See also: 10 False Prophecies of Joseph Smith (view)

In Search of the Missing Mormon Latter Day Saints Golden Plates

According to the Mormon legend, the Book of Mormon was translated from golden plates by Joseph Smith using a "seer's stone".

As the story goes, he was informed about the plates in 1823, but had to make four trips over the course of five years to an angel named Moroni to get the plates, and wasn't allowed to receive them until he met all Moroni's conditions in 1827.

Supposedly, when the translation was finished, the angel took back the golden plates.

No person that is not Mormon has ever reported seeing the plates.

Mormons said the plates were 'golden' in appearance; it was never claimed that the plates were pure gold. By various persons, the plates were described as weighing thirty to sixty pounds.

At this point I'd like to inject that a person should know the difference between thirty and sixty pounds. You can carry 30 pounds under one arm with maybe some discomfort, but most persons would use two arms to carry 60 pounds. By way of example, a concrete block [cinder block] averages 32 pounds. You know whether you've got one block or two. Why didn't the Mormons know whether it weighed 30 pounds or 60 pounds? Answer: It weighed zero pounds.

The Book of Mormon is 531 pages. How many metal plates would be needed to translate into 531 paper pages? Pretend you have a plate the size of a wide-open laptop computer about 10x15 plus the 10x15 keyboard, so we're talking 15x20; add to it the outsides of the laptop which would represent the back of the plate written on both sides. If there were 16 pages per plate, there'd be 34 plates. If 32 pages per plate, there'd be 17 plates. If not written on both sides, we'd have 68 plates. Smaller plates of course would increase the number of plates. You can draw your own conclusions. Let's move on.

Other Mormon Plates

There are other reputed metal plates with significance in the LDS [Mormon] movement. The Book of Mormon itself refers to a long tradition of written records on plates, of which the golden plates are a culmination. In addition, Smith once believed in metal plates called the Kinderhook plates. Two other sets of alleged plates, the Voree plates and the 'Book of the Law of the Lord', were supposedly translated by James Strang, who wanted himself to replace Joseph Smith when Smith died, but instead, Brigham Young became the new leader.

None of the above metal plates were seen by non-Mormons; neither do they now exist. It would seem that the LDS organization has a severe problem hanging on to crucial 'historical' artifacts.

Unknown Language: Reformed Egyptian

The language on the Mormon plates was, according to them, "Reformed Egyptian".

Scholarly reference works on languages do not, however, acknowledge the existence of either a "reformed Egyptian" language or "reformed Egyptian" script as it has been described in Mormon belief.

No archaeological, linguistic, or other evidence of the use of any Egyptian writing in ancient America has been discovered.

Ancient Documents Inscribed on Metal

Historically, metal is not a preferred writing material. Metal is inscribed as art, tools, weapons, vessels, furniture, money, jewelry and other objects.

As a large-volume writing surface, hard metals are difficult to work with, whereas in soft metals, messages are difficult to preserve. Oxidation, abrasion, and distortion are major problems.

If one is to do an internet search for "writing on metal plates", ninety-nine per cent of the results will lead to Mormon/LDS pages; They will try to tell you that ancient writing on metal plates is common. It is not.

Exceptions:

The Dead Sea Copper Scroll:

One of the last Dead Sea scrolls found was [when straightened out flat] a 1 foot by 7 foot piece of thin copper. It was a list of locations of Jewish treasures. (The information was obsolete.)

Consider that we have almost no ancient books written on metal. This copper message is only 1ft.x7ft., but the Book of Mormon is 531 pages. This fact casts further doubt on the feasibility of the golden plates.

The 70 Books of Lead:

The "Seventy Lead Codices" were allegedly found in a cave in Jordan in 2008. These books were bought from an antiquities dealer, so the place of origin is not confirmed. They are considered forgeries. There are 70 tiny books of 5 to 15 credit-card-sized pages.

The lead metal has been tested to be 100 to 2000 years old [very indefinite], but this does not tell when the plates were inscribed.

The engravings are a mix of Christian symbols, and characters of various languages and eras. Experts have derived almost nothing intelligible from the scripts other than a partial phrase most likely copied from a tombstone. It would seem that the 'forger' [if such be the case] was adept at working with metals such as lead, but unskilled in ancient languages.

The owner of the Lead Codices is currently soliciting funds to make a movie of this "find".

Egypt, Bulgaria, and Persia:

Egypt sparingly used bronze plates for short inscriptions, not for books. There are few Egyptian plates in existence.

A six-page, 24-carat gold book, written in Etruscan, was found in Bulgaria; and in 2005, an eight-page golden codex, allegedly from the Achaemenid period, was recovered from smugglers by the Iranian [Persia] police.

Nevertheless, there is no known extant example of writing on metal plates from the ancient Mediterranean longer than the eight-page Persian codex, and none from any ancient civilization in the Western Hemisphere.

Joseph Smith and Plagiarism

The Book of Mormon contains nineteen entire chapters from the Bible's Book of Isaiah. The Book of Mormon also has many quotes from other places in the Bible as well as from the Apocrypha. (The Apocrypha is noncanonical books formerly associated with the Bible.)

25,000 words in phrases from the Book of Mormon are from the Bible's Old Testament.

2,000 words in phrases from the Book of Mormon are from the New Testament.

Many "new" ideas in Mormon doctrine are from non-Mormon authors specific to the years 1816 to 1827. Joseph Smith supposedly acquired the plates in 1827.

In Mormonism, many temple rituals with precise verbage are taken directly from Free Masonry.

Mormons claim that the similarity to the Bible is because the same God 'inspired' both Joseph Smith and the Bible prophets:

Answer:

1. The King James Bible is over 200 years before the Book of Mormon, though the Mormons say that the golden plates were older than the King James. This is circular reasoning:

a) Remember, a non-Mormon never saw the alleged golden plates, but we all know the factual proven age of the KJV Bible.
b) If hypothetically, we assume that the golden plates were really found in 1823, there is nothing to prove that they are any older than 1823, because we do not have them now to examine. Because the "reformed Egyptian" language has never existed, this means if the the plates were found in 1823, they were forgeries then as well as now!
c) If as the LDS claim, the plates tell of the lost tribes of Israel, why would the golden plates be written in "Reformed Egyptian"? Why weren't they written in Hebrew preferably, or Aramaic, Mayan, or even an unknown heavenly language? What is this fixation on Egypt? God brought the Hebrews out of Egypt into Israel centuries before the tribes were lost.

2. The Mormon 'Jesus' is another Jesus, therefore Smith was not inspired by the God of Isaiah.

a) To the LDS, Jesus is just another god among many gods. In True Christianity, Jesus and the Father God are One Spirit, the One and only True God, the Holy Spirit, not two spirits. Therefore, the God of the Bible did not inspire the BOM. The Book of Mormon is of another spirit, a false gospel of a false Jesus.

3. Mormons believe in many gods, and that the Mormon people are themselves gods.

a) But True Christians know that the first temptation in the Garden of Eden was when Satan said that if you eat the forbidden fruit of the 'Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil', then "You shall be as gods!"

4. Unlike Isaiah, Joseph Smith was not inspired by God, because he was a deceiver, plagiarist, polygamist, narcissist, arsonist, and a false prophet. SEE short list: "Ten False Prophecies of Joseph Smith" [VIEW]

A Mormon would say in response ---

"The golden plates are a miracle, written by 'God' in a supernatural language, revealed by an angel, translated by a prophet. We just believe it all by faith! We don't need proof! "

But Joseph Smith, the primary witness of the plates, is also the one who said that there are men on the moon, and that Jesus Christ would return in 1890, and that Independence, Missouri, is Zion. The Bible says that if the things the prophet speaks don't happen --- ignore him! Fear him not!

It is no surprise ---

--- that the golden plates are nowhere to be found! They'll never be found. They never were real. Their weight in the grand scheme of history is zero.

But at least these two things are real: there is a very real Heaven to gain, and a very real Hell to avoid, based on what we believe this very day for "Now is the day of salvation!"

Regarding the LDS organization and all false religions, the LORD says: "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."
"I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE" - John 10:30
"Feed the church of GOD, which He hath purchased with HIS OWN BLOOD" - Acts 20:28
"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us." - 1 John 3:16
"God so loved the world, that He gave His ONLY BEGOTTEN Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" - John 3:16

10 False Prophecies of Joseph Smith

Another gospel? or True Gospel?

Numerical Pattern only in Bible

Archaeology vs. Mormonism

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