What if the historical evidence for the gold plates is as strong as the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ?

In this episode of Informed Saints, Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot sit down with Josh Gailey, an ordained evangelist in the Church of Jesus Christ (headquartered in Monongahela, Pennsylvania) and author of "Witnessing Miracles: Historical Evidence for the Resurrection and Book of Mormon."

Josh applies the minimal facts argument pioneered by Gary Habermas of Liberty University to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. The result is a rigorous historical case that treats the stone box in the Hill Cumorah as the "empty tomb" of the Book of Mormon — an observable historical artifact that locals, enemies, and unlikely witnesses all confirmed.

In this conversation, we cover:

The PET analysis for historical claims: Proximity, Enemies, and Unlikely Testimonies.
Why Lorenzo Saunders, a lifelong critic of Joseph Smith, accidentally corroborated the 1823 excavation.
How Josiah Stowell's courtroom testimony gives us a physical description of the plates.
The 16 historical sources describing the hole in the hill on the west side of Cumorah.
Why the Three Witnesses' independent attestation of the angel and the plates is historically significant.
How Isaac Hale, Martin Harris, Emma Smith, and others interacted with the plates as unlikely witnesses.
Why the attempts of Palmyra money diggers to steal the plates function as enemy attestation.
The problems with the "ten plates" theory and other alternative explanations.

If you take the Resurrection seriously on historical grounds, this episode argues you have every reason to take the gold plates seriously on the same grounds.

Josh Gailey's book "Witnessing Miracles" and his companion article in the new FAIR volume "Defending the Book of Mormon" are both available for readers who want to go deeper.

===Informed Saints Credits===

Produced by The Ancient America Foundation

Producer: Spencer Clark

Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye