I propose that we assume that Joseph was already well aware of his uncle's accomplishments and already interested in following his uncle's example in his Gold Bible Company scheme, which was to be the man to put Palmyra on the map as a major attraction on the Erie Canal and a new center for Freemasonry in New York. To be the home for a new Grand Lodge would have meant a heckuva lot of business.
Wow.
Also, I found the interpretation of the artifacts interesting. What is the connection between pot with manna and Lihona? Wait: prior to producing the Book of Mormon text, the "Liahona" could have been something other than what the Book of Mormon describes.
Was his intent to create all these artifacts? any details on his plans for doing so?
Lou Midgley 08/20/2020: "...meat wad," and "cockroach" are pithy descriptions of human beings used by gemli? They were not fashioned by Professor Peterson.
LM 11/23/2018: one can explain away the soul of human beings...as...a Meat Unit, to use Professor Peterson's clever derogatory description of gemli's ideology.
I have started a new thread about my theory regarding the origins of the Book of Mormon.
Does your theory account for the actual text of the Book of Mormon? The complete narrative, not just bits and pieces.
What was it about the Reverend's proposal that made you feel justified in thinking that it only accounted for 'bits and pieces'?
The question to be answered was basically "What personal or economic benefit might have motivated Smith to compose this elaborate (even if rather tedious) Biblical pastiche?". And the answer suggested is:
So, on the one hand, there are the very problematic statements of the Book of Mormon witnesses, and on the other there is the invitation to get good feelings after praying about the truth of the Book of Mormon. My opinion is that the experiences the witnesses actually had were much closer to the experiences "Moroni" invites his reader to have. It was Joseph Smith who deliberately constructed the plates and their story in such a way that it would appear to belong to the realm of hard reality.
My hypothesis for his motivation is that it was less religious than it was mercenary. Joseph Smith was seeking to create a tourist destination for travelers taking trips down the Erie Canal. One of the primary goals of this hoax, which would have been an obvious hoax to this target audience, was to draw the interest of Freemasons. It could be that Smith was originally making a bid to make Palmyra the western center of New York Freemasonry. Unfortunately, however, by the time his plan came to fruition, he had to abandon his original Masonic project and replace it with a church project. The kidnapping of Morgan and the subsequent anti-Masonic hysteria scotched the original plan.
So, the hoax was no longer a hoax with winking approval from Freemasons. Now it was something else entirely. And yet I think something of the original plan survived in the insistence on the hard materiality of the plates themselves. At some point, however, Joseph decided he would not be able to use his fabricated plates in the way he hoped, and so he had to get rid of them. No two bits a gander after all. That would have to wait until Joseph's young church purchased the mummies and papyri. Then people actually were charged two bits a gander to see the artifacts. I see no reason to think that the Book of Mormon wasn't originally intended to be a similar thing.
That is certainly a motivation for the entire writing project, stated in the outline form which is all one can do on a discussion board like this.
Zadok: I did not have a faith crisis. I discovered that the Church was having a truth crisis. Maksutov: That's the problem with this supernatural stuff, it doesn't really solve anything. It's a placeholder for ignorance.
Also, I found the interpretation of the artifacts interesting. What is the connection between pot with manna and Lihona? Wait: prior to producing the Book of Mormon text, the "Liahona" could have been something other than what the Book of Mormon describes.
Was his intent to create all these artifacts? any details on his plans for doing so?
Thank you for these questions, Dean Robbers.
The pot of manna is a token of the miraculous nourishment God provided during the exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land. The Liahona was a divinatory instrument used to guide the family of Lehi to nourishment during their exodus from Judaea to the new Promised Land.
And, yes, I think the intention at one time was to place the relics of Lehi in the “restored“ Masonic Temple of Nephi in Palmyra.
"Petition wasn’t meant to start a witch hunt as I’ve said 6000 times." ~ Hanna Seariac, LDS apologist
