David Whitmer

“ O ye Gentiles, have ye remembered the Jews, mine ancient covenant people? Nay; but ye have cursed them, and have hated them, and have not sought to recover them. But behold, I will return all these things your own heads; for I, the Lord, hath not forgotten my people. Thou fool, that shall say, a Bible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible. Have ye obtained a Bible, save it were by the Jews? Know ye not that there are more nations than one? ”

“ The revelation given through Brother Joseph as mouthpiece on April 6, 1830, that he should be ordained Seer to the Church, after God had commanded him that He would grant him no other gift but to translate the Book of Mormon, I give you my testimony brethren that this revelation is not of God.
Now, how can you place full confidence in the revelations in the book of Doctrine and Covenants?
Why, oh! why is it that you will continue to trust in an arm of flesh? Why will you cling to Joseph Smith, who was only a man, and believe all his revelations as if they were from God's own mouth? ”

“ I desire to my a few words concerning the Holy Ghost, which is the Spirit of Christ—the greatest gift of God to man. Many people claim to have this gift. I am not judging anyone, but I will tell you how we can tell when we have the Spirit of Christ; and when we have not this feeling and spirit, we have not His Spirit. When we have the Spirit of Christ, our hearts are filled with the love of God that reaches out and takes in all men, even our enemies. We then have every particle of prejudice, malice, envy and hatred cast out of our hearts ”

“ We cannot always understand Gods ways of dealing with his people. God suffers men to be led into error because of their blindness of heart. He works with men only according to their faith and obedience; but now the Spirit of God is moving upon the Elders of the Church of Christ to go forth unto all the believers in the Book of Mormon, and unto all other people, crying repentance, and calling on them to heed to the teachings of Christ. I do not mean to persecute Joseph the translator of the Book of Mormon. I love him, and I love Joseph his son, and believe him to be a good man. ”

“ Look at the one hundred and fifty thousand deluded souls in Utah, believing in a revelation given through this man that we are to exalted to the highest glory in the world to come, through spiritual wifeism; also the twenty thousand or more souls who are blinded to believe in the revelations of this man who has introduced doctrines into the church that conflict with the written word of God. As it was in the days of ancient Israel and in the days of the Apostles, so it is in this day. "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord." ”

“ I will prove beyond a doubt that every spiritual office added to the church which is not according to the teachings of Christ to the "twelve" on this land, is the work of man, and not the work of God. ”

“ David Whitmer believes in the bible as implicitly as any devotee alive; and he believes in the Book of Mormon as much as he does the bible. The one is but a supplement to the other, according to his idea, and neither would be complete were the other lacking. And no man can look at David Whitmer's face for a half-hour, while he charily and modestly speaks of what he has seen, and then boldly and earnestly confesses the faith that is in him, and say that he is a bigot or an enthusiast. ”

“ God put man on the earth to be a free agent unto himself, to choose and discern between good and evil, between truth and error in doctrine. It is necessary for man to be tempted and tried in every way conceivable, in order for him to prove himself, and overcome every snare, device, and stumbling-block of satan, to fit him for a higher state of happiness hereafter. You know the Scriptures teach that Satan's devices may appear as an Angel of Light; for instance, a false doctrine being revealed to a prophet who gives it to a church as if it came from God. ”

“ When a man has this spirit—which is the Holy Ghost—he loves all men so much that his greatest desire in this world is to do the greatest amount of good to his fellow-man that is possible. What is the greatest good I can do to my fellow-men? It is to turn their footsteps heavenward; to preach the gospel and the love of Christ to them. The spirit of Christ is unselfish. ”

“ They did not stop to consider that God had his own time in which his great and marvelous works should be done among the inhabitants of the earth. They thought that the time for building the city New Jerusalem must be now at hand—in their time—man's time—and that they were the ones who were to build it. In this condition of heart, brought about by their unwise zeal and the spirit of man to do great things, instead of being humble, they had Brother Joseph to get a revelation as to the time of building that city, and gathering into it. ”

“ Through this cleft in the sky, which seemed to lead away up to the pearly gates beyond, appeared an angel, disguised as a man, bearing the semblance of a table. The angel descended to the earth, landing nearly at their feet. On this table were the plates of gold from which they had just translated the Book of Mormon, and the plates of brass on which were inscribed the commandments written by Moses, and which had been taken from Jerusalem by Nephi 600 years before Christ and afterward transported to America. ”

“ This part of this revelation in the Book of Commandments reads thus: "And he (Joseph) has a gift to translate the Book and I have commanded him that he shall pretend to no other gift, for I will grant him no other gift." ”

“ So we see that Brother Joseph was very weak and liable to fall, even while translating the Book, the time when he should have been strong, because he was in constant communion with God. Now if he was so weak and liable to err at that time, is it any wonder that he erred in 1830, and after that time? Of course not! Ah brethren, great are the mysteries of God! His ways are not man's ways. He chooses the weak things of earth—weak men—so that man should not put his trust in man and make flesh his arm, but put his trust in God only, and rely upon that which is written. ”

“ One night Joseph Smith awoke from deep sleep to find his humble room ablaze with glorious effulgence. In the midst of this supernatural radiance stood an angelic figure robed in white, who, in seraphic tones, said to him that in a stone casket buried near the summit of the hill Cumorah were the priceless and sacred records of the Nephites, one of the lost tribes. ”

“ At the end of the world is the final judgment, after which there shall be a new earth and a new heaven. Then a great voice out of heaven cried "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." ”

“ It is the spirit that hastily condemned and stoned the prophets of God in all ages past. So beware, and look well to your own heart, that Satan does not blind your understanding to the truth. If you are open to investigation and conviction, I pray you to read the Book of Mormon with a prayerful heart. All persons who are spiritual, having a fair understanding of the scriptures, how they can read that Book and reject it, is very strange indeed. The Book carries conviction with it. The wise men of this world could never write a book like it. ”

“ I would sooner die in my tracks than that the world should have it to say that Joe Smith, the prophet, the founder of the Church of Christ, was ignominiously convicted of crime and rotted in a common jail. Now your Clay county militia are generally honest, well-to-do citizens, who would spurn a bribe, and would, kindly, as they thought, guard me safely to Columbia and deliver me to the authorities. On the other hand, the Caldwell county militia is mostly composed of ignorant and poor men who have never had a hundred dollars in their lives. With such men money is all-powerful. ”

“ In the spirit of Christ, who hath said: "Follow thou me, for I am the life, the light and the way," I submit this statement to the world. God in whom I trust being my judge as to the sincerity of my motives and the faith and hope that is in me of eternal life.
My sincere desire is that the world may be benefited by this plain and simple statement of the truth.
And all the honor to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen!
DAVID WHITMER, Sr. ”

“ The inspired writers did not try to hide the polygamy of David and Solomon. Their transgressions do not make the Psalms and Proverbs untrue, neither do the errors of Joseph make the Book of Mormon untrue. God does not want any one in the church whose faith is so weak that he stumbles because of the transgressions of any man or men. Our faith and trust must be in God, and not in any man! ”

“ The religion of Jesus Christ is embodied in one word, and that word is LOVE; it is the first and great commandment, for on it hangs the law and the prophets. Charity is the great lack of religious professors. As we love and judge others, so we will be judged at the last day. The principal idea in religion is the fatherhood of God, and brotherhood of man. Christ taught us to pray, Our Father who art in heaven. Our motive in serving God must be love and not fear. Those who have never had the gift of the Holy Ghost, cannot understand how a person could actually love and do good to any enemy ”

“ If you will not grant a possibility of the Book of Mormon being true, and sit in judgment and hastily condemn it after reading what I have written, you can surely see for yourself that your heart is full of prejudice, Remember that prejudice is not of God. ”

“ Dear Reader:—I want to ask you this question, if you are an unbeliever in the Book of Mormon, and I hope you will study over it prayer-fully. The testimony of seven men, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter and Jude, comes down to us eighteen hundred years old; you accept their testimony as true. To-day we have the testimony of eleven witnesses who have lived in our generation, one of which (myself) is still living—these eleven men having lived honorable and upright lives-but you reject their testimony and accept the testimony of the seven men who have been dead eighteen hundred years. ”

“ And if any man doubt should he not carefully and honestly read and understand the same, before presuming to sit in judgment and condemning the light, which shineth in darkness, and showeth the way of eternal life as out by the unerring hand of God. ”