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Let’s talk about Enoch: Biblical, Extra Biblical & Joseph Smith’s Account.
Apocrypha & Ancient TextsAbout 1,500 words · 7-minute read Let’s talk about the Biblical...
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What Was on the Brass Plates? Jonah Barnes’s “The Key to the Keystone”
Lehi's family carried a scripture record out of Jerusalem that held more than our Old Testament does. Jonah R. Barnes's 2024 book asks what was on it, using texts that surfaced after 1830. Here's the question, the scriptural groundwork, and why it matters.
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The 1826 Hearing and the 1830 Acquittals: What the Records Say
In 1826 a New York justice examined Joseph Smith as “the Glass Looker.” In 1830 two more courts heard the same charge and let him go. Here is what the surviving records prove, what they don’t, and what critics usually leave out.
The 1826 Hearing and the 1830 Acquittals: What the Records Say
In 1826 a New York justice examined Joseph Smith as “the Glass Looker.” In 1830 two more courts heard the same charge and let him go. Here is what the surviving records prove, what they don’t, and what critics usually leave out.
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How the Book of Mormon Was Translated: The Case for the Urim and Thummim
Joseph Smith, his scribe Oliver Cowdery, and the revelations of 1828–29 all name the same instrument: the Urim and Thummim found with the plates. Here is the Joseph Smith Foundation’s case, the sources behind it, and how to weigh the later stone-in-a-hat accounts.
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Joseph Smith the “Money Digger”? Treasure Seeking in 1820s New England
“Joseph Smith was a money digger.” He said so himself in 1838, for fourteen dollars a month. What critics leave out: treasure seeking was widespread among churchgoing Christians in 1820s New England and New York, the man who hired Joseph was a Presbyterian who later joined the Church, and the Bible has its own seer for lost property in 1 Samuel 9.
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The Canon Was Never Meant to Close
From the voice in Eden to Sinai, the prophets, Christ, and the apostles, God always spoke through prophets, and every major change came with a prophet’s name, a date, God’s own words, and a reason. The closing of the canon has none. Here is the full story: the councils and the Reformation that drew the lists, the books the Bible cites but we don’t have, the prophets it promises for the last days, the “we are Moses’ disciples” pattern, and how God reopened the heavens.
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Seer Stones in the Bible: Urim and Thummim, Joseph’s Cup, Gideon’s Fleece
Critics mock Joseph Smith’s seer stone as “a rock in a hat.” The Bible tells a different story: Urim and Thummim in the high priest’s breastplate, Joseph of Egypt’s silver cup, Gideon’s fleece, apostles casting lots, Aaron’s rod, the brass serpent, and Jesus healing with clay. Here is the context critics leave out, plus what the witnesses in the room actually described.
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Book of Mormon Evidence, Part 4 of 10: The Wordprint Track Record
Forty years of Book of Mormon wordprint studies, misses included. Function words and word-pattern ratios keep finding many distinct authors and no match for Joseph Smith. The one study that found a single author used a method that picked the right known author only 23% of the time. Part 4 of 10.
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