500 More Little Known Facts in Mormon History, p 4; “Two Sacred Interpreters or Three? (1827) The Urim and Thummim assigned to Joseph were the same interpreters received by the Brother of Jared on Mount
Simeon. Abraham received a different Urim and Thummim while he was in Ur, of the Caldees. Martin Harris said that the prophet also possessed a seer stone by which he was able to translate, as well as with the Urim and Thummin. Whereas the Urim and Thummim were composed of two crystal stones set in the rims of a bow (and detachable), the seer stone was a small, oval, kidney shaped stone. This was separate and distinct from the Urim and Thummim that were delivered to the angel after the translation. The seer stone is still in the possession of the Church President.” – George W. Givens, 2004
Exodus 28:30; “And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron’s heart, when he goeth in before the LORD: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the LORD continually.”
In the OT the transliteration for Urim is ʾûrîm – there are 7 occurrences for this word and the transliteration for Thummim is tummîm of which there are 5. The word thummim is plural for perfection, meaning complete truth and the definition for urim is oracle (word from God).
Our verse noted above is the first time in scripture these words are used, making it virtually impossible for Abraham to be in possession of them. Besides all that, God’s directives were for the high priests to place them in their breastplates as part of their dress code to be worn in the temple. The Mormon’s claims about Abraham are out of context chronologically, and geographically.
Furthermore, use of urim and thummm fades from OT verbiage in Israel’s monarchy period, excluding the last time they show up in the post-exilic era in Ezra 6:23 and Nehemiah 7:65.
Urim and Thummim were used by the priests to receive answers from God on important matters that concerned Israel at the time. From warfare operations to determining God’s will in an answer to specific questions they may have had at the time (See Holman’s Bible Dictionary on Urim & Thummim).
In closing, the ‘seer stones’ Smith used when digging for treasures were nothing more than a tool used for witchcraft.
As Melissa pointed out in her article on prayer circles, using anything of this genre is demonic and not of God.
We’re still wondering why the Church feels they need to keep that seer stone under wraps and not put it on display if it was such an integral part of Smith’s translation process.
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