RFM and Bill will sit down with a listener from England who will share with us an exciting discovery he made regarding the Liahona in Book of Mormon. This is likely the first time this discovery will be shared publicly.
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Fascinating episode and I can’t imagine how this hasn’t become an issue for BoM historicity before now! One suggestion though, throughout the first 15-20 minutes of the episode, it is repeatedly mentioned that these brass handwarmers were used in upstate NY and thus were part of Joseph Smith’s milieu. This claim is made without providing a citation to where the claim can be verified. Would you mind providing evidence that the handwarmers were around NY state in the early 1800s? Thanks
Evidence? That’s not the Mormon way.
I wonder how many ships with brass binnacle gimbal compasses floated past Palmyra on the Eerie canal on their way to the Great Lakes?
Great episode!…
RFM…you seem to have a real knack for bringing light to very practical explanations of some of the mysterious, illusive mechanisms of divining the Mormon God’s will and words…ie, the ‘white’ hat in the translation process.
One thing I thought of and would love your reaction to, is this….
When Smith was actually dictating this story of the liahona to his scribe, would he not have already seen ,in person, the actual object buried with the plates?…according to the official narrative?
Is there anything you would say about that?
If I recall correctly, there are lots of references to plates and interpreters but not so many to sword of Laban and the Liahona.
But I think all four were mentioned at one time or other as being found by Joseph.
Which makes you start wondering just how big this stone box was anyway.
Great episode especially the hand warmer turned liahona, that was awesome. You mentioned that Joseph Smith had included himself as being from the lineage of Joseph of Egypt. The Jews firmly believe that Joseph did do a good thing in Egypt but he married outside of the Covenant by marrying an Egyptian descendent of Ham, therefore Joseph Smith’s lineage would also be outside of the Covenant, similar to the Moabites, Amonites, and this would make Joseph Smith a Hamite, and not eligible to hold the priesthood, or receive prophetic revelation.
RFM:
The plot thickens! The Science Museum in London claims those aren’t hand warmers:
https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/shadow-stories/
I don’t know about this — Team Hand Warmer or Team Chinese Shadow Ball? Worth noting, though, since the Science Museum people ought to be experts.
Very interesting! I am seeing similar balls coming up as incense burners, too!
It looks like this particular item may have had multiple uses.
Which tends to increase the odds of Joseph Smith knowing of it.
I also thought that the inside looked like a gyroscope. Weren’t they originally invented for for something to do with sea navigating ..or keeping certain instruments level on the turbulent ocean? Ill have to look that up
All this talk of balls and incense burners is making me feel very uncomfortable.
I take this info as a positive thing about Joseph Smith. I love him even like King David was loved by Isreal. I haven’t lost hope in Joseph’s translation of ancient scriptures! Even if he might have sinned as David. I forgive both David and Joseph.