Jeff Roundy, Author at Latter-day Saints Q & A

January 21, 2020 By Jeff Roundy Leave a Comment

Tactics Used by Critics

This video reviews a number of the tactics used today by critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Being more aware of some of these approaches and fallacies, can help one see beyond the deceptions and more clearly discern the truth.

Okay. So in this video I want to talk about tactics that are used by critics of the Church. There are quite a few. I’m going to go quickly and give lots of examples. But let’s start out with this one.

The Big List Approach or Proof by Verbosity. This provides the illusion of proof by the sheer mass of material flung at the problem. This is a favorite approach on the Internet today. This big long laundry list of here are all the problems with the Church. The tagline is often if only 10% of this is true, then you’ve got a real problem kind of thing. Okay, the next one.

Half Truth. Adding in true facts to a deceit in order to confuse the issue or make it seem more likely to be true. And now if you think who uses this the most is Satan. This is the great tactic here that is often used and is very effective.

Okay, next thing. The Historians Fallacy or Presentism. So the historians fallacy, this fallacy assumes that historical figures understood events and decisions in the same way and with access to the same information that the person analyzing the decision today has. Also presentism. This is judging the past by the standards used today.

I have a Word of Wisdom video I recently just did about the phase in of the Word of Wisdom. Critics use this as a great… They’ll give examples of past members in the 19th century, leaders breaking the Word of Wisdom to shock members that are… And they count on people using presentism to do that. Okay, next one.

Infallible Prophets or Other Faulty Assumptions. Expecting perfection from church leaders, especially general authorities. Now studies have shown that the right side of the brain if it’s expecting perfection, really blows things up more dramatically, if we set up this standard of perfection. Many times you don’t realize, with faulty assumptions we might be bringing to an issue that critics will use to try and tear down faith with.

And to give you the best talk I’ve ever heard on this with President Uchtdorf, October 2013, he said, “And, to be perfectly frank, there have been times when members or leaders in the Church have simply made mistakes. There may have been things said or done that were not in harmony with our values, principles, or doctrine. I suppose the Church would be perfect only if it were run by perfect beings. God is perfect and His doctrine is pure. But he works through us, His imperfect children, and imperfect people make mistakes. In the title page of the Book of Mormon we read, ‘And now if there are faults, they are the mistakes of men. Wherefore condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment seat of Christ.'”

Okay, let’s look at the next one. Quote Mining. Data Mining for quotes, especially from the Journal of Discourses. So this great quote, I did one on What is Doctrine? A video of talking about doctrines, opinions, and practices, sorting it all out. But this, I shared this quote from the Church Newsroom website. “Not every statement made by a Church leader, past or present, necessarily constitutes doctrine. A single statement made by a single leader on a single occasion often represents a personal, though well-considered opinion, but is not meant to be officially binding on the whole Church.”

In fact, the Journal of Discourses a lot of times they were extemporaneous speeches that were given. They were often, the quotes are taken out of context. They were not meant or were not recognizing them as doctrine of the Church per what the video I talked to you about. Okay, let’s look at the next one.

Milk Before Meat. Meat First Can Look Foolish. Many complex issues cannot be understood without first understanding their fundamental building blocks. This is particularly challenging in the Internet age when complicated issues are thrust into the forefront without any foundation being addressed.

The next one. Science Focus or Naturalist Assumptions. This is huge today. In philosophy, naturalism is the idea or belief that only natural as opposed to supernatural or spiritual laws and forces operate in the world. You look at this famous book on this screen, The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. These are known as the new atheists. And what this means, why they’re the new atheists is they’re looking for converts. And they’re very proactive in their opinions. They’re getting these books out, and they’re becoming bestsellers. So very popular today.

Okay, let’s talk about for just a second what are fallacies? Well, they’re deceptive, misleading or false beliefs. Opinions based on inaccurate facts are invalid reasoning. And logical fallacy, in particular, are errors in reasoning that invalidates an argument. There’s an example on the screen here. Penguins are black and white. Old TV shows are black and white. Therefore, penguins, are old TV shows.

Okay. So we’re going to go through a bunch of these real quick. Straw Man Fallacy. This fallacy sets up the the opponent’s argument to be weaker than it actually is, and proceeds to demolish the weak version and claim victory. So for example, Latter-day Saints believe that prophets are connected to God. So they understand the physical world better than most. This would be set up as the belief. Well, Brigham Young said that he believed men lived on the moon. So therefore, now we know from science that men don’t live on the moon.

So therefore, we can conclude that Brigham Young was not a prophet on there. So that’s a straw man argument. Latter-day saints don’t believe… they believe that prophets are close to God and connected to God. But they don’t have this phenomenal understanding of the world different than somebody else or scientists, and many believe this, what Brigham believed. Many believed that in the 19th century. So that’s another example of presentism. And then we talked about how not everything a prophet says is doctrine. It can be opinions like that was. All right. Next one.

Ad Hominem. This is Latin for “to the person”. These are personal attacks. Unfairly attacking a person’s character or personality instead of addressing the issue. So for example today, somebody could say, “Well, the Latter-day Saints shouldn’t be invited to this equality debate because they are bigots.” That would be an example of an ad hominem.

Okay. Hasty Generalization. An inference drawn from insufficient evidence. Making rush conclusions without considering all the variables. Leaping to a conclusion. Oh, this happens today big time on the Internet. You think about how we try and digest news today. Quickly, we sift through things. Swipe right, swipe left. That’s our world today. Lots of hasty generalizations.
Red Herrings. Okay. Using an unrelated issue to distract the attention away from the relevant or important question. Here’s an example. In January 2019, Mitt Romney put in a op-ed in the Washington Post on Trump. And how the moral character of the society or the country, the President needs to lead out on that, and he’s not doing a great job on on this. And he gave different reasons why, in his opinion, he wasn’t.

So this, The Babylon Bee, which is a satirical website focused on Christians specifically. They had this headline, Follower of Joseph Smith Urges Nation to Reject Morally-Flawed Leaders. So it was a religiously bigoted piece hiding behind the guise of humor. And it distracts attention away from the issues raised. So great example of a red herring.

Okay. Poisoning the Well. Attempts to discredit a person before their arguments are even heard. So for example, you could say, “Oh, you can’t read anything a scholar says that is from BYU because they’re on the Church’s payroll. So how could that be objective?” That’s an example.

Okay, Double Standard. This arises when two or more people, circumstances, or events are treated differently even though they should be treated the same way. So where are the Book of Mormon plates? Or where are the stone tablets that the 10 Commandments were written on, for example. Or, there’s faith that’s required to believe in the Book of Mormon. There’s also faith required to believe that Jesus Christ was resurrected. But there’s again, a double standard that’s used.

Okay. Next one. Appeal to Authority. Anonymous authority, especially in antidotes. Claiming that something must be true because it is believed by someone who is said to be an authority on the subject. So like archaeologists don’t believe in the Book of Mormon, as an example. Or, Latter-day Saint, a Latter-day Saint stake president once told me dot, dot, dot. This is also, you can see this a lot in footnote usage. Lots of games played with footnotes where it’s second and third-hand things. Maybe absolute phony material, or just material that really doesn’t support the position, but it makes it look like it’s an appeal to authority essentially there. It’s well documented, so to speak.

Okay. The next one. Appeal to Belief. A Bandwagon. Appeal to the Masses. Claiming something must be true simply because most people believe it. So all Christians believe that the Bible Cannon is closed, as an example of that. Appeal to Emotion. Judgmental Language. Seeking to win an argument through the manipulation of emotions, especially in the absence of factual evidence. Judgemental language seeks to influence the audience by using inflammatory or prejudicial language. That’s often the way the appeal to emotion has done. So for example, Latter-day Saints are racist would be an example of that.

Okay. Next one. Appeal to Tradition. Presumes that an older idea is better than a new one. How can you not believe in the Nicene Creed? It’s ancient, since 325 A.D. How could you not believe that? As an example.

Okay. Either or Fallacy, or The False Dilemma. Discussing an issue as if there are only two alternatives. This fallacy ignores any other possible alternatives. For example, we either ban hairspray or the world will end. Or, if the Bible is true, then the Book of Mormon is false, as an example. False dilemma there.

Okay. Next one. Questionable Cause. Correlation Versus Causation Issues. Because two events occur together, one is the cause of the other. See on the screen here? The bigger the fire, the more the fireman. Therefore, firemen cause fires. Because event B followed event A, A must have caused B. Oversimplification of a situation by presuming there is a single cause of a more complex phenomenon.

So for example, a post hoc. This event B followed event A. So A must have caused B. 2 Nephi 1:14, critics will say, “Hey, this looks like Joseph Smith plagiarized Shakespeare’s Hamlet in this.” However, if you look at the words closely and compare them to ancient Near-East texts, they correlate much stronger even with that, which is where they should have come from at that time, that part of the Book of Mormon.

Okay, Begging the Question. False Premise. Making a conclusion based on a premise that lacks support. It begs the question, what’s your support for that premise? So, for example, the Book of Mormon claims to be the story of all ancient inhabitants of America.

DNA studies have now shown that many of these are clearly not of Middle East origins. So therefore, the Book of Mormon is not accurate, and not an accurate history. The conclusion follows logic, but it’s false conclusion based on a faulty premise, which begs the question. It is not what the Book of Mormon claims to be. Watch the video I did on that DNA and the Book of Mormon.

Okay. Non Sequitur. This is Latin for “it does not follow”. A pattern of reasoning rendered invalid by a flaw in its logical structure. Up at the top left, you see two wrongs make a right, don’t make a right. Defending something done wrong by citing another incident of wrong doing. Example, America does not need to regulate pollution because China is producing more pollution than we are on there. So that’s a non sequitur.

Okay. Argument From Ignorance. Argument From Silence or Negative Proof. Argues that because something cannot explain, someone cannot explain something, it does not happen or isn’t true, didn’t happen or isn’t true. Or, because the critic cannot imagine how something could be, it therefore cannot be. Any silence is wrongly considered to represent an admission of guilt, or an admission of ignorance, a negative proof. One well-known critic of the Church in their biography of Joseph Smith asserted that Joseph was not visited by God in the First Vision because quote, “The newspapers took no notice of the claim.” So that was the reason.

Okay. Next one. Slippery Slope. It implies that accepting the argument will lead to catastrophic results. Thus, the audience is encouraged to reject the argument for the greater good. If we accept revelation from God, then the next thing we know we’re going to have criminals going all over the place, committing crime saying that it was revelation from God that told them to do this, as an example.

Okay, Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy, quite the name. This fallacy takes data from its context, and thereby tries to make it appear more impressive than it truly is. The name comes from an example of a Texas gunslinger who shoots randomly at a barn door, and then afterward paints a target around each bullet hole. The holes are random, but appear to prove that the gunslinger is a great shot.

Good example of this. Some critics will say, Joseph Smith used View of the Hebrews, that book, for the Book of Mormon. And if you look, the supposed parallels are general, and they’re very trivial, and they ignore the massive amounts of unparallels, essentially, is a good example of that fallacy.

Okay. Shifting the Burden of Proof. Making a claim that needs to be backed up with evidence, but then shifting the responsibility for disproof to the other person. Watermelons are blue inside until you cut the skin. Prove that I’m wrong. And so, I love this one. And it’s the Book of Mormon is false until you can prove it’s true. And think about what Moroni 10 does. It does just the opposite. It says each person needs to independently find out for themselves if the Book of Mormon is true, and they can receive that from God through the Holy Spirit.

That’s the end. I hope you enjoyed these and all these different things. And the more you’re aware of this, the better prepared you are for being in the crazy world that we live in today in this material. Thanks.

Resources:

Websites:

https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Lo…

Videos:

https://youtu.be/XM1t1WiltVQ

https://youtu.be/LKDpoC72D0c

https://youtu.be/LyKoDejrpmc

https://youtu.be/VhbUE1pZjVQ

Latter-day Saints’ Q&A is a video series not produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but by me, an ordinary member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an independent voice, with a passion for studying Church history and defending the faith. In this series, I provide evidences for the restoration, and address tough questions posed by critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, offering faithful answers based on accurate research and historical references which will be posted at the end of each video.

January 21, 2020 By Jeff Roundy Leave a Comment

Word of Wisdom: Recent Studies -Evidences

This video discusses some amazing statistics from a recently completed 25 year study of Latter-day Saints. The non-member authors concluded “these were the lowest death rates and longest life-expectancies ever documented in a well-defined U.S. cohort’ and that the findings ‘suggest a model for substantial disease prevention’. Several other studies are covered as well, along with some fascinating recent research into many of the substances prohibited in the Word of Wisdom (and differences from the temperance movement started in 1826). Also – with the largest legal fines in world history, the documentable proof of ‘conspiring’ men in the last days are vividly show in the video.

Okay. In this Evidences video I want to talk about the Word of Wisdom. I just did a video on the Word of Wisdom. I was talking about various issues. This is the one focused on the evidences of the Word of Wisdom. I do want to point out that many critics will say, “Well, Joseph wasn’t ahead of his time. He was part of the temperance movement that came about in the 1820’s and 1830’s in the United States. And I think that did help Joseph go to his knees in prayer to seek this revelation on what they should do in the midst of all of this and the focus on health and specifically alcoholism. I talked a lot about that in the other video.

But if you look at the temperance movement, where did it go? Where is it today? In the mid-1830s 1 of every 12 people in the United States was part of the temperance movement. Think of that today. I thought, “Well, let’s look at Alcoholic’s Anonymous as maybe something.” And that’s really for recovering alcoholics. There’s 1 in 253 today. Also, the temperance movement did have a huge focus on replacing alcohol with coffee. So we’ll talk about even a study that just was released on throat cancer coming from hot drinks, an interesting study.

Also, I want to talk about pure evidence we have today, just recently, of the evil and designs of conspiring men in the last days that was a reason for the Word of Wisdom to be given. Also, I want to talk about other recent updates on various substances as well. So let’s get started by looking at this study. This was a huge study that was done over 25 years of California Latter-day Saints. This was done at UCLA. These were not members of the Church that conducted this study. Again, 25 years, the largest of its kind. And if you look at the results of this study and the abstract here zooming in, there were 9,815 religiously active California Latter-day Saints that were studied.

If you look at the baseline, what they call the standardized mortality ratio, and then if you look at the line here for all causes of death was .45 for males and .55 for females. I’ll explain what that means exactly on the next slide. But life expectancies for males 84 and for females 86. Now, the conclusion, if you look at the next slide, here’s the summary, really, what this means. Males lived 9.8 years longer than average. Females, 5.6 years longer than average. And then that SMR statistic, what that meant was that males had chance of dying from cancer or disease 55% less than the average, females 45% less than average.

And look at these interesting three insights that they shared, the authors of the study. “Latter-day Saints in California had the lowest total death rates and the longest life expectancies ever documented in a well-defined U.S. cohort. The authors conclude the findings suggest a model for substantial disease prevention in the general population. And in the last, the more strictly and constantly Mormons followed Mormon lifestyle elements, the longer they lived.” That’s their final quote. Here’s the next study to share. This was one that was done from 1971 to 1985 looking at cancer incidences of Latter-day Saints and non Latter-day Saints living in Utah.

If you look here, “For all causes of cancer, the rates in Utah for male members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was about 24% less than the comparable U.S. rate. There is 50% lower rate of cancers associated with cigarette smoking among LDS men. LDS women had an all site cancer rate 24% below the comparable U.S. rate and a 60% lower rate of smoking associated cancers. Over the past 40 years, Utah has had the lowest age-adjusted cancer mortality rates for all causes of cancer of any of the 50 states.”

And then last study here did demographic research published in 2004 on life expectancy. Life expectancy was 77.3 for LDS males, 70.0 for non-LDS males in this study. 82.2 for LDS females and 76.4 for non-Latter Day Saint females. And then tobacco use explains some of the higher life expectancy, but it only counted for 1.5 of the 7.3 years for males and 1.2 of the 5.8 years for females. Now, I want to focus for a minute on tobacco very specifically, because if you think about the evil and designs of conspiring men, there were significant advancements that were made in chemistry and technology and understanding.

The cigarette rolling machine was invented in 1880. You see these things that came about that caused this amazing storm. If you look here on the screen, “Tobacco has now been linked to many types of cancer, including lung, bladder, esophagus, head and neck, throat, cervix, stomach, pancreas, and kidney cancers as well as acute myeloid leukemia. Smoking causes about 90% of male lung cancer deaths, about 80% of female lung cancer deaths, and a total of approximately 440,000 deaths annually in the U.S.”

“Men who smoke are about 23 times more likely to develop lung cancer, and women who smoke about 13 times more likely. In addition, smoking is a major cause of emphysema, coronary heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, infertility, dental diseases and other diseases.” And then if you look at the annual global death toll caused by smoking is 4 million, 4 million a year. By 2030 they’re predicting 10 million, with 70% of those deaths occurring in developing countries. “According to the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association, lung cancer is the leading cause of death among both men and women, and about 1 in 4 cancer deaths are from lung cancer.”

“They estimate that in 2017, more people in the US will die of lung cancer than of colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined.” Then you think about, again, these conspiring men, this was a bulls eye. The big five tobacco companies were fined 250 billion, with a B, dollars in the United States from the findings over a 50-year period of what had happened. If you look here on the screen, this was Tobacco Explained. It’s a London-based action on smoking and health. It took all of the statements made from the tobacco industry, internal documents. So if you look on the summary it says, “Thousands of internal tobacco industry documents released through litigation and whistle blowers revealed the most astonishing systematic corporate deceit of all time.”

“What follows is a survey of the documents, 1,200 relevant and revealing quotes grouped under common themes.” And then the seven chapters are: “smoking and health, nicotine and addiction, marketing to children, advertising, cigarette design, second hand smoke, and emerging markets.” You can pause the screen if you want to see some of the detail there. But I want to show this quick clip that has become iconic of these big tobacco CEOs in front of congress outright lying at the time here for the record. So watch this clip for a second.

Speaker 2:
Please consider yourself to be under oath. We just would like to have this for the record.

Speaker 3:
I don’t believe that nicotine from our products are addictive.

Speaker 4:
I believe nicotine is not addictive.

Speaker 5:
I believe that nicotine is not addictive.

Speaker 6:
I believe that nicotine is not addictive.

Speaker 7:
And I, too, believe that nicotine is not addictive.

So the big tobacco found guilty of lying five things here forced here to admit publicly. So this just happened in 2017. “U.S. district court judge, Gladys Kessler, found tobacco companies guilty of breaking of civil racketeering laws, engaging in ongoing fraud, and lying to the public about the dangers of smoking. Judge Kessler ruled that the tobacco industry must publish corrective and educational statements about the dangerous effects of tobacco. Big tobacco has spent nearly 11 years fighting their corrective statements in court. Now they are being forced to come clean with the public after nearly 50 years of lying and deceiving.”

Corrective statements began running November 26th. This was of 2017. And here are the five big tobacco lies they’re being forced to admit publicly. Number one big tobacco lie, saying smoking wasn’t dangerous. Number two, big tobacco knew nicotine was addictive. And look at the little sub-note there. “They withheld their research that proved it was addictive from the public and the government.” Number three, big tobacco lied about light and low-tar cigarettes being healthier. Number four, this one really gets me, big tobacco engineered cigarettes to contain higher amounts of nicotine.

Look at the sub note. “Evidences show that big tobacco designed their cigarettes with engineered filters, special paper, and additives to increase the nicotine content and make cigarettes even more addictive.” And last, fifth, big tobacco continually denied the dangers of second hand smoke. This is a direct bulls eye for the Word of Wisdom that was talking about the future. If you recall, it’s a consequent of the coming of this that existed now, but would also be in the future of conspiring men in the last days. Fascinating.

Okay. Alcohol. Here is an interesting study released in 2005. “It is commonly accepted that alcohol consumption is associated with cancers of the esophagus, liver, and pancreas. The relationship between alcohol and the development of breast cancer has been debated for years. The largest study on this subjects was presented in 2005. The Nurse’s Health Study that studied 121,700 nurses followed over a 20-year period found that even modest alcohol intake was associated with an increased risk of postmenopausal breast cancer.”

And then on the mormonsandscience.org website they shared this from a New Zealand research findings in July 2016. The effect of alcohol in the Journal of Addiction. The authors report that “the epidemiological evidence can support the judgment that alcohol causes cancer of the oral pharynx, larynx, esophagus, liver, colon, rectum, and breast.” Seven types of cancer. What about the positive benefits of a little bit of wine? Isn’t the resveratrol in wine supposed to make us healthier? Regarding the supposed benefit, the New Zealand researchers also said that “earlier epidemiological studies which reported that drinking can protect us from cardiovascular disease should now be regarded with a high level of skepticism.”

I mentioned the hot drinks study. This just came out here March 2019. Look at this headline in USA Today. “Drink hot tea at your own risk: New study is latest to show link to esophageal cancer.” So throat cancer. “If your daily drink is too hot, however, you may dramatically increase your risk of cancer according to a new study. Research published Wednesday in the International Journal of Cancer tracked the habits of more than 50,000 tea drinkers in a province in Northeastern Iran over a 10-year period.” Look at the findings here on the study.

“Based on the results of our study, drinking hot tea is associated with an increased risk of throat cancer. The study found that those who drank more than basically two cups of tea a day at a temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit had a 90% higher risk of esophageal cancer. Beverages at restaurants may be served at higher temperatures as was revealed in the infamous 1994 lawsuit against McDonald’s during which the company admitted to keeping its coffee at temperatures between 180 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit. Previous studies have examined the link between hot beverages and cancer, including a 2018 China-based study published in Annals of Internal Medicine that found drinking hot tea when combined with heavy alcohol and tobacco use significantly increases the risk of throat cancer.”

“The World Health Organization in 2016 said drinking coffee, tea, and other beverages at temperatures hotter than 149 degrees probably causes cancer.” And then the last two things, just on some nutrition do’s of the Word of Wisdom. There wasn’t a lot of science around nutrition at the time of the Word of Wisdom. And there was a lot of desire to have knowledge and health focus. But even vitamins weren’t discovered until the 20th century. Here’s a great article I’ll link in the program, Cancer, Nutrition, and the Word of Wisdom: One Doctor’s Observation. This was in the July 2008 Ensign, Dr. William Stephenson who also has a degree in nutrition from BYU.

He says, “What does medical science teach us about this kind of diet? Certainly all kinds of diets are being recommended by one seeming authority or another. The diets in fashion change from year to year. Consistently over the years, however, the evidence favors a diet in keeping with the recommendations contained in the Word of Wisdom. The medical community widely accepts that a low-fat diet, consisting mostly of complex carbohydrates found in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, along with limited amounts of nuts and high-protein foods like low-fat meats is associated with lower incidences of diseases and a longer life.”

I love this final quote here from BYU nutrition professor, Lauren Beth Larson Brown in the April 1977 Ensign. She said, “But for most of us our diets are not extreme enough for us to see such dramatic consequences of poor nutrition, because heredity, environment, attitudes, and healthcare also influence our health today. Nevertheless, those who are well-nourished do receive health in their naval and marrow of their bones. They will be alert to finding wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures. They will have the energy and endurance to run and not be weary and to walk and not faint. And the greatest promise, one that we may see fulfilled in ways we cannot yet imagine is, “And I the Lord have given to them a promise that the destroying angel shall pass by them as the children of Israel and not slay them.” Hope you enjoyed the video. Subscribe for more and go check out the other Word of Wisdom video that I did.

Resources:

Papers/Studies:

https://www.who.int/tobacco/media/en/…

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3553394?…

https://www.demographic-research.org/…

http://www.scientificintegrityinstitu…

Articles:

https://www.lds.org/study/ensign/2008…

http://www.mormonsandscience.com/reli…

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/h…

https://stopswithme.com/big-tobacco-f…

https://www.lds.org/study/ensign/1977…

https://www.lds.org/study/ensign/2008…

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/7…

January 21, 2020 By Jeff Roundy Leave a Comment

Joseph’s Seer Stone Culture

This video discusses Joseph Smith’s early 19th century rural culture which accepted belief in seer stones and other objects as gifts from God to find lost belongings, wells, and other valuable things. While this culture is foreign to us today, God used it to forge his work forward – as He speaks to his children in their language and understanding. The Smith family, Emma Hale Smith, Martin Harris & Oliver Cowdery, all key participants in bringing forth The Book of Mormon, were influenced by this culture in ways that nurtured faith in Joseph Smith’s divine call as prophet, seer, and revelator. Details are also discussed surrounding the seer stone’s use in translating The Book of Mormon, as well it’s use in the life to come (Revelation 2:17 – white stone).

Okay so on this video I want to talk about Joseph Smith’s seer stone culture, the culture that he grew up in as a youth. And I want to talk about really also some very key players in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon before the church was even organized: Joseph Smith’s family, especially his parents, Emma Smith, Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery. And I want you to think, as I go through these, how critical, these specific people were critical in the Book of Mormon coming forth, and how this culture actually played into it, whether it was inspired by God or more likely how God always works with his people where they’re at. He adapts to essentially their language and understanding, right? As we’re told.

So now there’s been a plethora of material that has come out the last few decades. Really this was the seminal work, a cultural biography of Joseph Smith from Richard Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, phenomenal work. If you like Saints, this is Saints on steroids, it’s fantastic. Love it. I’m going to add some quotes in the video here from that. And then actually, as part of The Joseph Smith Papers, two great books that came out, From Darkness Into Light: Joseph Smith’s Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones. Both of these from BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book as part of The Joseph Smith Papers, people working on those projects, putting these books out in conjunction with that.

So, but even going back further, back to the 80’s. The Mark Hoffman forgeries created a firestorm of really looking at early church history and really trying to understand it better and really trying to get truthful clarity on what documents we can trust, et cetera. So I’ll talk about that as we go through. So in the midst of that environment in the 80’s, I did want to share this quote from the Ensign, October, 1987 from then apostle Elder Dallin H. Oaks. And he said, “Some sources close to Joseph Smith claimed that in his youth during his spiritual immaturity, prior to his being entrusted with the Book of Mormon plates, he sometimes used a stone in seeking for treasure.”

“Whether this is so or not, we need to remember that no prophet is free from human frailties, especially before he is called to devote his life to the Lord’s work. Line upon line, young Joseph Smith expanded his faith and understanding and his spiritual gifts matured until he stood with power and stature as the prophet of the Restoration.” Now Richard Bushman in his book Rough Stone Rolling. This is a little section. He said, “In 1833, an ex-communicated Mormon named Doctor Philastus Hurlbut collected affidavits in Palmyra and Manchester from people who remembered the Smith family. One of the repeated charges in the affidavits was that Joseph Sr. and his sons hunted for treasure and looked in stones. The aim of the affidavits was to discredit the Smiths, but the firsthand accounts of treasure seeking necessarily came from people who had gone on expeditions themselves and were participant observers.”

“In exposing the Smiths, the neighbors inadvertently described a culture of magic in which they and many others in 19th century New York were involved.” In fact, there were superstitions that the Native Americans had built up mounds to hide treasure. So the mounds around there is one example. In this book actually, even within Joseph’s town there in Palmyra, they record the number of people that are recorded to have had seer stones from 1820 to 1827 and there’s actually one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Nine different people in there. So just part of this culture there. And then look at this. Local newspapers of Joseph’s time on money digging activities, “Digging for money hid in the earth is a very common thing and in this state it is even considered an honorable and profitable employment. One gentleman digging ten to twelve years found a sufficient quantity of money to build him a commodious house.”

“Another dug up fifty thousand dollars! And, in 1825 the Wayne Sentinel in Palmyra reported that buried treasure had been found by the help of a mineral stone, which becomes transparent when placed in a hat and the light excluded by the face of him who looks into it.” Richard Bushman shared this, “Given the financial difficulties under which the Smith family labored, it would hardly be surprising that they might hope for such a reversal in their fortunes. Richard Bushman has compared the Smith’s attitude toward treasure digging with a modern attitudes for gambling or buying a lottery ticket. Bushman points out that looking for treasure had little stigma attached to it among all classes in the 17th century and continued to be respectable among lower classes into the 18th and 19th century.” Now, there’s a great article from, again, some of the people involved in the Joseph Smith Papers project and these books put out in the October, 2015 Ensign where they actually, the Church published a picture of the seer stone, the brown seer stone, which I’ll show you in a minute.

And in that article it says here, “Joseph was raised in a family that read the Bible, which mentions seers repeatedly. The Bible also mentions people receiving spiritual manifestations by means of physical objects such as rods, a brass serpent on a pole, an ephod (part of the priestly clothing that included two precious stones), and the Urim and Thummim. Seeing and seers were part of the culture in which Joseph Smith grew up. Some people in the early 19th century believed it was possible for gifted individuals to see or receive spiritual manifestations through material objects such as seer stones.”

“The young Joseph Smith accepted such familiar folk ways of his day, including the idea of using seer stones to view lost or hidden objects. Since the biblical narrative showed God using physical objects to focus people’s faith or communicate spiritually in ancient times, Joseph and others assumed the same of their day. Joseph’s parents affirmed the family’s immersion in this culture and their use of physical objects in this way, and the villagers of Palmyra and Manchester, New York, where the saints lived, sought out Joseph to find lost objects before he moved to Pennsylvania in late 1827.”

So let’s talk about Martin Harris for just a second. Very early experience that Martin had. And as you think about this experience, think about how this laid a foundation for Martin to see Joseph of having a gift from God, and I’ll tell you, this becomes in this book very clear that without Martin Harris, we don’t have the Book of Mormon being published. He was the financier of the Book of Mormon essentially there. So this was recorded, Michael Ash shared this in the Gospel Scholar in Deseret News in the publication in 2009, said, “In Joseph’s world, the ability to use a seer stone to see the location of lost objects was a gift from God. Joseph, his family, and many of his associates believed he had this gift. Martin Harris recounted an incidence when he literally lost a needle in a haystack, shavings and straw, and asked Joseph to find it with the seer stone.”

In a manner common to frontier diviners, Joseph put his seer stone into the bottom of a hat and then put his face into the hat, obscuring all ambient light and somehow was able to see something in the stone. Martin watched Joseph closely to see he did not peek out from out of the hat. According to Martin, Joseph reached out his hand beyond me on the right and moved a little stick and there I saw the pin, which he picked up and gave to me. I know he did not look out of the hat until after he had picked up the pin. We don’t know how Joseph was able to do this. We don’t know what his success rate was, finding lost or hidden objects. The important thing is that Joseph believed that he was able to find lost objects and this was a gift granted him by God.”

So this was actually helping Joseph too, himself and confidence there that he had this gift and Martin there. Okay, so Richard Bushman in Rough Stone Rolling, let me share this about this folk magic culture as part of religion actually. “Enlightened newspaper editors and ministers scoffed at the superstitions of common people but were unable to erase them. Ordinary people apparently had no difficulty blending Christianity with magic. Willard Chase, the most vigorous of the Manchester treasure seekers was a Methodist class leader at the time. He knew the Smiths and his obituary was described as a minister. At the time he employed Joseph to use his stone to find Spanish bullion.” Oh, let me back up. “At the time he employed Joseph to use his stone to find Spanish bullion, Josiah Stowell was an upright Presbyterian and an honored man in his community.”

“The so-called credulity of the money diggers can be read as evidence of their general faith in invisible forces. Christian beliefs in angels and devils blended with belief in guardian spirits and magical powers. The saints were as susceptible as their neighbors to treasure seeking folklore … for people in a magical frame of mind, Moroni sounded like one of the spirits who stood guard over treasure. The similarities may even have made the extraordinary story more credible in the Smith family.” So again, think about how, what if Joseph’s family, especially his parents, did not believe him about Moroni and about the gold plates that were to be buried in the hill. This fit right in with their understanding and their culture there and it allowed them to express confidence in Joseph. Okay, so Bushman also noted in his chapter in a book called Reason For Faith.

And keep in mind the word magic here is not anything like how we use that term today or associate with it today. And more on that in a minute, but he says, I’m going to only read the underlying parts here. “This fascination with magic began to fade among the educated classes in the later 17th century, but it did not disappear among ordinary people. According to Yale historian John Butler, folk magic was prevalent among Yankees well into the 19th century. The Smiths may have been subscribing to folk religion, but in this they were part of the culture found virtually everywhere among Yankees of their generation. Church scholars now acknowledge that he had a seer stone and did look for lost objects as a young man. The difference is that since Thomas and Butler published their research, folk magic is no longer toxic. It was too commonplace to be scandalous.”

“Magic and Christianity did not seem at odds with one another, and the combination was altogether too common in the 19th century for it to invalidate Joseph Smith’s more conventional religious claims.” So on the Fair Mormon website they actually had a lot of great stuff on this. I’ll link to some of this and here are a few items I found particularly insightful. He says on the site, “Many people of the 1800’s did not see any differences between what latter generations would label as magic and religiously driven activities recorded in the Bible, such as Joseph’s silver cup in Genesis 44 in which he divineth (which was also practiced by the surrounding pagans and referred to as hydromanc), or the rod of Aaron, and it’s a divinely driven power, Exodus 7. The Bible records that Jacob used rods to cause Laban’s flocks to produce spotted and speckled offspring.”

That’s in Genesis 30. “One can only imagine what the critics would say should Joseph Smith have attempted such a thing. Joseph and his contemporaries would likely have been shocked and dismayed to be charged with practicing magic. For them such beliefs were simply how the world worked. Someone might make use of a compass without understanding the principles of magnetism. This mysterious, but apparently effective device was useful even if its underlying mechanism was not understood. In a similar way, activities of the early 1800’s or biblical times, which later generations would view skeptically were simply thought of as part of how the world worked. But it was a huge leap from this realization to charging that Joseph and his followers believed they were drawing power from anything but a divine or proper source.” Okay. Now, Joseph’s attitude really began to change, and Richard Bushman does a great job in really showing some of this in Rough Stone Rolling.

Here’s a little snip from the book. He says, “Joseph Jr. never repudiated the stones or denied their power to find treasure. Remnants of the magical culture stayed with him to the end. But after 1823, he began to orient himself away from treasure and toward translation. Martin Harris, another early supporter, remembered Joseph saying that the angel told him he must quit the company, the money diggers. That there were wicked men among them. After 1823 he continued to be involved in treasure expeditions, but not as the instigator or leader. Perhaps he resisted by dragging his feet. William Stafford depicts Joseph Sr. hunting for gold and going back to the house to seek further instruction from Joseph Jr., as if the son was trying to stay out of the picture while the father pushed on. In 1825, when the family needed money, Joseph Jr. agreed to help Stowell find the Spanish gold, but with misgivings. Lucy said of Stowell’s operation that Joseph endeavored to divert him from his vain pursuit.”

“Alva Hale, a son in the household where the Smiths stayed in Harmony while digging for Stowell, said Joseph Jr. told him that the gift in seeing with a stone was a gift from God, but the peeping was all dang nonsense. He had been deceived in his treasure seeking, but he did not intend to deceive anyone else. By this time, Joseph apparently felt that seeing with a stone was the word of a seer, a religious term, while peeping or glass looking was fraudulent.” It is interesting how again, this situation, if Joseph had not been looking as a stone or treasure digging, he would not have ended up meeting Emma Smith. That’s how he met Emma because Josiah Stowell, who had a couple of experiences with Joseph with the seer stone, hired him to come, and Joseph even tried to convince him out of it and prevailed on him after a month.

But he stayed with Emma, stayed with the Hale home. That’s where he boarded, and that’s where he met Emma. And then actually, take it even a step further, Joseph was told that he could get the plates next time, meaning in 1827, if he brought the right person and Joseph asked Moroni who that was. And he said, you will know, and he later looked in the seer stone and saw Emma. That’s how he knew. So again, the seer stone played a key role in him meeting Emma and bringing Emma into the picture. It was 165 miles from Palmyra where Emma’s home was there in Harmony, Pennsylvania. So quite fascinating when you think about. Now, Josiah Stowell’s nephew took Joseph into court saying he thought he was deceiving his uncle by being involved in this, and it was ironic because Joseph was trying to talk him really essentially out of it and did prevail on him there. And then in court Josiah Stowell was actually testifying for Joseph, in his benefit and faith in Joseph.

So really interesting, but let me share from Rough Stone Rolling a little snippet from the court appearance that really was, I thought, quite illuminating. He says, “Under examination, the 20-year-old Joseph said that he had looked for hidden treasures in the bowels of the earth and had helped Stowell several times. For the past three years at Palmyra, going back to the time he had found the seer stone in 1822, he had frequently ascertained in that way where lost property was, but he was not happy with this work. Treasure seeking, he said, was not his idea. He did not solicit business of this kind and had always rather declined having anything to do with this business. He had been under pressure from neighbors, from the enthusiastic and well-off Stowell, and from his own father.”

“They kept after him even though the hunts invariably failed. By the time of the court appearance, Joseph Sr. may have been backing off too. W.D. Purple, a skeptical observer at the hearing, said one statement particularly impressed him. Joseph Sr. testified that both he and his son were mortified that this wonderful power which God had so miraculously given him should be used only in search of earthly treasures. His constant prayer to his Heavenly Father was to manifest His will concerning this marvelous power. He trusted that the Son of Righteousness would someday illuminate the heart of the boy and enable him to see His will concerning him.” Nice timing too. This is right before Joseph is to get the plates and within the next year roughly, and also see how the family is being prepared as well. Interesting. Now, I love what the Fair Mormon website did on just a summary of some interesting aspects of this hearing.

Critics in Joseph’s day didn’t even bring this hearing up, but they bring it up a lot today. So it’s interesting to look at this. So first of all, they say on the website, “They didn’t bring it up in another trial in the same area in 1830. It was not mentioned in any of the affidavits collected by Hurlbut in 1833, even though he was diligently looking for any piece of dirt he could find. Although the trial was briefly mentioned in 1831, it was not mentioned again in a published record for 46 years.” So why today? Why later generations of critics? Here’s why. “Society had changed. Seer stones were no longer acceptable. Treasure digging was considered abnormal. Spiritual gifts were reinterpreted as manifestations of the occult.” Sound like today? So I thought that was helpful. Now let’s revisit that word magic. So again, a few more things from the Fair Mormon site.

They say, “Critics are generally not clear about what definition of magic they are using. And how to distinguish a magical belief in the supernatural from a religious belief in the supernatural. Scholars of magic and religion have, in fact, come to realize that defining magic is probably a hopeless task, John Gee noted. In 1990, Cambridge University published Stanley Tambiah’s Magic, Science, Religion, and the Scope of Rationality, which showed that the definitions of many of the most important writers on magic were heavily influenced both by their backgrounds and their personal ideological agendas. They define magic as religious beliefs other than their own. In 1992 the International Interdisciplinary Conference on Magic in the Ancient World failed to come to any agreement on what magic was.” Okay. The Fair Mormon site continues to go on and says, “So did Joseph Smith and his contemporaries believe in supernatural entities with real power?”

“Yes, and so does every Christian, Jew, or Muslim who believes in God, angels, and divine power to reveal, heal, et cetera. However, to label these beliefs as magic is to beg the question. To argue that Joseph believed in and sought help from powers besides God.” Note besides God. “Nobody disputes that Joseph and his family believed in the Bible which condemns divination and witchcraft.” And there’s a verse right there in Deuteronomy. “Therefore, Joseph and his family viewed folk magic and the use of seer stones as not falling under this biblical condemnation. It is clear that Joseph and his contemporaries believed that one could gain knowledge from such activities as dousing, using a rod to find water or buried treasure, and the use of the seer stones. This does not mean, however, that Joseph understood such activities to be a form of magic.” Okay. If you want to pause, I’ll flash this up on the screen, but you can see how scientific journals talked about this.

The divining rod may have worked in line with scientific natural principles, but they also viewed it as part of, in fact, it says, “It is further clear that those who use divinization by rods, for example, believe that the rod’s natural ability also required the grace of God to operate. Hence practitioners would consecrate their rods and pray to God to bless their efforts.” This is where Oliver Cowdery comes in. So if you read in Doctrine and Covenants section 8, it talks about that Oliver actually had this gift from God of dealing with the rod essentially. And what is it? So this is the culture they were living in. So think about Oliver. So he could easily accept Joseph Smith’s use of a seer stone because of that background and culture that he had. So I’ll pause this on the screen if you want to read it.

This is Revelations in Context, talking about D&C 8, but they looked at it and they looked at how Aaron had the use of the rod in Exodus 7:9 to receive God’s will. And, “many Christians in Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery’s day similarly believed in divining rods as instruments for revelation. Oliver was among those that believed and used a divining rod.” That’s interesting. Okay. So now after the Church started to grow, Joseph’s culture began to change rapidly. And many even account of this may have been some of Joseph’s reticence to share some details. But so from that 2015 Ensign article, we read, “Partly as a result of the enlightenment, or age of reason, a period that emphasized science and the observable world over spiritual matters, many in Joseph’s day came to feel that the use of physical objects such as stones or rods, was superstitious or inappropriate for religious purposes.”

“In later years, as Joseph told his remarkable story, he emphasized his visions and other spiritual experiences. Some of his former associates focused on early use of seer stones in an effort to destroy his reputation in a world that increasingly rejected such practices. In their proselyting efforts, Joseph and other early members chose not to focus on the influence of folk culture, as many perspective converts were expressing a transformation in how they understood religion in the age of reason. In what became canonized revelations, however, Joseph continued to teach that seer stones and other seeric devices, as well as the ability to work with them, were important and sacred gifts from God.” Okay, so let’s talk about Joseph’s use of the seer stone in the translation of the Book of Mormon. This is where he really differentiated from any other seer with a stone and became unexplainable. The production of scripture, and then look at the fruits of what that scripture then did.

This is where things really became amazing. So if you actually look back, this book talks about that Joseph had really two main seer stones, the brown one that the Church did the picture of recently, I’ll show, and then a white one. And the record is a little confusing as far as when and where for sure which was found. Either Lake Erie or digging a well on the Chase farm there. And then even the dates, scholars disagree, but it’s somewhere between 1819 at the earliest, up to maybe even 1826 at the very latest, one of them, the white stone possibly. But he had two stones there that he used. So, and if you recall, with the records, the golden plates Joseph was given, they called them interpreters, and it was two stones set in silver rims, if you recall.

So that was what is talked about in the book of Mormon as interpreters there. But in addition to that, if you go to the Church website under the Gospel Topics Essay, The Book of Mormon Translation, they share this. “The other instrument which Joseph Smith discovered in the ground years before he retrieved the gold plates, was a small oval stone, or seer stone. As a young man during the 1820’s, Joseph Smith, like others in his day, used a seer stone to look for lost objects and buried treasure. As Joseph grew to understand his prophetic calling, he learned that he could use this stone for the higher purpose of translating scripture. Apparently for convenience, Joseph often translated with the seer stone rather than the two stones bound together to form the interpreters. These two instruments, the interpreters and the seer stone, were apparently interchangeable and worked in much the same way that, in course of time, Joseph Smith and his associates often used the term Urim and Thummim to refer to the single stone as well as the interpreters.”

“In ancient times, Israelite priests use the Urim and Thummim to assist in receiving divine communications. Although commentators differ on the nature of the instrument, several ancient sources state the instruments involved stones that lit up or were divinely illumined. Latter-day Saints later understood the term Urim and Thummim to refer exclusively to the interpreters. Joseph Smith and others, however, seemed to have understood the term more as a descriptive category of instruments for obtaining divine revelations and less as the name of a specific instrument.” This is where things get really confusing as a lot of people say, “Oh, the Urim and Thummim are these interpreters, the spectacles, as they’re sometimes called.” That’s not how they referred to them back then. It was more of a class, so anything that was used to translate became a Urim and Thummim in a sense.

Also, if you look on the Church website, on the Gospel Topics, it says, “Some people have balked at this claim of physical instruments used in the divine translation process, but such aids to facilitate the communication of God’s power and inspiration are consistent with accounts in scripture. In addition to the Urim and Thummim, the Bible mentions other physical instruments used to access God’s power: the rod of Aaron, a brass serpent, holy anointing oils, the Ark of the Covenant, and even dirt from the ground mixed with saliva to heal the eyes of a blind man.” So I think we struggle too with the seer stone being so natural, a rock in the ground versus these ancient mystical glasses, and they must have come from God, in the stone box that was hid up for all those centuries.

So I think that’s also our struggle, but God will work with wherever Joseph’s at and whatever is going to work best for him. At the end of the day, God achieved his purpose by bringing the Book of Mormon forth and He works with us where we’re at, and I’m going to talk in a second about why maybe the stone was better for Joseph to use. Now here’s an example of a quote. This is Emma Smith. She says, “Now the first that my husband translated the book, was translated by the use of the Urim and Thummim, and that that was the part that Martin Harris lost. After that, he used a small stone, not exactly black, but was rather a dark color.” Emma Smith, this was her sharing this. So a couple of things about this. She’s talking about the majority of the book was translated with the seer stone.

That was after the lost 116 pages, but we always say the Urim and Thummim there, and then she’s even referring to the interpreters as the Urim and Thummim there, but then it’s shown that you can see in the art there, that they maybe were even put in a hat. I’ll mention that also in a second here. But again, this is what a part of the confusion is on trying to understand each of these. Also look at the picture of where the plates are, how they’re covered with a cloth. Some may say, “Wait a minute. If Joseph’s looking in a hat doing this and not looking at the plates, why does he even need the plates?” Well try and imagine the Book of Mormon coming forth in his day without those golden plates. Those golden plates were a tangible evidence that this was an ancient record that was brought forth through the gift and power of God, but that was a tangible witness. And it was shown, as we know, to the three and to the eight witnesses there.

So there was a critical component to it. So President Nelson, well Elder Nelson at the time, back in 1992 at a mission president seminar, said, “The details of this miraculous method of translation are still not fully known. Yet we do have a few precious insights. David Whitmer wrote, ‘Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light, and in the darkness, the spiritual light would shine.'” Then here’s some interesting details about maybe why the seer stone came so much into play. This was in Michael Ash’s Deseret News article. He said, “We don’t know what instructions Joseph received in utilizing the interpreters, but it seems that he may have been on his own to figure that out. Since they were shaped like glasses, Joseph apparently tried to use them, at least initially, as one would use spectacles.”

“This proved to be difficult, however, because the lenses were set wider than Joseph’s eyes and caused eyestrain. Apparently Joseph likened the interpreters to a seer stone and, according to Martin Harris, tried to use them in the bottom of a hat but found that they were too big to fit. Somewhere during the early stages of translating, Joseph tried his seer stone and found that they, like the Nephite interpreters, could serve as a tool for receiving the Book of Mormon translation. Once Joseph used his seer stone for translating, he never went back to divining. Martin Harris, Joseph’s first scribe during the translation process, wanted to test the veracity of Joseph’s seer stone and related the following incident. During a break from translating the two men would sometimes go to the river and throw stones. Once Martin found a rock that closely resembled Joseph’s seer stone and, when the prophet wasn’t looking, switched the stone with the one in the hat. When the translation resumed Joseph paused for a long time and then complained that he was unable to see the translation.”

“Martin confessed to switching the stones because he wanted to stop the mouths of fools who said that Joseph merely memorized material and repeated it back to Martin.” So quite fascinating. This was, I’m sure, helpful for Martin to have that experience, but also shows the power of the seer stone that Joseph had. Okay, Gazelem. This is mentioned in Alma 37. Look at this. It talks about preserving these interpreters, but then listen to this, in verse 23, “And the Lord said, I will prepare unto my servant, Gazelem, a stone.” Now that’s singular, “A stone which shall shine forth in darkness unto light.” Very interesting. Daniel Ludlow says, “Gazelem is a name given to a servant of God. The word appears to have its roots in gaz, a stone, and Aleim, a name of God as a revelator, or the interpreter in the affairs of men.”

Also Joseph was called Gazelem as a pseudonym when they were in 1835 Doctrine and Covenants that needed to use code names for protection for different reasons in 1835. That was associated with that and, in fact, at Joseph Smith’s funeral, W.W. Phelps said that that was Joseph’s name in the preexistence there. So quite fascinating, but I really like how, and even in the Book of Mormon, it talks about a single stone that would light up as part of the help there for the record. Okay, so the transition, the general memberships evolution of viewing the stone in the hat, if you will, versus the interpreters. So if you look at this here, this talks about how the process happened. So in 1828 to 1830, this is on the Fair Mormon site, “Joseph was reluctant to describe the translation process in detail.”

“BYU professor Stephen Ricks feels that Joseph’s reticence was probably well justified. It may have been due to the inordinate interest some of the early saints had shown in the seer stone or to the negative, sometimes bitter reactions he encountered when he had reported sacred experiences to others. Thus Joseph never discussed the details regarding which translation instrument he used to both translate the Book of Mormon and to receive revelation. Joseph simply told people that he received his early revelations through the Urim and Thummim.” And then in the 1930’s, “Dr. Francis Kirkham endeavored to gather and evaluate all the newspaper articles he could locate about the Book of Mormon.” And you can read about that there, but he basically concludes he didn’t believe in Joseph, the story there. And that then moved on. 1956, “Joseph Fielding Smith knew of the seer stone, but he did not believe that Joseph actually used it during the translation of the Book of Mormon. Like Kirkham, Joseph Fielding Smith simply refused to accept accounts of Joseph having utilized his seer stone for the purpose of translation as having any validity.”

“In his opinion, such accounts were simply erroneous.” And then in the 1980’s, “The visibility of these issues among the general church membership began to change significantly in the early 80’s as the result of a tragic event, the exposure of the Mark Hoffman forgeries. Some of Hoffman’s documents were created based upon existing eyewitness accounts regarding treasure seeking, and, to some extent, simply amplified concepts that were already known to historians. Once the forgeries were exposed, it became necessary to re-examine what had been written to support the now discredited documents. Although the Hoffman forgeries were discounted, the underlying legitimate historical accounts that fueled their creation began to become more well known among the general church membership.” And then that went like crazy with the Joseph Smith Papers and all this stuff we’ve talked about to the point of, look at the screen.

This was in… literally the Church published a picture of the seer stone. They have the brown seer stone published here, being on display of this photograph in the 2015 October Ensign article. Now look at the picture of these paintings here. Part of the challenge is, sometimes artists are trying to convey ideas, and that can be a challenge also. And it’s the way they may interpret this progress that people and their understanding of the process. So Anthony Sweat particularly has tried recently to get some solid art showing Joseph with the hat. And if you look here, he did some sketches, in fact look at number three there. He called that the sick of Joseph and he said, this is probably why it was hard for artists even to attempt to do this, is that his head buried in a hat, how do you portray that?

It looks like he’s sick there. And so number four was how he decided to paint this and show Joseph really maybe starting to go down to the hat, but it really telegraphs what’s the image of what’s trying to be communicated. But at the end of the day, the artists are trying to get the message across that Joseph is receiving God’s communication of what was on the plates in various ways there. But I think the new art really dovetails nicely with history. Now to finish, the seer stone no longer needed. I want to emphasize something here to be careful on. So in the article, in the Ensign it says, “Joseph had other seer stones, but in the words of Elder Orson Pratt, a member of the Twelve, ‘Joseph had also matured by this time in his spiritual understanding.'”

“At a meeting in 1874 attended by Brigham Young, Elder Pratt told his audience about being present many times when Joseph was translating the New Testament. Seeing no interpretive instruments in use during the translation process, he wondered why Joseph did not use the Urim and Thummim, as in translating the Book of Mormon. As Elder Pratt watched the prophet translate, Joseph, as if he read his thoughts, looked up and explained that the Lord gave him the Urim and Thummim when he was inexperienced in the spirit of inspiration. But now he had advanced so far that he understood the operations of that spirit and did not need the assistance of that instrument.” And we should be careful about thinking of this as like training wheels and not used again. Joseph gave his brown stone to Oliver Cowdery after the translation of the Book of Mormon in 1830 or so, and that did end up through back to Brigham Young at some point and then to pass down to the prophets.

But he kept his white stone and, in fact, he used that, Lorenzo Brown mentioned seeing him use it in parts of the Joseph Smith translation. Parley P. Pratt talked about him using it somewhat in the Book of Abraham translation. 1836 he gave a patriarchal blessing to Newel K. Whitney using his white seer stone there. And then in 1841, he showed the white seer stone to the 12 apostles. And Wilford Woodruff in 1888, when he dedicated the Manti temple, he put it on the altar and consecrated the seer stone there. But more powerfully, look at these two scriptures, Revelations 2:17 and D&C 130 and think about this for us in the future, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”

Doctrine and Covenants elaborates on this. “Then the white stone mentioned in Revelation 2:17 will become a Urim and Thummim.” Notice what they’re calling it. A Urim and Thummim, “To each individual who receives one whereby things pertaining to a higher order of kingdoms will be made known; And a white stone is given to each of those who come into the celestial kingdom, whereon is a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it. The new name is the key word.” I think that’s fascinating. So I hope you enjoyed this and got some interesting thoughts out of it and subscribe for more. Thanks.

Resources:

Books:

Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Bushman

Joseph’s Seer Stones by Michael MacKay and Nicholas Frederick

From Darkness Unto Light by Michael MacKay and Gerrit Dirkmaat

Articles:

Church Website – Gospel Topic: Seer Stones https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/s…

Church Website – Gospel Topics Essay – Translating the Book of Mormon: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/s…

Church Website – Revelations in Context – Oliver Cowdery’s Gift: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/s…

Ensign Article, Oct 2015, Joseph the Seer by Richard Turley Jr (Asst Church Historian & Recorder), Robin Jiensen, and Mark Ashurst-McGee (Church History Dept) https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/s…

Deseret News Article from Michael Ash on Seer Stone in Translation: https://www.deseret.com/2009/11/23/20…

FairMormon articles:

https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Bo…

https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Jo…

August 28, 2019 By Jeff Roundy Leave a Comment

Church Finances: Disconcerting or Miraculous?

This video discusses many items that have been in the media recently regarding finances for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, such as a possible $32 billion stock portfolio, building $1.5 billion City Creek Mall, welfare & humanitarian assistance, total tithing collected, living allowances for general authorities, and the heavy financial needs anticipated as the church grows internationally. To quote D. Michael Quinn, the non-member author of a new book on this topic in an interview by the Salt Lake Tribune: “These figures represent an astonishing accomplishment. It is an American success story without parallel. No institution, no church, no business, no non-profit organization in America has had this kind of history”.

This video on church finances I thought was timely. There’s been a lot of media stories about church finances, and I wanted to address some of these things that have been talked about.

First of all, I want to share, there’s a book that was just recently released by D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth and Corporate Power. Tremendous resources in here. It’s a fascinating book. D. Michael Quinn is actually not a member of the Church.

In an interview that he did with the Salt Lake Tribune, and I want to share a quote from that, he said here, “The Church, launched in 1830 in upstate New York with six members, counts nearly 16 million members worldwide and untold billions in assets. It wasn’t always so. At one point, the federal government confiscated all its properties, withholding them for nearly a decade.

Thereafter, the Utah-based faith endured cycles of near bankruptcy every 20 to 30 years until it finally found its economic footing in the 1960s. No matter the precise bottom line, these figures represent an astonishing accomplishment. It is an American success story without parallel. No institution, no church, no business, no nonprofit organization in America has had this kind of history.”

Now, a little bit on the history or some background of what he was talking about. The last real crisis in the church came in in 1963. In the 30s, 40s, 50s, the church was saving quite a bit of of their income, but coming out of the Great Depression, they were quite fearful and were keeping the money, the reserves that had been saved in cash, in the banks and not investing the funds.

Then they went on essentially a building spending spree in the late 50s from ’58 to ’62, ’63, used up all the reserve, in fact went into debt. Today it would have been in 2010 dollars Quinn points out about $236 million in debt at that point, and in 1963, they even feared being able to make the payroll for the employees, the paid employees in the Church Office buildings.

So, it was a very challenging time. N. Eldon Tanner came in, a very sharp businessman, understood a lot about corporate finance, helped to develop policies and procedures and also introduce sophisticated wealth management techniques used by Harvard Endowment Fund is an example, the Ford Foundation, a lot of these sophisticated institutional money management processes that have been used now for decades in the Church.

This did help turn the Church around. To give you an example, if you were to have invested in the stock market in 1975, $1 million in 1975, today would be worth $228 million. That’s the growth that would’ve happened there, and we did get back in the black on the reserves in the ’67, ’68 period. So, reserves were being restored at that point.

Now, if you look at today, one of the huge stories that came out in June was broke by a group with the MormonLeaks that put out and it’s all over the place now online, that the church has a $32 billion stock portfolio, and I can get into the details of how they came up with this. They cobbled it together with different things and you could question some of the results for various reasons, but I think if you just set it on the face of it, let’s say they had 32 billion. Well, based on the math I just said, if you went back to 1975, that would actually be 228 million invested then would be 32 billion today.

Bishop Caussé of the Presiding Bishopric, shared a quote recently in a symposium, Church History Symposium in March of 2018. He says, “The Church also methodically follows the practice of setting aside a portion of its resources each year to prepare for any possible future needs. The money set aside are then added to the investment reserves of the church. They are invested in stocks and bonds, majority interest in taxable businesses, some of which date to the Church’s early Utah history, commercial, industrial and residential property,” and I’ll take a minute to add the City Creek Center.

There’s a lot of controversy of that, but $1.5 billion, that was part of this portfolio and diversification, and why not? Why wouldn’t you do that across from Temple Square as part of your portfolio of assets? I think it’s a very strategic decision, but it was people looking at that. There wasn’t any tithing funds used. This was part of the reserves there to build that, and it’s part of the investment portfolio.

Then he goes on to say, “Agricultural interests, the church’s reserves are managed by a professional group of employees and outside advisors. Risks are diversified consistent with wise improvement, stewardship, and moderate investment management principles. In the parable of the talents, the Lord who asks for an accounting from His servants, chastised the one who had not invested the money entrusted to him, but instead had hid that money in the earth. He characterized this servant as wicked and slothful for not investing that money for a reasonable financial return.

Consistent with this spiritual principle, the church’s financial reserves are not left idle in nonproductive bank accounts, but are instead employed where they can produce a return. These invested funds can be accessed in times of hardship to ensure the ongoing uninterrupted work of the Church’s mission, programs, and operations, and to meet emergency financial needs.

The funds are also needed to provide additional financial resources to support the Church’s mission to prepare for the Lord’s Second Coming. They will help all nations of the earth. We anticipate that a large part of this growth will take place in the developing and populous nations of the world. Ever-increasing financial means will be required to provide thousands of meeting houses, additional temples, and other essential resources to bless members’ lives wherever they are. In short, all these funds exist for no other reason than to support the Church’s divinely appointed mission.”

So, the church is actually building a new building somewhere in the world every day. That’s the average, and to give you an idea, also Quinn’s book was great on some details of this. If you were to look at the nations of the earth, the United States is the only area that is self-sustaining, where the tithing receipts are able to cover the expenses for operating the Church.

Actually, I’d say there’s one exception. Canada goes in and out a little bit, but it is self-sustaining, but to give you one example, the United Kingdom, the UK on average gets a 40% to 60% supplement from Church headquarters because they’re tithing there in the UK is not enough to overcome the expenses of operating the Church there, and to give you one dramatic example, in 2006, the Church sent the United Kingdom $450 million in that one year. This is a developed country. It was the first one the Church was in, 1837, one of the first ones that the Church was in. Also, if you look at where the Church is growing dramatically, Africa, the Philippines, and over 90% being supplemented from Church headquarters.

So, these funds are extremely important and needed especially for the future, and that’s also where this becomes a very critical thing in trying to develop what is being done and how to allocate it. There are some challenges that are sometimes presented with, is the church doing enough from a humanitarian perspective, especially with these kinds of dollars, and I think they’re trying to also be cautious in not doing their alms before man, but also letting their light shine and finding the right balance, and there has been some statements that have been confusing about amounts that had been said.

There was recently a comment that was made on the Mormon Newsroom site. It says “The Church has spent billions of dollars over the past few years to meet welfare and humanitarian needs around the world. We anticipate these needs will continue to increase over time. Church affiliated, for-profit entities also contribute to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Foundation, which gives to various charitable causes.”

The brethren through revelation were told, the Council on the Disposition of Tithes, which is the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Presiding Bishopric are to seek revelation on how to use these funds for the Church, and so they do seek revelation and try and guide both now and into the future, but particularly being aware of these massive costs that could be coming down the road. Remember, every time that the Church builds a building or a temple, it’s not an income-producing property, it’s an income-using property and with future costs to the Church.

Also in Michael Quinn’s book, he did an estimate on maybe the tithing funds that are being brought into the church. It may sound dramatic from some of the analysis that he’s pulled together. There’s lots of assumptions that are used. I take this with a big grain of salt, but he came up with a number of $33 billion a year and then maybe another 15 to 17 billion from the portfolio of the Church as well that provides the resources for the operating of the church.

Some others have done analysis that show numbers less than half that and have some good assumptions associated with those too, so it’s hard to know there. Those are huge numbers, but again, remember some of the numbers I just shared with you. Also, to give you an example, The Economist several years ago talked about the operating budget of the Catholic Church just in the United States was $170 billion a year, to just give a frame of reference of the operation.

There is a powerful concept though of the lay ministry of the church and if you think about on the local level, all of the services done by all these bishops, stake presidents, all the leaders, no one’s paid, and all of those dollars for other churches that’s a cost, an expense, that has also helped to lead to where we are today with this large growth in the assets that can be used for the furthering of the growth of the Church.

Okay, some have complained about transparency as well. The Church does not publish financial reports. It does in certain countries where it’s required to. Here is a piece on the lds.org site about this. It says, “The Church is not a financial institution or a commercial corporation. It has no other objective than preaching the gospel and inviting all to come unto Christ. While the Church chooses not to publish the details of its finances, the church does provide public information on the financial principles it follows, the financial controls in place to protect Church funds and the source and use of these funds. The Church also provides all financial information required by law.”

Now, I will say, I kind of wish they would publish, and I think it would be phenomenal, but I understand there’s probably an aspect to this of the micromanaging and the criticisms that could come with people that probably have 1/100th of the information of those that were making the decisions and that were also seeking inspiration from God about what to do. I do understand that there are controls and processes in place.

Here’s a, I’ll just put it up on the screen for a minute here. You can pause the screen if you want to read about the Council on the Disposition of the Tithes and the principles they follow, as well as Bishop Caussé’s breakdown of the Church spending into the six major areas out there.

Now, another controversial thing that’s come about recently has been discussions online, particularly about the living allowances that general authorities receive. I will talk first of all just about the scriptural basis for this. If you look in both the New Testament and the Doctrine and Covenants, Luke 10:7, “And in the same hour remain eating and drinking such things as they give; for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.” D&C 70 verse 12, “He who is appointed to administer spiritual things, the same is worthy of his hire, even as those who are appointed to a stewardship to administer temporal things.”

Now, I know there’s some concern with the concept of priestcraft when it comes to receiving any compensation in the Church. I’d like to share, and remember these general authorities are not seeking a career path here. They have been asked to do this. They are called to do this. Same thing with mission presidents. They’re asked to do this.

I’d like to read this from the FairMormon website on addressing this question of priestcraft. On here it says, “Church members have a particular sensitivity to issues surrounding paid ministries particularly due to admonitions in the Book of Mormon relative to a practice known as priestcraft, which is ‘That men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world, but they seek not the welfare of Zion.'” And then this is repeated multiple times in the Book of Mormon.

“For this reason, the idea of compensation for service seems contradictory to strongly held values of the Latter-Day Saint community. However, it should be noted that priestcraft as it has been defined is a condemnation of intent to get gain and praise and not for the welfare of Zion and not about an individual receiving support. Living stipends are not compensations for service, but recognition of a practice, a practical reality that individuals who decide to dedicate their full time to church service are sometimes unable to simultaneously provide for their own modest living needs.”

The example of King Benjamin adds to the LDS value of self-sufficiency of leaders in particular. Benjamin while king, still labored for his own support. This is a very admirable demonstration of humility on the part of the king. However, this example was being used in the context of his political position as king and would be comparable to a president refusing to accept his salary for his service,” which we’ve had three presidents in the U.S., Hoover, Kennedy, and Trump, that did this. “It should not be used to condemn the practice of helping provide for the modest living needs of full-time leaders who are unable to dedicate time to earning a living.”

Now, there are some examples out there of getting rich off the people, in a sense, from religion. Here is an example of the top 10 richest pastors in the world and their net worths, put up on the screen there: Kenneth Copeland, 760 million net worth; Bishop TD Jakes, 150 million. You can see these names. Pat Robertson, 100 million; Joel Osteen, many know him, 40 million; Billy Graham, 25 million; Rick Warren, the Saddleback Church there in Lake Forest, California, 25 million.

These are some examples, and again we talked about the lay ministry at the local levels are all volunteer service, and that’s part of the reason why the Church has been able to grow so much. Also, if the Church did not provide a living allowance for these general authorities or the modest living allowance for the mission presidents, then only the wealthy could serve. Nobody else who would be able to logistically.

So, it gives the ability to call anyone to those positions. Also, this has not been hidden. President Hinckley said in General Conference, “The living allowances given the general authorities, which are very modest in comparison with executive compensation in industry and the professions, come from the business income of the church and not from the tithing of the people.” Then the Ensign talked about mission presidents as they put their lives on hold, can often go through challenging financial situation with that and they are provided with the minimal living allowance because of that circumstance as well.

The dollar amount that was recently disclosed online on this also causing controversy, 120,000, if you were to compare that to the CEO of the Red Cross as an example, it’s 10 times that, it’s 1.2 million for the CEO of the Red Cross. If you were to look at the highest paid Church employee full-time paid employee running the administration or the bureaucracy side of the Church up in Canada, because they do have to disclose that up there, 250,000 is the top pay. So, twice the amount of the general authority. Keep in mind too, the general authorities are all getting paid the same. The prophet down to the newest called general authority all receive that same dollar amount.

So, the only additional income sources that the general authorities could actually get, especially the Twelve and the First Presidency that are called for life, would be books, book royalties, and so you might think that might be a decent amount. It’s not. It’s very, very minimal. A great example that Quinn put in here, the most prolific general authority writer, probably dozens of books, Joseph Fielding Smith.

When he died in probate they looked at his last royalty check and annualized it and figured it out. In today’s dollars, it would have been less than $50,000, and again, with dozens of books that had been produced, and to close I will say in the Doctrine and Covenants we’re told the Lord will hasten His work in His time. These resources are critical towards that measure, and I believe personally, that that’s part of why this is happening now, and it’s told that He will do it in His own way and it’s wonderful to watch and see where the Church is going.

Hopefully, this is a helpful video on the topic. Subscribe for more.

Resources:

Books:

The Mormon Hierarchy: Wealth & Corporate Power by D. Michael Quinn

Talks:

Talk by President Bishop Causee at the Church History Symposium, Mar 2, 2018: In the Lord’s Way: The Spiritual Foundations of Church Financial Self-Reliance https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/articl…

Articles:

Mormon Newsroom Press Release: Church Finances & A Growing Global Faith https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/articl…

Summary on LDS.org on the financial information released by the Church: https://www.lds.org/church/news/read-…

Deseret News Article – LDS Church Leaders Provide Insight Into Church Finances: https://www.deseretnews.com/article/9…

Salt Lake Tribune Article on Michael Quinn’s book: https://www.sltrib.com/religion/local…

Podcasts:

Salt Lake Tribune Podcast ‘Mormon Land’ with Michael Quinn on his book: https://www.sltrib.com/religion/local…

RadioWest Interview Podcast with Michael Quinn on his book: http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/mormon…

Websites:

Link to many articles within FairMormon on the topic of Church Finances: https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Mo…

August 28, 2019 By Jeff Roundy Leave a Comment

The Unparalleled Missionary Program! -Evidences

This video discusses the unparalleled missionary program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Over 1.3 million missionaries have now served, not only paying their own way, but answering the call to serve at a time of life often associated with peak levels of self-absorption and self-interest. To quote a Business Week article interviewing Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen: “I don’t think there’s any more demanding profession that being a Mormon missionary.”

On this video in the Evidences series, I’m going to talk about missionary work, the missionary program of the Church. When Jesus Christ was on the earth and formed His church, He sent out His disciples, two by two was the pattern, to preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. The restored gospel, restored church of Jesus Christ has a missionary program with the same pattern, and it is really unparalleled in the history of the world what has happened with this program.

Since 1830, we’ve had over 1.3 million missionaries that have served and returned home, having gone out to preach the gospel throughout the world. Currently, there’s actually 970,000 people currently alive that have served missions, so the vast majority of those are in this current day, 70,000 are serving today. Five of youth, of young adults, there are 5800 senior missionaries. There are 23,000 church service senior missionaries. Almost 100,000 total missionaries at this point collectively. About 25% of teens are going on missions. If you view it as from those that are active, it’s probably closer to 50% or more. There the men are able to go at age 18 and the women are eligible to go at age 19.

The men go for two years. The women go for 18 months. There’s 170 different languages that are spoken. They’re expected to learn this language in one of the 15 missionary training centers throughout the world. They learn the language in two months. On top of all this, they’re expected to pay their own way, and the church has levelized the cost to $400 a month for everybody that serves. And if you’re unable to pay completely, the church does provide a supplement to be able to still be able to serve. 160 million Books of Mormon have been given out since 1830 and there have been millions of hours of community service that the missionaries have done. And the thing that I love the most is the age that these missionaries go. It is at the peak time for them in self-absorption, self-interest.

They’ve just gotten out of high school, they’re focusing on thinking about colleges and careers. It’s the peak level of self-focus. And instead they completely turn outward and go and serve the Lord in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. I wanted to share a couple of quotes. One was from the Deseret News. And they were actually quoting in 2011 there had been articles published in Business Week and Financial Times and commenting on these, it says, “Both Business Week and the Financial Times concluded aspects of missionary training and missionary service were catalysts for business success. International assignments and language learning spawning multicultural sensitivities and global adaptability; companionships leading to the development of interpersonal skills and the combination of suffering, sacrifice, and self-improvement, helping instill a strong work ethic.” Business Week quoted Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, a Rhodes scholar and LDS missionary in Korea in the early 1970s, “I don’t think there’s any more demanding profession than being a Mormon missionary.”

Now, this is the benefit to the missionary that we’re talking about here and some of the secular benefits. The church also on the newsroom site had a great piece that they talked about all the benefits from serving in mission, holistically and collectively. This is the quote. “Returning missionaries carry home a wealth of knowledge and experiences that set the course of their life. Firm faith in God, an increased knowledge of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the restored gospel, an exposure to cultural diversity, a new language competence, possibly with a foreign language but often with an improvement in their communication skills, an increase in confidence and an overwhelming love for the people with whom they have served, abilities to set and reach goals, to gain a sense of responsibility for themselves and others, to concentrate on their educational studies, and then build positive relationships with people of varied backgrounds. The experience of that service for the individual missionary becomes a strong foundation for the future, both within the family and the church and in academic and professional pursuits. Many missionaries credit their full-time service with influencing their direction for the rest of their lives. Some move on to successful business pursuits. Others find useful in the service, education, or technical fields. Most also continue church and community service with a focus on family.”

And I know personally, I’ve been home for over 30 years from my mission, but I still reflect back so much of what is good in my life today I can tie back to the foundations of my mission. It really changed the trajectory path of my life and brought tremendous blessings and joy, not just when serving, but since then as well. One of my favorite quotes in the Bible is Isaiah 52:7. I want to read this and then show you a brief video clip of a missionary choir at a worldwide leadership training meeting and show you a clip of that that I found. But Isaiah 52:7 says, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings and publishes peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publishes salvation, that sayeth unto Zion, ‘Thy God reigneth’. Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice, with a voice together shall they sing.” And please enjoy the singing that you’re going to see now.

(singing)

Resources:

Articles:

Mormon Newsroom, Missionary Program: https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/topic/…

Mormon Newsroom, Missionary Work – Experiences Shape the Future https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/articl…

Deseret news article summarizing both Business Week and Financial Times articles https://www.deseretnews.com/article/7…

August 28, 2019 By Jeff Roundy Leave a Comment

Comparing Names in The Book of Mormon with J.R.R. Tolkien’s Works – Evidences

A just released study from a group of researchers at BYU illustrates how authors have a ‘soundprint’ in the names they create, even when they are trying to avoid this. Tolkien, a linguistic scholar and master of languages, purposely set forth in his works to create unique names and languages for his distinct groups of creatures. His efforts seemed to have failed in comparison to the distinct names for the 4 major cultural groups in the Book of Mormon – an evidence this book wasn’t written by a singular author (Joseph Smith)

Okay, so in this Evidences video, I’m excited to share some brand new research, just came out, from a group down at BYU of researchers that put together a paper.

They just issued it in the Interpreter Foundation on the website, called Comparing Book of Mormon Names with Those Found in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Works: An Exploratory Study.

This has to do with names, and it has to do with sounds. Sounds that the names make, as getting a sound print, in a sense. And in this, it’s fascinating as they compare the names that Joseph Smith had in the Book of Mormon from different cultures, that you would have said if Joseph made the Book of Mormon up, then there would be a sound print, and you could see Joseph’s fingerprints all over those sounds.

With Tolkien, with how much knowledge he had, it would just be the opposite. He should be able to not have a sound print. And so it’s fascinating to see he did, all throughout his work. So that’s what this paper’s about. Now, let me share the abstract at the beginning.

“The works of Tolkien and the Book of Mormon have been compared in a variety of ways, by multiple authors and researchers, but none have looked specifically at the unusual names found within both. Word print studies are one tool used in author attribution research …,” which, by the way, I’ll do a separate video on that at some point.

But it says, “… but do authors use specific sounds more than others, consciously or subconsciously, when selecting or inventing names? Some research suggests they may, and that their patterns can create a sound print or phonoprint. This constitutes a fresh and unusual path of research that deserves more attention.”

So this is in its infancy really, but I thought it would be fun to just visit a little bit, give you some thoughts from the paper, show you some of the research, and add a few things at the end.

So first of all, if you compare J.R.R Tolkien to Joseph Smith, Tolkien had mastered 13 languages, both ancient and modern, had a working knowledge of 9 others. He liked to create languages that had the basis in ancient languages. He created worlds, cultures, characters, and he knew how to create linguistic systems. He was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, and, “created languages based on some characteristics of natural languages. He deliberately used different sound systems for each of them, and he particularly enjoyed the names that evolved from these systems.”

So, with all that, he should not have, if he was trying to do this, he would not have a sound print in a sense. Whereas Joseph Smith would, definitely. If he was creating a fictional work as would be claimed by critics, then you would be able to see his fingerprints all over it, as the author.

It’s interesting if you note that, just a sidebar, when Joseph was translating in the Book of Ether, the name, Coriantumr, from the Jaredites. When, in the original text, it’s crossed out and he has Oliver respell that, and the spelling, it was spelled the way it would sound. At the end, it said M-M-E-R, Coriantummer, but he had it changed to M-R at the end, which is not the way anything would be done in English, but if fit perfectly in the old world there.

But it’s interesting to, again, compare these two, remember Joseph was a third grade education, bad speller, not educated. Now, in the study, they broke it out, with Tolkien in to the five different areas of languages that he had created, that had the most names associated with. So 183 names. If you look at the screen here: dwarf, 23 names; elf, 47 names; hobbit, 18 names; man, 74 names; and other, 21 names.

For Joseph, we had, they excluded names that showed up in the Bible, and they excluded names that were places, they excluded names that were not clear which culture they fit in, and came up with 130 names that would work for the analysis. So, Jaredites, there were 34; Nephites, there were 82; Mulekites, there were 6; and Lamanites, there were 8, and that these should have different sound prints if they were from different times and cultures.

And so should Tolkien’s, here, with what he was trying to accomplish.

So the first analysis they did, they, “examined all these 313 names, 183 from Tolkien, 130 from the Book of Mormon, to determine how much the five groups of Tolkien’s names differed from one another in their phonotactic probabilities …,” and that’s the sounds that letters make within a word, “… in comparison with the four groups of Book of Mormon names.

“The phonotactic probability calculator developed by Vitevitch and Luce, which is available online, provides probabilities by comparing the phonemes in each ordinal position of a given word to the standard American English frequencies.” Now this gets a little technical and complicated. The research piece, I’ll link in the resources and you can look through it, but I did like … it is interesting, the analysis.

The first one here, the outcome, it said, “There were notable differences among the groups in their variety of name links, phoneme probabilities, and bifone probabilities. The Book of Mormon name groups have much greater in-group divergence than Tolkien names, which are more homogeneous.

“The within-source comparisons, the language groups within each book, reveal additional differences between the texts. Although Tolkien created his character names, or claimed his character names were primarily based on different languages, real or invented, the phonotactic probabilities did not differ significantly. In the within-source comparisons, among the five Tolkien languages, only one of the 10 language group comparisons, 10%, is statistically significant.” It was the man versus elf.

“Among the four Book of Mormon name groups, four of the six variance ratios, or 67%, were significant. Nephite versus Jaredite, Mulekite versus Jaredite, Lamanite versus Jaredite, and Lamanite versus Nephite.”

Now, the second analysis they did had to do with the names themselves, the whole word, not just a sound within the name, and they compared it to a database of language software that IBM has, of 800 million names, to try and get to the root of where the names originated from. It’s based on modern languages, so these, both Joseph and Tolkien were supposed to have been tied to ancient languages here, so the software does give a generic rating to the word if there is no modern-day comparison. And so it is another way you can do an analysis, here.

So if you look at the screen, picture’s worth a thousand words. Here’s the screen: bar graphs, showing the frequency of the generic names. If you look at Tolkien on the left, you can see very little variation, almost all the same. If you look on the right, the high variety amongst the four groups in the Book of Mormon, which would be expected if it was from different times and different cultures.

At the end they say here, look on the screen, “Results suggest that Tolkien was unable to entirely escape his phonoprint when selecting or creating character names, even though he claimed he based them on or found them within distinct languages. The two analyses showed little differentiation involving his five major naming groups.

A possible phonoprint, of sorts, seems to have surfaced in his names, regardless of the language groups in which he placed them. In contrast in Book of Mormon names, a single author’s phonoprint does not emerge. Lamanite, Nephite, Mulekite, and Jaredite names have varied by group in the way one would expect names from different cultures to vary, when looking at sounds within names, and names as whole units.”

And then one last thing I wanted to share just from these … a couple of these same researchers did an article, published in Religious Study Center at BYU a number of years ago. The title was 188 Unexplainable Names: Book of Mormon Names No Fiction Writer Would Choose. And they actually did a survey of of authors, on how they create and invent and put together names in their stories and their works, and there were five themes that they use. And then they kind of compared what Joseph did in these.

So, first of all, “Authors made conscious and deliberate choices for character names, some of which require a great deal of time and consideration.” So think of Joseph as he was translating, without even pausing when he introduced extremely complex names.

Number two, “They chose names that are easily accessible so that readers can clearly distinguish between characters and keep them straight.” Think of Joseph’s. The names were often quite long and complex.

Three, “They are careful that names fit the characters’ personalities, backgrounds and cultures.” In fact with Joseph, some of the names are given to both heroes and villains.

Number four, “They go to many different sources to find names that are accurate and interesting.” Joseph did not use different resources. He did not have access to ancient foreign name lists. They were not available.

And last, “They often choose names that have personal significance for them,” which, the only two names you could tie that to, with Joseph, was Joseph and Samuel.

So in conclusion to share a last thought from that paper that they shared, was, “Does Joseph Smith’s disregard for naming conventions indicate he was a careless craftsmen, or does it indicate he was a careful translator of a record full of authentic names, which were not his inventions?

For Joseph Smith to have invented the 188 unique names found in the Book of Mormon seems highly unlikely. Coming up with that many names would have been overwhelming, especially considering Joseph Smith’s limited formal education. Even if someone were to suggest that inventing that number of names in a severely limited timeframe might have been possible, their consistency with language patterns yet to be discovered removes it far from the realm of probability.”

I hope you enjoy this video, and subscribe for notifications of new content. Thanks.

Resources:

Studies:

The main study published on the Interpreter Foundation website: https://www.mormoninterpreter.com/com…

Additional study by some of the same researchers published in the BYU Religious Studies Center https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/volume-1…

Jeff Roundy

Resources:

Resources:

Resources:

Resources:

Resources:

Resources:

Let's Be Friends!