Did Anyone Actually See the Golden Plates?
A lot of people wonder if the witnesses to the Book of Mormon were hallucinating when they saw the Golden Plates. When asked about this in 1884, David Whitmer confidently claimed that he truly did see and hear.
More from Keystone:
He knew what he saw.
And just a note for those claiming that the witnesses only saw the plates through “spiritual eyes” — please see the full video we did on that subject on our channel (there’s also a tiktok addressing it on this account). Long story short, only one witness is said to have used this language (though we have no first-hand accounts of it), but even if Martin Harris did use this language, we have plenty of examples of people from Martin’s time using the term “spiritual eyes” in reference to spiritual things/beings that they believed were strictly real and literal. For example, one 19th century Bible commentator refers to the angel standing in Balaam’s path as an Angel seen with “spiritual eyes.” Many more examples are given in the full video. In the context of his other statements, and within the context of the other witness statements, and within the wider context of how this verbiage was at least sometimes used in wider society, it seems very clear that Martin did not intend “spiritual eyes” to mean “imagination.”
@keystonelds He knew what he saw. And just a note for those claiming that the witnesses only saw the plates through “spiritual eyes” — please see the full video we did on that subject on our channel (there’s also a tiktok addressing it on this account). Long story short, only one witness is said to have used this language (though we have no first-hand accounts of it), but even if Martin Harris did use this language, we have plenty of examples of people from Martin’s time using the term “spiritual eyes” in reference to spiritual things/beings that they believed were strictly real and literal. For example, one 19th century Bible commentator refers to the angel standing in Balaam’s path as an Angel seen with “spiritual eyes.” Many more examples are given in the full video. In the context of his other statements, and within the context of the other witness statements, and within the wider context of how this verbiage was at least sometimes used in wider society, it seems very clear that Martin did not intend “spiritual eyes” to mean “imagination.” #lds #ldschurch #josephsmith #bookofmormon #churchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints #goldenplates #latterdaysaints
