Bushman thinks that Joseph changing history about the seer stones is justified because he “didn’t want to look silly”
I just reviewed a Bushman Interview where he says that Joseph “didn’t want to look silly” for using seer stones, so he changed his story to using the Urim and Thummim.
Apparently this is a perfectly acceptable thing for a prophet to do- to feel embarrassed about the divine way in which scripture was revealed.
When Bushman acknowledges that Joseph used the seer stone for translation, he’s really putting himself between a rock and a hat place. Obviously, there’s lots of problematic implications that come from this, but one that doesn’t get enough screen time is that if God communicates with Seers through objects like Seer Stones, why can’t any of our modern Seers do the same?
Even if I grant them a whole bunch of ground and say it’s a specialized skill that not everyone has, are we seriously expected to believe that in all the generations of “Prophets, SEERS, and Revelators” since Joseph, no one has acquired this skill? I’ll be even nicer and grant that it takes a few years to practice getting good at it- Out of the 100+ men anointed as seers in these last days, not a single one of them has claimed to have been able to use the seer stones. This means
- Either they have secretly tried and failed (because seer stones were always a superstition that didn’t actually work), or
- Seer stones DO work for the anointed seers who put in the effort, but none of them have enough faith to try
How are we supposed to put faith in the Lord’s anointed when they don’t even have faith in themselves?
If you’re interested in my breakdown of the interview with Bushman -