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“The [Book of Mormon] seems to be merely a prosey detail of imaginary history with the Old Testament for a model followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint old fashioned sound and structure of our King James translation of the scriptures. The result is a mongrel, half modern glibbness and half ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained, the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever he found his speech growing too modern, which was about every sentence or two, he ladeled in a few such scriptural phrases as, "exceeding sore," "and it came to pass," etc. and made things satisfactory again. "And it came to pass," was his pet. If he had left that out, his bible would have been only a pamphlet.” - Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872
“All men have heard of the Mormon Bible, but few, except the elect have seen it or at least taken the trouble to read it. I brought away a copy from Salt Lake. The book is a curiosity to me. It is such a pretentious affair and yet so slow, so sleepy, such an insipid mess of inspiration. It is chloroform in print.” - Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872
"How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again!" - Mark Twain
“The [Book of Mormon] is a curiosity to me. It is such a pretentious affair and yet so slow, so sleepy, such an insipid mess of inspiration. It is chloroform in print.” - Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872
“[The Book of Mormon] is chloroform in print. If Joseph Smith composed this book, the act was a miracle. Keeping awake while he did it, was at any rate. If he, according to tradtion, merely translated it from certain ancient and myteriously engraved plates of copper, which he declares he found under a stone, in an out of the way locality, the work of translating it was equally a miracle for the same reason.” - Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872
"A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows." - Mark Twain
T.K. Smoothies "You won't need that where you're going!"
“Procreation limited to celestial bodies... Some of the functions in the celestial body will not appear in the terrestrial body, neither in the telestial body, and the power of procreation will be removed.” - Joseph Fielding Smith, LDS Church President, Doctrines of Salvation | Those in the Telestial and Terrestrial Kingdoms will lack genitalia, while those in the Celestial Kingdom will retain theirs for eternal procreation. Leading to the term “TK Smoothie,” which alludes to the smooth, featureless region of those in the lesser Telestial and Terrestrial Kingdoms, likened to a Barbie or Ken doll.
"Mortality is a master class in learning to choose the things of greatest eternal import. Far too many people live as though this life is all there is. However, your choices today will determine three things: where you will live throughout all eternity, the kind of body with which you will be resurrected, and those with whom you will live forever." - Russell M. Nelson, LDS Church President, October 2023
Joseph Fielding Smith, LDS Church President, Doctrines of Salvation Volume 2, Page 288 - “Procreation limited to celestial bodies... Some of the functions in the celestial body will not appear in the terrestrial body, neither in the telestial body, and the power of procreation will be removed. I take it that men and women will, in these kingdoms, be ... neither man nor woman.”
Joseph Fielding Smith, LDS Church President, Doctrines of Salvation Volume 2, Page 287 - “Procreation limited to celestial bodies... Some of the functions in the celestial body will not appear in the terrestrial body, neither in the telestial body, and the power of procreation will be removed. I take it that men and women will, in these kingdoms, be ... neither man nor woman.”
“Procreation limited to celestial bodies...
Some of the functions in the celestial body will not appear in the terrestrial body, neither in the telestial body, and the power of procreation will be removed. I take it that men and women will, in these kingdoms, be ... neither man nor woman.” - Joseph Fielding Smith, LDS Church President, Doctrines of Salvation Volume 2, Pages 287-288
"The celestial law requires one-tenth of all a man’s substance which he possesses at the time he comes into the church, and one-tenth part of his annual increase ever after. If it requires all a man can earn to support himself and family, he is not tithed at all. The celestial law does not take the mother’s and children’s bread." - Orson Hyde, LDS Apostle, Millennial Star, January 1, 1847
"DON'T SPEAK EVIL OF LORD'S ANOINTED. There is one thing that the Lord has warned us about from the beginning and that is not to speak evil of the Lord's anointed. He has told us that any member of the Church who indulged in this is liable to lose the Spirit of God and go into darkness. The Prophet Joseph said time and again that it was one of the first and strongest symptoms of apostasy." - George Q. Cannon, LDS Apostle, October 6, 1896. Deseret Weekly
“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do , because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.” - Susan B. Anthony
“He said there were many that had a great deal to say about the ancient order of things as Solomon and David having many wives and concubines, but it is an abomination in the sight of God. If an angel from heaven should come and preach such doctrine, some would be sure to see his cloven foot and cloud of darkness over head, though his garments might shine as white as snow. A man might have one wife but concubines he should have none.” - Hyrum Smith, Levi Richards Journal
“Joseph told associates that an angel appeared to him three times between 1834 and 1842 and commanded him to proceed with plural marriage when he hesitated to move forward. During the third and final appearance, the angel came with a drawn sword, threatening Joseph with destruction unless he went forward and obeyed the commandment fully.” - Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo, Gospel Topic Essay
“A grand and glorious principle had been revealed, and for years had slumbered in the breast of God’s Prophet, awaiting the time when, with safety to himself and the Church, it might be confided to the sacred keeping of a chosen few. That time had now come. An angel with a flaming sword descended from the courts of glory and, confronting the Prophet, commanded him in the name of the Lord to establish the principle so long concealed from the knowledge of the Saints and of the world—that of plural marriage.” - Heber C. Kimball
“[Joseph Smith] received the revelation in 1837, but he was himself afraid to promulgate it until the angel came and stood beside him with flaming sword and bade him do the command of God. Not until then did Joseph enter into polygamy, or get any of his disciples to take plural wives.” -
Eliza R. Snow
“Joseph told me that he was afraid when the angel appeared to him and told him to take other wives. He hesitated, and the angel appeared to him the third time with a drawn sword in his hand and threatened his life if he did not fulfill the commandment.” - Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner
“This angel, [Joseph] states, stood over him with a drawn sword prepared to inflict the penalty of death if he should be disobedient.” - Helen Mar Kimball Whitney
“[Joseph] sent word to me by my brother, saying, ‘Tell Zina I put it off and put it off till an angel with a drawn sword stood by me and told me if I did not establish that principle upon the earth, I would lose my position and my life.’” - Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Smith Young
“The angel of the Lord appeared unto the Prophet Joseph with a drawn sword and declared that if He, Joseph did not go to and teach and practice the Holy commandment He would slay him.” - Orson Pratt
This is a spotlight on a profile shared at wasmormon.org. These are just the highlights, so please find the full story at https://wasmormon.org/profile/spendiggity144/. There are stories of Mormon faith journeys contributed by hundreds of users like you. Come check them out and consider sharing your own story at wasmormon.org!
"There are so many things we just don’t understand about this world and what’s beyond it. Not only do we not know, we can’t know. Something as abstract as an afterlife is not possible for the human mind to fully understand. There is no denying that we truly do not know anything. All that religion is doing is taking a guess. I respect that. We as humans have an innate desire to make sense of everything. Religion is just a way of fulfilling that desire. What I’m not okay with is a religion stating that they are the one and only truth and everyone else in the world is deceived. I would make the decision to leave millions of times again if given the chance because it’s one of the few choices I don’t regret making. I don’t need a god to tell me if something is good or not. Even if he’s real, I can see the beauty of life. I may not have a clear purpose in my life anymore and that thought was scary at first. If I left the church, where would I go? The answer: Anywhere. Everywhere even. I am not limited to anything now and I have the choice to experience it all. I can finally learn and live and see the world as it really is. An ethereal mystery, and it’s fucking beautiful." - Spencer's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/spendiggity144/
"I’m still the same person I was when I was a member. I can’t help but tell people what I believe to be true. Life has so much more meaning once you leave. I don’t really know how, but knowing less makes what you do know, seem even better. The only thing I know for sure is this life, and I plan on using it to its full potential. I don’t know what comes next and yeah, it’s scary, yet more powerful than anything I experienced in the church. I’ve discovered that, by using philosophy alone, any religious claim can be argued back into ambiguity where it belongs. I’m not an atheist. If anything I’m Agnostic. There’s just as much of a chance that there’s nothing as there is that we just don’t know what it is. I choose to acknowledge that there may not be any meaning at all. Yet it doesn’t matter in the slightest. I like trees, rivers, mountains, animals and rocks. Those are cool. Trampolines are fun. There are those moments when it's been cold and cloudy for a while, then you walk outside on a 60-degree day and the warm sunlight hits your face and it’s the greatest feeling ever. Music is the single greatest human creation. Really any sort of art is amazing. People are fantastic. It’s fucking brilliant really. This is what I live for." - Spencer's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/spendiggity144/
"Leaving the church is so unbelievably hard. I had my first existential crisis in my senior year. My family treated me differently. I didn’t have anyone to talk to either. I was the most alone I had ever felt in my life. I was so stressed about figuring out my future that I almost gave up on it completely. The months following my departure were the hardest in my life and I wish there was a way to make active members understand that. Instead, I’m just told that I’m a lazy learner and that all I needed to do was try harder, then I would still be in church. New converts rarely last more than a year. They’ll find out that the Disney version they were taught in the 3 weeks before their baptism wasn’t everything. As the world and internet grows, it gets harder and harder to hide the truth from the members. I have hope that one day everyone will leave. Then everyone will finally be free." - Spencer's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/spendiggity144/
"“Never take counsel from those who don’t believe” - Russel M. Nelson. This is actually a major reason for why I questioned the church so much. The treatment towards ex-Mormons is insane. The church dehumanizes you so much. Addressing the above quote from Nelson, how terrible is that? He claims that nothing we say can be trusted because we have seen information that didn’t come from the church. My own family has been advised against trusting me. That’s enough evidence right there that they are getting worried about keeping members. I would argue the exact opposite. Seek out the counsel of people who are against what you believe especially, so that way you actually are educated enough to make your own choice. Ah yes, a choice. There is no choice. They give you the illusion that there is one, but it's either you choose to believe and stay in the church, or you are wrong and you are a terrible person. Because of my different beliefs, I am not trusted. It’s dangerous to be spending time around me if you are Mormon because clearly my sole purpose in life is to drag people away from the church and ruin their lives." - Spencer's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/spendiggity144/
"I had been finding things out about the church and I was really struggling with my faith. I wanted so desperately to believe. The thought of living without the church left me feeling helpless and I would have given anything for it to be true. I got a strange feeling. You know the feeling when you are in a bad situation and the holy ghost tells you to avoid that and get out? Well, that’s the exact feeling that I got, against the church. The feeling didn’t go away. I couldn’t even pray without getting this unnerving feeling that something was seriously wrong with this religion. As soon as I began to consider, “What if I’m wrong”, it became so obvious. I had to get out. A few days later I told my parents what I was feeling. They were clearly upset but eventually decided that I was old enough to make my own decision and that they would treat me like an adult. That took a huge toll on the relationship with everyone in my family, and due to that, life became so hard for a few months after this big decision. The relationship with my family has since recovered. I know deep down they want me to come back, and deep down I wish that they would be able to see the world through my eyes. Life is so much more beautiful once you are out, and I wish there was a better way to communicate that to the people who are still stuck inside." - Spencer's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/spendiggity144/
"The central foundation of almost every believing member’s testimony is feeling the holy ghost. To be quite blunt about it, you aren't special. Everyone on the planet experiences this feeling. It’s some sort of feeling of cosmic ecstasy that everyone feels for some reason, or for no reason at all. I still feel it after I left the church. All of it, whatever it is, is purely psychological. It is only because of the culture that we interpret these experiences differently. The LDS church uses something not unique to the LDS church as proof that the LDS church is the one and only true church. I live the best life I can and I hope to be favored in whatever happens after this life. If I strive to be the best person I can be outside of the church and God punishes me for that, then that’s not a god I want to be worshiping anyway. If what the Mormons say about God is all true, then I hate the guy. God would never treat his children this way. If he did, then he is not the generous forgiving perfect god that I was taught he was. If God is real, I think I’m doing just fine." - Spencer's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/spendiggity144/
"I finally realized that the difference between doctrine and policy is completely arbitrary and the General Authorities can really just say whatever they want with no consequences. So I kept investigating. The gospel topics essays are honestly what really forced me out. One thing that I’ve heard repeated so many times during my time in the church is the phrase, “Beyond our comprehension”. The church abuses this phrase. It is often used to cover up various pieces of history. Whenever there is a hole in the story it's just easily covered up by, “we don’t know”. There are core doctrines that are believed with absolutely no verification at all. All these people going up to give a testimony saying they “know for a certainty” that the church is true are just straight-up lying to themselves. We just don’t know, and there is no way for us to know. I personally choose to be comfortable with that uncertainty." - Spencer's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/spendiggity144/
"My parents were very strict about the “no dating until 16” rule that was, at the time, clearly spelled out in the For the Strength of Youth Pamphlet. The first time I had a single doubt about whether or not the Mormon church was true was when the new For the Strength of Youth Pamphlet came out. In this new edition, they redid several sections completely. They now only “recommend” that you wait until 16 to start dating. So then what was it before? Was it doctrine? If I remember correctly you cannot change doctrine, and if this rule was not doctrine then what was it and why was it enforced? This led me to think about other things. Why is coffee off-limits? Why is swearing wrong? These things seem like small issues, and they are, but there were just too many tiny contradictions and loopholes that I decided to start researching the big things." - Spencer's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/spendiggity144/
"I was born into an extremely Mormon family and attended a small branch in Michigan for the first 17 years of my life. I didn’t have many friends who were Mormon but that didn’t stop me from believing as strongly as I could that this church was God’s perfect church. I was the last person you’d expect to leave the church. I blessed the sacrament every week. I genuinely enjoyed doing missionary work and tried to get my friends to come to activities. There was literally nothing more I could have done to believe harder. I said on multiple occasions, “I couldn’t leave the church even if I wanted to”. I was a Mormon." - Spencer's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/spendiggity144/
This is a spotlight on a profile shared at wasmormon.org. These are just the highlights, so please find the full story at https://wasmormon.org/profile/dream5plus/. There are stories of Mormon faith journeys contributed by hundreds of users like you. Come check them out and consider sharing your own story at wasmormon.org!
"A year ago I stopped attending church. I simply don’t support the church’s stand on those marginalized in the LGBTQ+ community. " - David's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/dream5plus/
"12 years ago, I disclosed to my wife and children, that I was gay. At the time I was serving as an LDS Bishop. So much has changed." - David's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/dream5plus/
"Hello, my name is David. I’m a 68 year old retired educator and lifelong member of the LDS church. I was a Mormon." - David's "I was a Mormon" story. Read more at https://wasmormon.org/profile/dream5plus/
"Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me." - Matthew 19:21. “The Church has accumulated more monetary assets than many of the world's wealthiest institutions.” thewidowsmite.org. "By their fruits ye shall know them" - Matthew 7:20
“For those without an understanding of how 19th-century people in Joseph’s region lived their religion, seer stones can be unfamiliar, and scholars have long debated this period of his life... The stone pictured here has long been associated with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon translation. The stone Joseph Smith used in the Book of Mormon translation effort was often referred to as a chocolate-colored stone with an oval shape.” - Richard E. Turley Jr., Robin S. Jensen and Mark Ashurst-McGee, Joseph the Seer
Ensign, October 2015
Joseph’s wife Emma explained that she “frequently wrote day after day” at a small table in their house in Harmony, Pennsylvania. She described Joseph “sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.” According to Emma, the plates “often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen table cloth.” When asked if Joseph had dictated from the Bible or from a manuscript he had prepared earlier, Emma flatly denied those possibilities: “He had neither manuscript nor book to read from.” - Book of Mormon Translation, Gospel Topic Essay
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2013
“The stone pictured here has long been associated with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon translation. The stone Joseph Smith used in the Book of Mormon translation effort was often referred to as a chocolate-colored stone with an oval shape.” - Richard E. Turley Jr., Robin S. Jensen and Mark Ashurst-McGee, Joseph the Seer
Ensign, October 2015
"In Joseph Smith’s day, some individuals claimed that they had a gift to “see,” or receive divine or supernatural messages, through seer stones. These beliefs came from the Bible and from European cultural traditions brought to early America by immigrants. Joseph Smith and his family accepted these beliefs, and Joseph occasionally used stones he located in the ground to help neighbors find missing objects or search for buried treasure." - Church History Topics: Seer Stones, Church Website, 2020
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/seer-stones
“The other instrument, which Joseph Smith discovered in the ground years before he retrieved the gold plates, was a small oval stone, or “seer stone.” As a young man during the 1820s, Joseph Smith, like others in his day, used a seer stone to look for lost objects and buried treasure... Some people have balked at this claim of physical instruments used in the divine translation process, but such aids to facilitate the communication of God’s power and inspiration are consistent with accounts in scripture. Martin Harris sat across the table from Joseph Smith and wrote down the words Joseph dictated. Harris later related that as Joseph used the seer stone to translate, sentences appeared.” - Book of Mormon Translation, Gospel Topic Essay
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2013
Evangelical magazine and gospel advocate; 1831; 1831 April; 1831 April 9; Church History Library https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/d1814c0f-16ed-4fe9-9d68-d118f40b22d3/0/7?lang=eng
"David Whitmer maintained [that] the Prophet used an oval-shaped, chocolate-colored seer stone slightly larger than an egg. Thus, everything we have in the Book of Mormon, according to Mr. Whitmer, was translated by placing the chocolate-colored stone in a hat into which Joseph would bury his head so as to close out the light... Such an explanation is, in our judgment, simply fiction created for the purpose of demeaning Joseph Smith and to undermine the validity of the revelations he received" - Joseph Fielding McConkie (BYU Professor of Ancient Scripture) & Craig J. Ostler (BYU Professor, Church History and Doctrine), Revelations of the Restoration. Page 95-96, Deseret Book, 2000
"Everything we have in the Book of Mormon, according to Mr. [David] Whitmer, was translated by placing the chocolate-colored stone in a hat into which Joseph would bury his head so as to close out the light... Such an explanation is, in our judgment, simply fiction created for the purpose of demeaning Joseph Smith and to undermine the validity of the revelations he received... Why all this flap and fuss if the Prophet didn't really have the plates and if they were not used in the process of translation? What David Whitmer is asking us to believe is that the Lord had Moroni seal up the plates and the means by which they were to be translated hundreds of years before they would come into Joseph Smith's possession and then decided to have the Prophet use a seer stone found while digging a well so that none of these things would be necessary after all. Is this, we would ask, really a credible explanation of the way the heavens operate?" - Joseph Fielding McConkie (BYU Professor of Ancient Scripture) & Craig J. Ostler (BYU Professor, Church History and Doctrine), Revelations of the Restoration. Page 95-96, Deseret Book, 2000.
"If Joseph Smith translated everything that is now in the Book of Mormon without using the gold plates, we are left to wonder why the plates were necessary in the first place. It will be remembered that possession of the plates placed the Smith family in considerable danger, causing them a host of difficulties. If the plates were not part of the translation process, this would not have been the case. It also leaves us wondering why the Lord directed the writers of the Book of Mormon to make a duplicate record of the plates of Lehi. This provision which compensated for the loss of the 116 pages would have served no purpose either. Further, we would be left to wonder why it was necessary for Moroni to instruct Joseph each year for four years before he was entrusted with the plates. We would also wonder why it was so important for Moroni to show the plates to the three witnesses, including David Whitmer. And why did the Lord have the Prophet show the plates to the eight witnesses? Why all this flap and fuss if the Prophet didn't really have the plates and if they were not used in the process of translation? What David Whitmer is asking us to believe is that the Lord had Moroni seal up the plates and the means by which they were to be translated hundreds of years before they would come into Joseph Smith's possession and then decided to have the Prophet use a seer stone found while digging a well so that none of these things would be necessary after all. Is this, we would ask, really a credible explanation of the way the heavens operate?" - Joseph Fielding McConkie (BYU Professor of Ancient Scripture) & Craig J. Ostler (BYU Professor, Church History and Doctrine), Revelations of the Restoration. Page 95-96, Deseret Book, 2000
- Stowell, do I understand you as swearing before God under the solemn oath you have taken that you believe the prisoner can see by the aid of the stone fifty feet below the surface of the earth as plainly as you can see what is on my table?
“Do I believe it? No, its not a matter of belief, I positively know it to be true.” - Did Smith tell you there was money hid in a certain place? “Yes.” - Did he tell you, you could find it by digging? “Yes.” - Did you dig? “Yes.” - Did you find any money? “No.” - Did he not lie to you then, and deceive you? “No! The money was there, but we did not get quite to it!”
- How do you know it was there? “Smith said it was!” - Josiah Stowell's testimony in Joseph Smith's 1826 trial. Presumably, since Josiah Stowall, believed Joseph Smith's gift of treasure digging, the charges were dropped, since he was the only one who had paid Joseph.
[Joseph Smith] was again arraigned before a bar of Justice, during last Summer, to answer to a charge of misdemeanor. This trial led to an investigation of his character and conduct, which clearly evinced to the unprejudiced, whence the spirit came which dictated his inspirations. During the trial it was shown that the Book of Mormon was brought to light by the same magic power by which he pretended to tell fortunes, discover hidden treasures, etc. Oliver Cowdry, one of the three witnesses to the book, testified under oath, that said Smith found with the plates, from which he translated his book, two transparent stones, resembling glass, set in silver bows. That by looking through these, he was able to read in English, the reformed Egyptian characters, which were engraved on the plates. - Mormonites, Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate, April 9 1831 - Footnote 31 in Gospel Topic Essay on Book of Mormon Translation
Josiah Stowell, a Mormonite, being sworn, testified that he positively knew that said Smith never had lied to, or deceived him, and did not believe he ever tried to deceive any body else. The following questions were then asked him, to which he made the replies annexed.Did Smith ever tell you there was money hid in a certain place which he mentioned? Yes.Did he tell you, you could find it by digging? Yes.Did you dig? Yes.Did you find any money? No.Did he not lie to you then, and deceive you? No! the money was there, but we did not get quite to it!How do you know it was there? Smith said it was! As regards the testimony of Josiah Stowell, it needs no comment. He swears positively that Smith did not lie to him. So much for a Mormon witness. - Mormonites, Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate, April 9 1831 - Footnote 31 in Gospel Topic Essay on Book of Mormon Translation
![“The [Book of Mormon] seems to be merely a prosey detail of imaginary history with the Old Testament for a model followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint old fashioned sound and structure of our King James translation of the scriptures. The result is a mongrel, half modern glibbness and half ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained, the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever he found his speech growing too modern, which was about every sentence or two, he ladeled in a few such scriptural phrases as, "exceeding sore," "and it came to pass," etc. and made things satisfactory again. "And it came to pass," was his pet. If he had left that out, his bible would have been only a pamphlet.” - Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872 | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Mark-Twain-Roughing-it-Book-o-fmormon-imaginary-history-and-tedious-plagiarism-and-it-came-to-pass.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1)
![“The [Book of Mormon] is a curiosity to me. It is such a pretentious affair and yet so slow, so sleepy, such an insipid mess of inspiration. It is chloroform in print.” - Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872 | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Mark-Twain-Book-of-Mormon-chloroform-in-print.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1)
![“[The Book of Mormon] is chloroform in print. If Joseph Smith composed this book, the act was a miracle. Keeping awake while he did it, was at any rate. If he, according to tradtion, merely translated it from certain ancient and myteriously engraved plates of copper, which he declares he found under a stone, in an out of the way locality, the work of translating it was equally a miracle for the same reason.” - Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872 | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Mark-Twain-Book-of-Mormon-chloroform-in-print-only-miracle-is-keeping-awake-reading-or-translating-it.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1)
![“[Joseph Smith] received the revelation in 1837, but he was himself afraid to promulgate it until the angel came and stood beside him with flaming sword and bade him do the command of God. Not until then did Joseph enter into polygamy, or get any of his disciples to take plural wives.” - Eliza R. Snow | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Eliza-R-Snow-not-until-angel-came-and-stood-beside-him-with-flaming-sword-Joseph-entered-into-polygamy.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1)
![“This angel, [Joseph] states, stood over him with a drawn sword prepared to inflict the penalty of death if he should be disobedient.” - Helen Mar Kimball Whitney | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Helen-Mar-Kimball-14-year-old-plural-wife-of-Joseph-Smith-angel-with-drawn-sword-threatened-death-if-Jospeh-was-disobedient.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1)
![“[Joseph] sent word to me by my brother, saying, ‘Tell Zina I put it off and put it off till an angel with a drawn sword stood by me and told me if I did not establish that principle upon the earth, I would lose my position and my life.’” - Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Smith Young | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Zina-Diantha-Huntington-Jacobs-Smith-Young-Joseph-put-it-off-until-angel-with-drawn-sword-threatened-position-and-life.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1)
!["David Whitmer maintained [that] the Prophet used an oval-shaped, chocolate-colored seer stone slightly larger than an egg. Thus, everything we have in the Book of Mormon, according to Mr. Whitmer, was translated by placing the chocolate-colored stone in a hat into which Joseph would bury his head so as to close out the light... Such an explanation is, in our judgment, simply fiction created for the purpose of demeaning Joseph Smith and to undermine the validity of the revelations he received" - Joseph Fielding McConkie (BYU Professor of Ancient Scripture) & Craig J. Ostler (BYU Professor, Church History and Doctrine), Revelations of the Restoration. Page 95-96, Deseret Book, 2000 | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Joseph-Fielding-McConkie-Craig-J-Ostler-used-an-oval-shaped-chocolate-colored-seer-stone-slightly-larger-than-an-egg-to-translate-book-of-mormon-by-placing-it-in-a-hat.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1)
!["Everything we have in the Book of Mormon, according to Mr. [David] Whitmer, was translated by placing the chocolate-colored stone in a hat into which Joseph would bury his head so as to close out the light... Such an explanation is, in our judgment, simply fiction created for the purpose of demeaning Joseph Smith and to undermine the validity of the revelations he received... Why all this flap and fuss if the Prophet didn't really have the plates and if they were not used in the process of translation? What David Whitmer is asking us to believe is that the Lord had Moroni seal up the plates and the means by which they were to be translated hundreds of years before they would come into Joseph Smith's possession and then decided to have the Prophet use a seer stone found while digging a well so that none of these things would be necessary after all. Is this, we would ask, really a credible explanation of the way the heavens operate?" - Joseph Fielding McConkie (BYU Professor of Ancient Scripture) & Craig J. Ostler (BYU Professor, Church History and Doctrine), Revelations of the Restoration. Page 95-96, Deseret Book, 2000. | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Joseph-Fielding-McConkie-Craig-J-Ostler-everything-in-book-of-mormon-translated-by-placing-seer-stone-in-a-hat-fiction-created-for-demeaning-Joseph-Smith.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1)
![[Joseph Smith] was again arraigned before a bar of Justice, during last Summer, to answer to a charge of misdemeanor. This trial led to an investigation of his character and conduct, which clearly evinced to the unprejudiced, whence the spirit came which dictated his inspirations. During the trial it was shown that the Book of Mormon was brought to light by the same magic power by which he pretended to tell fortunes, discover hidden treasures, etc. Oliver Cowdry, one of the three witnesses to the book, testified under oath, that said Smith found with the plates, from which he translated his book, two transparent stones, resembling glass, set in silver bows. That by looking through these, he was able to read in English, the reformed Egyptian characters, which were engraved on the plates. - Mormonites, Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate, April 9 1831 - Footnote 31 in Gospel Topic Essay on Book of Mormon Translation | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Mormonites-Olivery-Cowdery-statement-under-oath-about-seer-stone-trial-showed-book-of-mormon-brought-by-same-magic-power-Joseph-discovered-hidden-treasures.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1)
