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Question: Did the Witnesses who left the Church continue to maintain their witness of the Book of Mormon?: Difference between revisions
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All of the Three Witnesses and | All of the Three Witnesses and three of the Eight witnesses left the Church in 1838 and were hostile, at least for a time, against Joseph Smith. Yet, they clung to their witness and continued to affirm it. | ||
=Three Witnesses= | =Three Witnesses= | ||
Revision as of 20:40, 1 May 2015
Did witnesses who left the Church continue to affirm their witness?
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All of the Three Witnesses and three of the Eight witnesses left the Church in 1838 and were hostile, at least for a time, against Joseph Smith. Yet, they clung to their witness and continued to affirm it.
Three Witnesses
Oliver Cowdery
Oliver would later return to the Church and seek rebaptism.
During his estrangement from the Church, he insisted upon his witness as true.
Martin Harris
Martin Harris would later return to the Church and seek rebaptism.
During his estrangement from the Church, he insisted upon his witness as true, and sought to bear his witness often.
David Whitmer
David Whitmer never returned to the Church, but left an extensive record validating his testimony.
Eight Witnesses
Hiram Page
Hiram Page never returned to the Church, but continued to bear his witness. Even when approached by the excommunicated William McLellin, Page replied:
As to the Book of Mormon, it would be doing injustice to myself, and to the work of God of the last days, to say that I could know a thing to be true in 1830, and know the same thing to be false in 1847.[1]
Jacob Whitmer
Jacob Whitmer never returned to the Church, but bore his testimony on his deathbed, with no record of denial.
John Whitmer
John Whitmer never returned to the Church, but maintained his testimony as the second-longest lived witness (after his brother David Whitmer).
After leaving the Church, John said:
It may not be amiss in this place, to give a statement to the world concerning the work of the Lord, as I have been a member of this church of Latter Day Saints from its beginning; to say that the book of Mormon is a revelation from God, I have no hesitancy; but with all confidence have signed my named to it as such; and I hope, that my patrons will indulge me in speaking freely on this subject, as I am about leaving the editorial department. Therefore I desire to testify to all that will come to the knowledge of this address; that I have most assuredly seen the plates from whence the book of Mormon is translated, and that I have handled these plates, and know of a surety that Joseph Smith, jr. has translated the book of Mormon by the gift and power of God, and in this thing the wisdom of the wise most assuredly has perished: therefore, know ye, O ye inhabitants of the earth, wherever this address may come, that I have in this thing freed my garments of your blood, whether you believe or disbelieve the statements of your unworthy friend and well-wisher.[2]
Notes
- ↑ Letter of Hiram Page to William E. McLellin (30 May 1847), Ray County, Mo.; cited in Ensign of Liberty 1 (1848): 63.
- ↑ John Whitmer, "Address To the patrons of the Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate," (March 1836) Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate 2:286-287. (italics added)
To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, [[../CriticalSources|click here]]