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Does anyone know what happened to the golden plates?

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michel

Administrator Emeritus
Staff member
royol said:
Where are the golden plates now?

Are you reffering to the "gold plates" that Joseph Smith said he received from an angel, which were usded as a source of the production of the Book of Mormon ?
 

Revasser

Terrible Dancer
If I recall correctly, the angel Moroni is believed to have taken them back once Joseph Smith was finished with them.

Obviously our LDS members will know better than me.
 

royol

Member
michel said:
Are you reffering to the "gold plates" that Joseph Smith said he received from an angel, which were usded as a source of the production of the Book of Mormon ?

Yes, I was wondering where they are now, have other scholars checked them out?
and what language were they written in?
 

Katzpur

Not your average Mormon
Revasser said:
If I recall correctly, the angel Moroni is believed to have taken them back once Joseph Smith was finished with them.

Obviously our LDS members will know better than me.
That's correct.
 

dan

Well-Known Member
royol said:
Yes, I was wondering where they are now, have other scholars checked them out?
and what language were they written in?

The Angel took them. Joseph could not show them to anyone other than the eleven men he was commanded to show them to, so scholarly research was out of the question - almost. He did copy down several of the characters from the plates that were supposed to have been written in "Reformed Egyptian." They were shown to a professor who concluded that the translation offered by Joseph, as far as he could tell, was a correct one.

This reformed Egyptian is an unknown language, but the script prepared by Joseph Smith does contain several real Egyptian letters, to which Joseph Smith would have had no access. The only way the professor could have deduced the translation was if there were regular Egyptian letters accompanying the reformed script.

Many will say that it's "convenient" that the plates were taken by the angel, but it's really quite inconvenient. Having the plates would shut a lot of you people up.

The interesting part about this whole issue is that there is absolutely no evidence that the plates did not exist, beyond the usual suspicion of all things religious. No one can show that they were not real, and we hae the testimonies of eleven extremely reputable men that saw, handled and turned the pages of the plates. These testimonies remained in force after many of them left the church and even tried to kill Joseph. Not one of the men ever denied the actuality of the plates, despite years of being begged to do so. Some signed death bed testimonies that it was all true, but not a one of them ever denied the actuality of the plates, even when they were planning the Prophet's demise. The burden of proof lies with whoever doubts their reality.
 

Bishka

Veteran Member
royol said:
Yes, I was wondering where they are now, have other scholars checked them out?
and what language were they written in?

The angel Moroni took them, and no, no other scholars (to my knowledge) have checked them out, and they were written in reformed egyptian (I believe).
 

royol

Member
dan said:
The interesting part about this whole issue is that there is absolutely no evidence that the plates did not exist.

The other interesting part about this whole issue is that there is absolutely no evidence that the plates did exist.
If you are saying the Mormon religion is based on this?
I am taking no further part in this thread.
 

Bishka

Veteran Member
royol said:
The other interesting part about this whole issue is that there is absolutely no evidence that the plates did exist.
If you are saying the Mormon religion is based on this?
I am taking no further part in this thread.

Why did you start this thread then? Then LDS Church's cornerstone is actually Jesus Christ, our keystone is the Book of Mormon. What's so wrong with that? If you aren't going to like the answer, don't ask the question.
 

royol

Member
I started the thread because I thought the LDS had a belief that was based on something a little more solid than has come to light so far, something I didn't know about, but so far I have seen nothing that makes me even the slightest bit curious to know more.

beckysoup61 said:
Why did you start this thread then? Then LDS Church's cornerstone is actually Jesus Christ, our keystone is the Book of Mormon. What's so wrong with that? If you aren't going to like the answer, don't ask the question.

The Book of Mormon is the big stumbling block.
And I ask a question expecting at least an answer that is worthy to be classed as an answer.
 

nutshell

Well-Known Member
royol said:
I started the thread because I thought the LDS had a belief that was based on something a little more solid than has come to light so far, something I didn't know about, but so far I have seen nothing that makes me even the slightest bit curious to know more.

Since when is a Faith based on "something a little more solid?" How do we know Buddha, Christ, Mohammad and others were real? Because it was written in books and based on our faith we either choose to believe what is written or not. The Book of Mormon is no different.

By the way, there were witnesses who were shown the plates and they have recorded statements saying they saw them. Also, characters from the plates were copied and shown to a linguistic professor who certified the characters/translation was authentic. He later recanted when he found out what the characters were from (gold plates) and fulfilled Biblical prophesy when he said he could not read a "sealed book."

What more do you want? This isn't science it's a faith-based belief system.
 

Bishka

Veteran Member
royol said:
I started the thread because I thought the LDS had a belief that was based on something a little more solid than has come to light so far, something I didn't know about, but so far I have seen nothing that makes me even the slightest bit curious to know more.

I just stated what our cornerstone is Royol, Jesus Christ. We also believe in the Old and New Testament. What are you expecting us to believe in flying fairies that are green and blue polka-dots? You won't find that here.
 

nutshell

Well-Known Member
royol said:
The other interesting part about this whole issue is that there is absolutely no evidence that the plates did exist.
If you are saying the Mormon religion is based on this?
I am taking no further part in this thread.

I don't say the religion is based on the Book of Mormon, but more on what that represents: Continuing revelation. We believe there is a prophet of God today who communicates directly with him and receives revelation to guide his Church.

And, as Becky has pointed out, the cornerstone or foundation of our religion is Jesus Christ.
 

royol

Member
nutshell said:
Since when is a Faith based on "something a little more solid?" How do we know Buddha, Christ, Mohammad and others were real? Because it was written in books and based on our faith we either choose to believe what is written or not. The Book of Mormon is no different.

By the way, there were witnesses who were shown the plates and they have recorded statements saying they saw them. Also, characters from the plates were copied and shown to a linguistic professor who certified the characters/translation was authentic. He later recanted when he found out what the characters were from (gold plates) and fulfilled Biblical prophesy when he said he could not read a "sealed book."

What more do you want? This isn't science it's a faith-based belief system.

They could have been shown anything, and they genuinely thought they had been shown something wonderful, signed a piece of paper saying they had seen them and unwittingly started a whole new religion, if you believe in Jesus Christ why don't you just drop the Book of Mormon and get on with believing in Jesus Christ?
And while I agree that it's a faith-based belief system, why is it always the ludicrous that requires the most faith? the more ludicrous the belief the more faith is required.
 
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