mormans, do you really believe that some guy found golden tablets and read the using stones from a hat???

Question

And if so, how can you explain the tablets being in America

Answer 1

Here is the cliff notes version...

The golden plates were the written record of the people living in ancient America. They basically were in 2 groups, the Nephites and Lamanites. It is a record of their lives over about 600 years. At the end of their existence, there was a battle. The prophet at the time, Mormon had abridged all the records into one book. As he was dying, he gave them to his son, Moroni. He was the last living Nephite. He carried them for the rest of his life to the place God told him too. Which today is equivalent to Palmyra New York. To keep them safe, he buried them and covered the spot with a rock. Fast forward more than 1000 years and then you have Joseph Smith being led by the now Angel Moroni to the very spot the plates lay.

At first then seemed far fetched to me. Then I read and prayed about it. I know now, without a doubt that these things are true. This story is not even remotely as weird and 'out there' and some told in the Bible.

Good luck.

Answer 2

The story goes that Joseph Smith was visited by Moroni, and then given the gold plates along with the Urim and Thummin. I'm not sure what exactly these items were, but they seem to have been some type of crystal lens. In King Solomon's temple, the Urim and Thummim were apparently affixed into the breastplate of the high priest of the Temple. Questions would be asked, and then someone could look through the lenses and receive answers. This is described in 1 Kings. It was form of divination that was employed in the Israelite Temple. So anyways, Smith was given a letter-by-letter translation of the gold plates, and this is supposedly where we get the Book of Mormon today. I don't buy it, but that's the story.

Answer 3

First, Joseph didn't find some golden tablets. They were shown to him in vision so that he knew where to go, he knew where they were buried.
Second, he didn't read them using stones in a hat. Through the power of revelation from the Holy Ghost, and with the instrumentation of the Urim and Thummim, God gave him the translation of the record.
Third, the plates were deposited in North America by the man who eventually directed Joseph to them. Moroni was essentially alone for 36 years before he deposited the plates in the Hill Cumorah in New York. Even if most of his life was spent in Central America, 36 years is more than enough time to travel to New York. In the alternative scenario, the final battle of the Book of Mormon actually took place around the Hill Cumorah and the travelling took place in those final years leading up to the final battle.
You need to read and study and find out the story by actually reading the Book of Mormon. After you have learned about it, then you can begin to ask reasonable questions.

Answer 4

plates of metal having the appearance of gold, brought here and recorded on to keep record of a seperate people - a small portion of people who travelled to and lived in the Americas.

They were 'translated' using a tool called a urim and thummim, in appearance similar to two stones in a type of eyeglasses.....

The plates were brought here by boat.

Answer 5

Yes! They got taken to South/Central America and some guy (Moroni) carried them North.

Answer 6

If I buried a treasure, for example, in my backyard, and then eight or nine hundred years from now, if someone dug in my backyard, WOW, what a surprise!!!!! Buried treasure.!!!

The Golden Plates were buried there by Moroni, and that is where they stayed until, Joseph Smith was told, where they were.


lds.org... read all about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 7

Yup. Why is it so hard to believe?

--edit--LDSMom! Yeah, there ya go, Mom.

Sometimes I get so weary of explaining over and over again, I am so grateful when someone else does it.

Answer 8

Allow me to answer this as a former Mormon and worse yet, a former Mormon missionary:

It may not be what individual Mormons believe (particularly the stone in the hat trick) but it is what the Mormon Church has taught for over 150 years.

Also, Joseph Smith didn't "find" them; the zombie (dead but re-animated; what do YOU call it?) Moroni told him where to find them.

Answer 9

If God wanted them to be in America they will be there.

I just wished God wanted some gold tablets to be in my house right now.

Answer 10

if they got rid of that part I'd be a lot more inclined to accept their belief, not that my opinion matters.