To most of us it seems like the Mormons have been around forever. They actually date back to the 1820s. In 1823 a young lad by the name of Joseph Smith sought Gods wisdom as to what church he should belong to. Some speculate that he went into the woods to do this while others claim that he did it from his bedroom. He states that the Angel Maroni summoned him and called him by name and stipulated to him that he had great works for God to do. He was directed to finding some golden plates where the instructions and historical episodes that had taken place centuries ago. Joseph claimed that the everlasting gospel was contained on these plates.
Joseph apparently was able to locate these plates through a vision. The plates were buried in a hill called Mora. The instructions also included that he was not to remove the plates nor was he to show them to anyone. The story goes that the next day Joseph was so exhausted from these visions that his father had to send him back home from work. During that time he collapsed. and apparently the Angel Maroni appeared to him again and repeated the message. Joseph told his father about these happenings.
Ironically Joseph's father believed him and sent him to where he was to find the plates. Apparently Joseph found them as per instructions and buried them again for a period of four years. The Angel Maroni returned and instructed Joseph and every year he made a pilgrimage to this site. Then in 1827 Joseph came up with the plates but was forced to hide them because of those that wanted to sell them.
Apparently during this translation time other people did witness these plates as there are testimonies in the book of Mormon concerning this. After Joseph finished translating the gold plates then the book of Mormon came into being.
It is ironic that with Josephs three years of formal education that the book was very complex and articulate. Joseph claimed that it was the power of God that gave him the ability to be able to do this. According to the story Joseph would just concentrate and have a great deal of faith. Due to the difficulty of the translation it was said that Joseph would sit with the plates and verbally give the translation. His wife gives quite an account of this tim and states that Joseph was working on this book and how he would be able to return to where he left off with no problem. One would think that this would take many years to do but apparently the translation only talk a matter of three months and there were several scribes that would write as Joseph dictated.
One of these scribes was Oliver Cowdery that upheld the validity of the book with great fevor, to the point where he stipulated that by only obeying the book of Mormons would one get into the kingdom of heaven.
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