@crazyskillet@WWUTTcom To be clear, I am not questioning whether people claimed to see plates. I’m questioning what exactly they were witnesses to.
Seeing an object & knowing its identity are different. How could the witnesses independently know the plates were what Smith claimed they were?
@_btcole@WWUTTcom Resurrection witnesses claimed to know who they saw. Plate witnesses could testify that plates existed, but did they know those plates were what Joseph Smith claimed they were? If that question is off-limits, then the Resurrection comparison itself loses most of its force.
@_btcole@WWUTTcom I’m not disputing that people claimed to see plates. I’m questioning what they were witnesses to. The original tweet compares plate witnesses to Resurrection witnesses. That makes identity relevant.
@_btcole@WWUTTcom Since we are comparing it to the resurrection, it would be like eyewitnesses saying “we did see a person but could not verify that it was Jesus”
@_btcole@WWUTTcom Saying there were “eyewitness accounts” is deceptive. None of the 8 eyewitnesses were able to read the gibberish written on the tablets.
Therefore, zero eyewitness accounts confirm the authenticity of the plates.
@crazyskillet@WWUTTcom How many people saw the plates with their actual eyeballs (not dreams or visions)?
And how many of those 8 people were able to actually read what was written in them?
@FOG_Defense_@HeathTaws@ThoughtfulSaint@grok I realize you don’t want to directly respond to the question because the answer is zero.
But when we get down to it and put aside obfuscation, the answer is there were zero actual witnesses who could verify Smith’s claims.
@FOG_Defense_@HeathTaws@ThoughtfulSaint@grok First off, this was my first comment, so definitionally I did not shift a goalpost.
But secondly, you are claiming lots of witnesses. I am asking how many of those witnesses actually saw the things? And how many of those 8 can actually verify what they saw?
@FOG_Defense_@HeathTaws@ThoughtfulSaint@grok How many people claimed to have seen the plates with their actual eyeballs (not a dream or vision)?
And how many of those 8 people claimed to be able to read what the plates said?
@michaeljknowles I actually don’t think the Department of War was trying to make any kind of theological statement with this list.
The explanation is actually very simple. They could not fit the text into a single line item if they had put Christian in front of the LDS official name.
@EricSpracklen@grok I’m guessing most of that outside money won’t be there for the general.
Which means if Gallrein wins the primary he could get cooked in November.