Difference between revisions of "Mormonism and Wikipedia/Three Witnesses/The Three Witnesses"

• Some modern interpreters of Mormonism have argued, as did some of the witnesses' contemporaries, that the Three Witnesses had a magical worldview. One of these, Grant Palmer, a former director of LDS Institutes of Religion who was disfellowshipped by the LDS Church in 2004 for his book An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, argued that moderns "tend to read into their testimonies a rationalist perspective rather than a nineteenth-century magical mindset....They shared a common world view, and this is what drew them together in 1829."

• Grant H. Palmer, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002), 175-76.

•  Correct, per cited sources
  

• Critics of Mormonism have also noted that all three witnesses were closely associated with Joseph Smith and that Martin Harris made a significant financial contribution to the movement.

• Harris financed publication of the Book of Mormon. http://www.irr.org/mit/bomwit1.html Institute for Religious Research website

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  Violated by John Foxe —Diff: off-site
  Why use an anti-Mormon website as a reference? Latter-day Saint sources have always noted that "all three witnesses were closely associated with Joseph Smith and that Martin Harris made a significant financial contribution to the movement." It is well documented in LDS sources that Martin Harris mortgaged his farm in order to finance the printing of the Book of Mormon.
• The edit summary by John Foxe states that this edit was made to restore "earlier version before elimination of material unapproved by a new editor with blatant Mormon POV."

• Oliver Cowdery was a school teacher and an early convert to Mormonism who served as scribe while Joseph Smith dictated what he said was a translation of the Book of Mormon. Like Smith, who was a distant relative, Cowdery was also a treasure hunter who had used a divining rod in his youth. Cowdery asked questions of the rod; if it moved, the answer was yes, if not, no.

• Barnes Frisbie, The History of Middletown, Vermont (Rutland: Tuttle and Co., 1867) in EMD, 1: 603-05.

•  Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
  Violated by John Foxe —Diff: off-site
  The wiki editor has abused the source, which does not support the statements in the main text. Barnes Frisbie's account is describing the "Wood Scrape" incident. Frisbie is discussing the leader of a band of rodsmen, a man named Winchell, when he says, "I have been told, was a friend and acquaintance of [William] Cowdery's, but of this I cannot be positive..." The wiki editor has moved far beyond the source in his assertions:
  • The source says nothing about Cowdery being "a distant relative" of Joseph Smith. Moreover, one questions why the wiki author thinks that this is even relevant.
  • The source says nothing about Oliver Cowdery being a "treasure hunter." Grant Palmer states his opinion that Oliver "was a treasure hunter and "rodsman" before he met Joseph Smith in 1829" in An Insider's View of Mormon Origins (p. 178), but he does not back it up with a citation other than to note Oliver's father's possible association with the treasure-seeking group from Vermont (based upon the Frisbie account cited above).
  • The source says nothing about the method by which Oliver might have utilized a divining rod.
• From the cited source, p. 604, note 11:

[D. Michael] Quinn states, "From 1800 to 1802, Nathaniel Wood's 'use of the rod was mostly as a medium of revelation."...Thus, a connection between William Cowdery and the Wood Scrape would help to explain why his son Oliver had a rod through which he received revelations" before he met Joseph Smith in April 1829, shortly after Cowdery had arrived in Harmony, Pennsylvania: "Now this is not all, for you [Oliver Cowdery] have another gift, which is the gift of working with the rod..." (Book of Commandments VII:3; see also Quinn 1987, 32-35)

• It should be noted that in the second volume of the Joseph Smith Papers, that the phrase "working with the rod" was originally "working with the sprout." The word "sprout" was changed to "rod" by Sidney Rigdon.
• For a detailed response, see: Doctrine and Covenants/Oliver Cowdery and the "rod of nature"

• Cowdery also told Smith that he had seen the Golden Plates in a vision before the two ever met.

• Richard Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 73; Palmer, 179.

•  Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
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  Bushman says nothing about Oliver seeing the plates in a vision before the two met.

• Before Cowdery served as one of the Three Witnesses, he had already experienced two other important visions. Cowdery said that he and Smith had received the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist in May 1829 after which they had baptized each other in the Susquehanna River.

• Messenger and Advocate (October 1834), 14-16; Bushman, 74-75.

• From Charles M. Nielsen Letter, 14 November 1988, Early Mormon Documents 2:476, Oliver Cowdery states:

Again I testify to you that while I was alone with Joseph the Prophet, in the attitude of prayer, a light descended from heaven, the glory of which far exceeds the noon-day sun, and in the midst of which a personage appeared who told us that his name was John, formerly called John the Baptist. He ordained first Joseph by laying his hands upon his head, and then he ordained me in the same manner to the Aaronic Priesthood. Later, after having baptized each other according to his instructions, we ordained each other...

• Cowdery said that he and Smith had later gone into the forest and prayed "until a glorious light encircled us, and as we arose on account of the light, three persons stood before us dressed in white, their faces beaming with glory." One of the three announced that he was the Apostle Peter and named the others as the Apostles James and John.

• Charles M. Nielsen to Heber Grant, February 10, 1898, in Dan Vogel, ed., Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 2: 476.

•  Insufficient Citation— The citation does not include sufficient material to make the author's meaning clear.
  Violated by John Foxe —Diff: off-site
  The wiki editor does not include anything from the source regarding why the visitation occurred.
• From the cited source,

...until a glorious light encircled us, and as we arose on account of the light, three persons stood before us dressed in white, their faces beaming with glory." One of the three announced that he was the Apostle Peter and named the others as the Apostles James and John. The person in the center addressing Joseph and me, said "My name is Peter and (pointing to the others) these are James and John. We have come here according to the command from the Almighty to confer upon you the Apostleship to which we have been ordained." After having made these few remarks, they proceeded to ordain us.

• By 1838, Cowdery and Smith had engaged in a number of disagreements that included doctrinal differences about the role of faith and works,

• Cowdery and Smith publicly argued about the wording of what is now Doctrine & Covenants Section 20:37. The dispute arose partially in part because as Second Elder in the Church of Christ, Cowdery had received parts of the revelation and was part author of the D&C 20. (see Articles of the Church of Christ). Cowdery's version of the revelation was worded differently than the version that was prepared for publication in 1835. Smith's version reads: "All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church." Cowdery's version reads: "Now therefore whosoever repenteth & humbleth himself before me & desireth to be baptized in my name shall ye baptize them...if it so be that he repenteth & is baptized in my name then shall ye receive him & shall minister unto him of my flesh & blood but if he repenteth not he shall not be numbered among my people that he may not destroy my people." The discussion of how works and faith are intertwined in the repentance process proved to be a dividing factor between Smith and Cowdery during the printing of the Book of Commandments and later the Doctrine and Covenants.

•  Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
  
  The original citation was Bushman, 323, 347-48, but it has been removed, most likely by accident.

• the Kirtland Safety Society fiasco,

• See excommunication charges against Cowdery in History of the Church, 3: 16

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  The Kirtland Safety Society failed during a period of nationwide bank failures. Calling it a "fiasco" is pejorative.
• For a detailed response, see: Kirtland Safety Society

• and what Cowdery called Smith's "dirty, nasty, filthy affair" with Fanny Alger.

• B.H. Roberts, New Witnesses for God, 2: 308-9; Encyclopedia of Mormonism "Book of Mormon Witnesses"; Oliver Cowdery and History of the Church, 3: 14-17

•  Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
  
  The phrase "dirty, nasty, filthy affair" does not appear in any of the three reference works cited.
• The citation actually comes from Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling p. 323, citing Oliver Cowdery to Warren A. Cowdery, Jan. 21, 1838, Cowdery Letter Book.

• Smith's growing reliance on Sidney Rigdon as his first counselor,

• Although Rigdon was Smith's counselor in the First Presidency, Cowdery was still an "associate president" or "assistant president" of the Church and had more authority than Rigdon. However, David Whitmer was President of the Church in Zion, and Smith led the First Presidency and was president of the Church outside of Zion. It is apparent that Cowdery had a difficult time with the rising influence of Rigdon, and authority of Whitmer. Encyclopedia of Mormonism, "Cowdery, Oliver"; D. Michael Quinn, BYU Studies, 16: 193

• From the Encyclopedia of Mormonism:

An 1830 revelation named Oliver Cowdery next only to Joseph Smith in priesthood leadership (D&C 20:2-3), a status formalized in December 1834, when he was ranked above Sidney Rigdon, who had long served as Joseph's first counselor. Each would "officiate in the absence of the President, according to his rank and appointment, viz.: President Cowdery first; President Rigdon second, and President Williams third" (PJS 1:21).

• See: Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Cowdery, Oliver

• land purchases and other economic details during the gathering of the Latter-day Saints in Jackson County and Kirtland

• Encyclopedia of Mormonism, "Cowdery, Oliver"

•  Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
  
  There is no mention of "land purchases" in the cited source.
• From the Encyclopedia of Mormonism,

The Three Witnesses had seen an angel with Joseph Smith, but later they tended to compete rather than cooperate with his leadership. Cowdery disagreed with the Prophet's economic and political program and sought a personal financial independence that ran counter to the cooperative economics essential to the Zion society that Joseph Smith envisioned.

• See: Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Cowdery, Oliver

• ultimately led to Cowdery's excommunication in April.

• History of the Church 3: 16: "Wednesday, April 11, [1838]--Elder Seymour Brunson preferred the following charges against Oliver Cowdery, to the High Council at Far West: To the Bishop and Council of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I prefer the following charges against President Oliver Cowdery. "First--For persecuting the brethren by urging on vexatious law suits against them, and thus distressing the innocent. Second--For seeking to destroy the character of President Joseph Smith, Jun., by falsely insinuating that he was guilty of adultery. "Third--For treating the Church with contempt by not attending meetings. "Fourth--For virtually denying the faith by declaring that he would not be governed by any ecclesiastical authority or revelations whatever, in his temporal affairs. "Fifth--For selling his lands in Jackson county, contrary to the revelations. "Sixth--For writing and sending an insulting letter to President Thomas B. Marsh, while the latter was on the High Council, attending to the duties of his office as President of the Council, and by insulting the High Council with the contents of said letter. "Seventh--For leaving his calling to which God had appointed him by revelation, for the sake of filthy lucre, and turning to the practice of law. "Eighth--For disgracing the Church by being connected in the bogus business, as common report says. "Ninth--For dishonestly retaining notes after they had been paid; and finally, for leaving and forsaking the cause of God, and returning to the beggarly elements of the world, and neglecting his high and holy calling, according to his profession."

•  Correct, per cited sources
  

• Cowdery also refused to obey a high council decision not to sell lands on which he hoped to make a profit, "[D]eclaring that he would not be governed by any ecclesiastical authority nor Revelation whatever in his temporal affairs."

• Bushman, 323, 347-48.

•  Correct, per cited sources
  
• From the cited source (Bushman, 347-348)

Perhaps the heart of the matter was stated in a charge of "virtually denying the faith by declaring that he would not be governed by any ecclesiastical authority nor Revelation whatever in his temporal affairs. Cowdery was charged with "selling his lands in Jackson County contrary to the Revelations," a sign he was withdrawing from the economic order of the Church.

• After Cowdery's excommunication on April 12, 1838, he taught school, practiced law, and was involved in Ohio political affairs. Until 1848, Cowdery put the Latter Day Saint church behind him. There is even the possibility, though no direct evidence, that he may have briefly denied his testimony regarding the Golden Plates.

• The following verse was published in Times and Seasons (1841), 2: 482:"Or does it prove there is no time,/Because some watches will not go?/...Or prove that Christ was not the Lord/Because that Peter cursed and swore?/Or Book of Mormon not His word/Because denied, by Oliver?"

•  Violates Wikipedia: No Original Research off-site— Do not use unpublished facts, arguments, speculation, and ideas; and any unpublished analysis or synthesis of published material that serves to advance a position.
  
  The wiki editor is referencing a primary source and adding "[t]here is even the possibility, though no direct evidence..." The use of this poem by critics of the Church to imply that Oliver denied his testimony (despite Oliver's repeated well documented assertions to the contrary) is well known. If the wiki editor wishes to draw this conclusion, per Wikipedia rules, he must find a secondary source that states it.

• Following his relocation to Tiffin, Ohio in 1840, Cowdery reaffirmed his role in the establishment of Mormonism even though the confession cost him the editorship of a newspaper. In 1848, after Joseph Smith's assassination, Cowdery reaffirmed his witness to the Golden Plates and asked to be readmitted to the church. He never held another high office in the church, in part because he died sixteen months after his rebaptism.

• Randall Cluff, "Cowdery, Oliver" American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.

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  Oliver "reaffirmed his witness" is technically correct—he never denied it—however, placing this statement after the preceding statement that Oliver may have denied his witness is disingenuous on the part of the wiki editor.

• Martin Harris was a respected farmer in the Palmyra area who had changed his religion at least five times before he became a Mormon.Harris had been a Quaker, a Universalist, a Restorationist, a Baptist, a Presbyterian, and perhaps a Methodist.

• Ronald W. Walker, "Martin Harris: Mormonism's Early Convert," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 19 (Winter 1986):30-33).

• A biographer wrote that his "imagination was excitable and fecund." One letter says that Harris thought that a candle sputtering was the work of the devil

• Walker, 34: "Once while reading scripture, he reportedly mistook a candle's sputtering as a sign that the devil desired to stop him."

• and that he had met Jesus in the shape of a deer and walked and talked with him for two or three miles.

• John A. Clark letter, August 31, 1840 in EMD, 2: 271.

• From the cited source,

As I have before taken occasion to remark, Harris was ready to be duped by any thing which these jugglers were disposed to tell him. He seemed to think at length that he himself was inspired, and that revelations from heaven were made to him in reference to the most minute affairs in life....No matter where he went, he saw visions and supernatural appearances all around him. He told a gentleman in Palmyra, after one of his excursions to Pennsylvania, while the translation of the Book of Mormon was gong on, that on the way he met the Lord Jesus Christ, who walked along by the side of him in the shape of a deer for two or three miles, talking with him as familiarly as one man talks with another.

• The local Presbyterian minister called him "a visionary fanatic."

• Walker, 34-35.

• A friend, who praised Harris as "universally esteemed as an honest man" but disagreed with his religious affiliation, declared that Harris's mind "was overbalanced by 'marvellousness'" and that his belief in earthly visitations of angels and ghosts gave him the local reputation of being crazy.

• Pomroy Tucker Reminiscence, 1858 in Early Mormon Documents 3: 71.

• Another friend said, "Martin was a man that would do just as he agreed with you. But, he was a great man for seeing spooks."

• Lorenzo Saunders Interview, November 12, 1884, Early Mormon Documents 2: 149.

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  Why include Saunders' comment about "spooks" without mentioning that Martin was a "good citizen?"
• The quote in context,

Martin was a good citizen. Martin was a man that would do just as he agreed with you. But, he was a great man for seeing spooks & believed in all these things. I never knew or heard Martin talk infidelity. They claimed that he was an infidel; but I never heard him talk infidelity on matters of Religion or anything of that. He was a hard working man, & if he had staid where he already lived he would have been the richest man in that part of the country. But after Mormonism came up he seemed to talk of that and nothing else & he was running the streets & talking everything. And sometimes he would seem as though he was beside himself. There cant anybody say a word against Martin Harris.

• During the early years, Harris "seems to have repeatedly admitted the internal, subjective nature of his visionary experience."

• Vogel, EMD, 2: 255.

• This is Vogel's opinion.
• For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Witnesses/"Eye of Faith" and "Spiritual Eye" statements by Martin Harris

• The foreman in the Palmyra printing office that produced the first Book of Mormon said that Harris "used to practice a good deal of his characteristic jargon and 'seeing with the spiritual eye,' and the like."

• Pomeroy Tucker, Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1867), 71 in EMD, 3: 122.

• John H. Gilbert, the typesetter for most of the book, said that he had asked Harris, "Martin, did you see those plates with your naked eyes?" According to Gilbert, Harris "looked down for an instant, raised his eyes up, and said, 'No, I saw them with a spiritual eye."

• John H. Gilbert, "Memorandum," 8 September 1892, in EMD, 2: 548.

•  Correct, per cited sources
  From the cited source,

Martin was in the office when I finished setting up the testimony of the three witnesses,—Harris—Cowdery and Whitmer—) I said to him,—"Martin, did you see those plates with your naked eyes?" Martin looked down for an instant, raised his eyes up, and said, "No, I saw them with a spir[i]tual eye."

• For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Witnesses/"Eye of Faith" and "Spiritual Eye" statements by Martin Harris

• Two other Palmyra residents said that Harris told them that he had seen the plates with "the eye of faith" or "spiritual eyes."

• Martin Harris interviews with John A. Clark, 1827 & 1828 in EMD, 2: 270; Jesse Townsend to Phineas Stiles, 24 December 1833, in EMD, 3: 22.

• For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Witnesses/"Eye of Faith" and "Spiritual Eye" statements by Martin Harris

• In 1838, Harris is said to have told an Ohio congregation that "he never saw the plates with his natural eyes, only in vision or imagination."

• Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson, 15 April 1838 in EMD, 2: 291.

•  Correct, per cited sources
  From the cited source,

...but when I came to hear Martin Harris state in a public congregation that he never saws the plates with his natural eyes only in vision or imagination...

• Regarding this statement, editor Vogel makes the following observations: "The word "imagination" is likely that of Burnett." (p. 291 n. 4)
• For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Witnesses/"Eye of Faith" and "Spiritual Eye" statements by Martin Harris

• A neighbor of Harris in Kirtland, Ohio, said that Harris "never claimed to have seen [the plates] with his natural eyes, only spiritual vision."

• Reuben P. Harmon statement, c. 1885, in EMD, 2: 385.

•  Correct, per cited sources
  From the cited source,

He never claimed to have seen them with his natural eyes, only spiritual vision. He said it was impossible for the prophet Joseph to get up the "Book of Mormon," for he could not spell the word Sarah. He had him repeat the letters of the world. He was a very illiterate man.

• For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Witnesses/"Eye of Faith" and "Spiritual Eye" statements by Martin Harris

• One account states that in March 1838, Martin Harris publicly denied that either he or the other Witnesses to the Book of Mormon had literally seen the golden plates—although, of course, he had not been present when Whitmer and Cowdery first claimed to have viewed them. This account says that Harris's recantation, made during a period of crisis in early Mormonism, induced five influential members, including three Apostles, to leave the Church.

• Stephen Burnett to Luke S. Johnson, 15 April 1838, in Joseph Smith's Letterbook, Early Mormon Documents 2: 290-92.

• From the cited source,

...but when I came to hear Marin Harris state in a public congregation that he never saw the plates with his natural eyes only in vision or imagination, neither Oliver [Cowdery] nor David [Whitmer] & also that the eight witnesses never saw them & hesitated to sign that instrument for that reason, but were persuaded to do it...

• Editor Vogel make the following observation on p. 291 note 7,

Harris evidently denounced the Testimony of Eight Witnesses as false in the sense that it implied a purely natural and physical experience with the plates. Considering his close association with those eight men, it is doubtful that he intended to deny their individual testimonies. Rather Harris had probably said the eight witnesses "also...never saw" the plates with their natural eyes. This interpretation is consistent with Warren Parrish's report quoted in the introduction. Additionally, Harris seemed to regard the visionary experiences of the three witnesses as superior to that of the eight, apparently placing the experiences of the eight witnesses on the level with his seeing the plates through the cloth.

• Later in life, Harris strongly denied that he ever made this statement.

• Letter of Martin Harris, Sr., to Hanna B. Emerson, January 1871, Smithfield, Utah Territory, in EMD, 2: 338. See also Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1981), 118.

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  Notice how every one of Harris' statements regarding seeing the plates in a vision is quoted, yet the wiki editor chooses not to quote Harris's strong denial that he ever denied the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon until the end of the section.

• Nevertheless, some years later, even Brigham Young referred to "witnesses of the Book of Mormon, who handled the plates and conversed with the angels of God, [but who] were afterward left to doubt and to disbelieve that they had ever seen an angel."

• Journal of Discourses (1860), 7:164

• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 7:164.

• In 1837, Harris joined dissenters, led by Warren Parrish, in an attempt to reform the Mormon church. But Parrish rejected the Book of Mormon, and Harris continued to believe in it. By 1840, Harris had returned to Smith's church. Following Smith's assassination, Harris accepted James J. Strang as a new prophet, and Strang also claimed to have been divinely led to an ancient record engraved upon metal plates. By 1847, Harris had broken with Strang and had accepted the leadership of fellow Book of Mormon witness, David Whitmer. Harris then left Whitmer for another Mormon factional leader, Gladden Bishop. In 1855, Harris joined with the last surviving brother of Joseph Smith Jr., William Smith, and declared that William was Joseph's true successor.

• EMD, 2: 258.

•  Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
  
  Much of the main text is not supported by the cited source. There is no mention in the source of Harris' associations with Warren Parrish, David Whitmer or Gladden Bishop.
• From the cited source,

For a time he affiliated with James Strang and even served a mission for that group in England in 1846. In 1847 he joined William E. McLellin in organizing a new church, and in 1858 was briefly affiliated with William Smith.

• In 1856 Harris's second wife left him to gather with the Mormons in Utah. Harris remained in Kirtland, Ohio and, as caretaker of the temple there, gave tours to interested visitors.

• EMD, 2: 258

•  Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
  
  Vogel's words are used almost verbatim (with the exception of the word "there") without being properly quoted.
• From the cited source,

In 1856 Harris's wife left him to gather with the Mormons in Utah. Harris remained in Kirtland and, as caretaker of the temple, gave tours to interested visitors.

• Despite his earlier statements regarding the spiritual nature of his experience, 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 them "plate after plate."

• Martin Harris interview with David B. Dille, 15 September 1853 in EMD 2: 296-97.

•  Violates Wikipedia: Citing sources off-site— There is either no citation to support the statement or the citation given is incorrect.
  
  The wiki editor has abused the cited source by conflating Harris's experience with the angel as a witness to the plates with a different occasion upon which he helped Joseph hide the plates. The source being quoted makes this clear.
• It should also be noted that the source says nothing about the weight of the plates.
• Here is Martin's 1853 statement from his interview with David B. Dille in context,

Mr. Harris replied and said—"I was the right-hand man of Joseph Smith, and I know that he was a Prophet of God. I know the Book of Mormon is true." Then smiting his fist on the table, he said—"And you know that I know that it is true. I know that the plates have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice declared it unto us; therefore I know of a surety that the work is true. For," continued Mr. Harris, "did I not at one time hold the plates on my knee an hour-and-a-half, whilst in conversation with Joseph, when we went to bury them in the woods, that the enemy might not obtain them? Yes, I did. And as many of the plates as Joseph Smith translated I handled with my hands, plate after plate.["]

• 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."

• Martin Harris interview with Robert Barter, c. 1870 in EMD, 2: 390.

•  Correct, per cited sources
  
•  Violates Wikipedia: Neutral Point-of-View off-site— All Wikipedia articles and other encyclopedic content must be written from a neutral point of view, representing fairly, and as far as possible without bias, all significant views that have been published by reliable sources.
  
  While the wiki editors took care to include multiple statements in which Martin talks of seeing the plates with his "spiritual" eyes, they fail to include multiple references from the same source (cited here) in which Martin claimed to know exactly what he saw.
• For example, from the cited source,

...and there heard the testimony first hand, the Mr. [Martin] Harris actually saw the Angel Moroni with the gold recored from which was translate dthe Book of Mormon" (Deseret News, 22 August 1934, 16). Harris stated: "It is not a mere belief, but is a matter of knowledge. I saw the plates and the inscriptions thereon. I saw the angel, and he showed them unto me" (Deseret News, 2 April 1927)
Martin Harris Statement ot Robert Aveson, 10 July 1874.

• For a detailed response, see: Statements made by Martin Harris

• In 1870, at the age of 87, Harris accepted an invitation to live in Utah, where he was rebaptized and spent his remaining years with relatives in Cache County. As an old man, Harris bore fervent testimony to the authenticity of the plates, although a contemporary critic of the Church speculated that his sympathy for the Utah church may have been tenuous.

• In an interview with ex-Mormon Anthony Metcalf, Metcalf asked him why, if he did not believe that polygamy, baptism for the dead, or temple endowments were part of Mormonism, he had taken the endowment when he arrived in Salt Lake City. Harris replied "to see what was going on in there." Martin Harris interview with Anthony Metcalf, c. 1873-74 in EMD, 2: 348.

•  Correct, per cited sources
  The interviewer, Anthony Metcalf, begins by stating: "Following is the history as related to me, including all [Martin Harris'] connections with Joseph Smith, the pretended prophet and the founder of the Mormon Church."
• From the cited source,

He also claimed that polygamy, baptism for the dead, and such endowments as were given [in] Nauvoo and Salt Lake City, were no part of Mormonism. I asked him why he had taken his endowments when he arrived in Salt Lake City. He answered that "his only motive was to see what was going on in there."

• In a letter of 1870, Harris swore, "[N]o man ever heard me in any way deny the truth of the Book of Mormon, the administration of the angel that showed me the plates, nor the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints under the administration of Joseph Smith, Jun., the prophet whom the Lord raised up for that purpose in these the latter days, that he may show forth his power and glory."

• Letter of Martin Harris, Sr., to Hanna B. Emerson, January 1871, Smithfield, Utah Territory, in EMD, 2: 338. See also Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1981), 118.

•  Correct, per cited sources
  

• David Whitmer first became involved with Joseph Smith and the Golden Plates through his friend Oliver Cowdery; and because of his longevity, Whitmer became the most interviewed of the Three Witnesses. Whitmer gave various versions of his experience in viewing the Golden Plates. Although less credulous than Harris, Whitmer had his own visionary predilections and owned a seer stone.

• Palmer, 180-81.

•  A wiki editor's opinion is presented as fact— The wiki editor has placed his own opinion in the article as if it were fact.
  
  The cited source states nothing about Whitmer giving "various versions of his experience in viewing the Golden Plates," nor does it say anything about Whitmer being "less credulous than Harris."

• In 1829, before testifying to the truth of the Golden Plates, Whitmer reported that when traveling with Smith to his father's farm in Fayette, New York, they had seen a Nephite on the road who suddenly disappeared. Then when they arrived at his father's house, they were "impressed" that the same Nephite was under the shed.

• EMD, 5: 10-11, Whitmer interview with Edward Stevenson, December 1877, EMD 5: 30-31.

• Recounting the vision to Orson Pratt in 1878, Whitmer claimed to have seen not only the Golden Plates but the "Brass Plates, the plates containing the record of the wickedness of the people of the world....the sword of Laban, the Directors (i.e. the ball which Lehi had) and the Interpreters. I saw them just as plain as I see this bed...."

• David Whitmer interview with Orson Pratt, September 1878, in EMD, 5: 43.

• On other occasions, Whitmer's vision of the plates seemed far less corporeal. When asked in 1880 for a description of the angel who showed him the plates, Whitmer replied that the angel "had no appearance or shape." Asked by the interviewer how he then could bear testimony that he had seen and heard an angel, Whitmer replied, "Have you never had impressions?" To which the interviewer responded, "Then you had impressions as the Quaker when the spirit moves, or as a good Methodist in giving a happy experience, a feeling?" "Just so," replied Whitmer.

• Whitmer interview with John Murphy, June 1880, in EMD 5: 63.

• A young Mormon lawyer, James Henry Moyle, who interviewed Whitmer in 1885, asked if there was any possibility that Whitmer had been deceived. "His answer was unequivocal....that he saw the plates and heard the angel with unmistakable clearness." But Moyle went away "not fully satisfied....It was more spiritual than I anticipated."

• Moyle diary, June 28, 1885 in EMD 5: 141.

• In 1831, Whitmer moved with early Mormon believers to Kirtland, Ohio where he briefly supported a woman named Hubble, who professed to be prophetess and used a seer stone. In 1832 he followed the church to Jackson County, Missouri, and was named Smith's successor even though he had criticized Smith's more recent innovations. By December 1837, a movement led by Warren Parrish plotted to overthrow Smith and replace him with Whitmer. After the Kirtland Bank fiasco, confrontation grew between the dissenters and those loyal to Joseph Smith. Whitmer, his brother John, Oliver Cowdery, and others were harassed by the Danites, a secret group of Mormon vigilantes, and were warned to leave the county. Whitmer was formally excommunicated on April 13, 1838 and never rejoined the church.

• Michael J. Latzer, "Whitmer, David" American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.

• The wiki editors have linked to a source that requires a subscription.
• For a detailed response, see: Kirtland Safety Society and Danites

• Whitmer then moved to Richmond, Missouri, where he ran a livery stable and became a civic leader. After Smith's assassination, Whitmer, like Martin Harris, briefly followed James Strang, who had his own set of supernatural metal plates. Later Whitmer organized his own splinter group based on his authority as one of the Three Witnesses and even later supported another group headed by his brother John. In his pamphlet, "An Address to All Believers in Christ" (1887), Whitmer reaffirmed his witness to the Golden Plates,

• "I wish now, standing as it were, in the very sunset of life, and in the fear of God, once for all to make this public statement: 'That 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, will know that I have always adhered to that testimony. And that no man may be misled or doubt my present views in regard to the same, I do again affirm the truth of all of my statements, as then made and published." ThreeWitness.org website.

• The quoted text may be viewed in Wikisource: David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ

• but he also criticized what he viewed as the errors of Joseph Smith, including his introduction of plural marriage. "If you believe my testimony to the Book of Mormon, if you believe that God spake to us three witnesses by his own voice," wrote Whitmer,"then I tell you that in June, 1838, God spake to me again by his own voice from the heavens, and told me to 'separate myself from among the Latter Day Saints....'"

• "An Address," 27, in EMD, 5: 194.

• For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Witnesses/David Whitmer told to leave

• Nevertheless, Whitmer is regarded by Mormons as an "enduring witness to the genuineness of the prophet Joseph Smith and his message.

• "Michael J. Latzer, "Whitmer, David" American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.

• The wiki editors have linked to a source that requires a subscription.