now restored unto you again; therefore see that you are faithful and continue on unto the finishing of the remainder of the work of translation as you have begun.

Uuuuh, ooooookaaaaay?

Seer stones and Urim and Thummim’s aren’t the only medium Prophets have used to facilitate revelation, Joseph of Egypt used a silver cup (see Genesis 44).

Why say that the incorrect depictions of the Book of Mormon translation which were printed numerous times in official church publications, over many decades, meant for the masses of the church were the fault of artists and people who didn't know any better, when we all know that those publications had to have been approved by the General Authorities, and even if they weren't initially, they certainly would have been seen by the General Authorities over the many decades the incorrect depictions were in print/existence? Either the General Authorities are responsible/complicit in deception or THEY didn't know the truth any better than people pushing "Anti" points of view, which should make us wonder: what is the point of a Prophet/Seer/Revelator?

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See the NDE of Dannion Brinkley in season 7, ep 4 of Unsolved Mysteries. He describes 13 beings each carrying a "box" which, when looked into described the future. Now compare that story with what Lehi saw in 1 Nephi 1 where 12 apostles + the Savior showed him a "book" of future events to happen to Jerusalem. I believe both men saw a Urim and Thummim.

First of all, I want to remark on the paradigm you gave of jasperstone, or the "Genesis stone" forming during the time the earth was being created as being "1.4 billion years ago". A few years ago, I was listening on RU-vid to a man who said he was raised by parents who were atheists. If I remember correctly, as this man grew older, either sometime in his 30's, or as he approached the age of 30, his viewpoint on the "millions" and "billions" of years that "scientists" "quoted" for either the age of the earth, or the time it took for Dwarwinian evolution to occur, he finally realized were all fabrications of men. An influential writer who lived in England when Darwin did, was using such time frames even before Darwin came up with his theory of evolution for life forms to evolve gradually on each over very extended periods of time. What this man explained was this-- He said what "scientists", like Darwin, started to do more and more, likely amounted to this-- In essence, they were postulating, "Give me enough time, and anything can happen..." I think that observation is likely 'spor on' correct. However, a number of noted scientists and mathematicians today (some of them even atheists still themselves), looking at both Darwinian evolution, and doing the math on issues of the probability of certain evolutionary changes having to co-evolve (as would need to be the case for many organisms to be able to self reproduce, is, in fact, mathematically i.possible, assuming all would have to transpire randomly Since watching and pondering this man's observations, I personally believe that creation likely happened as the scriptures suggest, over a total period lasting ONLY 7,000 years, since, as the scriptures also make clear, one day to God equals 1,000 years unto man.

Yeah, except that the Lord specifically commanded Joseph to continue as before the lost 116 pages. See D&C 10:1-3 "you had power given unto you to translate by the means of the Urim and Thummim (...)", "it is now restored unto you again; therefore see that you are faithful and continue on unto the finishing of the remainder of the work of translation as you have begun." "Continue ... as you have begun." v41: "you shall translate the engravings which are on the plates of Nephi" Never anywhere does the Lord refer to a seer stone in connection with the TRANSLATION of the Book of Mormon. D&C 8:1 "receive a knowledge concerning the engravings of old records, which are ancient,". Why would Oliver (or Joseph) need to have knowledge of the engravings of old records if the words just appear on a stone in english?

Transliteration doesn't describe this process at all. Channeling does. Clearly Joseph channeled the book and not translated or used transliteration . Why use transliteration? The definition of the word says swapping out letters of one alphabet for another. If he wasn't looking at the text he cannot swap out the letters. Please explain your definition of transliteration for us. Channeling makes much more sense as the plates were put away and through a greater power the words appeared on the stone for him to read.

I love your videos on gospel topics and don’t have issue with anything you have said thus far and have learned some new enlightening things. However, you lost me when you started talking about 2.4 billion years ago as if it was truth. Uniformitarianism, which as you know is the secular explanation of the origin of all life on earth, says there is no God and we are basically star dust that somehow self organized over billions of years into living sentient beings. I know as Elder Holland has testified that there was no death before the fall. Admitting at the same time that I do not know how the Lord created the earth and everything in heaven. But I believe he did. He was the organizer, as were many of the noble and graeat ones. I would love to hear a Gospel lesson on the flood of Noah sometime and hear your perspectives. Thanks.