Richard7
Well-known member
false…the house was full of people, Oliver Cowderys wife also witnessed the process. It was in David’s, and to boot, David’s method agrees with Emma’s and Martins understanding.
Wow! so if this is not speculation on your part and you were not there, show us more about the details of who was in the house or room JS translated in?
Here is a new source...Your new church, the JS foundation, is your only source, you need to read what your church teaches on this…
It was during the continuation of the translation in June 1829 that Joseph and Oliver retired to the chamber of Father and Mother Whitmer’s home and called upon the Lord for guidance relative to their exercise of the Melchizedek Priesthood keys which they had heretofore received on the Susquehanna, but which had been momentarily kept under restraint as they awaited the Lord’s command to organize. Joseph said that while they were in the attitude of fervent prayer,
The word of the Lord came unto us in the Chamber, commanding us, that I should ordain Oliver Cowdery to be an Elder in the Church of Jesus Christ, and that he also should ordain me to the same office, and that after having been thus ordained, we shouldthproceed to ordain others to the same office, according as it should be made known unto us, from time to time,Wealso commanding us, that as soon as practicable we should call together all those who had already been baptized by us, to bless bread, and break it with them, also to take wine, bless it, and drink it with them doing all these things in the name of the Lord, but to defer our own ordination until we had calledthe Churtogether our brethren and had their sanction, and been accepted by them as their teachers, after which we were commanded to proceed to ordain each other andthencall out such men as the spirit should dictate unto us, and ordain them, and then attend to the laying on of hands for the Gift of the Holy Ghost.[18]
The Peter Whitmer Log Home: Cradle of Mormonism | Religious Studies Center
The Whitmer log home was a house of refuge for Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in troubled times. ©Intellectual Reserve, Inc.rsc.byu.edu
The Testimony of Sarah Conrad
Mary Whitmer never wavered in her support for Joseph Smith after she saw the angel and the plates. But she did do something to lighten her burden and make it easier to care for her family and guests.
The angel had suggested that she hire someone to help her, so she hired her niece, a girl named Sarah Conrad, to live at the house and help with the chores.{3} She did not tell Sarah what Joseph and Oliver were doing, but it did not take long for Sarah to discover that something unusual was going on. Sarah noticed that the Prophet and his friend “would go up into the attic, and they would stay all day. When they came down, they looked more like heavenly beings than they did just ordinary men.”{4}
At first Sarah was curious, but in time their luminous appearance actually frightened her. She told her aunt how she felt and asked what made those men “so exceedingly white.”{5}
When Mrs. Whitmer explained to Sarah about the Book of Mormon, she “told her what the men were doing in the room above and that the power of God was so great in the room that they could hardly endure it. At times angels were in the room in their glory which nearly consumed them.”{6} The light that shone from Joseph and Oliver’s faces came from their having been with the angels.
This explanation was reasonable enough and satisfied Sarah. She not only stayed with the Whitmers, but she also became one of Joseph’s good friends. She was baptized, and much later, after she and the other Saints were driven from Nauvoo, she settled with them in Provo, Utah.{7}
Joseph never told his readers how he translated the Book of Mormon except to say that he used the Urim and Thummim and that he did it “by the gift and power of God.” But there are some interesting indications that he had help from other angels besides Moroni.{8}
Sarah’s is the earliest of a number of accounts that testify that at times, when the Prophet was receiving revelation or was in the presence of heavenly beings, he, like Moses, actually glowed (Exodus 34:29-35).
Wilford Woodruff tried to describe the Prophet’s appearance on one of those occasions. He said, “His face was clear as amber.”{9} Philo Dibble, who was present when the Prophet received the revelation that is now the 76th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, reported, “Joseph wore black clothes, but at this time seemed to be dressed in an element of glorious white.”{10}
Sarah’s testimony that the men who were working on the translation of the Book of Mormon “looked so exceedingly white,” combined with Mrs. Whitmer’s explanation that “angels were in the room in their glory which nearly consumed them,” gives a valuable key to understanding the Book of Mormon and to knowing how it was translated. One may assume that if there were angels in the room, they had some purpose for being there other than just to pass the time of day. Their presence in the translating room certainly had an impact upon the ultimate outcome of Joseph’s work.
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