Appearance
Second Sight
The claim:
The witnesses never physically saw or handled the golden plates. They saw them with "spiritual eyes" or "eyes of faith," making the experience subjective and visionary rather than literal. Martin Harris admitted he saw the plates "with the eye of faith" and compared it to seeing a city through a mountain.[1]
The CES Letter presents about nine quotes from or about the witnesses — mostly secondhand, mostly hostile — to argue the witness experience was imaginary. It equates "spiritual eyes" with "imagination" and moves on.
What happens when you look at all the witness statements instead of nine?
Scholars have documented over 200 accounts related to the Book of Mormon witnesses.[2] The CES Letter samples fewer than 5% of them, drawing almost exclusively from hostile or secondhand sources. The other 95% tell a different story.
Two groups, two experiences
The CES Letter treats "the witnesses" as a single block. They weren't. The formal testimonies printed in every copy of the Book of Mormon describe two distinct experiences.
| Three Witnesses | Eight Witnesses | |
|---|---|---|
| Who | Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Martin Harris | Christian Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, Peter Whitmer Jr., John Whitmer, Hiram Page, Joseph Smith Sr., Hyrum Smith, Samuel Smith |
| What they saw | An angel displayed the plates; a voice from heaven declared the record true | Joseph Smith showed them the plates directly — no angel, no voice, no vision |
| How they described it | "An angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates" | "Joseph Smith, Jun., the Author and Proprietor of this work, has shown unto us the plates... we did handle with our hands" |
| Supernatural element | Yes — angel, heavenly voice, divine glory | None described |
| Physical contact | Saw the plates and engravings | "Hefted" the plates, "handled" them, "turned the leaves"[3] |
This distinction matters. A critic who wants to dismiss the witness experience as purely visionary has to explain away both testimonies — the Three Witnesses' angelic manifestation and the Eight Witnesses' hands-on, daylight examination of a physical object.[4]
The CES Letter focuses almost entirely on the Three Witnesses and ignores the Eight. (For more on the witnesses' character and post-witness lives, see Credibility Concerns.)
The "spiritual eyes" quotes
The CES Letter's case rests on a handful of statements attributed to Martin Harris. Here are the key ones, with their sources.
| Quote | Source | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| "He never saw the plates with his natural eyes only in vision or imagination" | Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson, April 15, 1838 | Hostile — Burnett had publicly denounced Joseph Smith and "proclaimed all revelation lies"[5] |
| Harris "used to practice a good deal of his characteristic jargon about 'seeing with the spiritual eye'" | Pomeroy Tucker, Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism (1867) | Hostile — Tucker was anti-Mormon[6] |
| "No, I saw them with a spir[i]tual eye" | John H. Gilbert memorandum, 1892 | Secondhand, recorded 63 years after the event[7] |
| "I saw them with the eye of faith" | John A. Clark, citing an anonymous "gentleman in Palmyra" | Thirdhand, anonymous, hostile[8] |
| Two Palmyra residents said Harris described seeing plates with "the eye of faith" or "spiritual eyes" | Early Mormon Documents 2:270, 3:22 | Secondhand, non-contemporary |
That's the entire foundation. One bitter ex-member's letter. One anti-Mormon book. One printer's 63-year-old memory. One anonymous thirdhand report.
What Harris actually said — over and over
Against those five accounts, place Harris's own words across decades of testimony:
"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, and saw him hold the Gold Plates in his hands."[9]
"Gentlemen, do you see that hand? Are you sure you see it? Are you sure it's not a spirit? ... as sure as you see my hand so sure did I see the angel and the plates."[10]
"It is not a mere belief, but is a matter of knowledge. I saw the plates and the inscriptions thereon. I saw the angel, and he showed them unto me."[11]
"No man ever heard me in any way deny the truth of the Book of Mormon, the administration of the angel that showed me the plates."[12]
Harris pointed to his physical eyes when testifying. He compared his experience to seeing ordinary objects — a hand, the sun, a chopping block. He used the language of certainty, not ambiguity. And he did this consistently for nearly fifty years, including on his deathbed in 1875.[13]
Over 100 documented sources record Harris affirming his witness.[14] The CES Letter cites five that cast doubt. The ratio matters.
The Burnett letter in context
The Stephen Burnett letter is the CES Letter's strongest card. It deserves a closer look.
Burnett wrote to Lyman E. Johnson on April 15, 1838 — a period of mass apostasy in Kirtland. Burnett himself had already left the Church and called Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon "notorious liars."[5:1]
According to Burnett, Harris stood up in a public meeting and said he had "hefted the plates repeatedly in a box with only a tablecloth or a handkerchief over them, but he never saw them only as he saw a city through a mountain."[5:2]
Read that again. Harris is describing hefting plates through a cloth — which is exactly what he did during the translation period, before his experience as one of the Three Witnesses. During translation, Joseph kept the plates covered. Harris helped move and carry them but wasn't permitted to look at them directly.[15]
Harris wasn't describing his formal witness experience. He was describing the months he spent as Joseph's financial backer, when he handled the plates but couldn't see them. The "city through a mountain" metaphor makes sense for that context — he knew they were there (he could feel them, heft them, hear them rustle) but couldn't see them with his eyes.
Burnett's own letter confirms this reading. In the very same account, Burnett reports that after the meeting, "M Harris arose & said he was sorry for any man who rejected the Book of Mormon for he knew it was true."[5:3] Harris felt misrepresented. He stood up to correct the record.
The "pencil-case" quote
The CES Letter's other marquee quote comes from Origin and History of the Mormonites (1850), relaying what an anonymous gentleman in Palmyra claimed Harris told him:
"I did not see them as I do that pencil-case, yet I saw them with the eye of faith; I saw them just as distinctly as I see anything around me, though at the time they were covered over with a cloth."[16]
Again — "covered over with a cloth." Harris is describing the period before his Three Witnesses experience, when he handled the covered plates during translation. Not the angelic manifestation. The CES Letter strips the last clause, which makes the quote's actual meaning clear.
And even in this hostile, thirdhand account, Harris insists he "saw them just as distinctly as I see anything around me." That's not the language of someone describing an imaginary experience.
David Whitmer on "spiritual" vs. physical
The CES Letter quotes a June 1880 interview with John Murphy in which Whitmer said the angel "had no appearance or shape" and compared his impression to Quaker or Methodist spiritual experiences.[1:1]
But Whitmer addressed this directly in an 1887 letter to Anthony Metcalf:
"Of course we were in the spirit when we had the view, for no man can behold the face of an angel, except in a spiritual view, but we were in the body also, and everything was as natural to us, as it is at any time."[17]
Whitmer's distinction is theological, not epistemological. He's saying: seeing an angel requires being "in the spirit" — that's how divine manifestation works. But the experience itself was as real and natural as anything else he'd ever seen. "Spiritual" meant divinely enabled, not imaginary.
Nathan Tanner Jr. reported in 1886 that Whitmer told him "he saw the plates and with his natural eyes, but he had to be prepared for it — that he and the other witnesses were overshadowed by the power of God and a halo of brightness indescribable."[18]
And to James Henry Moyle in 1885, Whitmer said "he saw the plates and heard the angel with unmistakable clearness."[19]
The Eight Witnesses: no vision needed
The Eight Witnesses are the argument the CES Letter doesn't want to have.
Their testimony uses the language of physical examination, not spiritual experience:
"Joseph Smith, Jun., the Author and Proprietor of this work, has shown unto us the plates of which hath been spoken, which have the appearance of gold; and as many of the leaves as the said Smith has translated we did handle with our hands; and we also saw the engravings thereon, all of which has the appearance of ancient work, and of curious workmanship."[3:1]
No angel. No voice from heaven. No vision. No divine glory. Just eight men examining a metal object, turning its pages, and describing what they saw.
Individual accounts confirm the physical nature of the experience:
John Whitmer (1878): "I handled those plates; there were fine engravings on both sides. ... I handled them and hefted them while I was in the room."[20] He described the plates as "8 by 6 or 7 inches," with leaves "joined together in three rings, each one in the shape of a D with the straight line towards the centre."[21]
Hyrum Smith (1839): "I felt a determination to die, rather than deny the things which my eyes had seen, which my hands had handled."[22]
Hiram Page (1847): rejected the idea that he could "know a thing to be true in 1830, and know the same thing to be false in 1847."[23]
Not one of the Eight Witnesses ever described their experience in supernatural terms. Not one used the phrases "spiritual eyes," "eye of faith," or "vision." They handled a physical object in broad daylight. Richard Lloyd Anderson documented ten separate statements from the Eight Witnesses, every one describing physical handling — and found zero attempts by critics, then or now, to produce a single Eight Witness account using visionary language.[24]
The plates existed as physical objects
The CES Letter suggests the witnesses only experienced something mental. But the plates had a physical life far beyond the formal witness events.
Emma Smith moved them on a table while doing housework. She described them in an 1879 interview:
"The plates often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen tablecloth, which I had given him to fold them in. I once felt of the plates, as they thus lay on the table, tracing their outline and shape. They seemed to be pliable like thick paper, and would rustle with a metallic sound when the edges were moved by the thumb, as one does sometimes thumb the edges of a book."[15:1]
William Smith (Joseph's brother) hefted the plates while they were wrapped in a tow frock and estimated their weight at about sixty pounds.[25]
Lucy Mack Smith described handling the plates through cloth and noted their dimensions — "about eight inches long, and six wide."[26]
Multiple people in the Smith household interacted with a heavy, metallic, plate-shaped object over a period of months. You don't hallucinate something your mother moves off the table to set dinner.
"Spiritual eyes" in scripture
The phrase "spiritual eyes" has a specific meaning in Latter-day Saint theology — and it doesn't mean "imaginary."
Ether 12:19 says the brother of Jared and others "saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad."[27]
The pattern: faith comes first, then direct experience confirms it. "Eye of faith" is the precondition for seeing, not a substitute for it. You see with spiritual eyes and then know. The faith is swallowed up in knowledge.
Moses 1:11: "But now mine own eyes have beheld God; but not my natural eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him."[28]
Moses saw God. Literally. But the seeing required divine enablement — "transfiguration" — because mortal eyes alone can't withstand divine glory. "Spiritual eyes" describes the mode of perception, not its unreality.
When the witnesses used this language, they were drawing on a scriptural framework in which spiritual sight is more real than ordinary vision, not less.
What the critic has to explain
To maintain the CES Letter's position, a critic needs all of the following to be true:
- Eleven men maintained a lie for decades — through excommunication, poverty, public humiliation, and on their deathbeds — with zero defections. All three of the Three Witnesses left the Church. None recanted.
- The Eight Witnesses used unmistakably physical language ("handled," "hefted," "turned the leaves") to describe something they never touched.
- Emma Smith, Lucy Mack Smith, William Smith, and others in the household all described the weight, shape, sound, and feel of an object that didn't exist.
- Harris spent fifty years comparing his experience to seeing the sun, seeing his own hand, and seeing a chopping block — all to describe something imaginary.
- A handful of hostile, secondhand accounts outweigh 100+ firsthand and friendly ones.
Group hallucination doesn't work either. As historian Gary Habermas has noted, hallucinations are private events — two people cannot see the same hallucination, let alone eleven.[4:1] And the Eight Witnesses didn't just "see" something. They handled it.
The positive case: plates you could pick up
The Book of Mormon witnesses weren't reporting a feeling. They weren't describing a dream. The Eight Witnesses handled a metal object, examined its engravings, and turned its pages. The Three Witnesses saw that same object displayed by an angel. Household members moved it, felt it, estimated its weight.
The CES Letter builds its case by selecting the weakest quotes from hostile sources and ignoring everything else. When you look at the full record — all 200+ accounts — the picture is unambiguous: the witnesses described a real object, seen and handled under both ordinary and extraordinary circumstances.
Bottom line: The CES Letter cites fewer than 5% of witness accounts — mostly hostile, mostly secondhand — to argue the experience was imaginary. The other 95%, including the Eight Witnesses' unmistakably physical testimony, point in one direction: the plates were real, and the witnesses knew it.
Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Witnesses," pp. 93-94. The "Second Sight" section presents approximately nine quotes to argue the witnesses only saw the plates with "spiritual eyes." ↩︎ ↩︎
Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1981). Anderson compiled the most thorough collection of witness statements available at the time. See also the expanded collection at the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon project, which documents over 200 accounts. ↩︎
"The Testimony of Eight Witnesses," Book of Mormon (1830). The full statement emphasizes physical interaction: "shown unto us," "have the appearance of gold," "did handle with our hands," "saw the engravings thereon." ↩︎ ↩︎
Daniel C. Peterson, "The Book of Mormon Witnesses and Their Challenge to Secularism," Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 29 (2018): 69-114. Peterson argues that the two distinct witness testimonies — one visionary, one physical — create a combined case that no single naturalistic explanation can dismiss. https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/the-book-of-mormon-witnesses-and-their-challenge-to-secularism/ ↩︎ ↩︎
Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson, April 15, 1838, Joseph Smith Letterbook (1837-43), 2:64-66, Joseph Smith Papers, Church Archives. Burnett characterized Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon as "notorious liars" in the same letter. By 1838 he had publicly denounced all revelation and left the Church. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Pomeroy Tucker, Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism (New York: D. Appleton, 1867), 71. Tucker was a Palmyra resident hostile to Mormonism. ↩︎
John H. Gilbert, "Memorandum," September 8, 1892, Palmyra, New York. Gilbert was the typesetter for the Book of Mormon. His account was recorded 63 years after the events described. See Dan Vogel, ed., Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 2:548. ↩︎
John A. Clark to "Dear Brethren," August 31, 1840, Episcopal Recorder (Philadelphia) 18 (September 12, 1840): 98. Clark cites an unnamed "gentleman in Palmyra" — making this a thirdhand, anonymous, hostile account. See also Clark, Gleanings by the Way (Philadelphia: W.J. & J.K. Simon, 1842), 256-257. ↩︎
Martin Harris, reported by Ole A. Jensen, July 1875. Jensen recorded Harris stating the comparison to seeing the sun while pointing to his physical eyes. See Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (1981), 116-117. ↩︎
William M. Glenn, statement, May 1943, Deseret News, October 2, 1943. Glenn recorded Harris using this comparison in a public testimony. ↩︎
Robert Aveson, statement, Deseret News, April 2, 1927. Harris made this emphatic distinction between belief and knowledge. ↩︎
Martin Harris, cited in Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star 21 (1859): 545-546. Harris's denial of ever recanting appears in multiple sources across decades. ↩︎
George Godfrey recorded Harris's deathbed testimony in 1875. Harris reportedly told him: "Had I been willing to have perjured myself and sworn falsely to the testimony I now bear, I could have been a rich man, but I could not have testified other than I have done." See Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (1981), 117. ↩︎
"Martin Harris," Scripture Central. https://scripturecentral.org/evidence/book-of-mormon-evidence-martin-harris. Over 100 documented sources record Harris affirming his witness of the Book of Mormon. ↩︎
Emma Smith, interview by Joseph Smith III, February 1879. Published in Saints' Herald 26 (October 1, 1879): 289-290. Known as the "Last Testimony of Sister Emma." Emma died April 30, 1879, shortly after giving this interview. ↩︎ ↩︎
"Origin and History of the Mormonites," The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art (September-December 1850), 406. The quote is attributed to Harris via John A. Clark via an unnamed Palmyra gentleman — making it thirdhand and anonymous. The full quote includes "though at the time they were covered over with a cloth," indicating Harris is describing the pre-witness translation period. ↩︎
David Whitmer, letter to Anthony Metcalf, April 1887. Reprinted in Anthony Metcalf, Ten Years Before the Mast (Malad, ID: 1888), 73-74. Whitmer's full statement: "Of course we were in the spirit when we had the view, for no man can behold the face of an angel, except in a spiritual view, but we were in the body also, and everything was as natural to us, as it is at any time." ↩︎
Nathan Tanner Jr., statement, May 1886. Tanner reported Whitmer saying "he saw the plates and with his natural eyes." See Lyndon W. Cook, ed., David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness (Orem, UT: Grandin Book, 1991), 169. ↩︎
James Henry Moyle diary, June 28, 1885, in Dan Vogel, ed., Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2003), 5:141. Whitmer told Moyle he "saw the plates and heard the angel with unmistakable clearness." ↩︎
John Whitmer, as reported by Theodore Turley, April 1839. Turley recorded Whitmer's detailed physical description during a conversation in Far West. See Dan Vogel, ed., Early Mormon Documents, 5:242. ↩︎
John Whitmer, interview with P. Wilhelm Poulson, Deseret News, August 6, 1878. Whitmer provided specific dimensions ("8 by 6 or 7 inches") and described the D-shaped ring binding. ↩︎
Hyrum Smith, testimony in Times and Seasons 1, no. 2 (December 1839): 23. Written from Liberty Jail, where Hyrum was imprisoned for his faith. ↩︎
Hiram Page, letter to William McLellin, May 30, 1847, in Dan Vogel, ed., Early Mormon Documents, 5:255. Page's rhetorical question — can a man "know a thing to be true in 1830, and know the same thing to be false in 1847" — is a pointed rejection of the suggestion he had recanted. ↩︎
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 documents ten separate statements from the Eight Witnesses describing physical handling of the plates, and rebuts attempts to recast their experience as visionary. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol14/iss1/4/ ↩︎
William Smith, interview published in The Saints' Herald 31 (October 4, 1884): 644. William described hefting the plates through cloth and judging them to weigh about sixty pounds. See also Peterson, "The Book of Mormon Witnesses and Their Challenge to Secularism," Interpreter 29 (2018): 69-114. https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/the-book-of-mormon-witnesses-and-their-challenge-to-secularism/ ↩︎
Lucy Mack Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet and His Progenitors for Many Generations (Liverpool: S.W. Richards, 1853). Lucy described handling the plates and their approximate dimensions. ↩︎
Ether 12:6, 19, Book of Mormon. The passage describes faith leading to direct knowledge: "ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith" (v. 6) and "they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad" (v. 19). ↩︎
Moses 1:11, Pearl of Great Price. Moses describes seeing God through spiritual enablement, not imagination: "his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him." ↩︎