Changes Over The Years

Looking over at lds.org, I found a discrepancy. It has to do with Joseph Smith and money digging. In 1989, this was taught that Joseph had no dealings with money digging or “peepstones”. A peep stone, is a stone used to look for buried treasure, an act that Joseph was indeed doing.

Here’s the quote from a 1989 article:

The Knight families knew Joseph Smith in the earliest days, when he was accused of gold-digging and using peep stones. If Joseph Smith were a charlatan or disreputable money grubber as detractors charged, the large Knight clan would not have felt such deep trust in him. Their loyalty to him was based on firsthand, intimate knowledge, which stands today as a solid witness that the Prophet’s character, from when he was twenty to his death at thirty-eight, was righteous and good.¹

And now a quote from the new church history volume, Saints:

In September 1826, Joseph returned to the hill for the plates, but Moroni said he was still not ready for them. “Quit the company of the money diggers,” the angel told him. There were wicked men among them. Moroni gave him one more year to align his will with God’s. If he did not, the plates would never be entrusted to him.²

So apparently, over time the story can and does change.

1. The Knight Family (https://www.lds.org/ensign/1989/01/the-knight-family-ever-faithful-to-the-prophet?lang=eng#note9-)

2. Saints Vol 1, Chapter 4 (https://www.lds.org/languages/eng/content/history/saints-v1/04-be-watchful)