So if Chandler would only sell the papyrus and the mummies as a package deal, is it because Joey and Ross talked him into it, or did Chandler have to get rid of the mummies because Monica didn't like them?
I was totally fascinated by the mummy chapter in early Mormon history. Before I learned about that in seminary, I was pretty well enamored of the facsimiles. As a kid, those facsimiles were just absolute proof that Mormonism, in toto, had to be the real deal, with legit archaeological and egyptological evidence. Never mind that I didn't know anything about them except that the brethren saw fit to publish them, I just couldn't understand why all those archaeologists and egyptologists wouldn't see what was plainly evident before them. I figured they were blinded by Satan's influence...until I read 'Abraham in Egypt,' lol.
In Joseph's time, he and many of his contemporaries believed that God could reveal things through a seer stone. Because of this Joseph's mind was already open and prepared for revelation and a translation process through the Urim and Thummin once he received it. The Lord utilized Joseph's worldview to help restore the gospel. If Joseph had been skeptical of seer stones, he may not have been receptive to translating (transferring?) the Book of Mormon.
As Joseph continued to receive more revelations, he discovered that the seer stone was merely an elementary tool for teaching him how to focus his thoughts on the things of God. By the time he was working on the Inspired Version of the New Testament, he no longer needed the seer stone. Joseph apparently told Orson Pratt 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,"
I think it is worthy of consideration that the Gold Plates and the Book of Abraham Facsimiles achieved a similar purpose of helping Joseph to focus his thoughts on the revelations coming from God using these physical manifestations as medium.
Then saith He to Thomas... be not faithless, but believing. - John 20:27
GR33N wrote:In Joseph's time, he and many of his contemporaries believed that God could reveal things through a seer stone. Because of this Joseph's mind was already open and prepared for revelation and a translation process through the Urim and Thummin once he received it. The Lord utilized Joseph's worldview to help restore the gospel. If Joseph had been skeptical of seer stones, he may not have been receptive to translating (transferring?) the Book of Mormon.
As Joseph continued to receive more revelations, he discovered that the seer stone was merely an elementary tool for teaching him how to focus his thoughts on the things of God. By the time he was working on the Inspired Version of the New Testament, he no longer needed the seer stone. Joseph apparently told Orson Pratt 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,"
I think it is worthy of consideration that the Gold Plates and the Book of Abraham Facsimiles achieved a similar purpose of helping Joseph to focus his thoughts on the revelations coming from God using these physical manifestations as medium.
I think JSJr just replaced his little green and white 'seer' stones with a Jupiter Talisman that he was wearing around his neck at Carthage Jail. He never really got beyond the notion that an inanimate object had magical powers.
GR33N wrote:In Joseph's time, he and many of his contemporaries believed that God could reveal things through a seer stone. Because of this Joseph's mind was already open and prepared for revelation and a translation process through the Urim and Thummin once he received it. The Lord utilized Joseph's worldview to help restore the gospel. If Joseph had been skeptical of seer stones, he may not have been receptive to translating (transferring?) the Book of Mormon.
LOL Why would a guy who supposedly seen God, Jesus, and angels need anything more to be receptive to translating anything.
I think it is worthy of consideration that the Gold Plates and the Book of Abraham Facsimiles achieved a similar purpose of helping Joseph to focus his thoughts on the revelations coming from God using these physical manifestations as medium.
And why would God give revelation to Joseph that he knows has nothing to do with the papyri?
Themis wrote:And why would God give revelation to Joseph that he knows has nothing to do with the papyri?
Whilst letting Joseph believe (incorrectly) that he was translating something verbatim that Abraham himself had written on that specific papyrus...
“We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.” Keith McMullin - Counsellor in Presiding Bishopric
"One, two, three...let's go shopping!" Thomas S Monson - Prophet, Seer, Revelator