...funny though, inspite of those scribes leaving the church, all of them testified on thier deathbed that they believed Joseph Smith to be a prophet of God .... bet that isn’t discussed in your anti-mormon handbook!
Really? Who told you that. Let me guess, a Mormon or is it the "official" story as released by the LDS machine.... LOL
Really? Who told you that. Let me guess, a Mormon or is it the "official" story as released by the LDS machine.... LOL
The Mormon Church, claims Cowdery came back to the church. But, if he did, he must have left again, because when he died he was buried by a Methodist minister in Richmond, Missouri.
David Whitmer, still believing in the Book of Mormon (probably because of the many Biblical passages in it), became a member of the Church of Christ and died rejecting the LDS Church.
Martin Harris joined Anna Lee’s church, the Shakers, saying that his testimony of Shakerism was greater than that of the Book of Mormon. Although later in life he came back to the Mormon Church and took out his temple endowments, he admitted it was just to find out “what was going on in there.”
Interestingly, as often happens with time and celebrity status, there are accounts in the witnesses’ later years, where they greatly enlarged their testimony. They are quoted as giving very different and exaggerated accounts— much different than during their earlier years. Fawn Brodie notes, in No Man Knows My History, that David Whitmer’s testimony, given 49 years later, was too “richly embellished”. Whitmer added a long list of things he supposedly saw, which were not mentioned in his earlier account:
the brass plates, the plates of the book of Ether ., . . a table with many records or plates upon it . . . also the Sword of Laban, the directors - i.e., the ball which Lehi had, and the Interpreters.”
Martin Harris, in the last five years of his life, also gave an extraordinary testimony.
Considering that the witnesses admitted years earlier to seeing the plates in a “vision” or “entranced state,” rather than as a physical reality, one must conclude that the embellishments of their testimony in later years was received in the same manner.
Their motive? Mormon writer Richard L. Anderson says, “Martin Harris, like all the witnesses, was especially desirous at the end of his life to have people hear and repeat his testimony.” Why not? By that time, they had become celebrities!
There are several possible reasons the three witnesses didn’t publicly recant their testimony of the plates.
They may have retained a special feeling for the Book of Mormon because of its many Biblical passages.
· Since their declaration is stated in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, they would not only be guilty of perjury, but their credibility would be suspect the rest of their life.
· They would look pretty silly telling people that what they testified to and allowed to appear in print, really didn’t happen.
· They began to enjoy their celebrity status and, so, in time, embellished their story.
http://www.janishutchinson.com/threewit.html