The Three Witnesses

When Joseph Smith was translating The Book of Mormon, the Lord allowed three witnesses to eventually see and handle the golden plates: Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris and David Whitmer. They each faltered to varying degrees later in life, but none of the three ever denied their testimony of this event. Of interest is that salvation isn’t guaranteed by privilege: Ether 5:5 in The Book of Mormon states that these three would still need to repent and gain their own testimonies of Jesus Christ in order to be saved, even after seeing and touching the plates. These details were prophesied of by Moroni over 1,000 years before they.

 Ether 5:2 And behold, ye may be privileged that ye may show the plates unto those who shall assist to bring forth this work;
 3 And unto three shall they be shown by the power of God; wherefore they shall know of a surety that these things are true.
 4 And in the mouth of three witnesses shall these things be established; and the testimony of three, and this work, in the which shall be shown forth the power of God and also his word, of which the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost bear record—and all this shall stand as a testimony against the world at the last day.
 5 And if it so be that they repent and come unto the Father in the name of Jesus, they shall be received into the kingdom of God.

LESSON LEARNED: Seeing is not necessarily believing. Similar to Laman and Lemuel faltering after seeing an angel, the three witnesses struggled in later life as well. Only a personal testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ can lead to conversion and thus salvation.

FEEDBACK: WHAT EXPERIENCES WITH FALTERING IN FAITH ARE YOU AWARE OF, DUE TO A LACK OF PERSONAL TESTIMONY IN THE SAVIOR?