Appearance
Witnesses
The CES Letter opens its witnesses section with a remarkable claim:
"At the end of the day? It all doesn't matter. The Book of Mormon Witnesses and their testimonies of the gold plates are irrelevant."[1]
Then it spends twenty pages arguing that the witnesses were superstitious, gullible, and unreliable. If they truly don't matter, why work so hard to discredit them?
Dismiss first, examine later
The CES Letter's strategy is to disqualify the witnesses before presenting their testimony. Three pages on treasure digging, folk magic, and seer stones come first.[2] The message: these men lived in a pre-scientific world, so nothing they reported can be trusted.
This is a credibility attack disguised as context. Establish the right frame, and the jury never hears the evidence fairly.
But the frame doesn't hold. Educated professionals in early America -- lawyers, doctors, politicians -- also reported miraculous experiences. The question isn't whether 19th-century people had different assumptions about the natural world. It's whether these specific men, under these specific conditions, maintained a specific claim for decades.
They did.
Two groups, two experiences, zero recantations
The witness testimony splits into two distinct events that no single naturalistic explanation covers.[3]
The Three Witnesses -- Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Martin Harris -- described a divine manifestation: an angel, the voice of God, plates shown in heavenly light. The Eight Witnesses described something entirely different: a physical object they held in their hands, turned the leaves of, and examined the engravings on. No angel. No vision. Just a heavy, metallic, plate-shaped artifact in broad daylight.[4]
All three of the Three Witnesses were excommunicated or cut off from the Church. They had personal grudges against Joseph Smith, social incentive to recant, and decades of opportunity to destroy his credibility. Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and David Whitmer each reaffirmed their testimony -- Whitmer for fifty years, right up to his deathbed.[5]
The Eight Witnesses never used the phrases "spiritual eyes," "eye of faith," or "vision." Not once.
Nine quotes versus two hundred
The CES Letter presents about nine quotes suggesting the witnesses only saw the plates in a "visionary or entranced state."[6] It doesn't mention how many total witness accounts exist.
Scholars have documented over 200.[5:1]
The nine come almost entirely from hostile ex-members, anti-Mormon publishers, thirdhand anonymous reports, and decades-old memories. Against these, Martin Harris alone made over 100 documented statements affirming his experience in unmistakable physical terms: "Just as sure as you see the sun shining -- just as sure am I that I stood in the presence of an Angel of God."[7]
Nine secondhand quotes versus 200+ firsthand accounts. That ratio matters.
Every parallel collapses on examination
The CES Letter compares the Book of Mormon witnesses to James Strang's Voree Plates witnesses, the Shakers' Sacred Roll and Book, Marian apparitions, even UFO sightings.[8][9] The argument: witness testimony is cheap.
But the CES Letter claims "there is no direct evidence that any of the above 11 Strang witnesses ever denied their testimony."[10] This is factually wrong. Samuel Graham confessed to fabricating the plates with Strang. Samuel P. Bacon called the enterprise "human invention." Warren Post acknowledged it was "possible that Strang made them." Historian Milo Quaife concluded Strang "knowingly fabricated and planted them."[11]
The Shaker witnesses described individual private visions -- not a shared encounter with a physical artifact.[9:1]
Every parallel the CES Letter invites actually strengthens the Book of Mormon case. None of them involve eleven named individuals maintaining testimony about a shared physical encounter for fifty years with zero defections.
The plates existed outside the witness events
The witnesses provide something rare in religious history: named, public, lifelong testimony from multiple independent observers describing both a divine manifestation and physical interaction with a specific artifact.
But the plates weren't confined to two formal events. Emma Smith moved them on a table while cleaning. William Smith hefted them and estimated their weight. Lucy Mack Smith described their dimensions.[12] Multiple household members interacted with a heavy, metallic object over months -- independent corroboration that eliminates the "shared hallucination" theory.
Even prominent critics accept the witnesses as sincere. Dan Vogel, no friend to the Church's truth claims, acknowledges the witnesses genuinely believed what they reported.[13] The scholarly debate has shifted from whether they experienced something to what they experienced. The "they just lied" theory is largely abandoned.
The cost they paid matters too. Martin Harris lost his farm. Oliver Cowdery damaged his legal career. David Whitmer endured fifty years of journalists pressing him to recant. People don't maintain fabricated stories when those stories cost them everything -- especially after they've left the organization those stories support.
Bottom line: Eleven men put their names to a public declaration. All of them were later in a position to recant -- several had strong personal reasons to. None did. The CES Letter says this "simply doesn't mean anything." The evidence says otherwise.
Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Witnesses," p. 85. ↩︎
Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Witnesses," pp. 85–88. ↩︎
Daniel C. Peterson, "Tangible Restoration: The Witnesses and What They Experienced," Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 29 (2018): 15–62. https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/tangible-restoration-the-witnesses-and-what-they-experienced/ ↩︎
Richard Lloyd Anderson, "Attempts to Redefine the Experience of the Eight Witnesses," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 14, no. 1 (2005): 18–31. Anderson documented ten separate statements from the Eight Witnesses, all describing physical handling. ↩︎
Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1981). Anderson documented over 200 accounts from and about the Book of Mormon witnesses. ↩︎ ↩︎
Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Witnesses," pp. 93–94. ↩︎
Martin Harris, quoted in George Godfrey, "Testimony of Martin Harris," From the Palm of the Valley (date uncertain), as cited in Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses, 116. ↩︎
Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Witnesses," pp. 95–99. ↩︎
Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Witnesses," pp. 103–104. ↩︎ ↩︎
Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Witnesses," p. 101. ↩︎
Milo M. Quaife, The Kingdom of Saint James: A Narrative of the Mormons (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1930). Quaife concluded Strang "knowingly fabricated and planted" the Voree Plates. ↩︎
Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet (Liverpool: S.W. Richards, 1853). See also William Smith, interview with J.W. Peterson and W.S. Pender, 1890, recounting hefting the plates. Emma Smith, interview by Joseph Smith III, February 1879, describing moving the plates while cleaning. ↩︎
Dan Vogel, Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2004). Vogel argues the witnesses were sincere believers, not deliberate conspirators. ↩︎