Who were the original witnesses of the Book of Mormon? – Deseret News

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Friday, June 28, marks the 195th anniversary of the day that three witnesses had a vision of the angel Moroni carrying the gold plates that Joseph Smith would translate into the Book of Mormon.

A new 53-minute video makes extensive use of the historic sites of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to examine the evidence for the Book of Mormon provided by the stories of more than a dozen witnesses to the plates.

The video includes reenactments of events from 1829 and visits to sites of church history by host Scott Christopher and three scholars:

• Dan Peterson, professor emeritus of Arabic studies and producer of the 2021 feature film “Witnesses”.
• Casey Griffiths, professor of religious studies at Brigham Young University and co-host of the podcast “Church History Matters.”
• Steven Harper, professor of church history and doctrine at BYU and editor-in-chief of BYU Studies.

The group talks about local history in Palmyra and Fayette, New York, Harmony, Pennsylvania and Kirtland, Ohio.

The video was recently released by Book of Mormon Central as episode 5 of the series “A Marvelous Work.” Book of Mormon Central is a division of Scripture Central, a nonprofit organization founded in 2008 that describes its mission as “to strengthen enduring faith in Jesus Christ by illuminating the Book of Mormon and other Restoration scriptures to make them more accessible, defensible, and understandable to people everywhere.”

Every copy of the Book of Mormon contains “The Testimony of the Three Witnesses,” who saw the plates when Moroni appeared to them, and “The Testimony of the Eight Witnesses,” to whom Joseph Smith showed the plates and who touched and held them.

The group also talks about so-called unofficial or informal witnesses who saw or touched the plates, people like Josiah Stowell and Mary Whitmer, as well as Joseph Smith’s mother and sisters.

There are numerous accounts in Latter-day Saint history of the Three Witnesses temporarily separating from the Church, but never being separated from their testimony of what they had seen.

“It’s interesting that you can have that sense of spiritual conviction coexist with very human slights and perceived insults, with feelings of being overlooked, with a bruised ego, with financial difficulties and things like that,” Peterson says. “It can’t overwhelm your testimony because you’re maintaining it, but it can separate you from the community. It can literally exclude you from the community in some ways.”

“The role of witnesses is not to convince or not, but to testify,” says Harper. “We all have to decide: ‘What do I do with this witness?'”

Christopher points out that all three witnesses faced enormous challenges, but “regardless of their circumstances, none of them ever denied what they saw.” For some of them, this included testifying under oath in court that they held the plates, spoke with angels, and heard God’s voice.

“These are the witnesses lawyers refer to as witnesses,” says Christopher. “That is, they have experienced with their senses, their senses of sight, hearing, and touch, the things that Joseph Smith claimed were real and true. Their testimony, under sacred, solemn oath, confirms Joseph’s claims. These testimonies are published worldwide—over 200 million times—as evidence that the Book of Mormon is true.”

Here is a list of links to the first five episodes of “A Marvelous Work”:

My latest stories

In the first broadcast, the new presenter of “Music & the Spoken Word” promises messages of “joy, hope and peace” (June 24)

What happened when 20 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints met with a famous British theologian (June 21)

Religious freedom for women is key to world peace, says Latter-day Saint leader (June 20)

About the Church

Church leaders conducted the 2024 Mission Leaders Seminar over the weekend. Read summaries of the presentations from this extensive annual event and view photos here. Speakers included:

The Church announced the opening of a new missionary training center for the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The First Presidency announced the location of the Springfield Missouri Temple and the groundbreaking date for the Santiago Western Chile Temple.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Brazilian Ribeirão Preto Temple took place.

Take a look now at which athletes from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics.

My colleague Trent Toone has written a report on the history and relationship between the Latter-day Saints and the Community of Christ (formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). He recounts a scene that occurred when Nancy Cervi, a pastor of the Community of Christ, was removing items from the Kirtland Temple as it was to be turned over to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sister Sue Grow, a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, hugged Cervi and wept with her. “I was deeply moved and taught,” said Elder Kyle S. McKay. “Here was Sue Grow with a historic reason for joy that she put aside so she could grieve with a dear friend whose reason for grief was, in some ways, Sue’s reason for joy. It was beautiful, even sacred.”

What I read

This is a great story about human nature, friendship and forgiveness: how one skydiver survived everyone’s worst nightmare.

I really appreciated my colleague Kelsey Dallas describing her own personal journey of relating to Latter-day Saint missions in a story titled “Is It a Mission—or a Mission Trip?”

A university’s football ticket advertisement inspired offshoots like BYU, which boasted that it had the “coldest chocolate milk in college football.”

I really enjoyed this article about whether trendy baby names are actually trendy or whether they are evidence of “conformist individualism.”

As I celebrate my Boston Celtics’ 18th NBA title, here’s a story about how BYU legend Danny Ainge played a key role in building the championship team’s core roster.