A Magical Ball

The story about the “ball of curious workmanship . . . of fine brass” is not easy to believe either. This magic ball just appeared out of nowhere in front of Lehi’s tent one morning to the great astonishment of Lehi and his family. This ball or “director” had two spindles which “pointed whither we should go into the wilderness.”

This magic ball was also capable of intelligent communication through written messages which changed from time to time.

Where in all of the scriptures do we read of such a thing as this? Did Moses have a magic ball to guide him in the wilderness? Do prophets of God gaze into crystal balls, or does this sound more like Gypsy fortune tellers, glass looks, and other practitioners of the occult?

Is it just a coincidence that Mormon and non-Mormon historians have documented the fact that Joseph Smith was a practitioner of the occult? Court records indicate that Smith was arrested and convicted as a “glass looker” in New York in 1826.

Nephi’s Steel Bow

Next we read that Lehi’s family nearly starved to death in the wilderness when Nephi broke his steel bow. This brings up several important questions such as where did Nephi get a bow made out of “fine steel” in 600 B.C.? At this time, iron was a rather new development in human history, and only primitive methods of carbonation into steel had been developed.

Spring steel, the kind necessary to make a bow, requires complex technology that would not be introduced for several centuries. It is very difficult to make steel that combines the properties of strength and flexibility. And even if Nephi could have somehow come up with a steel bow, why didn’t his father and his brothers have steel bows too? Why was Nephi the only one who had one? And if Nephi left Jerusalem with a steel bow about 600 B.C., why doesn’t the Bible say anything with about steel bows at that time? It seems that Nephi was the only person in the entire world who had a bow made out of “fine steel.”