By Jack H. West, 1954.
PERSONAL WITNESSES
(See written testimony in Pearl of Great
Price and the front pages of Book of Mormon)
KEY WITNESS: KEY
| Joseph Smith Born 1805, Died a martyr, James 1:5 |
(3) (4) (3) |
Beginning spring of 1820 – 1st great vision – Father & Son9-21-23-Moroni visions, next day, Hill Cumorah, N.Y.9-22-27-After 4 yearly visits receives plates & instr.1830 – Book of Mormon published. translates. |
| 3 SPECIAL WITNESSES: |
KEY |
|
| Oliver Cowdery, Born 1805, 3 Witnesses: 2 Nephi 27:12, Ether 5:2,3, D&C Sec. 17 |
(9) (10) (life in) |
Beginning 1829 –Meets Joseph Smith To 1838 –Active, high offices, excommunicated.1848 -10 yrs. Out of church, bitter enemy of Joseph Smith, readmitted after repentance.Bears strong testimony until death. Tells story of vision—angel & voice of God. See signed testimony in B. of M. |
| David Witmer, Born 1806 |
(9) (life out) |
Beginning 1829 –Meets Joseph Smith To 1838 –Active, high offices, then excommunicated.Never returned to the Church. In 1881 caused testimony to be printed in Ray County, “Conservator,” Mo. Reprint N.Y. Times & London. 19 most famous men of Missouri testify to his honesty. At death bed he again reaffirms testimony. |
| Martin Harris, Born1783 |
(10) (33) (life in) |
Beginning 1827 –Meets Joseph Smith1838-until now very active in Church, the Church moves west and he remains behind.Left “by himself” – Testimony never falters.Finally comes to Utah. Thousands hear his ringing testimony. |
*****
EIGHT OTHER WITNESSES: Read testimony in front of Book of Mormon –
Christian Whitmer Peter Whitmer, Jr. Hiram Page Hyrum Smith
Jacob Whitmer John Whitmer Joseph Smith, Sr. Samuel H. Smith
Joseph Smith, Jr. showed plates to these men as one man would show something to any group of men – no display from heaven – broad daylight. These men handled and hefted golden record and turned pages with own hands. None ever denied – even though split up, some leaving Church, becoming enemies.
If this were a fraud is it not strange that although most perfect conditions existed for a betrayal, none of them ever denied testimony?
DID WITNESSES HAVE ULTERIOR MOTIVES:
WERE THEY:
- IMPOSTERS with intent to deceive for power, fame, wealth?
No. A search of lives of witnesses shows that no motives for fraud existed.
- ENTHUSIASTS, Bitter enmity would have cooled enthusiasm in later years.
- DELUDED, After Joseph Smith murdered, no longer able to influence.
- TRUTHFUL, YES! It’s THE only answer left
Now let’s refer to Joseph Smith’s key on the chart on page 10. At the top of the chart, under the caption “Key,” are the numbers (3) (4) (3). The first vision was in 1820. Three years later, 1823, the second group of visions. Then followed the four annual visits to the hill. Finally, on the 22nd day of September, 1827, the Prophet Joseph received custody of the plates with a restrictive charge. Then three years later he published the Book of Mormon. He was told that if he let those plates get out of his keeping, he would forfeit his very life as a penalty. He was further instructed that he was to show the records to no man except those to whom God would direct him, and that if he did, he would receive a drastic penalty.
The Prophet said, “I didn’t know what persecution was before I received the plates. I thought I had been persecuted.” His neighbors who didn’t believe his story of the vision of God the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ, made fun of him; all over his neighborhood he was being put to shame by those who thought they were in the right. Joseph testified that he felt very much like Paul in his defense before Agrippa.
So it was with me. I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil against me falsely for so saying; I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; … (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith 2:25.)
That is quite a testimony regarding the first vision. With the same fervor he continued to maintain that he had seen the Angel Moroni and on many visits had received much instruction from him.
How much did this young man believe these things? He could not even stay at home because of the persecution by his neighbors. He was beaten by mobs, time and time again. All in the world he had to do to stop the persecution was to say, “I deny that I ever saw God the Father and any angels and messengers from heaven who had messages for all the children of the earth.” That is all he had to do.
At one point a mob tarred and feathered him and left him for dead. One of them was apparently more touched by the proceedings than others, and with tears streaming down his face, he kept leaning closer and ever closer to the ear of the Prophet Joseph Smith as that scalding hot tar went over his body, searing his flesh, and he could see the extreme agony of the Prophet. He said to him, “Joseph, please deny. That’s all we want.” But the Prophet would not deny!
He is a pretty good witness. Worlds without end, they’ll never break his testimony down, for he did see, and he did hear those things which he said he saw and heard.
Let us follow Joseph Smith to the end of his days. Three years (in round figures) after receiving the plates, he caused that the translation of these ancient golden records, translated by the gift and power of God, be printed in English for the first time as the Book of Mormon.
The Prophet became a leader of a great people. He was the founder of the beautiful city of Nauvoo, made out of a swamp area; it became one of the most beautiful cities west of the East Coast of these United States. He was a mayor. He was a general in the armed forces. At the very moment he was murdered in cold blood, he was running for the presidency of these United States. He did not apparently want to fun for the presidency, but his friends urged him to do so. And he had a very good chance of getting the presidency, for he had a very wonderful platform. It made good sense even to the people who were prejudiced against him.
Could he have saved his life? Yes he could. He has escaped his persecutors, had crossed the river, and was on his way westward. Then his own friends, the only ones who knew his whereabouts, came to him. They said, “Joseph, we think it will be a little easier on the Saints if you will come back just once more – just once, and stand trial.” I can almost hear the Prophet’s words. “I have been standing trial time and time again. Every time I have been in court, they have released me without a vestige of evidence against me. Now you are asking me to come back again, and I tell you if I come back again I will never return alive.” He knew that. Still his friends insisted, and Joseph said finally, “If my life is of no value to my friends, it is of none to myself.”
He went back, and as he walked out of that beautiful city of Nauvoo, he said to those around him and his guards, “I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am as calm as a summer’s morning. I have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward all men. If they take my life, I shall die an innocent man, and my blood shall cry from the ground for vengeance, and it shall be said of me, ‘He was murdered in cold blood!’”
And so he did go to stand trial, with the absolute guarantee of the great state of Illinois, under the hand of its governor, that he would be given the protection of the militia of that state. Yet the facts show that some of that very militia were in the band of painted-faced individuals who murdered him in cold blood while he was supposedly under the protection of the law in Carthage Jail, Illinois. Yes, he is a marvelous witness for the authenticity of the work, and his testimony will never be broken down.
Thus concluded the witness of the Prophet Joseph Smith. We are taking quite a bit of time on the first two witnesses. The others go much more rapidly, but we will kind of get the gist of this thing from these two witnesses.
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