Unity through the 2 sets of plates and the end of M2C (and SITH)

Greg Matsen at the Cwic Show interviewed me about the two sets of plates article by Don Bradley in BYU Studies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WExjn1MZt3k

During the interview, I said I thought Don's article will be the most unifying article BYU Studies has ever published. 

As more and more Latter-day Saints come to learn about the two sets of plates, many of them will discover for the first time that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery answered the questions about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon.

Origin. Understanding the two sets of plates will help all Latter-day Saints accept what Joseph and Oliver taught about the translation of the Book of Mormon. We can all read in the scriptures that the Lord told Joseph Smith "you shall translate the engravings which are on the plates of Nephi." (Doctrine and Covenants 10:41)

That commandment explains why Joseph needed to have the plates of Nephi. If Joseph wasn't actually translating the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim (as he and Oliver always said), and instead he was reading words that appeared on the stone in the hat (SITH), the Lord would have not needed to tell Joseph anything other than to keep reading what appeared on the stone.

For that matter, all of Section 10 would be superfluous. 

E.g.,  "Behold, I say unto you, that you shall not translate again those words which have gone forth out of your hands" (Doctrine and Covenants 10:30). if Joseph was not translating the engravings on the plates, there was no point in the Lord telling him not to translate them again. 

The stone would simply not have shown him words he wasn't supposed to translate.

Maybe, finally, Latter-day Saints can unify around what Joseph and Oliver said instead of what others claimed years later. Maybe we can all unite in rejecting the Mormonism Unvailed narrative about SITH, as well as Royal Skousen's assertion that Joseph and Oliver were "intentionally misleading" everyone when they wrote about the Urim and Thummim.

Setting. Understanding the two sets of plates will help all Latter-day Saints accept what Joseph and Oliver taught about the New York Cumorah/Ramah. Then we can all agree that theories about the setting that put Cumorah/Ramah elsewhere cannot, by definition, be correct.

Of course, that does not mean we know the locations of other Book of Mormon events. People have all kinds of theories about that, which makes sense because there are hundreds of possibilities and most relevant archaeological sites have been overbuilt and/or destroyed. 

But at least we have one "pin in the map" that will unify Latter-day Saints so we can move on from whatever disagreements have existed regarding Cumorah.

Good times for us all.

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People remind me often of the quotation attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer:

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

The quotation is actually a paraphrase of what Schopenhauer originally wrote.*

The psychology involved reflects a pattern of human resistance to paradigm-shifting ideas, often tied to psychological attachment to familiar beliefs.

The cognitive dissonance experienced by the M2Cers and SITH sayers will undoubtedly intensify, but that's not a long-term problem. 

New or revolutionary truths (important ideas, discoveries, or insights that challenge the status quo) typically go through three predictable phases in how society receives them:

Ridicule — At first, people mock or dismiss it as absurd, ridiculous, or laughable because it clashes with what everyone already believes or takes for granted.

Violent opposition — Next, as it starts gaining some traction, it faces strong, sometimes fierce resistance — emotional backlash, heated arguments, suppression, censorship and hostility — from those who feel threatened by the change it implies.

Acceptance as self-evident — Finally, once enough evidence accumulates and people get used to it, the idea becomes widely accepted as obvious or "common sense." People then wonder how anyone could have ever thought otherwise.

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Schopenhauer's observation also helps explain overall Christian reaction to the Restoration. Despite early ridicule and current opposition, more and more Christians are migrating toward the LDS positions on pre-mortal existence, the nature of the Godhead (3 distinct beings), the need for ordinances for the dead, etc.

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*While this exact phrasing is popularly attributed to Schopenhauer and appears on many quote sites, scholars have pointed out that his actual writing in The World as Will and Representation (1818/1819 preface) expresses a similar but not identical sentiment: 

truth gets only a brief moment of victory sandwiched between long periods of being condemned as paradoxical and then dismissed as trivial. 

The three-stage version with "ridiculed / violently opposed / self-evident" is apparently a later paraphrase or popularization rather than a direct quote.