Keywords

Book of Mormon, Eight Witnesses, Church history, Martin Harris, Stephen Burnett

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This article critically examines the credibility of the claims made by Stephen Burnett about the experience of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon. A disaffected Latter-day Saint who lost his faith in Joseph Smith after the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society in 1837, Burnett wrote a scathing letter in early 1838 in which he claimed he heard Martin Harris admit that the Eight Witnesses did not physically see and handle the gold plates as claimed in their printed testimony. This article argues that Burnett is not a credible source for accurately understanding the experience of the Eight Witnesses. It uses Burnett’s letter and the controversy surrounding it as an example of how students can develop mature historical thinking skills when they are confronted with potentially faith-damaging information.