FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Difference between revisions of "Detailed response to CES Letter, Witnesses"
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| − | |claim= | + | |claim=After quoting some of Martin Harris's "spiritual eye" statements about viewing the plates, the author asks "Why couldn’t Martin just simply answer “yes”?" |
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| + | *He did say that he saw them. The very same Wikipedia article from which the author retrieved quotes about Harris's surreptitiousness also includes some direct quotes about his view of the plates. | ||
| + | <blockquote> | ||
| + | Nevertheless, in 1853, Harris told one David Dille that he had held the forty- to sixty-pound plates on his knee for “an hour-and-a-half” and handled the plates with his hands, “plate after plate.”[34] Even later, Harris affirmed that he had seen the plates and the angel with his natural eyes: “Gentlemen,” holding out his hand, “do you see that hand? Are you sure you see it? Or are your eyes playing you a trick or something? No. Well, as sure as you see my hand so sure did I see the Angel and the plates.”[35] The following year Harris affirmed that “No man heard me in any way deny the truth of the Book of Mormon [or] the administration of the angel that showed me the plates.”[36] (paragraph from Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints) copied on June 21, 2013) | ||
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| + | *William Harrison Homer, “The Passing of Martin Harris,” Improvement Era Vol. 29, No. 5 (March 1926): 470 | ||
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| + | “Young man,” answered Martin Harris with impressiveness, “Do I believe it! Do you see the sun shining! Just as surely as the sun is shining on us and gives us light, and the [moon] and stars give us light by night, just as surely as the breath of life sustains us, so surely do I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God, chosen of God to open the last dispensation of the fulness of times; so surely do I know that the Book of Mormon was divinely translated. I saw the plates; I saw the Angel; I heard the voice of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. I might as well doubt my own existence as to doubt the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon or the divine calling of Joseph Smith.” | ||
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| − | |claim= | + | |claim=A collection of short quotes is displayed to demonstrate that the witnesses believed in "second sight," which the author calls "imagination." |
| + | *“While praying I passed into a state of entrancement, and in that state I saw the angel and the plates.” – Martin Harris, (Anthony Metcalf, Ten Years Before the Mast, n.d., microfilm copy, p. 70-71) | ||
| + | *“I never saw the gold plates, only in a visionary or entranced state.” – EMD 2:346-47 | ||
| + | *“He only saw the plates with a spiritual eye” – Joseph Smith Begins His Work, Vol. 1, 1958 | ||
| + | *“As shown in the vision” – Zenas H. Gurley, Jr., Interview with David Whitmer on January 14, 1885 | ||
| + | *“Never saw the plates with his natural eyes but only in vision or imagination” – Letter from Stephen Burnett to “Br. Johnson,” April 15, 1838, in Joseph Smith Letter Book, p. 2 | ||
| + | *“I did not see them uncovered, but I handled them and hefted them while wrapped in a tow frock.” – EMD 1:497 | ||
| + | *“They were shown to me by a supernatural power” – History of the Church Vol. 3, Ch. 21, p. 307-308 | ||
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Revision as of 22:06, 21 June 2013
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| [[../Priesthood Restoration Concerns & Questions|Priesthood Restoration Concerns & Questions]] | A FAIR Analysis of:
[[../|Letter to a CES Director]] |
[[../Temples & Freemasonry Concerns & Questions|Temples & Freemasonry Concerns & Questions]] |
A FAIR Analysis of the online document Letter to a CES Director section "Witnesses Concerns & Questions"