Though "them" in this account could refer solely to the plates, Patriarch
Zebedee Coltrin, an early acquaintance of Joseph Smith, related in an 1880 high
priests' meeting in Spanish Fork, Utah, that he had once asked Joseph what he
had done with the Urim and Thummim and that "Joseph said he had no further
need of it and he had given it to the angel Moroni. He had the Melchizedek
Priesthood, and with that Priesthood he had the key to all knowledge and
intelligence."59 (my emphasis) quote on p. 59 here https://dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/ ... N02_50.pdf
The reason I bring this up is because of my recent post on Joseph Smith's cosmology wherein he falls short (see here viewtopic.php?f=1&t=49743) of giving us just this claimed "knowledge and intelligence" when it came to cosmological revelations of truth, which were just rehashed Newtonian precepts, not scientifically advanced knowledge of even what we have today. If the Melchizedek Priesthood really did give Mormons this ability, then how come they are not at the forefront of advances in all areas of inquiry in our world? This is a sincere question. It seems like all the great advances of knowledge in medicine, astronomy, physics, geology, chemistry, sociology, oceanography, etc., are by non-Mormons. Based on the claim, and then seeing the evidence, what other conclusion is there to arrive at than Joseph Smith pulled the wool over millions of eyes?