Come Follow Me LDS- JSH 1:27-65, The Angel Moroni
Jan 10, 2021
'The Angel Moroni'
- Moroni references scriptures about the Abrahamic Covenant
- Malachi's reference to Elijah is about the Abrahamic Covenant
- Joseph goes the stone box each year like the Jewish High Priest would enter the veil once each year
- The 2 sets of characters Martin Harris gave to Charles Anthon may have been from the 2 'Seal' plates of Moroni and The Brother of Jared
Watch Cwic Show Interview with historian Don Bradley- https://youtu.be/nk7C7zp4FO0
Raw transcript
all right
so this week we are studying joseph
smith history versus 27
to 65. this is the next phase so to
speak
of joseph smith's history here where
he's going to meet with moroni right he
gets a new heavenly
messenger and we'll see from what
moroni's message is here
that this is all about the restoration
of the abrahamic
covenant set in the context of
the last days first in verse 27
we're getting a date here it says i
continue to pursue my common vocations
in life
until the 21st of september 1823. so
about three and a half years later
from the time of the first vision and of
course we've had all of this persecution
uh it's not going well for for joseph
but he hasn't had any other angelic
communication
during this three and a half years which
by the way is another
common number in the scriptures look at
the book of revelation
but this date is around the autumn
equinox and if you haven't if you don't
remember what the equinox is
remember you have the solstices the
winter and summer solstices
and then you have the spring and autumn
equinoxes and this is just depending on
where the earth is
going around the sun if you can look at
four different points
as the earth travels around the sun
which would give us
a year right then each of those four
points are the two solstices and the two
equinoxes in verse 27
we also read that joseph is remaining
sound and firm with
the statement that he has seen a vision
so he doesn't sway from that
he makes some mistakes hangs around some
people he probably shouldn't have
but he never denies this and and the
persecution is
always there for him because of that
think about the shame of the world on
anything
right is it it wants what it wants
and for those that stand up against the
world
it's not usually a pretty picture and
it's going to get much
much worse for joseph and his family but
he talks about how he was
being young and and uh maybe wanting to
get some acceptance from all of this
this persecution that is set before him
he
he says that he's a very tender years
and was persev persecuted by those that
should have been his friends
and therefore he was left to all kinds
of temptations
right then he says look there's nothing
grave here that i did i'm not that kind
of person i just it's not really my
nature
but he does do some things and there
might have been some talk
and maybe some accusations right that's
the way that shame works
with the world with the persecution
there's accusations and you're gonna
look for every little thing
to try and uh doing a character
assassination to joseph smith and
adjacently big word today to his family
think about the two political parties
that we have right now right in each
political party
to an extreme at least looks for the
littlest things
to try and throw in a character
assassination to
each of the the politicians in each of
the parties
that's the way political uh campaigns
are run now
it's almost all about character
assassination
but interestingly enough guess what we
get here with joseph smith who is a
prophet
we're going to get the idea of weakness
it just is always there it comes in with
these prophets why because
he has to show how he is going to enter
into
the fluid hierarchy as a prophet he's
going to show
that he is weak and we get that right
here
and he's going to repent of that because
he needs to be worthy of the spirit and
set an example
so couple mentions here of weakness
right away in verse 28
i frequently fell into many foolish
errors and displayed the
weakness of youth remember mormon moroni
we hear about the
the weakness of writing
nephi you know we went over this toward
the end of especially the end of the
book of mormon about about weakness
and how especially moroni really really
talks about that quite a bit
but the prophets typically wear that as
a badge and as an introduction
to being a prophet and being stated and
stating that they are
one with authority they're going to talk
about weakness their own weakness
nephi talks about oh that i were an
angel
moses can't speak very well and he goes
on and on and on
and then the second example of weakness
that joseph smith gives us here is in
the following verse in 29 it says
in consequence of these things i often
felt condemned
for my weakness and imperfections
just it's right where we would find it
right we would think we would find it
in the joseph smith history as he's
talking about
the events of him becoming the prophet
of the last days
so with this feeling of weakness and
needing to repent he
goes to his room and he prays right he's
submitting himself he's asking for
forgiveness it's isaiah
repenting right it's it's
it's the need for the heavens to open to
that prophet
or to each of us individually and while
i was thus in the in
so he says in verse 30 while i was thus
in the act of calling upon god
i discovered a light appearing in my
room which continued to increase until
the room was lighter than
at noon day common phrase here when
immediately a personage appeared
at my bedside standing in the air for
his feet did not touch the floor
and then he goes into this interesting
explanation of what
moroni looks like right he had
on a loose robe of most exquisite
whiteness
right right he that this is mentioned
many times in the scriptures about this
idea of this whiteness in these
visitations or
these visions right it's just it's so
pure
that they can't translate it into
anything that they've seen before here
on earth they can
they use the term white but white
temporally to us is not the best
explanation or or description
for what he's talking about this most
exquisite
whiteness it is a purity it is the
spirit
it is glory it is intelligence
it says right here following it was a
whiteness beyond anything earthly
i had ever seen and then he gives a
description of the robe
and says he doesn't have anything on
into the robe not real modest of moroni
i guess right maybe they're not as
modest as we think
as messengers but you know he can see
down into his bosom into his chest
you can see his chest under his the robe
the white robe that he's wearing
i think there's a reason for that i
don't know what it is but there's a
reason for this
uh type of description and maybe not all
angels are that way i don't know
i don't know how many descriptions we
get of this
have to look at that of of these these
messengers
throughout canonical and non-canonical
writings
but there's probably a good reason for
this so the angel
calls joseph by name of course
and said unto me that he was a messenger
which is the same word for
angel right an angel
is a is based off of greek angelos which
is
the word in greek for messenger
so that he's a messenger sent from the
presence of god to me
and that his name was moroni that god
had a work for me to do
and that my name should be had for good
and evil among all nations
kindreds and tongues or that it should
be good it should be both good and evil
spoken of
among all people again just like with
the first vision i think it's important
to look at the scriptures
and these experiences as iconic
events that reflect our own
uh opportunity our own lives
our own um
callings and what we should be doing so
in this example i would say
we receive messages at least maybe not a
messenger
in our lives that say that we have a
divine calling
i think that we all have through either
the light of christ and or the holy
ghost
a calling we have an idea of this
potential that we each have we are made
in the image
of god and
the lord definitely has a work for each
of us to do and i think part of our
job here on earth something that i
definitely
fail at sometimes is
that we need to discover what that work
is
my mission president used to tell me
that that was the definition of success
is to understand what our work is from
uh from the lord here on earth and and
he tied that to patriarchal blessings
right you fulfilling your patriarchal
blessing is a good way to look at
the success of your life we each
have a calling and specific things that
we are to do
and we should be in a state of mind
where our radar is going so that we are
always looking for what our
duty is right what our calling is so we
can accept it
take on the responsibility and move
forward in a world where
victimhood is becoming a banner to carry
with pride
and where responsibility on at every end
is being ridiculed even
and removed from expectation in society
we can look at what we're seeing here
with joseph smith and understand that
that we also have a calling we have a
duty
uh well parallel uh jfk's words here
which aren't followed very much anymore
but we might say something like
it's not what the lord can do for you
but what you can do for the lord
and you can imagine that if you lived
your life that way every day
it'll probably be a lot more successful
than if you didn't
and based on the people that we know or
hear about
us even though we're not famous like
joseph smith
our names will be known for good and
evil
and they will no matter what right
they're going to be no matter what
we do it's just how much good and how
much evil and how much is that truth
the truth of our lives so then he starts
going into hey here we go
things are going to start happening here
he said there was a book deposited
written upon gold plates giving an
account of the former inhabitants of
this continent
boom that sounds pretty exciting
he also said and here we go again and
this goes right along with that book
he also said that the fullness of the
everlasting gospel
was contained in it as delivered by the
savior to the ancient
inhabitants so we should look very
closely at
the book generally but at the words of
the savior
to look for the fullness of the gospel
and we're going to find the higher
law there we're going to find
the sermon on the mount or the sermon at
the temple
and and specifics about the abrahamic
covenant then he also says that there is
a breast
and the urim and thumin which are two
stones so the book of mormon is the
primary way
in the last days that we are going to
find the fullness of the gospel
and it's going to be the primary tool
for the gathering of israel
but he offers some support to the book
of mormon here going to
the primarily old testament which is
what you would expect here
since we're looking at the ancient
abrahamic covenant
he says that after telling me these
things he commenced quoting the
prophecies of the old testament
he first quoted part of the third
chapter of malachi let's go there for a
second
and see exactly what is happening here
what is moroni's message
here to joseph smith something that he's
going to be able to pull back from as
prophet for the rest of his life here
in understanding what is being unveiled
right this is definitely an anchor point
for joseph smith in understanding these
things and
tying together scripture with the
unveiling of the fullness of the gospel
in the last days
there are a couple things to look at in
verse 1 it says behold i will send
my messenger and he shall prepare the
way there's our lower law
the messenger is a ministering angel
first and foremost
moroni is acting as a ministering angel
that is an aaronic priesthood function
it is about
preparing right the ministering angels
are sent
out to prepare what well ultimately for
the king to come through in the
procession
but it's to bring in the fullness of the
gospel to bring in the covenants to
bring in
the temple and the fullness of the
doctrine of christ
and as we're told here in malachi in the
summary here
and to bring in the savior the king
through the procession in in this case
the second coming
so the messenger will prepare the way
before me and the lord
whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his
temple
even the messenger of the covenant okay
so we've got our higher and and lower
laws there
and of course this is also an example of
a you can parallel this to john the
baptist and the savior in their mortal
lives
also that's what that means
they're not the only examples of
a preparer and a king coming through
that's an eternal principle of the
gospel for all of us
in verse 3 interestingly and he shall
sit as a refiner and purifier of silver
and he shall purify the sons of levi
the lower law and purge them as gold and
silver
that they may offer unto the lord an
offering in righteousness
so again where do you start you're going
to go through with the
levitical priesthood with the functions
of the aaronic priesthood
in preparing preparing what they're
going to offer
that they may offer unto the lord an
offering in righteousness
what offering was given what did that
mean
primarily in in the old testament well
the sacrifices for example
were looking forward to the sacrifice of
jesus christ
that's why they're aaronic priesthood
functions or ordinances
then we get just like we got in dnc one
and jeremiah and isaiah etc this is a
time of apostasy so when we hear these
things we should think
this is a time of apostasy a lot of
people don't associate that with isaiah
and and i don't know that it says this
exactly in isaiah but the ordinances
have changed with isaiah
and we're told here again in verse 7
even from the days of our fathers ye are
gone away from mine
ordinances the priesthood has been
removed
the melchizedek's priesthood especially
and have not kept them
return unto me and i will return unto
you
saith the lord of hosts but ye said
wherein shall we return
okay then we go over what we really use
this chapter for which is usually
tithing
but then he goes in and describes a
little bit about the last days
and and including the time of joseph
smith
and talking about the wickedness and the
proud right
then joseph smith says that moroni also
goes over malachi 4 remember who malachi
is
at least in the what we've got put
together in the old testament malachi
is the last book in the old testament
i think that's pretty interesting that
that's what he's going to first here
to bring to joseph smith and i love that
he's going to the old testament
but chapter 4 is pretty short it also
talks about the second coming that the
proud and the wicked will be burned to
stubble
and then we get this which we refer to
often as latter-day saints
elijah will return before that great and
dreadful day remember
the jews had the whole seder meal where
they have
an empty chair they're looking for
elijah or in greek elias
even though joseph smith talks about
those two separately
before the the messiah comes right that
that elijah's going to come
before the messiah comes that's the
whole idea of here the the
the prop preparing the way and of the
messiah
it's the higher and the lower laws but
what's interesting here
so he's saying look everybody's going to
be burned if you don't repent this is a
warning
and you're going to be burned to stubble
but in verse 2 unto you that fear my
name
shall the son of righteousness that's
s-u-n
arise with healing in his wings that's a
common
uh symbol that we see right with a sun
in the middle and the wings on the side
is something that's part of egyptian
culture also
and several other cultures anciently
and then what we're used to reading here
in chapter four is verses five and six
i'm going to read that but then i'm
going to go back and read
the version in joseph smith history and
you can see the difference here it's a
very important difference
in verse 5 it says behold i will send
you elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and
dreadful day of the lord
and he shall turn the heart of the
fathers to the children and the heart of
the children to their
fathers it's almost like a a chiasmus
that's written there
that's not what's written in joseph
history and then he says lest i come and
smite the earth with a
curse now let's go to the joseph smith
history version
where we get something just a little bit
different here moroni says verse 5
this way behold i will reveal unto you
the priesthood
okay i'll reveal unto you the priesthood
by the hand of elijah the prophet
so we're talking about yes elijah's
going to come
but it has to do with restoration it has
to do
with authority it has to do with pr the
the priesthood
and the ordinances that we had just gone
over here in chapter 3
of malachi and then verse 6
an important distinction here and he
shall plant in the hearts of the
children
the promises made to the fathers that's
different that is different what he's
saying here then more specifically
is that the children that would be us
here today
are going to have planted in our
hearts the promises that were made to
the fathers that has nothing to do
really with sealing the way i see it
i mean sealing is a part of that but
what are the promises
the promises we can look at as the oath
of the oath and covenant of the
priesthood of the abrahamic covenant
the promises are those of the old the
ancient
covenant before the law of moses
it's the fullness of the gospel it's the
melchizedek priesthood
it's the promised land metaphorically
speaking it's
exaltation it's eternal marriage
it's sealing families together
it's the temple and its ordinances it's
it's
all of these things together those are
the promises
that we get from the lord in the
abrahamic covenant
it's not just ceiling it's what moroni
just went over
right we can see how this is written
here in telling
joseph smith about the fullness of the
gospel in the book of mormon
and then he reiterates this again by
saying in the hearts of the children
shall turn to their father so they will
turn to it
but he doesn't say that the hearts of
the fathers will turn to the children
that's not the point because it's not
written for the fathers it's written for
us
it's written for us in us understanding
that we're going to turn our hearts
back to the abrahamic covenant
that's what this restoration is all
about
and then he goes into the 11th chapter
of isaiah which talks about
the the second coming of the lord that's
where we get the whole idea of the stem
of jesse and the rod
right it's a messianic chapter as many
of them are
in isaiah and of course got to bring
isaiah into things and then he brings up
from the new testament
acts this is the one verse that at least
that we know of
because many other verses were given to
joseph smith that he didn't talk about
and what their interpretation was
but he probably gave that to us those
interpretations in other in other
writings and speeches
but here's what acts says in verses 22
and 23
for moses truly said unto the fathers a
prophet
shall the lord your god raise up
right this is all brought together every
that this hinge of moses and the raising
up of the serpent
is everywhere especially in the
restoration
and then it's brought up by the savior
it's brought up by
other prophets because it's a hinge
point it's an anchor point
in understanding who that prophet is
that it is the savior and that he is
raised up the brazen serpent is is very
important
in terms of i i in terms of symbolism
in the scriptures and we get this you
know for example
in in in the book of mormon we get the
same example of moses talking about this
prophet
which is some a writing that moses gives
us in the book of deuteronomy
but a prophet shall the lord your god
raise up unto you of your brethren like
unto me
him shall ye hear in all things
whatsoever he shall say
unto you very natural for this to be
referred to by moroni
because he's talking about the savior
everything's going to be tied to him
and 23 and it shall come to pass that
every soul which will not hear that
prophet
shall be destroyed from among the people
okay
in other words and destroyed how does
that mean i mean we can take interpret
these things in different ways
infer the wrath
of god on this or just understand that
there's a way
to go in a way not to go and there are
no options on that
in terms of the consequences
it's not just that the lord is going to
get mad at you and destroy you
it's that there are consequences to
these eternal truths
okay and then the last reference
scriptural reference that
joseph smith tells us about from moroni
is in the book of joel
which he says is from the second chapter
and verses 28
down through 32 which is the end of that
chapter and this basically
we've heard this before in terms of the
last days and this is where we really
get something
put into the context of the time that
we're living in right and this is where
we hear
about the things of the wonders in
heaven and the blood and fire and
pillars of smoke
and the sun turning to darkness and the
moon turning to blood
right now i i believe that there is
certain symbolism in those things i
don't think it's just a
literal thing if literal at all maybe it
is
but importantly this is something again
that joseph smith has to internalize
and remember later on as he's preaching
and trying to put the church together he
says
and in verse 32 and it shall come to
pass that whosoever shall call on the
name of the lord
shall be delivered for in mount zion
and in jerusalem shall be deliverance as
the lord hath said and in the remnant
whom the lord shall call
okay well that applies very much to the
remnant of israel
and the book of mormon right all right
then he further tells joseph smith that
the fullness of the gentiles
was soon to come in okay again first
shall be last
last shall be first it's the day of the
gentile they're the ones that will have
the fullness of the gospel first
and for a while it's just it's mostly
just them and they're the ones that are
going to bring it out to the world
and that's exactly what is happening
again that is a reference to those
in the united states primarily
and not all of the members of the united
states right it's just it's primarily
the group that is going to bring that
out
everybody has a different calling at a
different time
and then moroni goes back to the book of
mormon
and tells joseph smith that the time is
not now
to get that book but that there will be
a time
when he will need to go and and get this
book
get the plates and while
moroni is describing the place where the
plates are
in the stone box joseph smith has a
vision
in a sense he's he's given in his
spiritual eyes
the the landscape right he can see
what this looks like and where he is
supposed to go
so once he's done this and he's told
joseph smith actually a number of other
things and other references to
scriptures
and interpretations of those scriptures
wouldn't it be nice to have those too
the light gathers back around moroni and
he says a
conduit opens up you know we're talking
like uh
science fiction stuff here but a conduit
opens up of some sort
a pillar right and moroni ascends
and leaves and then he comes back two
more times
and then joseph smith wakes up it was
all night
so again another we need to think about
this
visit here a lot of times we just think
about oh this is moroni he's introducing
himself and he's telling him where the
book of mormon is
this is about revealing the abrahamic
covenant
in the last days and that was moroni's
message here
this is about the fullness of the gospel
and
reading scripture in that filter
of the abrahamic covenant so
joseph smith goes out the next day he's
supposed to be out working with his dad
his dad tells him to leave because
joseph is exhausted his energy is just
sapped from him
tries to climb a fence falls over and
moroni shows up again
and this time moroni tells him again the
same thing goes through the same types
of things
so now he's heard it four times
and then moroni tells joseph smith to go
tell his dad about it
he goes and tells his dad his dad says
this is of of of god
and that joseph smith needs to do what
the messenger said
so the time is now for joseph to go look
at this
place that he saw in vision the night
before
so he goes to the hill he knows where to
go
to the hill kimora and he finds the
place and he sees the stone
that he's got to move and he says it's
it comes up in the middle
right and then the edges it tapers down
and it's thinner on the edges
and he's got to pull the dirt away from
the edges
so that the whole stone is the whole
stone is
exposed and then he finds a lever you
can imagine it can't be too big
right i mean he is almost 18 years old
here but
and he's a bigger guy but it can't be
too big he finds a lever and he's able
to
open that and move the stone and so
once the stone is moved he looks in and
sure enough what he describes to us at
least at this point
is the gold plates the breastplate and
the urim and thumb
they're all inside there and he tries to
grab him
and and he's forbidden to do so by
the messenger by moroni and this is
this is there's a time and a place for
everything
it's all set up in on the lord's time on
the lord's calendar
joseph smith probably isn't old enough
yet to do this
the time isn't set yet for for him to
pull this out he may not have been able
to guard the book of mormon
the plates if he would have taken him
out then that could be one major reason
he didn't have the maturity he didn't
have the discipline
may not have had the physical capability
to do it
at this time yet so moroni tells him
look you're going to come back here
every year
one year from this date it's now what
date september 22nd
and you're going to come back each
september 22nd for the next four years
and then you will get the plates
where there's this wisdom that's given
to joseph smith about not
doing everything right now everything
takes time
you're going to come back you hear more
and more from moroni about the message
of this
and that helps solidify your mission
but not everything's given to you right
away if you have
a yearly event that coming and looking
at these plates and meeting with moroni
each year
aligns with it's very similar to what
happens on the day of atonement
which is that once a year the high
priest would
be able to come in to the holy of holies
and be there at the ark of the covenant
don bradley talks about this as being
very similar to
the ark of the covenant where these
relics are held in
remember the ark of the covenant in in
this in the tabernacle
and the temple of solomon held the manna
from heaven it held aaron's rod it held
the tablets of moses the second set of
tablets
and here you have at a minimum the gold
plates
you have which would be like the tablets
right you have the
breastplate and you have the urim and
thumb
and it's like the high priest coming out
each year and coming to the holy of
holies in a sense
so every year he goes back he meets at
the same spot on hill kimura he meets
with moroni
and according to verse 54 he receives
instruction
and intelligence from him at each of our
interviews respecting what the lord was
going to do
so he's getting trained here right
and how and in what manner his kingdom
was to be conducted in the last days
that's an interesting
term joseph smith would later in his
life
not equate the church with the kingdom
of god believe it or not
he saw those as two separate things
maybe the church is more of a
temporal kingdom and the kingdom of god
is the actual spiritual kingdom
i don't know but that's what he taught
he talks about the distinction of that
later in his life okay now i'm not going
to go a lot
into the history here of what happens
for example with
josiah stole and emma etc but but
suffice it to say that joseph smith gets
a job
digging and looking for a mine
right looking for minerals and while
he's working there he takes room and
board with
a mr isaac hale well who lives there
his daughter is emma hale joseph takes a
liking to her
and they end up getting married so they
leave and end up going back to
joseph's father's home where he ends up
farming with him
but going back to the plates and the
stone box
one thing that's pretty interesting that
moroni does tell
joseph that is not in this account in
joseph smith history
is that on that fourth visit right
september 22nd
1827 before joseph can get the
the plates out he has got to take
emma with him so emma goes
with joseph to get the gold plates
now she doesn't go up to the box in the
area there that he had seen in his
vision
before and where he meets with moroni
she waits somewhere
at a distance but that was a requirement
for joseph for whatever reason he it
looked like he had to be married
and needed the right girl to support him
before this was going to move forward
that's kind of what it looks like to me
now
you've probably heard all the stories
i'm not going to go into these right now
about how joseph smith has to protect
the plates
right they're even coming right out of
the woods there at the beginning there's
people that are chasing him
one account has him actually taking the
plates and in a bag
and and hitting somebody with them uh
trying to run away which
is difficult to imagine i mean these
things would weigh just an immense
amount but
he was a big guy big strong guy
and then he had to keep hiding it in the
right and they would move it around in
different places
we've read those stories we've heard
those stories what i want to get back to
though is the plates
and joseph writing down these characters
copying them
from the gold plates what happens in new
york is that the persecution is so
intolerable
that joseph and emma have to leave and
they go back to
pennsylvania and there he starts copying
down these characters well
martin harris is someone that they had
met who
heard the story about joseph smith and
was willing to help him and support him
gives him 50
to travel out to pennsylvania again
now joseph in writing down these
characters through the use of the urim
and thumb he says here
and martin harris comes to their place
to the hale's home
and gets the copy of of what what joseph
smith has written down here
and the translation of one of those
things now
he's going to take that to several
different scholars
it's not just anthon he's going to take
these characters and the translation
from joseph smith to several different
scholars
but we need to understand something that
happens here with with charles anthony
first and foremost we've seen these
characters often times
where there's a an image of these
characters
that are called the anthem transcript
that is false right that is not
true that is not what was taken to
charles anthony
at all those characters are something
completely different
we know that because there are
descriptions of the characters
that martin harris took with him and
they have
they're not even close to what that
anthem transcript is
so when we you pull that up on google
and you pull up anthem transcript
what you see there is not what martin
harris had and brought to charles
anthony and the other scholars
what he did have is a couple of
different things
i think this is just me assuming here i
am again no church historian but
in studying this it looks to me like
there's a couple of different things
that we're looking at
first off here in joseph smith history
in verse 64
martin harris in his own word says that
he went back to goes up to new york
he meets with professor charles anthon
and charles anthon
on the portion the portion it looks like
to me
of the characters that were translated
charles anthon says that they are
correct according to martin harris
in fact they're the best translation
he's ever seen but if we read closely we
see that there is a
separate transcript there are separate
characters
that are not translated here's what we
get
i then showed him those which were not
yet translated those characters
and he said that they were egyptian
chaldeak
assyriac and arabic and he said they
were
true characters okay these are
these are not the translated characters
remember what we have in the plates
we have three different
at least three different languages that
are in those plates
we have what mormon abridged
and what moroni added to which would
include the book of ether
that is in reformed egyptian
probably reformed in the sense that when
nephi leaves
they're writing an egyptian not reformed
egyptian
just egyptian and then over a thousand
years just like we've seen with english
the language changes quite a bit that
would be reformed egyptian at the back
end
right the result of a thousand years of
of language changing
go back and read english in the year
1021 right and and see if you can
understand any of it
you're just coming into the time period
there of the normans and
latin becoming a bigger part of the
language
you're not going to understand much of
it right now i don't know how much it
changed for
the the egyptian here change for them in
writing
because they're going just off of
written
language in in the records but remember
they're they're
doing they're giving hebrew here more
than likely with egyptian characters and
that hebrew changed quite a bit over a
thousand years for sure
so you have these different languages
and how would that reflect
based on the characters well the
characters would be different what's the
second one we have
nephi right the small plates from first
nephi up
through the book of venus those
are written in egyptian they would be
likely
a different type of egyptian that what
mormon
and moroni wrote in i'm just guessing
right it's a thousand years
difference so those would be different
characters so you could say well these
are the two separate characters here
but there's one more there's one more
and that is again according to don
bradley
you have two different seals that are
at least that are in the book of mormon
one of them on top
would be the seal of moroni and that
that plate would have the writing that
we have in the
commencement of the book of mormon or
the title page of the book of mormon
those are mormons
or moroni's words and then they would
have had his symbols on him his seals
on that plate well to me it's very
possible that
one of these two examples here
that martin harris brings to charles
anthony is from that first plate
because there's descriptions of that
plate
and so therefore it would be the
reformed egyptian
that joseph smith had translated that
would make all the sense of the world he
says he just started doing this right
away
when he got back to pennsylvania well
the first thing he would be doing is the
plate that's on top
and that's moroni's words written in
reformed egyptian
the second thing i would suggest here
the second characters that that anthon
says are egyptian chaldea casiric
arabic who knows if they really were
those languages
but the second one i would suggest is
the bottom seal the bottom plate
which would have been likely
likely the seal of the brother of jared
may
maybe ether but you know if i'm gonna
follow with don bradley on this
i'll go with the brother of jared
and what language did the brother of
jared write in well i we don't have a a
name for that language
right it's something that would have
come right out of what have been
original with the the tower of babel
there
some might call it the adamic language i
don't know if that's
something i would agree with you're
talking about a couple thousand years
after the
time of adam but
those would be very different characters
if that is from the seal so if he took
the characters from moroni
and reformed egyptian and translated
those that would be the first thing he
gave to anthem that anthon said was
egyptian and was a per
and it was a great translation the
second set
of characters that he would have given
to him then based on what i'm saying
here anyway
would have been from the back plate and
would have been
in a language that none of us know of
something that moroni would have
abridged and translated likely through
the urim and thummim
with the book of ether if that was even
the same language that that the book
the brother of jared was writing in and
the reason we talked about that other
plate is because there was a description
of
it by charles anthon
with talking about a couple of different
columns which is nothing
doesn't look anything like the anthem
transcript a couple of different columns
kind of like chinese
right that you would see in chinese
going up and down of characters
and then the idea of of a sun
in the center with concentric circles
and other
writings and images and half moons and
stars and
other things that would have been on
that plate
well that's that's the plate of likely
the brother of jared
and so that would explain different
characters
from the characters of the title page
and seal of moroni so
just an interesting tidbit there that i
think needs to be brought up and
understood
and then we finish off with fulfillment
of prophecy and i do believe that that's
exactly what this
is you have some scholars today that are
you know putting up a little bit of a
wall against that
at least a fence but i think that this
is the fulfillment of prophecy just as
we
as we have been taught and it's talking
about isaiah 29
right where charles anthon uh uh
says word into martin harris after he
certifies that these are
correct translations and says where did
where did joseph smith
get this book is these plates and martin
harris tells him that
an angel gave him to him and of course
living in a lower law period and with
the heavens being closed
charles anthony who's a believer
obviously says there is no such thing as
ministering angels
anymore which would have been a very
common thought
back then and he asks for the
certification back he rips it up and
tells martin harris to bring him the
place and he will translate them
and martin harris says to him well a
portion of them are sealed
so we're looking at at least the portion
of what is
some of the writings of the brother of
jared and maybe more
and charles anthony says i cannot read a
sealed book in
in verse 65. and the
and the prophecy that that fulfills is
in isaiah 29
which says here in verse 11 and the
vision of all is become
unto you as the words of a book
that is sealed which men deliver to one
that is learned
or learned saying read this i pray thee
and he saith i
cannot for it is sealed so does that
apply to other things again this is kind
of like what we get throughout isaiah
where we talk about different name
places and we talk about
you know babylon but it's it's a place
but it's also a concept
a series of place but it's also a
concept and a direction
from jerusalem well it's the same thing
here yes this can apply to something
else but
this applies specifically in this case
to
charles anthony and that he cannot read
a sealed book remember what the book of
mormon is
it is the tool of the last days do you
think
that isaiah knew about this do you think
that the prophets of old knew about the
last days
and knew about the book of mormon i
would guess that most of them did
this is not difficult to make that leap
that reach
to say that this is the book of mormon
and that this is what happens before it
is brought
out and brought out out to light
so in a capsule here
in this episode what do we have we have
got the bringing forth of the abrahamic
covenant
moroni as a messenger to joseph smith is
there to help give him a footing anchors
and help let him know what work is about
to transpire
and that this is all about the
fulfillment of prophecy
that says that the fullness of the
gospel and the abrahamic covenant
will be restored in the last days and
that's what this
is all about and joseph smith as he
begins to translate
the gold plates the most important
book of the last days he begins the
translation process
brings it to scholarly men men of the
world
and there is fulfillment of prophecy
from who again
from isaiah that is just like christ
who says he is fulfilling the prophecies
of
isaiah as well and just like
we get with isaiah in the book of mormon
what joseph smith is about to do
by the authority and priesthood of god
is to bring back the higher law
is to bring back the abrahamic covenant
and to fulfill prophecy this is why
joseph smith focuses on the languages of
hebrew and egyptian
not the languages of the day the classic
languages of greek
and latin he's going back
to the old testament he's going back
to bring the melchizedek priesthood the
ordinances
and the temple back through a higher law
through a greater covenant the covenant
and the ordinances and the priesthood
that were rejected
at sinai with moses
i'll talk to you next time
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