Church History1826bainbridgeglass lookingtreasure

The 1826 Glass-Looking Hearing

Wasn’t Joseph Smith convicted in 1826 as a glass-looking fraud? Doesn’t that end the prophetic claim?

Bible

The Bible answers

Bible · 1 Samuel 9:9

KJV + NRSVUE

King James Version
Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to enquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer.

NRSVUE
Formerly in Israel, anyone who went to inquire of God would say, ‘Come, let us go to the seer,’ for the one who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer.

Book of Mormon

Also restored

Joseph Smith—History 1:55–56
Joseph worked for hire, including for Josiah Stowell, whose search for a rumored Spanish mine is the setting of the 1826 hearing.

Faithful answers

FAIR

Joseph Smith’s 1826 hearing

FAIR Latter-day Saints

The 1826 event is best read as an examination, not a tidy felony conviction. Stowell testified in Joseph’s favor. The Church does not hide that Joseph used seer stones before the Book of Mormon. The leap from ‘hired seer in a Christian folk culture’ to ‘therefore the plates are fake’ is the recycled part.

Israel called prophets seers. Palmyra called some of them glass-lookers. God can still speak.

No complete official court docket proving a guilty verdict has been produced.
Stowell, the alleged victim, remained a believer in Joseph.
Treasure-seeking culture is the world God called Joseph out of — like Moses out of Pharaoh’s house, not a disqualifier.

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