Beliefs
Mormons believe that the Urim and Thummim of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon were the functional equivalent of the Urim and Thummim mentioned in the Old Testament. Previously, it was thought that there was no evidence that the latter were ever used to translate unknown texts. However, Dr. Cornelis Van Dam of the Theological Colleges of the Canadian Reformed Churches recently published a book titled The Urim and Thummim: A Means of Revelation in Ancient Israel, in which he examines a new possible role of these ancient Israelite objects. Van Dam puts forth the idea that the Urim and Thummim were actually used in ancient Israel as a means of receiving revelation from God. Some Mormons believe that there were three different Urim and Thummims: the one of the Old Testament (Exodus 28:30) and two mentioned in the Book of Mormon, one used by the Jaredites and the other by King Mosiah. LDS members believe that the one used by Smith is the one originally possessed by the Jaredites.
Read more about this topic: Urim And Thummim (Latter Day Saints)
Famous quotes containing the word beliefs:
“A man must not swallow more beliefs than he can digest.”
—Havelock Ellis (1859–1939)
“Children demand that their heroes should be fleckless, and easily believe them so: perhaps a first discovery to the contrary is less revolutionary shock to a passionate child than the threatened downfall of habitual beliefs which makes the world seem to totter for us in maturer life.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“The essence of belief is the establishment of a habit; and different beliefs are distinguished by the different modes of action to which they give rise.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)