Golden Plates......I've always wondered

[_Wilma Fingerdoo]

Why didn't God let Joseph Smith melt the plates so he could use them as start up money for the church? That would be better than requiring early members to sell everything they own.

[_Polygamy-Porter]

Why didn't God let Joseph Smith melt the plates so he could use them as start up money for the church? That would be better than requiring early members to sell everything they own.

Brilliant.

He could have melted them down even before they were translated too.

[_sunstoned]

Why didn't God let Joseph Smith melt the plates so he could use them as start up money for the church? That would be better than requiring early members to sell everything they own.

Brilliant.

He could have melted them down even before they were translated too.

This is true. If I was Moroni, I would be really pissed about this whole deal. He hauled those things all the way up from Central America, and come to find out all what was needed was a hat and a rock.

[_Uncle Dale]

Why didn't God let Joseph Smith melt the plates so he could use them as start up money for the church? That would be better than requiring early members to sell everything they own.

Well -- you see -- they were "sacred."

And we really don't want to say too much about sacred things,
like the wonderful plates, or the ark of the covenant, or the
severed foreskin of John the Baptist. These things are just too
spiritually uplifting to be part of our everyday conversations.

So -- to gaze upon the plates, with worldly eyes was death.
To melt them down and spread around that death-causing
gold would have been cruel and ungodly.

That is why we discover no Nephite or Jaredite metal plates,
to this very day. They are sacred and they would kill you
if you ever looked upon one.

Next question?

UD

[_thews]

The answer is simple... Joseph Smith was a money digger using his "Urim and Thummim" (a.k.a. Seer stones) in cahoots with other money diggers. If he melted them down, the others would demand their fair share.

[_Phaedrus Ut]

I'd like to see a statement from the church assuring that "no Nephite gold was used to pay for the City Creek Mall".

Phaedrus

[_son of Ishmael]

Why didn't God let Joseph Smith melt the plates so he could use them as start up money for the church? That would be better than requiring early members to sell everything they own.

Well -- you see -- they were "sacred."

And we really don't want to say too much about sacred things,
like the wonderful plates, or the ark of the covenant, or the
severed foreskin of John the Baptist. These things are just too
spiritually uplifting to be part of our everyday conversations.

So -- to gaze upon the plates, with worldly eyes was death.
To melt them down and spread around that death-causing
gold would have been cruel and ungodly.

That is why we discover no Nephite or Jaredite metal plates,
to this very day. They are sacred and they would kill you
if you ever looked upon one.

Next question?

UD

Yeah just look what happen in the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie. And that was just Aztec gold. Think of the curses that would have plagued the early saints if they had tried to spend Nephite gold!