View source for Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 3

{{FairMormon}} 
{{H1
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 3
|H=Response to claims made in "Chapter 3: From Profit to Prophet"
|T=[[../../|One Nation Under Gods]]
|A=Richard Abanes
|<=[[../Chapter 2|Claims made in "Chapter 2: Moroni, Magic, and Masonry"]]
|>=[[../Chapter 4|Claims made in "Chapter 4: Smith's Golden Book"]]
}}	
{{ChartOneNationUnderGodsChapter3}}		
<onlyinclude>
{{H2
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 3
|H=Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 3: From Profit to Prophet"
|S=
|L1=Response to claim: 41, 500 n2-4 (HB) - Joseph used at least two seer stones
|L2=Response to claim: 42, 500n7 (HB) - Isaac Hale, Emma's father, disapproved of Joseph because of his money digging activities
|L3=Response to claim: 44 - Joseph was pronounced "guilty" of performing illegal activities with his seer stone
|L4=Response to claim: 46, 503 n.18 - Regarding Joseph's "trial," Hugh Nibley said, "If this court record is authentic, it is the most damning evidence in existence against Joseph Smith"
|L5=Response to claim: 47, 503n22 (HB) - Did Joseph realize that money-digging was only earning him $14 a month, and that this was "not nearly enough to support a family"?
|L6=Response to claim: 47, 503n23 (HB) - Is it true that Joseph initially "attached no religious significance" to the "golden book" that he told people he would be retrieving?
|L7=Response to claim: 48, 503n25 (HB) - Did Joseph decide to convert his book into a saga about America's ancient inhabitants as a money making scheme?
|L8=Response to claim: 503n25 (HB) - Joseph tried to sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon in Canada
|L9=Response to claim: 48, 503-4n29-32 (HB) - Was one of Joseph's early descriptions of Moroni that of a "bloody ghost" with his throat cut?
|L10=Response to claim: 50-51, n34-36 (HB) - Did a "toad-like" creature which "assumed the appearance of a man" and struck Joseph on the side of his head, prevent him from retrieving the gold plates?
|L11=Response to claim: 51 (HB) - The author refers to "a subsequent version of Smith's ever-changing tale..."
|L12=Response to claim: 51 (HB) - Was it "widely understood" in the 1800s the Joseph located the plates by using his seer stone to see where they had been deposited?
|L13=Response to claim: 51 (HB) - It is claimed that "all of the religious aspects" of Joseph's story were added later
|L14=Response to claim: 52 (HB) - Did Joseph Smith claim that the moon was inhabited?
|L15=Response to claim: 52 (HB) - Did Joseph teach the notion that "Blacks, Indians, and other people of color are cursed spirits"?
|L16=Response to claim: 53, 505-506n47 (HB) 53, 503-504n47 (PB) - The author states: "After all, no one had actually seen the plates, nor would anyone ever see them"
|L17=Response to claim: 505n47 (HB) - Did the witnesses only see the plates through "visionary experiences"?
|L18=Response to claim: 505n47 (HB) - Did the eight witnesses only "see" the plates as long as they were covered with a cloth of some kind?
|L19=Response to claim: 505n47 (HB) - Did Martin Harris say that none of the eight witnesses ever saw the plates, and that he only handled them in a box or under a cloth?
|L20=Response to claim: 505n47 (HB) - Joseph Smith claimed that the Three Witnesses saw the plates in a vision
|L21=Response to claim: 505n47 (HB) - Did David Whitmer say that none of the Three Witnesses ever actually physically saw or handled the plates?
|L22=Response to claim: 508n59 (HB) - Latter-day Saint try to discredit statements of Charles Anthon
|L23=Response to claim: 55, 508n60 (HB) 55, 506n60 (PB) - Have scholars have declared that there is no language called "Reformed Egyptian"?
|L24=Response to claim: 55, 508n62 (HB) - Did Joseph use his "peep stone" to translate the Book of Mormon?
|L25=Response to claim: 56, 508n63-65 (HB) - Did Emma Smith and David Whitmer confirm that Joseph translated using his seer stone in a hat?
}}	
</onlyinclude>

==Response to claim: 41, 500 n2-4 (HB) - Joseph used at least two seer stones==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Joseph used at least two seer stones.
|authorsources=<br>
*{{CriticalWork:Quinn:Magic World View|pages=245}}
*E.W. Vanderhoof, ''Historical Sketches of Western New York'', quoted in Quinn, 43.
*Quinn, 43.
}}
{{information|This is correct. Joseph utilized more than one seer stone to search for lost objects.
}}
{{:Question: How many seer stones did Joseph Smith have in his possession?}}

==Response to claim: 42, 500n7 (HB) - Isaac Hale, Emma's father, disapproved of Joseph because of his money digging activities==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did Isaac Hale, Emma's father, disapprove of Joseph because of his money digging activities?
|authorsources=<br>
*Isaac Hale, cited in {{CriticalWork:Howe:Mormonism Unvailed|pages=262-263}}.
*Martin Harris, ''Tiffany's Monthly'', August 1859, vol. 5, 164.
}}
{{information|This is correct. Emma's father did not like the fact that Joseph participated in "money digging" activities.
}}
{{:Question: What did Isaac Hale claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?}}

==Response to claim: 44 - Joseph was pronounced "guilty" of performing illegal activities with his seer stone==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Joseph was pronounced "guilty" of performing illegal activities with his seer stone.
|authorsources=
A.W. Benton, ''Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate'', April 9, 1831, New Series 2, 120.
}}
{{disinformation|Joseph was not pronounced guilty at the 1826 South Bainbridge hearing. He was released without being fined.
}}
{{:Question: What is Joseph Smith's 1826 Bainbridge "trial" for "glasslooking"?}}
{{:Question: What events resulted in Joseph Smith's 1826 court appearance in Bainbridge?}}
{{:Question: Why was Joseph fined if he wasn't guilty?}}
{{:Source:Highlights in the Prophet's Life:Ensign:June 1994:Tried and acquitted on fanciful charge of being a "disorderly person"}}

==Response to claim: 46, 503 n.18 - Regarding Joseph's "trial," Hugh Nibley said, "If this court record is authentic, it is the most damning evidence in existence against Joseph Smith"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Regarding Joseph's "trial," Hugh Nibley said, "If this court record is authentic, it is the most damning evidence in existence against Joseph Smith."
|authorsources=
Hugh Nibley, ''The Myth Makers'', 142.
}}
{{misinformation|The author ignores the context of Nibley's statement.
}}
{{:Question: Didn't Hugh Nibley claim that a record of this trial would be "the most damning evidence in existence" against Joseph Smith?}}
<!-- ====46, 503n20 (HB)====
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title={{check}}
|claim=Francis Kirkham claimed that "If any evidence had been in existence that Joseph Smith had used a seer stone for fraud and deception, and especially had he made this confession in a court of law as early as 1826, or four years before the ''Book of Mormon'' was printed, and this confession was in a court record, it would have been impossible for him to have organized the restored Church."
}}
*[[Joseph Smith/Legal trials/1826 glasslooking trial]]
|authorsources=
*Francis Kirkham, '' A New Witness for Christ in the America'', 386.
}} -->
==Response to claim: 47, 503n22 (HB) - Did Joseph realize that money-digging was only earning him $14 a month, and that this was "not nearly enough to support a family"?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did Joseph realize that money-digging was only earning him $14 a month, and that this was "not nearly enough to support a family?"
|authorsources=
''History of the Church'' 3:29
}}
{{propaganda|Joseph stated that "money digging" only earned him $14 a month, but he said nothing about it not being enough to support a family. Joseph performed manual labor to help support his family. His primary source of income was not "money digging."
}}
{{:Source:Joseph Smith:Elders Journal:1:43:Was not Joseph Smith a money digger?}}

==Response to claim: 47, 503n23 (HB) - Is it true that Joseph initially "attached no religious significance" to the "golden book" that he told people he would be retrieving?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Is it true that Joseph initially "attached no religious significance" to the "golden book" that he told people he would be retrieving, and that he instead said that the book would "tell him how to get money that was buried in the ground?" 
|authorsources=
Parley Chase, letter to James T. Cobb, April 3, 1879 quoted in Wyl, ''Joseph Smith, the Prophet, His Family, and His Friends'', 276.
}}
{{disinformation|This is completely false, and the author's only source is a second-hand statement from a hostile source 49 years after the publication of the Book of Mormon.
}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith "retrofit" his "treasure seeking" to have a religious explanation?}}

==Response to claim: 48, 503n25 (HB) - Did Joseph decide to convert his book into a saga about America's ancient inhabitants as a money making scheme?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did Joseph decide to convert his book into a saga about America's ancient inhabitants as a money making scheme?
|authorsources=
{{CriticalWork:Brodie:No Man Knows|pages=83}}
}}
{{propaganda|This is Fawn Brodie's opinion, as adopted by this author. If the Book of Mormon was intended as a "money making scheme," it failed to fulfill this purpose. The author simply repeats Brodie's supposition. There is no actual evidence that this was the case.}}
*[[../Mind reading]]

==Response to claim: 503n25 (HB) - Joseph tried to sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon in Canada==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Joseph tried to sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon in Canada.
|authorsources=<br>
*Hiram Page, letter to William McLellin, February 2, 1848.
*David Whitmer, ''An Address to All Believers in Christ'', 30-31.
}}
{{information|This is correct. There is a revelation that was received by Joseph asking him to do this.
}}
{{:Question: Are there any eyewitness accounts of the events that resulted in the trip to Canada to sell the Book of Mormon copyright?}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith receive a revelation instructing him to to sell the copyright to the Book of Mormon in Canada and later claim that the revelation was false?}}

==Response to claim: 48, 503-4n29-32 (HB) - Was one of Joseph's early descriptions of Moroni that of a "bloody ghost" with his throat cut?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Was one of Joseph's early descriptions of Moroni that of a "bloody ghost" with his throat cut?
|authorsources=<br>
*Hiel Lewis, ''Amboy Journal'', April 30, 1879, quote in Wesley P. Walters, "The Mormon Prophet Attempts to Join the Methodists," reprinted in Wyl, ''Mormon Portraits'', 79-80.
*Fayette Lapham [May 1870], reprinted in {{EarlyMormonDocs1|vol=1|start=459}}
*{{CitationError}}: the reference to the dream and bloody clothes is on p. 458.
}}
{{propaganda|These supposed "early" accounts comes from hostile statements made forty to fifty years later! The 1870 account from Lapham says only that "a man" with "bloody clothes" appeared in a dream. (He also says this is what Joseph Jr. told his father, so this is hearsay.)
}}
**{{FR-18-1-5}}
**{{FR-17-1-4}}

==Response to claim: 50-51, n34-36 (HB) - Did a "toad-like" creature which "assumed the appearance of a man" and struck Joseph on the side of his head, prevent him from retrieving the gold plates?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did a "toad-like" creature which "assumed the appearance of a man" and struck Joseph on the side of his head, prevent him from retrieving the gold plates? 
|authorsources=
Willard Chase, cited in {{CriticalWork:Howe:Mormonism Unvailed|pages=242}}. 
}}
{{propaganda|This description came from Willar Chase, who did not witness these events.
}}
{{:Question: What did Willard Chase claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?}}

==Response to claim: 51 (HB) - The author refers to "a subsequent version of Smith's ever-changing tale..."==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
The author refers to "[A] subsequent version of Smith's ever-changing tale..."
|authorsources=
No source given.
}}
{{propaganda|This is the author's opinion. The author wishes to portray all of these stories as successive evolutions.  In fact, the religious aspects appear in the very earliest accounts; only later hostile accounts add more and more "magical" aspects:
**{{FR-18-1-5}}
**{{FR-17-1-4}}
}}

==Response to claim: 51 (HB) - Was it "widely understood" in the 1800s the Joseph located the plates by using his seer stone to see where they had been deposited?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Was it "widely understood" in the 1800s the Joseph located the plates by using his seer stone to see where they had been deposited? 
|authorsources=
*Orasmus Turner, ''History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, and Morris Reserve. (1852)
*Hosea Stout, ''On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout'', vol. 2, 593.
*Martin Harris, ''Tiffany's Monthly'', vol. 5, 163, 169.
}}
{{propaganda|There is one account which states that after being told about the plates by the angel Moroni, that Joseph viewed their location using his seer stone. However, was this "widely understood??" The author cites several second-hand sources...from the 1850s!
*{{FR-18-1-5}}
*{{FR-17-1-4}}
}}

==Response to claim: 51 (HB) - It is claimed that "all of the ''religious'' aspects" of Joseph's story were added later==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
It is claimed that "all of the ''religious'' aspects" of Joseph's story were added later
|authorsources=<br>
*Orasmus Turner, 214.
*Hiel Lewis.
}}
{{propaganda|These statements came from hostile sources who believed that Joseph made up the Book of Mormon or based it upon a manuscript written by Solomon Spalding. In fact, the religious aspects appear in the very earliest accounts; only later hostile accounts add more and more "magical" aspects.
}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith "retrofit" his "treasure seeking" to have a religious explanation?}}

==Response to claim: 52 (HB) - Did Joseph Smith claim that the moon was inhabited?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did Joseph Smith claim that the moon was inhabited?
|authorsources=
Oliver B. Huntington, "The Inhabitants of the Moon," ''The Young Woman's Journal'', 1892, vol. 3, 263-264.
}}
{{information|This is a recollection by Oliver B. Huntington of something that he heard as a youth.
}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith state that the moon was inhabited, and that it's inhabitants were dressed like Quakers?}}
<!-- ====52 (HB)====
{{IndexClaim
|claim=
*Did Joseph teach the doctrine of "Caucasians advancing to godhood?"
|| 
*We would like to see a reference to this doctrine of "Caucasians advancing to godhood."
*[[Nature of God/Deification of man|Human deification/''theosis'']]
|authorsources=
*No source provided.
}} -->
==Response to claim: 52 (HB) - Did Joseph teach the notion that "Blacks, Indians, and other people of color are cursed spirits"?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did Joseph teach the notion that "Blacks, Indians, and other people of color are cursed spirits?"
|authorsources=
No source provided.
}}
{{disinformation|Joseph Smith never taught that anyone was a "cursed spirit".
}}
{{:Source:Gospel Topics:Race and the Priesthood:2013:Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor}}
{{:Source:Gospel Topics:Race and the Priesthood:Even after 1852, at least two black Mormons continued to hold the priesthood}}
{{:Question: What are the "curse of Cain" and the "curse of Ham"}}
{{:Question: When did a biblical curse become associated with the "Hamites?"}}
{{:Question: When did the "mark of Cain" become associated with black skin?}}
{{:Question: How did the "curse of Ham" or "curse of Cain" become associated with Mormonism?}}

==Response to claim: 53, 505-506n47 (HB) 53, 503-504n47 (PB) - The author states: "After all, no one had actually seen the plates, nor would anyone ''ever'' see them"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
The author states: "After all, no one had actually seen the plates, nor would anyone ''ever'' see them"
|authorsources=<br>
*{{SourceDistortion}}: these testimonies cited below assert that they ''did'' see the plates, not that "no one" had.
**Testimony of the Three Witnesses
**Testimony of the Eight Witnesses
}}
{{disinformation|This is nonsense.
}}
*{{FalseStatement}}: [[../Use of sources/Seeing the Plates|Use of sources: Seeing the Plates]]
*[[One Nation Under Gods#Absurd clams|Absurd claims]]
{{:Question: Did no one ever actually see the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated?}}

==Response to claim: 505n47 (HB) - Did the witnesses only see the plates through "visionary experiences"?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did the witnesses only see the plates through "visionary experiences?"
|authorsources=
No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|A common tactic of critics of Mormonism is to attempt to dismiss the witnesses by claiming that their experiences were imaginary.
}}
{{:Question: Did the three witnesses's experience of seeing the plates and the angel take place only in their minds?}}
{{:Question: Does the belief that the experience had visionary qualities contradict the claim that the plates were real?}}

==Response to claim: 505n47 (HB) - Did the eight witnesses only "see" the plates as long as they were covered with a cloth of some kind?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did the eight witnesses only "see" the plates as long as they were covered with a cloth of some kind?
|authorsources=
No source provided.
}}
{{misinformation|The witness accounts of seeing the plates while covered with a cloth refer to the time prior to the Three and Eight Witness experiences, when the plates were covered with a cloth during translation.
}}
{{:Question: Did Martin Harris claim that he only saw the gold plates as they were covered "as a city through a mountain"?}}

==Response to claim: 505n47 (HB) - Did Martin Harris say that none of the eight witnesses ever saw the plates, and that he only handled them in a box or under a cloth?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did Martin Harris say that none of the eight witnesses ever saw the plates, and that he only handled them in a box or under a cloth?
|authorsources=
Stephen Burnett, letter to Br Johnson, April 15, 1838, Joseph Smith Papers, Letterbook, April 20, 1837-February 9, 1843, 64-66 cited in {{CriticalWork:Tanner:Changing World|pages=108}}.
}}
{{misinformation|The witness accounts of seeing the plates while covered with a cloth refer to the time prior to the Three and Eight Witness experiences, when the plates were covered with a cloth during translation.
}}
{{:Question: Did Martin Harris claim that he only saw the gold plates as they were covered "as a city through a mountain"?}}

==Response to claim: 505n47 (HB) - Joseph Smith claimed that the Three Witnesses saw the plates in a vision==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Joseph Smith claimed that the Three Witnesses saw the plates in a vision.
|authorsources=
*Joseph Smith, "History of Joseph Smith&mdash;Continued", ''Times and Seasons'', September 1, 1842, vol. 3, no. 21, 897-898.
}}
{{propaganda|A common tactic of critics of Mormonism is to attempt to dismiss the witnesses by claiming that their experiences were imaginary. The Three Witnesses saw the plates and the angel Moroni, and they considered it a vision. It doesn't change the fact that they saw the plates. Here is the relevant text from the cited source:
<blockquote>
Upon this our second failure, Martin Harris proposed that he would withdraw himself from us, believing as he expressed himself, that his presence was the cause of our not obtaining what we wished for; he accordingly withdrew from us, and we knelt down again, and had not been many minutes engaged in prayer when presently we beheld a light above us in the air of exceeding brightness, and behold an angel stood before us; in his hands he held the plates which we had been praying for these to have a view of: he turned over the leaves one by one, so that we could see them, and discover the engravings thereon distinctly. He addressed himself to David Whitmer, and said, "David, blessed is the Lord, and he that keeps his commandments." When immediately afterwards, we heard a voice from out of the bright light above us, saying, "These plates have been revealed by the power of God, and they have been translated by the power of God; the translation of them which you have seen is correct, and I command you to bear record of what you now see and hear."

I now left David and Oliver, and went in pursuit of Martin Harris, who I found at a considerable distance, fervently engaged in prayer, he soon told me however that he had not yet prevailed with the Lord, and earnestly requested me to join him in prayer, that he also might realize the same blessings which we had just received. We accordingly joined in prayer, and ultimately obtained our desires, for before we had yet finished, the same vision was opened to our view; at least it was again to me, and I once more beheld, and heard the same things; whilst at the same moment, Martin Harris cried out, apparently in ecstacy [ecstasy] of joy, "Tis enough; mine eyes have beheld," and jumping up he shouted, hosannah [hosanna], blessing God, and otherwise rejoiced exceedingly.<ref>''Times and Seasons'', September 1, 1842, vol. 3, no. 21</ref>
</blockquote>
}}

==Response to claim: 505n47 (HB) - Did David Whitmer say that none of the Three Witnesses ever actually physically saw or handled the plates?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did David Whitmer say that none of the Three Witnesses ever actually physically saw or handled the plates?
|authorsources=<br>
*David Whitmer, interview recorded by P. Wilhelm Poulson, c. early 1878, reprinted in ''Deseret Evening News'', August 16, 1878. [Available in {{EarlyMormonDocs|vol=6|start=37|end=40}}]
*{{CriticalWork:Brodie:No Man Knows|pages=77-80}}
*{{CriticalWork:Tanner:Mormonism Shadow|pages=50-55}}
}}
{{misinformation|Whitmer was misrepresented. Whitmer wrote a letter in which he said: "As to what you Say about the correspondence published by P Whilhelm Poulson M D Aug[ust] 20th 1878.  I surely did not make the Statement which you Say he reports me to have made, for it is not according to the facts.  And I have always in the fear of God, tried to give a true statement to the best of my recollection in regard to all matters which I have attempted to Explain." <ref>David Whitmer to S.T. Mouch, letter (18 November 1882), Whitmer Collection, RLDS Church Library -Archives, Independence, Missouri; cited in {{EarlyMormonDocs1|vol=6|start=36}}</ref> The author ignores multiple confirmed statements from the witnesses, and cites a statement which the witness explicitly rejects.
}}
{{:Question: Did David Whitmer ever deny his Book of Mormon witness because he thought that Joseph Smith was a fallen prophet?}}

==Response to claim: 508n59 (HB) - Latter-day Saint try to discredit statements of Charles Anthon==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Do Latter-day Saint try to discredit statements of Charles Anthon by pointing out a discrepancy between his letters, where no actual discrepancy exist?
|authorsources=
Persuitte, 303-304, endnote#19.
}}
{{misinformation|Anthon ''did'' give multiple conflicting statements.
}}
{{:Question: What is the Anthon transcript?}}
{{:Question: Did Charles Anthon validate the characters that Martin Harris brought to him that had been copied from the Book of Mormon plates?}}
{{:Question: How many copies of the Anthon transcript exist?}}

==Response to claim: 55, 508n60 (HB) 55, 506n60 (PB) - Have scholars have declared that there is no language called "Reformed Egyptian"?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Have scholars have declared that there is no language called "Reformed Egyptian"?
|authorsources=
John A. Wilson, letter to Marvin Cowan, March 16, 1966 quoted in {{CriticalWork:Tanner:Changing World|pages=144}}
}}
{{misinformation|Moroni said that he was writing using a form of "reformed" Egyptian, ''not'' that a language existed called "Reformed Egyptian."
}}
*[[../Use of sources/Reformed Egyptian|Use of sources: Reformed Egyptian]]
{{:Question: What is "reformed Egyptian"?}}

==Response to claim: 55, 508n62 (HB) - Did Joseph use his "peep stone" to translate the Book of Mormon?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did Joseph use his "peep stone" to translate the Book of Mormon?
|authorsources=<br>
Hiel Lewis, "Review of Mormonism: Rejoinder to Elder Cadwell." ''Amboy Journal'', June 4, 1879, quoted in {{CriticalWork:Quinn:Magic World View|pages=172}}.
}}
{{information|Joseph used his seer stone to translation much of the Book of Mormon.
}}
*[[../Loaded and prejudicial language]]
{{:Question: How exactly did Joseph Smith translate the gold plates?}}
{{:Source:Gospel Topics:Book of Mormon Translation:According to these accounts, Joseph placed either the interpreters or the seer stone in a hat}}
{{:Source:Nelson:A Treasured Testament:Ensign:July 1993:The details of this miraculous method of translation are still not fully known. Yet we do have a few precious insights}}
{{:Source:Marcus B. Nash:Joseph Smith Memorial Devotional:June 2013:This was dictated, word by word, as he looked into instruments the Lord prepared for him, using a hat to shield his eyes from extraneous light}}
{{:Source:Gardner:The Gift and the Power:it’s stone that becomes the trigger that allows the seer to do what the seer does}}
{{:Source:Nicholson:The Spectacles, The Stone:This essay focuses primarily on the methods and instruments used in the translation process}}

==Response to claim: 56, 508n63-65 (HB) - Did Emma Smith and David Whitmer confirm that Joseph translated using his seer stone in a hat?==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=One Nation Under Gods
|claim=
Did Emma Smith and David Whitmer confirm that Joseph translated using his seer stone in a hat?
|authorsources=<br>
*Emma Smith Bidamon, Interview with Joseph Smith, III, February 1879, reprinted in Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'', vol. 1, 539.
*Martin Harris, Interview with Anthony Metcalf, c. 1873-1874. Quoted in A. Metcalf, ''Ten Years Before the Mast...'', reprinted in Vogel, ''Early Mormon Documents'', vol. 2, 346-347.
*David Whitmer, ''An Address to all believers in Christ'', 12.
}}
{{information|This is correct.
}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith use the Nephite interpreters to translate? Or did he use his own seer stone?}}
{{:Question: What are the Nephite interpreters?}}
{{:Question: Did Joseph Smith use his own seer stone to translate the Book of Mormon?}}
{{:Source:Gospel Topics:Joseph Smith and his associates often used the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer to the single stone as well as the interpreters}}
{{:Source:Dirkmaat:Ensign:January 2013:He...referred to it using an Old Testament term, Urim and Thummim...He also sometimes applied the term to other stones he possessed}}
{{:Source:Phelps:The Evening and The Morning Star 1:58:through the aid of a pair of Interpreters, or spectacles—(known, perhaps, in ancient days as Teraphim, or Urim and Thummim)}}
{{:Question: Has the Church tried to hide Joseph's use of a seer stone?}}

{{endnotes sources}}



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