{"id":63022,"date":"2018-07-17T09:36:33","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T15:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=63022"},"modified":"2018-09-05T09:53:01","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T15:53:01","slug":"creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses.html","title":{"rendered":"Creating a Witness to the Witnesses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Fairbank's<\/a>
A monument to the Three Witnesses, sculpted by Dr. Avard Fairbanks
(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

With several others, I spent most of yesterday filming interviews with Susan Easton Black and Terryl Givens for an ambitious project that we are undertaking in conjunction with the Interpreter Foundation. \u00a0(We already recorded two days of interviews with Richard Lloyd Anderson several months ago.) \u00a0I\u2019m grateful to Drs. Easton Black and Givens for their willingness to give of their time for this effort, and for the generosity of kind friends who made their new and beautiful home available to us as a site for the filming. \u00a0Dr. Easton Black, by the way, is within just days of finishing a significant book manuscript on Martin Harris.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The focus will be on the witnesses to the Book of Mormon \u2014 including not just all eleven of the official witnesses but several important \u201cunofficial\u201d witnesses, as well.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In connection with this initiative and at my request, Professors Thomas G. Alexander, James B. Allen, Richard Lloyd Anderson, and Richard L. Bushman have provided the following endorsements of the importance of the Book of Mormon witnesses. \u00a0Soon, they will probably be part of an initial fundraising brochure:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Imagine the publication and distribution of the Book of Mormon without the testimony of the witnesses.\u00a0 If there were none, Joseph Smith would have had to reply on his own word that he translated the plates.\u00a0 Many, perhaps most, people would probably have rejected the word of an uneducated farm boy. \u00a0Joseph had enough difficulty even with the witnesses convincing others of the truthfulness of his story.\u00a0 Other people including the eight witnesses saw the plates, but only the three witnesses saw them in the possession of the heavenly messenger who delivered them to Joseph.\u00a0 \u00a0The Lord asked them to testify to the truthfulness of Joseph\u2019s ministry, which they did.\u00a0 Most important, during their lifetimes all three witnesses left the church.\u00a0 Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris returned to the fold, but David Whitmer remained in Richmond, Missouri, estranged from Mormonism<\/a> throughout the remainder of his life.\u00a0 Nevertheless, in spite of rumors to the contrary, all three continued to insist on the truth of their witness.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas G. Alexander, Ph.D.,\u00a0Lemuel Hardison Redd, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Western History, Brigham Young University; former president of the Mormon History<\/a> Association<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The testimonies of the three witnesses is the closest we come to rational evidence for Mormon belief.\u00a0 Three men attest to a sensory encounter with the gold plates and a divine being.\u00a0 In an age of skepticism, when all religious belief is under attack, their statement becomes more relevant every day.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Richard L. Bushman, Ph.D., Gouverneur Morris\u00a0Professor of History Emeritus at\u00a0Columbia University; former\u00a0Howard W. Hunter Visiting Professor in Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University; former president of the Mormon History Association<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The testimonies of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon make Joseph Smith\u2019s account much harder to dismiss than it would otherwise be. \u00a0Plainly, since others announced that they, too, had seen and \u201chefted\u201d and heard, this means that, whatever else it was,\u00a0Joseph\u2019s account must reflect more than merely private imagination or simple personal dishonesty. \u00a0If the witnesses are judged to be reliable men of good character, their declarations pose a serious challenge to anyone who considers the claims of the Restoration.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

James B. Allen, Ph.D.,\u00a0Lemuel Hardison Redd Jr. Professor Emeritus of Western History, Brigham Young University; former Assistant Church Historian, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; former president of the Mormon History Association<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thousands of authorized copies \u00a0of the Book of Mormon have reprinted the signed experience of the eleven Book or Mormon witnesses, Three who described that an angel held and turned the individual\u00a0plates of an ancient New World Bible and Eight who narrated how they were given an ordinary experience of \u201chefting\u201d the record and examining the carefully\u00a0crafted\u00a0characters\u00a0on it. About 200 reported interviews with \u00a0these eleven are collected, which report the constant affirmation of these witnesses of seeing and lifting this historic, prophetic record, with its independent account of Christ visiting America.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Richard Lloyd Anderson, J.D., Ph.D.,\u00a0Professor\u00a0Emeritus of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019re just at the beginning of raising funds for this ambitious film project, and the amount required is substantial (though not absurdly so). \u00a0If there is anybody out there who would be interested in helping us, I would be more than happy to provide further details about the effort, its purposes, its financial needs, and its character. \u00a0I can be reached at daniel_peterson@byu.edu. \u00a0And, of course, the Interpreter Foundation itself happily accepts donations; without them, we could not function:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Donating to the Interpreter Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 With several others, I spent most of yesterday filming interviews with Susan Easton Black and Terryl Givens for an ambitious project that we are undertaking in conjunction with the Interpreter Foundation. \u00a0(We already recorded two days of interviews with Richard Lloyd Anderson several months ago.) \u00a0I\u2019m grateful to Drs. Easton Black and Givens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCreating a Witness to the Witnesses<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    With several others, I spent most of yesterday filming interviews with Susan Easton Black and Terryl Givens for an ambitious project that we\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Creating a Witness to the Witnesses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"    With several others, I spent most of yesterday filming interviews with Susan Easton Black and Terryl Givens for an ambitious project that we\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-07-17T15:36:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-05T15:53:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2017\/03\/ThreeWitnesses.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses.html\",\"name\":\"Creating a Witness to the Witnesses\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-07-17T15:36:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-05T15:53:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"    With several others, I spent most of yesterday filming interviews with Susan Easton Black and Terryl Givens for an ambitious project that we\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Creating a Witness to the Witnesses\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Creating a Witness to the Witnesses","description":"    With several others, I spent most of yesterday filming interviews with Susan Easton Black and Terryl Givens for an ambitious project that we","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Creating a Witness to the Witnesses","og_description":"    With several others, I spent most of yesterday filming interviews with Susan Easton Black and Terryl Givens for an ambitious project that we","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2018-07-17T15:36:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-09-05T15:53:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2017\/03\/ThreeWitnesses.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses.html","name":"Creating a Witness to the Witnesses","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-07-17T15:36:33+00:00","dateModified":"2018-09-05T15:53:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":"    With several others, I spent most of yesterday filming interviews with Susan Easton Black and Terryl Givens for an ambitious project that we","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/07\/creating-a-witness-to-the-witnesses.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Creating a Witness to the Witnesses"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63022\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}