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.
Book of Mormon/Witnesses/Witnesses had shared experiences which they could compare to confirm their reality
< Book of Mormon | Witnesses
- REDIRECTTemplate:Test3
Question: Did the Three Witnesses have personal, subjective experiences?
The Three Witnesses insisted upon the literal, physical reality of their experience, despite also affirming that their was a divine, spiritual dimension to it.
Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer saw the angel together with Joseph Smith. This rebuts the claim that their vision was "merely" internal or subjective—both Oliver and David were present and could discuss or compare what they had experienced to confirm its reality. They were sharing a view of something, not hallucinating or being caught away in a private transport.
Martin Harris received his vision apart from Whitmer and Cowdery. This provides yet another cross-check on the experience, since Whitmer described how they heard Martin describe what he had experienced, and it matched their own experience:
- At that time Mr. Whitmer saw the tablet, gazed with awe on the celestial messenger, heard him speak and say: 'BLessed is the Lord and he that keeps His commandments;" and then, as he held the plates and turned them over with his hands, so that they could be plainly visible, a voice that seemed to fill all space, musical as the sighing of a wind through the forest, was heard, saying: "What you see is true: testify to the same." And Oliver Cowdrey and David Whitmer, standing there, felt, as the white garments of the angel faded from their vision and the heavenly voice still rang in their ears, that it was no delusion--that it was a fact; and they so recorded it. In a day or two after[1] the same spirit appeared to Martin Harris while he was in company with Smith, and told him also to bear witness to its truth, which he did, as can be seen in the book. Harris described the visitant to Whitmer, who recognized it as the same that he and Cowdrey had seen (emphasis added).[2]
Notes
- ↑ Note: in most other accounts, Harris had the vision the same day. The Eight witnesses saw the plates a day or two later. There is probably confusion in the reporting here.
- ↑ David Whitmer, Interview with Chicago Times (14 October 1881); cited in Dan Vogel (editor), Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1996–2003), 5 vols, 5:85.