Difference between revisions of "Detailed response to CES Letter, Witnesses"

(→‎"James Strang’s claims and Voree Plates Witnesses are distinctive and more impressive compared to the Book of Mormon Witnesses": m)
(→‎"James Strang’s claims and Voree Plates Witnesses are distinctive and more impressive compared to the Book of Mormon Witnesses": m)
Line 318: Line 318:
 
*{{Incorrect}} With regard to Strang's witnesses being "more impressive," we suspect that the Book of Mormon witnesses claim of seeing an angel is more impressive than just about anything that the Strang witnesses claimed.
 
*{{Incorrect}} With regard to Strang's witnesses being "more impressive," we suspect that the Book of Mormon witnesses claim of seeing an angel is more impressive than just about anything that the Strang witnesses claimed.
 
*{{Incorrect}}Regarding the claim that none of Strang's witnesses ever recanted their testimony: None of Joseph's witnesses ever confessed to helping ''fabricate the plates.'' We would count Graham's admission that he assisted with the fabrication of the plates as a "recant" of his testimony.
 
*{{Incorrect}}Regarding the claim that none of Strang's witnesses ever recanted their testimony: None of Joseph's witnesses ever confessed to helping ''fabricate the plates.'' We would count Graham's admission that he assisted with the fabrication of the plates as a "recant" of his testimony.
 +
|quote=
 +
*Notes Daniel C. Peterson:
 +
<blockquote>
 +
One of the witnesses to the "Plates of Laban," Samuel P. Bacon, eventually denied the inspiration of Strang's movement and denounced it as mere "human invention." Another, Samuel Graham, later claimed that he had actually assisted Strang in the creation of the plates.
 +
<br>
 +
"We can hardly escape the conclusion," writes Quaife, "that Strang knowingly fabricated and planted them for the purpose of duping his credulous followers" and, accordingly, that "Strang's prophetic career was a false and impudent imposture." A more recent biographer, Roger Van Noord, concludes that "based on the evidence, it is probable that Strang — or someone under his direction — manufactured the letter of appointment and the brass plates to support his claim to be a prophet and to sell land at Voree. If this scenario is correct, Strang's advocacy of himself as a prophet was more than suspect, but no psychological delusion."
 +
Thus, Strang's plates were much less numerous than those of the Book of Mormon, his witnesses saw nothing supernatural and his translation required the better part of a decade rather than a little more than two months. (Quite unlike the semi-literate Joseph Smith, Strang was well-read. He had been an editor and lawyer before his involvement with Mormonism.) Perhaps most strikingly, unlike the witnesses to the Book of Mormon, some (at least) of Strang's witnesses later denied their testimonies.
 +
<br>
 +
The contrasts work very much in Joseph Smith's favor.
 +
<br>
 +
Daniel C. Peterson, [http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705374177/The-story-behind-James-Strang-and-his-sect.html?pg=all "Defending the Faith: The story behind James Strang and his sect"], ''Deseret News'' (June 9, 2011)
 +
</blockquote>
 
}}
 
}}
  

Revision as of 16:14, 1 March 2014

  1. REDIRECTTemplate:Test3

Response to "Witnesses Concerns & Questions"


[[../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]]


The Book of Mormon is no fake. I know what I know. I have seen what I have seen and I have heard what I have heard. I have seen the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon is written. An angel appeared to me and others and testified to the truthfulness of the record, and had I been willing to have perjured myself and sworn falsely to the testimony I now bear I could have been a rich man, but I could not have testified other than I have done and am now doing for these things are true.
—Martin Harris, shortly before his death. [1]
I have never at any time, denied that testimony or any part thereof, which has so long since been published with that book as one of the three witnesses. Those who know me best, well know that I have adhered to that testimony. And that no man may be misled or doubt my present views in regard to the same, I do now again affirm the truth of all my statement[s], as then made and published.
—David Whitmer, seven years before his death. [2]
I wrote, with my own pen, the entire Book of Mormon (save a few pages) as it fell from the lips of the Prophet Joseph, as he translated it by the gift and power of God, by the means of the Urim and Thummim, or as it is called by the book, Holy Interpreters. I beheld with my eyes, and handled with my hands, the gold plates from which it was transcribed. I also saw with my eyes and handled with my hands the Holy Interpreters. That book is true.
—Oliver Cowdery, two years before his death. [3]
It was a clear, open beautiful day, far from any inhabitants, in a remote field, at the time we saw the record, of which it has been spoken, brought and laid before us, by an angel, arrayed in glorious light, [who] ascend [descended I suppose] out of the midst of heaven. Now if this is human juggling—judge ye.
—Oliver Cowdery, November 1829. [4]
∗       ∗       ∗

Quick Navigation

Response Section

Magical Worldview

Template:CESLetterItem

Witnesses

Template:CESLetterItem

Martin Harris

Template:CESLetterItem

Template:CESLetterItem

Template:CESLetterItem

Template:CESLetterItem

David Whitmer

David Whitmer's gravestone, upon which is engraved his testimony of the Book of Mormon: "The record of the Jews and the record of the Nephites are one."

Template:CESLetterItem

Oliver Cowdery

Template:CESLetterItem

Second Sight

Template:CESLetterItem

James Strang and the Voree Plates Witnesses

Template:CESLetterItem

No Document of Actual Signatures

Template:CESLetterItem

"There is no evidence of any document whatsoever with the signatures of the witnesses"

Template:CESLetterItem

"James Strang’s claims and Voree Plates Witnesses are distinctive and more impressive compared to the Book of Mormon Witnesses"

Template:CESLetterItem

"the fact that all of the Book of Mormon Witnesses – except Martin Harris – were related to either Joseph Smith or David Whitmer"

Template:CESLetterItem

"in light of their superstitions and reputations"

Template:CESLetterItem

"The mistake that is made by 21st century Mormons is that they’re seeing the Book of Mormon Witnesses as empirical, rational, twenty-first century men"

Template:CESLetterItem

"It doesn’t matter because of this one simple fact: Joseph did not use the gold plates for translating the Book of Mormon"

Template:CESLetterItem

== Notes ==

  1. [note] George Godfrey, “Testimony of Martin Harris,” from an unpublished manuscript copy in the possession of his daughter, Florence (Godfrey) Munson of Fielding, Utah; quoted in Eldin Ricks, The Case of the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1971), 65–66.
  2. [note] "David Whitmer Proclamation, 19 March 1881," Early Mormon Documents 5:69
  3. [note] Andrew Jenson, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Company, 1901), 1:246.
  4. [note]  Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, in letter dated 29 November 1829, quoted in Corenlius C. Blatchly, "THE NEW BIBLE, written on plates of Gold or Brass," Gospel Luminary 2/49 (10 Dec. 1829): 194.
  5. [note] George Godfrey, “Testimony of Martin Harris,” from an unpublished manuscript copy in the possession of his daughter, Florence (Godfrey) Munson of Fielding, Utah; quoted in Eldin Ricks, The Case of the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1971), 65–66.
  6. [note] "David Whitmer Proclamation, 19 March 1881," Early Mormon Documents 5:69
  7. [note] Andrew Jenson, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Company, 1901), 1:246.
  8. [note] "David Whitmer Proclamation, 19 March 1881," Early Mormon Documents 5:69.
  9. [note]  Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, in letter dated 29 November 1829, quoted in Corenlius C. Blatchly, "THE NEW BIBLE, written on plates of Gold or Brass," Gospel Luminary 2/49 (10 Dec. 1829): 194.
  10. [note] Andrew Jenson, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Company, 1901), 1:246.
  11. [note] George Godfrey, “Testimony of Martin Harris,” from an unpublished manuscript copy in the possession of his daughter, Florence (Godfrey) Munson of Fielding, Utah; quoted in Eldin Ricks, The Case of the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1971), 65–66.
Retrieved from "https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/index.php?title=Detailed_response_to_CES_Letter%2C_Witnesses&oldid=111843"