Wow - this is sweet information on the seer stone used by Joseph:
http://fox13now.com/2015/08/04/lds-church-releases-never-before-seen-pics-of-seer-stone-used-by-joseph-smith/
On a similar note:
Each one of you has one (a personal Urim and Thummim) - you just have to find it and I have a few keys of knowledge on that matter here. Here is a data dump of previous wood zone articles on the matter:
http://woodyoubelieveit.blogspot.com/search?q=urim
The stones are cool but I'm more blown away by the Lord touching them with His holy finger to make them shine. From what I can tell reading scriptures, He's the most powerful, unfathomable, solar bank in the universe. The Light and Life of the world. It is said the sun is hollow and when it phases out, it becomes a beautiful stone. Do you think the Lord touched the sun before it became the sun to keep it shining for us for this earth's history? Seer stones have long been a keen source of interest to me. I've read articles where others have said, "They're lying around all over the place, you just have to know what to look for." Didn't Spencer mention using stones for awhile until they were no longer needed because their faith became powerful enough? I'm just tryin' to go off of memory from the book.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, cool post brother! Hope we get to read "the rest of the story" at some future point.
Can someone enlighten me...are seer stones and the Urim and Thummim the same thing? Also, I thought they were set in a bow?
ReplyDeleteI looked it up the other day to clarify. This is from lds.org:
DeleteJoseph Smith and his scribes wrote of two instruments used in translating the Book of Mormon. According to witnesses of the translation, when Joseph looked into the instruments, the words of scripture appeared in English. One instrument, called in the Book of Mormon the “interpreters,” is better known to Latter-day Saints today as the “Urim and Thummim.” Joseph found the interpreters buried in the hill with the plates. Those who saw the interpreters described them as a clear pair of stones bound together with a metal rim. The Book of Mormon referred to this instrument, together with its breastplate, as a device “kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord” and “handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages.”
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 1820s, 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.
To my understanding, the Urim and Thummim is an assembly comprised of a breast plate and a mount on the front of that breast plate for holding two seer stones. I understand Joseph Smith removed the seer stones from the assembly for ease of use - for a time he supposedly put a seer stone into a hat so he could block out extraneous light while looking at the stone. And, apparently, he found or otherwise acquired additional seer stones.
DeleteWhen I was a kid my mom used to tell me that if you found a rock on the top of a mountain with a stripe that went all the way around it that it was sacred and held certain powers to the native Americans. (not sure what tribe). this made me think of that. maybe it's related.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I had some difficulty when I first saw these pictures. This rock doesn't look anything like the description in Ether 3:1 of rocks that "were white and clear, even as transparent glass". But as I pondered the subject, the answer became obvious. Looking at the rock without the proper authority, it looks like a partially polished piece of sedimentary rock - nothing special at all, and nothing that would attract the attention of somebody who wasn't authorized to use it as a seer stone.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine what the experience would be like of looking at a seer stone with proper authority, but I look forward to gaining that experience.
Iraq: You said that we each have a seer stone which we need to find. But Revelation 2:17 indicates the stone will be given to us. Comment?
Interesting how different things that have nothing to do with the priesthood, or priesthood authority can be used to build spiritual sensitivity and faith in God and in His Priesthood.
ReplyDeleteThe folk religion of Joseph's time was full of what modern religionists would deride as heretical or even inspired by the evil one. Perhaps our views are sometimes too narrow.
all of the information is extremely interesting - I had no idea. Thank you for all of your comments. Gives me a lot to think about and seek to understand.
ReplyDelete