This image relates to a mysterious item, discussed at length in Section 8 of the Doctrine and Covenants, called “the gift of Aaron”. The heading to Section 8 provides the context for the discussion:

Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet to Oliver Cowdery, at Harmony, Pennsylvania, April 1829…In the course of the translation of the Book of Mormon, Oliver, who continued to serve as scribe, writing at the Prophet’s dictation, desired to be endowed with the gift of translation. The Lord responded to his supplication by granting this revelation.

The revelation states, in relevant part:

6. Now this is not all thy gift; for you have another gift, which is the gift of Aaron; behold, it has told you many things;

Click to continue… »

This image depicts the mummy of a person named Sheshonq being laid to rest with a hypocephalus–a disk covered with prayers, incantations, and visual representations of various Egyptian gods, placed behind the head of the deceased to give warmth and divine power to his or her body in the afterlife. For a member of the LDS Church, the hypocephalus in this image probably looks very familiar, because it is based on “Facsimile No. 2” from The Book of Abraham, found in the LDS scripture called The Pearl of Great Price. Click to continue… »

In the July 1993 Ensign article, “A Treasured Testament”, Elder Russell M. Nelson quotes David Whitmer (an early member of the LDS Church and signatory to the 1830 statement, The Testimony of Three Witnesses) for a succinct summary of Joseph Smith’s method of translating the language etched on the Golden Plates into the Book of Mormon:

“Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. Click to continue… »

Before Joseph Smith claimed to have discovered golden plates buried in the ground, he claimed to have a special ability to locate other buried treasure. In 1826, while being employed by Josiah Stowell, a well-heeled farmer in Bainbridge County, New York, to find Spanish treasure that Stowell believed was buried on his property, Joseph was arrested and brought before a judge on criminal charges related to being a “glass-looker”.

What is a glass-looker? A glass-looker is a person who looks into an object, such as a crystal ball or a stone, to see into the future or to see into the spirit world. Click to continue… »

This drawing depicts a dream that Joseph Smith, Sr. reportedly had in 1811 Click to continue… »

Skeptics of the claim that the Book of Mormon is literally an historical account of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas note that the book contains elements of Joseph Smith’s 19th century milieu.

One such element is the camp meeting, held from time to time in Joseph Smith’s community (a place known as the “burned-over district”) during his youth (a time called the “Second Great Awakening”). Click to continue… »

Joseph and Hyrum Smith were murdered in a gunfight in the late afternoon of June 27, 1844. This drawing depicts the hours immediately before that gunfight, which Joseph, Hyrum, John Taylor, and Willard Richards spent smoking, drinking, and singing to lighten their mood. Click to continue… »

The story Willard Chase heard may have been the earliest known account of the supernatural event that set Joseph Smith’s feet on the path to prophethood, but it certainly isn’t the only one. Click to continue… »

Historical records indicate that in early summer of 1827, Joseph Smith and his father began telling people in town that he had found a golden book buried in the ground, and that the spirit guarding it would not let him take it out without following a specific protocol. Click to continue… »

In April 1843, Joseph Smith married Almera Woodard Johnson, the 30 year-old sister of Joseph’s friend, Benjamin Franklin Johnson, in Nauvoo. Click to continue… »