Continuing from the
last post where it was stated that for some reason, most members of the Church
think that Moroni had with him all the records from his father, which would
have included all the records that Ammaron told Mormon about. However, we find
from the last paragraph of the previous post that Mormon did not give all
"those plates" to his son (Mormon 6:6).
The other plates
spoken of in 2 Nephi 5:33 are the Large Plates of Nephi, those that Mormon
abridged and gave to his son, Moroni, of which Joseph Smith translated and
Martin Harris lost.
Of these Small Plates
of Nephi that Mormon found within the many records he had taken from the hill
Shim, he said, “And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me,
according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I
do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come;
wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will” (WofM 6:7).
Now there are those
who believe there is a cave in the hill Cumorah in western New York. Experts in
the field of drumlin hills tell us that such would not be possible because the
way such hills are made, i.e., which are basically clusters of glacial
landform, composed primarily of glacial till, and includes deposition of glaciofluvial
sediment, the result of sediment being manipulated
into shape by subglacial deformation, though other geologists claim the base
formed by erosive processes removing material from an unconsolidated bed. In
simple terms, it is described as a hill of gravel and earth.
The recent retreat of a marginal outlet glacier of Hofsjökull in Iceland resulted in a
significant step in geomorphologic understanding showing it formed through a
progression of subglacial depositional and erosional processes with each
horizontal till bed within the drumlin created by an individual surge of the
glacier, with the eroded sediment forming a drumlin as it was repositioned and
deposited.
The point of all of this is merely to suggest that it would
be impossible for caves to exist in drumlin hills, since their base is not
solid, but made up of glacial till—it would be like having a hole in the middle
of a huge pile of marbles.
According
to geologists, the unlikelihood of a cave existing
within the drumlin in New York suggests that the experience related by the
various witnesses was most likely a vision, of which there are at least ten second hand accounts describing
the story of the cave in Cumorah, though Joseph Smith himself did not record
the incident. As a drumlin hill, Cumorah is a pile of gravel scraped together
by an ancient glacier. The geologic unlikelihood of a cave existing within the
hill such as the one described suggests that the experience related by the
various witnesses was most likely a vision, or a divine transportation to
another locale (as with Nephi's experience in 1 Nephi 11:1).
While Great Lakes and other U.S.
theorists like to point out that this cave is within the New York hill Cumorah,
that likelihood seems nonexistent since there is no question the New York hill
is a moraine laid down anciently by a glacier in motion and comprised of gravel
and earth. Geologically, it is impossible for the hill to have a cave, and all
those who have gone in search of the one have come back empty-handed. If,
therefore, the story attributed to Oliver Cowdery (by others) is true, then the
visits to the cave perhaps represent visions, perhaps of some far distant hill,
not physical events.
According to Brigham Young, in a
talk given in conference on June 17, 1877, he related the following: “When
Joseph Smith first obtained the plates, the angel Moroni instructed him to
carry them back to the hill Cumorah when he was finished translating. According
to Oliver Cowdery who accompanied Joseph in the return, when they arrived at
the hill, it opened and they walked into a cave, in which there was a large and
spacious room. Oliver says he did not think, at the time, whether they had the
light of the sun or artificial light; but that it was just as light as day.
They laid the plates on a large table in the room, and under this table there
was a pile of plates as much as two feet high, and there were altogether more
plates than probably many wagon loads piled up in the corners and along the
walls. The first time they went there the sword of Laban hung upon the wall;
but when they went there again it had been taken down and laid upon the table
across the gold plates; it was unsheathed, and on it was written: ‘This sword
will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the
kingdom of our God and his Christ’” (Journal of Discourses 19:38).
Thus, we might suggest that the cave seen and entered by
Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were visions of there being “transported” to
another place, much like the vision that Nephi had when he was shown many
things as he was “taken” to the tree of life, where he tasted the fruit; a
journey he describes as “And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was
dressed in a white robe; and he came and stood before me. And it came to pass
that he spake unto me, and bade me follow him. And it came to pass that as I
followed him I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste. And after I
had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the
Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender
mercies” (1 Nephi 8:5-8).
Visions, then, can make it seem you are in a certain place,
just as being in the cave of records was described, with those there thinking
they were inside the drumlin hill when, in fact, they were elsewhere.
In short, we do not know where the cave of plates is
located. Wherever it is, it is the divine hiding place or depository of the
plates Joseph Smith translated.
Given that the angel Moroni had
retrieved the plates from Joseph several times previously, it is not
unreasonable to assume that he was capable of transporting them to a different
location than the hill in New York. The point being, what man considers great
distances of thousands of miles when limited to a man walking seems out of the
question—however, what God, who created the universe, thinks is a great
distance to a being unlimited in travel capability, weight distribution, and
carrying capacity, the Earth is a singular area of activity without borders in
his way of thinking.
Anything is possible with the
Lord and we need to stop placing limitations on him and his ability in simple
matters of moving items, arranging events, an securing their safety and
security over eons of time.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Your posting is absolutely correct in that there can't be any cave in the NY hill Cumorah. I've worked as a geologist on a number of glacial sites and have studied lots of glacial till.
ReplyDeleteThat isn't true of the South American hill Cumorah because it is an extinct volcano. Lots of caves can be formed in it. It could be that the plates are stored in an old lava tube on the flanks of the volcano.