Appearance
James Strang Comparison
The claim:
James Strang and his claims are fascinating. He was basically Joseph Smith 2.0 — but with a twist. Like Joseph, Strang did the following: Claimed that he was visited by an angel who reserved plates for him to translate... Received the "Urim and Thummim"... Produced 11 witnesses who testified that they too had seen and inspected ancient metal plates. ...There is no direct evidence that any of the above 11 Strang witnesses ever denied their testimony.[1]
The CES Letter presents James Strang as Joseph Smith's twin. Same pattern, same kinds of witnesses, same never-recanting. The implied conclusion: if you dismiss Strang's witnesses, you should dismiss the Book of Mormon witnesses too.
It's a clever framing. It's also wrong on the facts.
What happens when you actually compare the two sets of witnesses?
The comparison the CES Letter doesn't make
The CES Letter tells you that Strang had witnesses. It doesn't tell you what those witnesses actually said, what they experienced, or what happened to them afterward. Here's the side-by-side the CES Letter leaves out:
| Feature | Book of Mormon Witnesses | Strang's Witnesses |
|---|---|---|
| Total witnesses | 11 official (Three + Eight), plus many informal witnesses who handled the plates | 7 who signed testimony to the Book of the Law plates; 4 who dug up the Voree Plates |
| Supernatural experience | Three Witnesses saw an angel, heard God's voice, saw the plates and other artifacts in divine light | None. Witnesses simply observed physical plates. No angel, no voice, no divine manifestation |
| Physical handling | Eight Witnesses "hefted" plates weighing an estimated 40–60 lbs, turned individual leaves, examined engravings | Four witnesses dug up tiny brass plates (roughly 1.5 x 2.75 inches) from a hillside; seven examined larger plates |
| Object size | Full set of gold plates — described as roughly 6" x 8" x 6", metallic pages bound with rings | Voree Plates: three tiny brass pieces about the size of a playing card |
| Duration of testimony | Decades. Witnesses reaffirmed across 50+ years of interviews, letters, and public statements | Brief. Most witnesses left within a few years; some confessed to fraud |
| Recantations | Zero. None of the eleven ever recanted, despite excommunication, personal conflict with Joseph Smith, and decades of opportunity | Multiple. Samuel Graham confessed to fabricating the plates. Samuel P. Bacon denounced the movement as "human invention" |
| Independent corroboration | Many non-witness contemporaries handled the plates through cloth, felt their weight, heard them rustle — providing independent physical confirmation[2] | No independent corroboration outside Strang's inner circle |
| Outcome of the movement | The Church grew from six members in 1830 to millions worldwide | Strang was assassinated in 1856; his movement largely collapsed within months |
That table changes the argument entirely.
Strang's witnesses recanted
The CES Letter states: "There is no direct evidence that any of the above 11 Strang witnesses ever denied their testimony."[1:1]
This is flatly incorrect.
Samuel Graham, one of the seven witnesses to the Book of the Law of the Lord and president of Strang's Quorum of the Twelve, later confessed that he and Strang fabricated the plates together. He described coating brass plates with beeswax, forming letters with a penknife, and then presenting them to the other witnesses. Graham subsequently left Beaver Island, taking Strang's first wife Mary with him.[3]
Samuel P. Bacon, another of the seven witnesses, was stripped of his office by a Strangite council in 1855 after he "denied the work being done was the inspiration of God" and called the entire enterprise "human invention." Warren Post, a fellow witness, recorded Bacon's denunciation.[4] Bacon had earlier discovered fragments of plates hidden in the ceiling of Strang's house — a detail difficult to reconcile with the claim of ancient origin.[5]
Warren Post himself acknowledged it was "possible that [Strang] made them."[4:1]
Historian Milo Quaife, author of the standard Strang biography The Kingdom of Saint James, concluded that "Strang knowingly fabricated and planted them for the purpose of duping his credulous followers" and that "Strang's prophetic career was a false and impudent imposture."[3:1]
The CES Letter presents Strang's witnesses as a parallel to the Book of Mormon witnesses. They aren't. Several of them told you the plates were fake.
The Book of Mormon witnesses never recanted
Contrast that with the eleven Book of Mormon witnesses. Not one, in the entire historical record, ever denied the core claim: that they saw and handled ancient metal plates.
This isn't because they lacked opportunity or motive. Consider the circumstances:
- All three of the Three Witnesses were excommunicated from the Church. Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris each spent years — sometimes decades — outside the Church and at odds with Joseph Smith.
- Joseph Smith himself called them "too mean to mention" in 1838.[6] Sidney Rigdon called Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer "a gang of counterfeiters, thieves, liars, and blacklegs."[7]
- Every incentive existed to recant. Social pressure, financial loss, personal grudges against Joseph Smith — and yet none of them did.
Here is what they said instead.
Oliver Cowdery, on his deathbed in 1850, told David Whitmer: "Brother David, be true to your testimony to the Book of Mormon."[8]
David Whitmer, three days before his death in 1888, called his family and doctor to his bedside: "I want to say to you all that the Bible and the record of the Nephites, the Book of Mormon, are true."[9] He later added: "I also testify to the world, that neither Oliver Cowdery or Martin Harris ever at any time denied their testimony. They both died reaffirming the truth of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon."[10]
Martin Harris, after returning to the Church in 1870, declared: "The angel did show to me the plates containing the Book of Mormon."[11] Earlier, he stated to William Pilkington: "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."[12]
Hyrum Smith, imprisoned in Liberty Jail in 1839: "I thank God that I felt a determination to die, rather than deny the things which my eyes had seen, which my hands had handled."[13]
John Whitmer, in 1836: "I have handled these plates, and know of a surety that Joseph Smith, jr. has translated the book of Mormon by the gift and power of God."[14]
These are men who lost friendships, property, and standing over their testimony. Several left the Church and never returned.
Not one of them ever said the plates were fake.
Two fundamentally different kinds of witness experience
The CES Letter treats all witness claims as equivalent. They aren't.
The Three Witnesses described a supernatural event: an angel appeared, showed them the plates, and the voice of God declared the translation true. David Whitmer described it in an 1878 interview: "I saw the Nephite artifacts just as plain as I see this bed... and I heard the voice of the Lord."[15] This was not a casual encounter. It was, by their account, an encounter with the divine.
The Eight Witnesses described a physical event: they held the plates in their hands, turned the leaves, and examined the engravings. Their testimony reads like a legal deposition — "we did handle with our hands" and "we have seen and hefted." No angels, no heavenly voice. Just men holding a physical object.[16]
These two distinct witness experiences — one visionary, one empirical — create what Daniel Peterson calls a dual authentication. A hallucination theory fails because hallucinations are private, individual experiences that cannot be shared by a group.[17] A fraud theory fails because the Eight Witnesses handled the plates under ordinary conditions, with no reported trance or altered state. You have to explain both experiences with a single theory, and no naturalistic explanation does.
Strang's witnesses, by contrast, reported only one type of experience: they looked at some plates. No angel appeared. No divine voice spoke. No one described anything supernatural at all. The entire Strang witness experience is contained within a claim that they saw physical objects — objects that witnesses later confessed were fabricated.
The "other religions have witnesses too" argument
The CES Letter broadens the comparison beyond Strang:
"Neither did James Strang's witnesses. Neither did dozens of Joseph Smith's neighbors... Neither did many of the Shaker witnesses who signed affidavits that they saw an angel on the roof top holding the Sacred Roll and Book... Same goes for the numerous people over the centuries who claimed their entire lives to have seen the Virgin Mary."[18]
The argument is that non-recantation proves nothing, because all kinds of people maintain all kinds of beliefs without recanting.
This misses what makes the Book of Mormon witnesses unusual. The question isn't just "did they persist in a belief?" Millions of people persist in beliefs. The question is: did multiple people, independently, over decades, under hostile conditions, consistently maintain that they physically interacted with a specific artifact and saw a specific supernatural event — with zero defections?
The Shaker witnesses who signed the Sacred Roll and Book testimony claimed to see an angel holding the book on a rooftop. They did not claim to hold the book themselves. Their testimonies describe different, individual visions — not a shared experience with a shared physical object. And the Sacred Roll and Book itself later fell into discredit even among the Shakers.[19]
Virgin Mary apparition witnesses report personal visions. They do not report a group of eleven men all handling the same physical artifact.
UFO witnesses, Bigfoot witnesses, and Loch Ness Monster witnesses — the CES Letter groups these with the Book of Mormon witnesses — report something they claim to have seen. They do not report examining a detailed artifact in their hands, over an extended period, with the kind of specificity the Eight Witnesses describe.
The comparison only works if you flatten all testimony into one category: "people who said they saw something." But the kind of testimony matters. The specificity matters. The consistency over decades matters. The hostile conditions under which it was maintained matters. And the complete absence of defection, in a group of eleven, over half a century, matters.
Martin Harris and Strang: a brief flirtation, not a conversion
The CES Letter makes much of the fact that Martin Harris briefly associated with Strang's movement.[1:2] This is true. After Joseph Smith's death in 1844, Harris showed interest in several succession claimants, including Strang, Gladden Bishop, and the Shakers.
But "showed interest" is not "became a committed Strangite." Harris went to England on Strang's behalf in October 1846. Within four weeks he publicly denied any connection to Strang and returned to testifying about the Book of Mormon.[20] His total association with Strang lasted roughly four to six months.
David Whitmer received Strang's newspaper and showed initial curiosity, but never relocated to Voree or Beaver Island. By January 1847, he had aligned with William McClellin's separate group. Oliver Cowdery never followed Strang at all — he publicly called Strang "a wicked man."[21]
The CES Letter frames this as evidence that the Book of Mormon witnesses were gullible. The actual pattern is the opposite: they investigated Strang's claims briefly and rejected them. Their willingness to look at Strang's claims doesn't undermine their Book of Mormon testimony — it shows they were willing to examine evidence. And they found Strang's claims wanting.
The positive case: what makes the Book of Mormon witnesses historically unique
Set aside the defensive arguments. The Book of Mormon witness testimony has features that no comparable historical claim matches:
Eleven named witnesses. Not anonymous, not second-hand. Eleven men whose identities, biographies, and subsequent lives are well documented.
Two distinct categories of experience. Three men reported a divine vision. Eight men reported handling a physical object. Both categories independently testify to the same artifact.
Zero recantations across 50+ years. Across every interview, every letter, every hostile cross-examination, not one of the eleven ever denied the core experience. This spans the lifetimes of men who were excommunicated, estranged from Joseph Smith, and under significant social pressure to recant.
Hostile-witness confirmation. Even critics who interviewed the witnesses came away acknowledging their sincerity. James Henry Moyle, a young lawyer who interviewed David Whitmer in 1885, went away noting that Whitmer insisted he "saw the plates and heard the angel with unmistakable clearness."[22]
Deathbed reaffirmations. Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris all reaffirmed their testimony in their final days. These are not casual statements. Dying declarations carry legal weight precisely because people on their deathbed have no further incentive to lie.[9:1]
The object had physical properties. Multiple non-witnesses reported lifting the plates through cloth, estimating their weight, and hearing the metallic pages. Emma Smith described moving them on a table while cleaning. These informal witnesses provide independent corroboration that a heavy, metallic object existed.[23]
William McLellin, who personally interviewed several of the witnesses in 1831, recorded: "I heard all their testimonies, which agreed in the main points; and I believed them then and I believe them yet."[24]
No other historical witness claim matches this combination of specificity, consistency, duration, and resilience under pressure.
The comparison actually favors the Book of Mormon
The CES Letter invites a comparison between the Book of Mormon witnesses and James Strang's witnesses. Accept the invitation. The comparison reveals:
- Strang's witnesses saw ordinary plates. The Book of Mormon witnesses describe both a divine vision and physical handling of an extraordinary artifact.
- Strang's witnesses included men who later confessed to fraud. Not one Book of Mormon witness ever recanted.
- Strang's movement collapsed after his assassination. The Church Joseph Smith founded grew from a handful of members to a global faith.
- Strang's translation took years. The Book of Mormon was dictated in roughly sixty working days.
- Strang's plates were tiny brass pieces. The Book of Mormon plates were described consistently by every witness as a substantial, bound volume of gold-colored metal.
The CES Letter expects the comparison to undermine faith. It does the opposite. Every point of comparison makes the Book of Mormon witness testimony look stronger.
Bottom line: The CES Letter says Strang's witnesses "never denied" their testimony. Several of them did — including one who confessed to fabricating the plates. The Book of Mormon's eleven witnesses, by contrast, maintained their testimony without exception for the rest of their lives, through excommunication, personal conflict, and every incentive to recant. The comparison the CES Letter invites is the comparison that favors the Book of Mormon.
Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Witnesses," pp. 95–99. The CES Letter presents Strang as "basically Joseph Smith 2.0" and claims "there is no direct evidence that any of the above 11 Strang witnesses ever denied their testimony." ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1981). Anderson documented dozens of informal witnesses who handled or lifted the plates through cloth, providing independent physical corroboration. ↩︎
Milo M. Quaife, The Kingdom of Saint James: A Narrative of the Mormons (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1930), 30–31, 59. Quaife concludes that "Strang knowingly fabricated and planted them for the purpose of duping his credulous followers" and that "Strang's prophetic career was a false and impudent imposture." ↩︎ ↩︎
Warren Post's account of Samuel P. Bacon's denunciation is recorded in Strangite council minutes, 1855. Bacon "denied the work being done was the inspiration of God" and called it "human invention." Discussed in Daniel C. Peterson, "The Book of Mormon Witnesses and Their Challenge to Secularism," Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 24 (2017): 87–96. https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/the-book-of-mormon-witnesses-and-their-challenge-to-secularism ↩︎ ↩︎
"James Strang Movement," FAIR. https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Book_of_Mormon/Witnesses/Strangite_parallels. Samuel Bacon discovered fragments of plates hidden in the ceiling of Strang's house. The plates were reportedly fashioned from "Ben Perce's old kettle" using "an old saw file," then treated with acid for an aged appearance. ↩︎
Joseph Smith, History of the Church, vol. 3, ch. 15, p. 232: "Such characters as... John Whitmer, David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, and Martin Harris, are too mean to mention; and we had liked to have forgotten them." ↩︎
Sidney Rigdon, letter of February 15, 1841, Letter and Testimony, pp. 6–9: "Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer... united with a gang of counterfeiters, thieves, liars, and blacklegs in the deepest dye, to deceive, cheat, and defraud the saints." ↩︎
David Whitmer reported Oliver Cowdery's deathbed words in An Address to All Believers in Christ (Richmond, MO: 1887). See also "David Whitmer's Last Hours and Testimony," in Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses, 61–64. ↩︎
David Whitmer's final testimony, January 25, 1888, three days before his death: "I want to say to you all that the Bible and the record of the Nephites, the Book of Mormon, are true." Reported by multiple family members and his attending physician, Dr. George W. Buchanan. See "The Eleven Witnesses," BYU Religious Studies Center. https://rsc.byu.edu/coming-forth-book-mormon/eleven-witnesses ↩︎ ↩︎
David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ (Richmond, MO: David Whitmer, 1887). Whitmer stated: "I also testify to the world, that neither Oliver Cowdery or Martin Harris ever at any time denied their testimony. They both died reaffirming the truth of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon." ↩︎
Martin Harris, testimony given in 1870 after returning to Utah: "the angel did show to me the plates containing the Book of Mormon." Recorded in Susan Easton Black, "Martin Harris Comes to Utah, 1870," BYU Studies Quarterly 58, no. 3 (2018). https://scripturecentral.org/archive/periodicals/journal-article/martin-harris-comes-utah-1870 ↩︎
William Pilkington Affidavit, April 3, 1934, recounting Harris's statement: "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." Discussed in "Martin Harris," Scripture Central. https://scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-martin-harris ↩︎
Hyrum Smith, statement from Liberty Jail, 1839: "I thank God that I felt a determination to die, rather than deny the things which my eyes had seen, which my hands had handled." See "The Eleven Witnesses," BYU Religious Studies Center. https://rsc.byu.edu/coming-forth-book-mormon/eleven-witnesses ↩︎
John Whitmer, statement dated March 5, 1836: "I have handled these plates, and know of a surety that Joseph Smith, jr. has translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God." ↩︎
Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith interview with David Whitmer, reported in Millennial Star, December 9, 1878. Whitmer stated he saw the Nephite artifacts "just as plain as I see this bed." ↩︎
"Testimony of Eight Witnesses," published in every edition of the Book of Mormon since 1830: "we did handle with our hands... and we also saw the engravings thereon." ↩︎
Daniel C. Peterson, "The Book of Mormon Witnesses and Their Challenge to Secularism," Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 24 (2017): 87–96. Peterson notes that psychologist Gary Habermas has observed that "hallucinations are private events observed by one person alone" — making shared hallucination scientifically implausible. https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/the-book-of-mormon-witnesses-and-their-challenge-to-secularism ↩︎
Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Witnesses," p. 101. The CES Letter argues that non-recantation is meaningless because "people believe in false things their entire lives and never recant." ↩︎
The Shakers published A Holy, Sacred and Divine Roll and Book; From the Lord God of Heaven, to the Inhabitants of Earth (Canterbury, NH: 1843). Over 60 individuals signed testimony statements, but their experiences were individual visions — not a shared encounter with a physical object. The Sacred Roll and Book later fell into discredit among Shakers themselves. ↩︎
Susan Easton Black and Larry C. Porter, "Martin Harris and the Strangite Mission to England," BYU Studies Quarterly 47, no. 4 (2008). Harris's association with Strang lasted roughly four to six months before he publicly denied any connection. https://scripturecentral.org/archive/periodicals/journal-article/a-witnessinenglandmartinharrisandthestrangitemission ↩︎
Oliver Cowdery's rejection of Strang is documented in multiple sources. He was rebaptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1848, two years before his death. See Larry E. Morris, "The Private Character of the Man Who Bore That Testimony: Oliver Cowdery and His Critics," FARMS Review 15, no. 1 (2003). https://scripturecentral.org/archive/periodicals/journal-article/private-character-man-who-bore-testimony-oliver-cowdery-and-his-critics ↩︎
James Henry Moyle diary, June 28, 1885, in Early Mormon Documents 5:141. Moyle, a young lawyer, interviewed David Whitmer and recorded that Whitmer insisted he "saw the plates and heard the angel with unmistakable clearness." ↩︎
Larry E. Morris, "Empirical Witnesses of the Gold Plates," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 52, no. 2 (2019). Morris catalogues the extensive evidence for the physical existence of the plates, including accounts from Emma Smith, William Smith, Lucy Mack Smith, and others who felt, lifted, or handled the plates through cloth. ↩︎
William McLellin, cited in Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (1981). McLellin personally interviewed several witnesses in 1831 and recorded: "I heard all their testimonies, which agreed in the main points; and I believed them then and I believe them yet." ↩︎