El Libro de Mormón/Testigos/Ocho testigos

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Los ocho testigos y su experiencia al ver las planchas "doradas"

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• Richard Anderson: Los once testigos del Libro de Mormón reafirmaron públicamente su testimonio tal como estaba impreso
• Pregunta: ¿Cómo intentan los críticos de la Iglesia descartar la experiencia de los Ocho Testigos del Libro de Mormón?
• Turley afirmó que John Whitmer dijo: "Ahora digo que manejé esos platos. Había buenos grabados en ambos lados. Los manejé ... y me los mostró un poder sobrenatural"
• Myron H. Bond (1878): John Whitmer "knew as well as he knew he had an existence that Joseph translated the ancient writing which was upon the plates, which he saw and handled"
• P. Wilhelm Poulson (1878): John Whitmer said "He handed them uncovered into our hands, and we turned the leaves sufficient to satisfy us"
• John Whitmer reaffirmed his testimony as printed in the Book of Mormon even after he left the Church
• John Whitmer (1876): "I have never heard that any one of the three or eight witnesses ever denied the testimony that they have borne to the Book as published in the first edition of the Book of Mormon"
• Question: Did Hiram Page, one of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, ever deny having seen the plates?
• Question: Did Hyrum Smith, one of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, ever deny having seen the plates?
• Question: Did Samuel Smith, one of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, ever deny having seen the plates?
• Question: Did Christian and Peter Whitmer, two of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, ever deny having seen the plates?
• Question: Did Jacob Whitmer, one of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, ever deny having seen the plates?
• Question: Why did Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer accept Hiram Page's seer stone revelations as authoritative?
• Lucy Mack Smith: "Here it was that those 8 witnesses recorded in the Book of Mormon looked upon the plates and handled them of which they bear witness"
• William Owen (skeptical account): "Ten persons say they have seen them and hefted them, three declare that an angel of God appeared to them and showed them to them"
• Richard Lloyd Anderson, "Attempts to Redefine the Experience of the Eight Witnesses"

Richard Anderson: Los once testigos del Libro de Mormón reafirmaron públicamente su testimonio tal como estaba impreso

  NEEDS TRANSLATION  

Richard Anderson described multiple accounts of all the Witnesses bearing testimony and reaffirming their published testimony:

The three Smiths who formally gave their names as seeing and handling the plates were the Prophet's father, Joseph Smith, Sr.; the Prophet's older brother, Hyrum; and his immediately younger brother, Samuel Harrison. They sometimes joined the other Book of Mormon witnesses to reaffirm their testimony printed in the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon regarding lifting and turning the leaves of the plates. After quoting the published statements of the Three and Eight Witnesses, and describing the experience of the latter group, Lucy Smith relates, "The ensuing evening, we held a meeting, in which all the witnesses bore testimony to the facts as stated above." Two years later, in the period of dynamic preaching of the early elders, a conference was held near Cleveland, Ohio, remembered by Luke Johnson as follows: "At this conference the eleven witnesses to the Book of Mormon, with uplifted hands, bore their solemn testimony to the truth of that book, as did also the Prophet Joseph."

Pregunta: ¿Cómo intentan los críticos de la Iglesia descartar la experiencia de los Ocho Testigos del Libro de Mormón?

  NEEDS TRANSLATION  

Plantilla:Epigraph

Some have tried to argue that the Eight witnesses only claimed a 'spiritual' or 'visionary' view of the plates, not a literal, physical one

Critics of the Church attempt to dismiss the experience of the Eight Witnesses by claiming that their view of the plates was not literal. The critics attempt to argue that the witnesses only 'saw' the plates in a spiritual state, and then were allowed to heft a covered box. This flatly contradicts their own reports, and those of others. Richard Anderson has collected eight accounts of John Whitmer's that confirm the reality of his handling of the plates. The critics ignore much documentary evidence in John Whitmer's case alone, simply because his witness is inconvenient for their speculations.

William Smith summarized the matter well when he said of all the Eight witnesses

that they not only Saw with their eyes but handled with their hands the said record . . . nor has either or any one of these witnesses ever to my knowledge Counteracted the testimony as given above Concerning the real existence of these Mormon tablets.

The Eight witnesses consistently affirmed the accuracy of their published testimony, and the physical reality of their experience. The critics will have to seek elsewhere to support their speculations.

Turley afirmó que John Whitmer dijo: "Ahora digo que manejé esos platos. Había buenos grabados en ambos lados. Los manejé ... y me los mostró un poder sobrenatural"

  NEEDS TRANSLATION  

The critics' attempt to argue that the witnesses only 'saw' the plates in a spiritual state, and then were allowed to heft a covered box. This flatly contradicts their own reports, and those of others. Theodore Turley claimed that John Whitmer said:

[Theodore] Turley said, ‘Gentlemen, I presume there are men here who have heard [John] Corrill say, that Mormonism was true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and inspired of God. I now call upon you, John Whitmer: you say Corrill is a moral and a good man; do you believe him when he says the Book of Mormon is true, or when he says it is not true? There are many things published that they say are true, and again turn around and say they are false.’ Whitmer asked, ‘Do you hint at me?’ Turley replied, ‘If the cap fits you, wear it; all I know is that you have published to the world that an angel did present those plates to Joseph Smith.’ Whitmer replied: ‘I now say, I handled those plates; there were fine engravings on both sides. I handled them;’ and he described how they were hung [on rings], and [said] ‘they were shown to me by a supernatural power;’ he acknowledged all.

So, the apostate Whitmer insists that he physically handled the plates, and attests to having seen fine engraving "on both sides." The critics grasp at straws, and ignore the very clear implication that Whitmer (at this time a bitter enemy of Joseph Smith) claims to have actually seen and handled the plates. The "supernatural power" citation seems to be the imposition of the interviewers' bias (it appears in none of Whitmer's first person accounts or in the Testimony of the Eight Witnesses—see further discussion in main article above).

It is also possible that Whitmer was insisting that Joseph Smith could not have showed him the plates without divine aid; this perspective is not present in any of his other statements, however. The Three witnesses likewise insisted on the physical reality of their experience with the angel, despite the supernatural trappings of their witness experience.

Why, then, did John Whitmer apostatize? He rationalized his choice to disbelieve the translation of the Book of Mormon (despite knowing that the plates were literal and physical) thusly:

I cannot read it, and I do not know whether it is true or not.

Source:Myron H. Bond:Saint's Herald:25:John Whitmer...the plates, which he saw and handled Source:P. Wilhelm Poulson:Deseret Evening News:6 August 1878:John Whitmer said "He handed them uncovered into our hands, and we turned the leaves sufficient to satisfy us" John Whitmer reaffirmed his testimony as printed in the Book of Mormon even after he left the Church John Whitmer (1876): "I have never heard that any one of the three or eight witnesses ever denied the testimony that they have borne to the Book as published in the first edition of the Book of Mormon" Question: Did Hiram Page, one of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, ever deny having seen the plates? Question: Did Hyrum Smith, one of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, ever deny having seen the plates? Question: Did Samuel Smith, one of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, ever deny having seen the plates? Question: Did Christian and Peter Whitmer, two of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, ever deny having seen the plates? Question: Did Jacob Whitmer, one of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, ever deny having seen the plates? Question: Why did Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer accept Hiram Page's seer stone revelations as authoritative? Lucy Mack Smith: "Here it was that those 8 witnesses recorded in the Book of Mormon looked upon the plates and handled them of which they bear witness" William Owen (skeptical account): "Ten persons say they have seen them and hefted them, three declare that an angel of God appeared to them and showed them to them"

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