So I just wrote another one of my long-winded comments to a Youtube video put out by the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, to try to diffuse some of the ignorance in the comments below…in the hope that some people will consider the point of view from a believer and understand a little bit about how God uses physical objects to occasionally provide spiritual answers. The Church put out a great little video about “seer stones” i.e. the Urim and Thummim, but I think that it left more questions than it answered in this case. I decide to publish it here too. I think that it is important to understand that biases can taint our view of what is considered “weird” vs “normal” and that just because you don’t understand something, doesn’t negate its reality or validity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1esI8cbCtc&feature=share
I want to dispel some of the concerned and confused remarks about this topic. I want to validate that for many of you, this seems strange and many of you have been biased by a lot of disreputable comments about Joseph Smith and his life, much of which is altogether false, or taken out of context. And I’m sure my comment will be scoffed at by those who are convinced that they are right about “the evils of this religion that is actually some brainwashing cult” (to which I have learned to smile and nod…This “brainwashing cult” ;P has instructed us all to not follow blindly and to get our own testimony straight from the voice and power of God and to question, and ask and to study and learn on our own, that we can’t live on borrowed light and are responsible for our own relationship with our savior as well as the gift and law of agency…that God will not force any man to heaven and we must all choose for ourselves).
I want to offer my knowledge. First, Joseph Smith did not obtain the seer stones to “search for treasure”. And he never used them for this purpose. Understand that sacred things need to be understood with sacred knowledge. Symbols and parables are always used to help us as mortals grasp the spiritual with the tangible. God has always utilized tangible objects to direct our focus and help instill faith and evidence. With that in mind, I want to tell the story so you can consider it from a different point of view.
As a young boy of 14, Joseph was concerned by all the religious upheaval in his community by the many several churches on the corners and the tent preachers, and the revivals that were going on in his area. No one could agree on any one point of doctrine. His parents each chose a different sect to follow and I’m sure that as a boy, whose influence of his parents and the love of the Bible and of God, He was extremely torn. So after Reading James 1:5, he realized he could ask God himself for the answer and was determined to get that answer. What followed was not something he ever would have expected.
It is important to note, that he first was taken over by the adversary, who wanted to stop him from receiving his answer. This is important for several reasons. First, because of contrast. Opposites, light and dark, good and evil, right and wrong even yin and yang, the understanding that the devil only produces darkness, and the contrasting love and joy that came as soon as God the Father and Jesus Christ released him from the grasp of the devil helped him to know the difference of fear of the dark and being startled by the most intense spiritual experience one can have in this world. Second, this was the cusp of the third most important event in the history of the world. (First being the fall, second being the Savior’s ministry and atonement, and this…the beginning of the restoration of the gospel and the authority of God to the world to prepare for his second coming.)
So in order to be able to understand things that are spiritual, one must become accustomed to learning and experiencing spiritual things. This is also the case with the understanding of “Seer Stones”. Joseph was not given these by God at this time. This time he was taught many things, a few bits are included in his account.
Contrary to much speculation, Joseph did not go around searching for buried treasure like some obsessed packrat. He did work for a man by the name of Josiah Stowell who did hire him to go digging for treasure, but this isn’t something that was ever unheard of in the era where precious metals and artifacts were being uncovered all over in the early days. You people speak of Joseph searching for treasure like he was obsessed and some weirdo, rather than a normal pioneer living in the early frontier days where this was a typical profession. Where do you think we discovered our mines from, to begin with? Much has been uncovered in the east and the heartland of ancient artifacts. A lot has been uncovered, including stone tablets with Hebrew writings of scripture. (Look up Rod Meldrum, firm foundation for more.)
When Joseph was 17, he was again visited by a heavenly messenger, this time by Moroni, the son of the editor and abridger (Mormon) of the writings of the people of America which was put into golden plates and buried in the ground with a few other artifacts…including the Urim and Thummim which is a breastplate with the attached seer stones. These were placed there for the purpose of translation of the book and prophecy. They were handed down from prophet to prophet in ancient times. These stones were given by Authority, to be used for the purpose of prophecy and revelation and translation. He was not able to actually obtain them until he was 21, because his heart was not in the right place and Moroni knew he needed to be taught for the next 4 years and make himself more worthy and to understand the value of the golden plates, beyond the monetary value, their spiritual value was beyond any price that could be evaluated in the gold. He had to learn to take his task seriously and not be tempted by the wealth the plates could have brought.
Why did this happen to a young 14-year-old boy? Why did God tell the boy Samuel to rebuke the high priest? Because God didn’t want the taint of the world or personal prestige of age and learning to fill the mind of a grown man with pride and arrogance. He wanted a young boy, unspotted, innocent, and pure. Out of simple things come great means. It didn’t go to his head. As a matter of fact, Joseph never got anything but persecution from the majority of the community at large. Stones being thrown at him, threatened, ridiculed, attacked, beaten, tarred and feathered, and finally murdered. And yet he never once…gave up the story or retracted it.
To me, the very details of his life, being threatened and yet still moving forward to preach the gospel and tell the story…amidst all opposition, all the haters and extremist and anti promoters, he continued to preach and the gospel continued to grow. Many lost lives, family and homes. Yet they didn’t give it up despite all the persecution. Why? Could it be that because they were given their own evidence? Their own witness that they couldn’t deny what they felt even with all the fear and attacks? Why has the church continued to grow so fast and so steadily and exponentially through since 1830? From one young boy to 16 million? The fastest growing church in the history of the world even with all the rebuttals, the “anti” media, the fearmongering, the gainsayers, the zealots all trying to tear it down?
And that’s another thing, There are a lot of other religions out there that could be getting a bad rap for what they believe, but why so much “extreme” opposition for the Church Of Jesus Christ? Don’t you think …that if there truly were a true and correct fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ literally restored by himself, that the devil would not want the people of the world to hear it and believe it? That he would use every trick in the book to dispel the truth of what is actually being taught? That he would interject his philosophies of men mingled within the scripture, take it out of context, throw in a few lies here and there… to make it appear twisted to the world? Why THIS MUCH persecution? NO one but the Jews has had as much, had an order of extermination, and threatened to the point of loss of life. (And the Jews are also the covenant people of God, with the promise that they will be restored to their inheritance once the knowledge of the Messiah is accepted.)
If you want the truth, ask one of us who believe and were given testimony from our own searching…not one of the ones who left or were annoyed with it. Chances are, the view they had is coming from a point of view of misinformation, or offense for having gone contrary to the policy and procedure. Find out the truth from the source…Not the gossip from the sideline. Consider this an invitation to learn more. Just to be more accurately informed. Not swayed by someone’s insistence that this boy was some “gold digger”, as though that would even negate the power/reality of the truth.