A Pathway to Prophethood: Joseph Smith Junior as Rodsman, Villiage Seer, and Judeo-Christian Prophet by Mark Ashurst-McGee (A-M below), Masters Thesis 2000, USU

It can be shown that Joseph Smith had two seer stones and the Urim and Thummin which were each progressively more powerful. Additionally Joseph purchased a green geode stone from a Pennsylvanian, but there is no evidence of him ever using it, and he gave it to Philo Dibble. Joseph found another seer stone on the shore near Nauvoo. So I can verify at least four of the seer stones Joseph is reported to have.

“In 1966, Grant Palmer observed both stones at the same time. Twenty-five years later he remembered the white stone being smaller than the brown one”

sources: Palmer to Marquardt and Palmer to A-M in telephone interviews.

“LDS president Lorenzo Snow showed the white stone to Richard M. Robinson and told him it was ‘the Seer Stone the Prophet Joseph used.’”

source: Robinson 1934

“Most historians hold that Joseph discovered his brown stone while digging a well on the Chase farm.[252] The stone found there was white and was Joseph’s second stone. David Whitmer, who spoke frequently about the brown stone, but never the white one, observed Joseph using the brown stone while living with Whitmer family in 1829.”

sources: [252] Quinn, Bushman, Vogel, an Alex Baugh; Whitmer “An Adress. . .”
notes: Joseph gave it to Oliver who gave it to Brigham.

The brown stone

“President Young also said that the seer stone which Joseph first obtained he got from an Iron kettle 15 feet underground. He saw it while looking in another seers stone which a person had” –Wilford Woodruff journal

notes: The other person could be Sally Chase, Luman Walters, a Stafford, or S. Lawrence.

A-M “tentatively dates the first seer stone vision to 1819 or early 1820 and the actual disinterment to 1821 or early 1822.”

“He said the stone was under the roots or shrub as large as his arn, situated a mile up a small stream that puts in on the South side of Lake Erie” – Purple 1877

Stowell testified it “could see things fifty feet beneath the surface of the earth.” The brown stone could not be used to see into futurity or holy things (including JS Sr.’s “holy shirt”). [Saunders to Kelley]

The white stone

-was found under the pretext of digging a well on the Chase property. Then there was an ongoing feud who it belonged too.

–was more powerful

“prisoner pretended to him that he could discern objects at a distance by holding this white stone to the sun or candle; that prisoner rather declined looking into a Hat at his dark colored stone as he said it hurt is eyes” –1826 court record

“about 1825, Hyrum borrowed the stone on behalf of the Smith family because ‘they wanted to accomplish some business of importance, which could not very well be done without the aid of the stone.’” — Willard Chase in Howe

A-M links the white stone to Rev 2:17 and this teaching: “with a white stone ‘all things pertaining to an higher order of kingdoms even all kingdoms will be made known and a white stone is given. . . ‘” JS 1843

–enabled Joseph to find the Urim and Thummin and the location of the plates.

“Joseph . . . described the manner of his finding the plates. He found them by looking in the stone found in the well of Mason Chase. The family likewise told me the same thing.” Martin Harris in Tiffany’s 1859

notes: there is some debate whether or not the seer stone was involved when this account is compared to others. Additional support comes from Chase, Stout (from Brigham Young), and Purple.

–Joseph could have the plates if he brought the right person along according to Moroni.

“Then he looked in his glass and found it was Emma Hale.” Joseph Knight

The Urim and Thummin

–The ultimate seer stones

“They are ten times Better then I expected. . .I can see anything; they are Marvelus.”–JS to Knight immediately after Joseph gets the plates.

“he could see everything–past, present, and future.” — Lapham 1870

“I [Martin] never dared to look into them by placing them in the hat, because Moses said ‘no man can see God and live,’ and we could see anything we wished by looking into them; and I could not keep the desire to see God out of my mind.” –Harris in Tiffany’s

“[Urim and Thummin] was to supersede the further use of the magic stone” –Pomeroy Tucker

Book of Mormon translation

–instruments used

“[Joseph] possessed a seer stone, by which he was able to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummin, and for convenience he then used the seer stone” Harris through Edward Stevenson

–for convenience?

” the instruments were much too large for Joseph and he could see through one at a time using sometimes one and sometimes the other. By putting his head in a hat or some dark object it was not necessary to close one eye while looking through the stone with the other. In that way sometimes when his eyes grew [tired] he releaved them of the strain.”–William Smith to J.W. Peterson

The spectacles, according to Anthon were too large. A-M concludes “Joseph apparently disassembled the spectacles.”

–evidence for using the white stone before the brown stone in translation

Joseph preferred the white stone.

Hyrum wouldn’t return the white stone in 1830 “for Joseph made use of it in translating his Bible” –Chase in Howe

“Smith would put his face into a hat in which he had the white stone”– 1830 account traced back to Martin Harris. A-M writes “Because Martin Harris served as Smith’s scribe during the first phase of the Book of Mormon translation, Smith’s use of the white stone should be dated to this period. Witnesses of Joseph’s later translations in Harmony and at the Whitmer farm in Fayette reported Joseph’s use of the brown seer stone”

Joseph uses the brown stone after Moroni returns it and the plates to him. The brown stone is the weakest and earlier it wasn’t able to view holy things. Perhaps this is why Oliver is asked to help with the translation (and fails in the early D&C sections). But Joseph’s progression as a seer allows him to use this weaker stone.

Later I saw a Seersnail. You could tell by looking at him that he wasn’t going to go anywhere fast.

….

One intepretation is that it would reveal things pertaining to the differences in glory and intelligence and “kingdoms” between ouselves and God, thus allowing us to reach his level eventually — immediately after obtaining the celestial ki ngdom, we’re very unlikely to be in God’s state immediately. People in other kingdoms are stopped in progress because they do not have the opportunity to progress any higher, perhaps because they are not capable of it, and therefore do not receive this knowledge. I doubt all will be at the same level of spiritual progress in the celestial kingdom – but all who do receive that inheritance will be prepared for future progress, which is the key distinguishing feature of the celestial kingdom.

Another interpretation is if one follows the supposition that God went through a similar process as we do to obtain his/her deified state, and that there are chains and chains of Gods, the stone would reveal things according to a higher level along this chain.

On one view of the jurisdictional approach to resolving conflicting claims to revelation, because Joseph was the First Elder, it followed that God would not reveal any general truths about the gospel to anyone else. Personal revelation, on that view, will only concern (1) confirmation of the general truths given by the prophets; and (2) specific advice & knowledge about how to live the specific individual’s life (or about others under that individual’s stewardship).

The passage I’m thinking of did not take that view of the matter. Rather, it preserved the possibility that a person through faithfulness might receive many revelations of general truths that had not yet been made known to the church. However, Brother Joseph (or Brigham, whoever it was) went on to tell his listeners that if they got a revelation that went beyond the revelations given to the church at large by the prophet, they should hold it close to their breasts and not reveal it until such time as the Lord made it known through the prophet.

On this view of revelation, the difference between the jurisdiction of my personal revelation and that of the prophet has to do not with subject matter jurisdiction but with personal jurisdiction: both of us can receive revelation about, e.g., the three degrees of glory or the nature of those little white stones described in Section 130. The difference is just that I’m expected to keep my mouth shut about it.

And speaking of those little white stones, is it significant that the urim & thumim for making things known about lower orders is something we all share (the earth), while the one for making things known about higher orders seems to be profoundly individual (not only do we each have our own, but each has a “a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it”)?

Given my general understanding that we are moving toward Zion, I would have thought that the upward-directed urim & thumim would have been the communal one, not the individualistic one.

But to tie the two parts of this comment together, in both cases it seems there are times where our community and our progression depend on our keeping something secret which the Lord has revealed to us alone. We are to be a community of the Lord’s confidants.

“9 This earth, in its sanctified and immortal state, will be made like unto crystal and will be a Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon, whereby all things pertaining to an inferior kingdom, or all kingdoms of a lower order, will be manifest to those who dwell on it; and this earth will be Christ’s.

“10 Then the white stone mentioned in Revelation 2:17, will become a Urim and Thummim to each individual who receives one, whereby things pertaining to a higher order of kingdoms will be made known;” (D&C 130)

The earth will become a general U&T for the people that dwell on it – manifesting things pertaining to inferior/lower order kingdoms.

The white stone will be a personal U&T for each person that receives one – making known things of higher-order kingdoms.

D&C 88:20, 25,26 say that the earth will be sanctified and that its purpose is to be possessed by those of the celestial kingdom.

I wonder whether this means that everyone living on earth will have manifest things of a lower kingdom and only people with a white stone will have manifest things of a higher kingdom. Would this be part of the difference between people exalted and people not exalted in the celestial kingdom? I have no idea. I will dig into sources out of curiosity but I don’t see this as essential to my progression now.

I’ve always thought of it as expanding areas of jurisdiction. So, as an analogy, you can know not just what is going on in your city, but also your state and federal goverment.