In the pursuit of clarity, charity and understanding, it's useful to discuss Church history sites.
If you've visited the Priesthood Restoration site in what was Harmony, Pennsylvania, in 1827-1830, you've visited the small house where Joseph and Emma lived when Joseph translated the abridged plates.
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In that house there is a "red morocco trunk" on the bureau.
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Lucy mentioned the trunk when she related her experience when she came to visit Joseph in Harmony in the fall of 1828.
when I entered his house the first thing that attracted [p. 135] my attention was a red morocco trunk, that set on Emma’s bureau; which trunk Joseph shortly informed me, contained the Urim and Thummim and the plates.
In the evening he gave us the following relation of what had transpired since our separation… [quoting Joseph, p. 138] “on the 22d of September, I had the joy and satisfaction of again receiving the Urim and Thummim; and have commenced translating again, and Emma writes for me; but the angel said that the Lord would send me a scribe, and <I> trust his promise will be verified. He also seemed pleased with me, when he gave me back the Urim and Thummim; and he told me that the Lord loved me, for my faithfulness and humility.
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/142
Despite what Royal Skousen, Scripture Central, and other SITH scholars claim, Lucy's history tells us that Joseph had the Urim and Thummim when he was translating the abridged plates in Harmony.
Of course, that's what Joseph and Oliver always said.
Here's the fun part.
In this view, you can see the red trunk on the right with the translating table in the left center.
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Below you can see the translating table, complete with the plates covered with a cloth and the white top hat visible.
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Recall that Lucy explained Joseph kept the Urim and Thummim and the plates in the red trunk. Nothing in the display mentions the Urim and Thummim, and the missionaries there don't tell people about it (at least they didn't when we visited).
Instead, they set up this display to indicate that Joseph use the stone-in-the-hat to "translate" the plates, which were supposedly under a cover the entire time.
I removed the cover to show the plates and took this photo:
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The next time you visit the Priesthood Restoration site, ask about the Urim and Thummim that Joseph kept in the red morocco trunk.
Now you have a link to an original source.
Visiting Fayette site about a year and a half ago, the sister missionaries were overtly heavy on the stone in the hat talk as a main talking point on the tour. Nobody was begging the question, but the missionaries offered it anyway as a matter of fact. I remember it clearly, the emphasis felt awkward and very out of place. They never mentioned the Urim and Thummim there either. I don’t recall the Mary Whitmer story being related, however.
ReplyDeleteIt feels like it’s part of their training to focus on the stone in the hat at all costs, regardless of questions broaching the topic. I can’t imagine the Church history site leaders pushing the issues, but it sure feels that way. IMO, it’s not helpful to push it, and then provide ZERO resources to the people to let hem decide for themselves.