LDS

The LDS Church Almanac contains “Historical Facts, Brief Biographies, Statistics and Information” including a list of church leaders from Joseph Smith through to the present day and is published annually. Despite David having been one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, and serving as “President of the Church in Zion;” plus being … Read more

Critics of David Whitmer like to quote the following disparagement by Joseph Smith: “John Whitmer, David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, and Martin Harris are too mean to mention” Smith said of David Whitmer: “God suffered such kind of beings to afflict Job. This poor man who professes to be much of a prophet, has no other … Read more

The following comes from Elder John A. Widtsoe in Conference Report, April 1938, p.49: OLIVER COWDERY AND DAVID WHITMER Perhaps the event of that troubled year which gave keenest sorrow was the loss of Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer from the membership roll of the Church two of the three original witnesses to the Book … Read more

Perpetrated Errors The following errors are from Answers to Book of Mormon Questions, by Sidney B. Sperry, Bookcraft, 1967, previously titled Problems of the Book of Mormon, Bookcraft, 1964. 1. Not Word-For-Word  No responsible authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has ever claimed that God or an angel dictated the physical … Read more

The following is from A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, by Daniel H. Ludlow, Deseret Book, 1976. 2 Nephi chapters 12-24 The so-called “Isaiah problem” of the Book of Mormon The early prophets of the Book of Mormon frequently quoted form the writings of Isaiah that appeared on the brass plates … Read more

The following is from “The Whitmers: A Family That Nourished the Church,” by Richard Lloyd Anderson, Ensign, Aug 1979:  And David Whitmer finally wrote a defiant letter, preferring to withdraw from the Church rather than sit down with his brethren to solve the problems (see History of the Church, 3:19). The attitudes of 1830 had … Read more

The following is from The Keystone of Mormonism, Early Visions of the Prophet Joseph Smith by Paul R. Cheesman. On page 71 Cheesman cites David’s description of how the Book of Mormon was “translated.” He also cited his description from the Kansas City Journal:  He (meaning Joseph Smith) had two small stones of a chocolate color, nearly egg-shaped…(Kansas City Journal, … Read more

Yorgason quotes from David Whitmer’s An Address to All Believers in Christ, a story relating how Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. Would he have used, with equal acceptance, some of the other stories told in Whitmer’s pamphlet that contradict Joseph Smith’s own account? The Whitmer account is supported by another attributed to Martin … Read more

Keith W. Perkins, in writing the “David Whitmer” entry for Macmillan’s Encyclopedia of Mormonism (1992) spared little effort in repeating the disparages cited by those in his Bibliography – Richard Anderson, Lyndon and Matthew Cook, Preston Nibley, and Keith Perkins. Excommunicated: Although Whitmer was excommunicated from the Church… Chastised: David’s close associatoin with Joseph Smith … Read more

The following is from: “David Whitmer and the Shaping of Latter-day Saint History” by Kenneth Godfrey in The Disciple as Witness: Essays on Latter-day Saint History and Doctrine in Honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson, FARMS, 2000. It may be that Whitmer, who by the 1880s had perhaps known Joseph longer than any living person, tended to … Read more