Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!psuvax1!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: crf@tomato.princeton.edu (Charles Ferenbaugh) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Book of Mormon Witnesses (was Multiple Isaiahs) Message-ID: Date: 4 Oct 90 03:29:14 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Princeton University Mathematics Department Lines: 36 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article hall@vice.ico.tek.com (Hal Lillywhite) writes: >[in a discussion about witnesses to the BoM] >True most left the church but that's not the point. The important >point is that even outside the church they remained faithful to >their testimony. If anything I think this strengthens the reasons >to take them seriously, they were still supporting a cause they had ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >quarreled with. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This statement needs a bit of clarification. The witnesses never renounced their testimony _to the Book of Mormon_, so if that's what you mean by "supporting a cause" then the statement is true. But if you understand "cause" to mean the LDS church then the statement is no longer true. In particular, I'm thinking of David Whitmer, who late in his life wrote "An Address to All Believers in Christ." His purpose was twofold: 1. to reaffirm his testimony to the BoM, even though he had left the LDS church many years before and had no intent of returning; 2. to warn people that Joseph Smith had introduced bad things into the LDS church that were unrelated to the BoM revelation (and that this was why he left). He summarized this by saying, if you believe my BoM testimony, you must also believe me when I say, get out of the LDS church. So it's sort of misleading for the LDS church to use (half of) Whitmer's testimony on its own behalf, while ignoring the rest of what he said. The above is a summary of what I remember from reading Whitmer's original work a couple of years ago. (It was on microfilm in the Princeton library, so those of you near large university libraries would probably also have access to it.) If there is interest I can dig the thing up again and post some direct quotes... Grace and peace, Charles Ferenbaugh