All the Mormons can do is mark me down for this, but they are cowards and can not answer me. Polygamy became an impediment to Utah being admitted to the United States. This was not a concern to Brigham Young, however, who preached in 1866 that if Utah will not be admitted to the Union until it abandons polygamy, "we shall never be admitted. If I were told by God (not the Mormon gods) to do something, I would not give in to governing bodies, I would know that my Father in Heaven (again not the Mormon actual/literal physical father of there version of Jesus) was a bit smarter and wiser than the government and that My Lord would not have me do something that was wrong, unmoral or a sin. So I would have gone to court to fight for my Savior, even enduring jail or worse, I would not have turned my back on my God, not for any reason.

All the Mormons can do is mark me down for this, but they are cowards and can not answer me. Polygamy became an impediment to Utah being admitted to the United States. This was not a concern to Brigham Young, however, who preached in 1866 that if Utah will not be admitted to the Union until it abandons polygamy, "we shall never be admitted. If I were told by God (not the Mormon gods) to do something, I would not give in to governing bodies, I would know that my Father in Heaven (again not the Mormon actual/literal physical father of there version of Jesus) was a bit smarter and wiser than the government and that My Lord would not have me do something that was wrong, unmoral or a sin. So I would have gone to court to fight for my Savior, even enduring jail or worse, I would not have turned my back on my God, not for any reason.

I answered this question a couple of days ago, but it looks like there’s been some sort of glitch cuz a *lot* of stuff seems to be missing, this evening. :-? The answer to your question is quite simply that it didn’t take faith to be *capable* of seeing the golden plates. The plates were plainly visible to anyone; otherwise, why would Moroni have warned Joseph Smith Jr. that he “should not show them to any person; … only to those to whom I should be commanded to show them” (Joseph Smith—History, v.42; http://scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/1/42#36)? A bit later in Joseph’s history, he continues:    “[T]he same heavenly messenger delivered [the golden plates] up to me with this     charge: that I should be responsible for them; that if I should let them go carelessly,     or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would use all my     endeavors to preserve them, until he, the messenger, should call for them, they     should be protected” (Joseph Smith—History, v.59;     http://scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/1/59#58). Again, if the plates were invisible, why all the fuss? The simple answer is that there was never any reason that just anyone would be *incapable* of seeing the plates; just that only those regarding whom Joseph was commanded *should* see the plates. Indeed, the very verse you cite states: “[I]t is by your faith that you shall obtain a view of them” (http://scriptures.lds.org/dc/17/2). This is the same language used in the Ten Commandments and throughout all scripture: “you shall” is exactly the same as “thou shalt,” which obviously connotes divine mandate rather than physical ability (else, again, why bother mandating at all?). HTH!

If God is real, why does it take faith to see Him? If God made it easy and clear for us, where would be our test of faith? If God wanted to force us all to heaven, He would appear to all of us. Instead He appears to His prophets. We must then prove our faith in God and our willingness to serve Him by listening to His prophets and the Words He has given us through His prophets. If we all saw the Golden Plates, how would we be able to go to God in prayer to ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet? How could we deny that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God? Jesus said, "4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed." (Matthew 16) It was because ot Joseph Smith's faith that the Angel Moroni appeared to him and showed him where the plates were hidden. Because of their faith, God chose the 11 witnesses who saw the Golden Plates, 3 of whom saw the Angel Moroni. Can you name anybody who saw the plates who did not manifest any signs of faith?