User:InProgress/SWDN/Swedish questions/11

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A FairMormon Response to Questions Asked in Swedish Fireside with Elder's Jensen and Turley

1: BoM translation2: Polygamy and Polyandry3: Polygamy forced?4: Book of Abraham5: "Lying for Lord"6: Mark Hofmann7: Blood atonement8: First Vision9: Sanitized history10: "Not all truth is useful"11: Angelic affidavits12: Blacks and priesthood13: Temple concerns14: Evidence of Vikings15: Adam-God16: Kinderhook

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Question:
One thing that really bothers me is the lack of contemporary sources for the angelic visitations.
  • There are sources from 1820-1830— affidavits, letters, minutes— but none of them ever mentions any angelic visitations or a priesthood
  • Why are there not any contemporary testimonies. Or are there?

Short Answer:
 [needs work]Need Turley answers?
  • Question: Do contemporary accounts mention angelic visitors?
    Answer: Yes.

    Some of the earliest documents explicitly discuss angelic visitors to Joseph Smith:
    • 1829:The Three Witnesses testified to an angelic vision of the Book of Mormon plates and other artifacts.
    • 17 June 1829: A disbelieving member of Joseph Smith, Sr.'s family writes of Joseph:
He writes that the Angel of the Lord has revealed to him the hidden treasures of wisdom & knowledge, even divine revelation, which has lain in the bowels of the earth for thousands of years [and] is at last made known to him, he says he has eyes to see things that are not and then has the audacity to say they are; and the Angel of the Lord (Devil it should be) has put me in possession of great wealth, gold and silver and precious stones so that I shall have the dominion in all the land of Palmyra. [Jesse Smith, Stockholm, New York, to Hyrum Smith, Palmyra, New York, 17 June 1829; transcribed in Joseph Smith Letterbook, 1837-43, Joseph Smith Papers, Church Archives, 59.]
    • 9 June 1830: "God visited him [Joseph Smith] by an holy angel, whose countenance was as lightning, and whose garments were pure and white above all whiteness, and gave unto him commandments which inspired him from on high." [Published "The Mormon Creed," Painesville Telegraph, 19 April 1831, 4.]
  • Question: Is priesthood ordination by angels mentioned?
    Answer: Yes.

     [needs work]
  • Question: Why are there not any contemporary testimonies. Or are there?
    Answer: Yes, there are.
    See above.