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Book of Mormon/Witnesses/Viewing gold plates would result in death
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Contents
Criticism
The penalty for viewing the gold plates was death. This was just a way for Joseph to hide the fact that the plates really didn't exist.
Source(s) of criticism
- Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), 37, 53. ( Index of claims )
- Grant H. Palmer, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002) 206-7. ( Index of claims )
- Affidavit of Sophia Lewis, 20 Mar. 1834, Susquehanna Register, 1 May 1834, 1.
- Charles Anthon to E. D. Howe, 17 Feb. 1834, in Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 272.
Response
Joseph Smith-History 1:42 describes the conditions under which Joseph was to handle the plates:
- Again, he told me, that when I got those plates of which he had spoken—for the time that they should be obtained was not yet fulfilled—I should not show them to any person; neither the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim; only to those to whom I should be commanded to show them; if I did I should be destroyed. While he was conversing with me about the plates, the vision was opened to my mind that I could see the place where the plates were deposited, and that so clearly and distinctly that I knew the place again when I visited it. (emphasis added)
According to this, it was Joseph who risked destruction if he showed the plates to anyone unless explicitly commanded to do so by the Lord, not the person to whom he showed them.
Conclusion
Endnotes
None