Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
Another supplemental testimony to those of the official witnesses

Another supplemental testimony to those of the official witnesses

Last updated on: September 5, 2018 at 9:52 am by Dan Peterson

Another supplemental testimony to those of the official witnesses 2018-09-05T09:52:47-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Lyman E. Johnson,
probably not long before his death (Wikimeda CC image)

Yesterday, just prior to my lecture on the emperor Constantine the Great at BYU’s Education Week — today, I’ll be speaking on Eusebius of Caesarea — Stephen Wight kindly handed me several pages photocopied from William Shepard and H. Michael Marquardt, Lost Apostles: Forgotten Members of Mormonism’s Original Quorum of Twelve (2014). The copied passages refer to three accounts of Lyman Johnson’s claiming to have been visited by an angel testifying of the Book of Mormon. Two of these acccounts explicitly say that he saw the plates.

I’m going to write up a preliminary summary of this material here, in preparation for including it in a manuscript to which I occasionally give attention, as well as for possible use in the film that we’re working on about the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon.

Lyman Johnson and Orson Pratt embarked on a missionary journey in February 1832. On 8 February 1832, they stopped at the home of Benjamin Stokely, in Cool Spring Township, Mercer County, Pennsylvania.

“According to Stokely, Lyman testified that an angel had personally shown him the Book of Mormon plates, the same as the witnesses to the Book of Mormon.” (42)

In Stokely’s own words, “An angel brought the Mormonite Bible and laid it before him (the speaker); he therefore knows these things to be true.”

Of Pratt and Johnson, Stokely wrote, “They appeared to have very little learning, to be sincere in all they said. They had good manners — had been well raised — were decent and unassuming in every thing I saw, or heard them say.”

Stokely’s comments were originally published in the Western Press (Mercer County, Pennsylvania), though no copies of that paper seem to be extant. But his report was subsequently republished as “The Mormonites” on page two of The American Sentinel for 25 February 1832, and then as “The Orators of Mormon” in Catholic Telegraph (Cincinnati) on 14 April 1832, on pages 204-205. The emphasis is in the original.

In the 1880s, Edward Tullidge interviewed Lorin Farr, who by that time had served as the mayor of Ogden, about his early life. Among other things, Farr recalled hearing the gospel preached by Orson Pratt and Lyman Johnson for the very first time, when he was eleven years old. It was in the spring of 1832:

“Lyman Johnson arose and delivered one of the most powerful testimonies pertaining to the mission of Joseph Smith and the great work of the last days, that Lorin ever heard. [Lyman] also said that he knew the Book of Mormon was true, for he had seen an angel and he had made this known unto him.”

See Edward W. Tullidge, “Biographies,” in Tullidge’s Histories: Containing the History of All the Northern, Eastern, and Western Counties of Utah, also the Counties of Southern Idaho (Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor, 1889), 2:174-175.

When Lyman Johnson preached in Dalton, Coos County, New Hampshire, in July 1835, the eighteen-year-old Ethan Barrows was in the audience and listening carefully. In the “Journal of Ethan Barrows,” Journal of History 15 (January 1922): 36, written around 1892, Barrows reported that

“He said that an holy angel had ministered with him and had shown him the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, and commanded him to testify to all the world that it was true.”

Nice additions to the official Witness testimonies and to the other unofficial testimonies of the Book of Mormon plates. And thanks to Brother Wight.

Uncategorized

angel

Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon Witnesses

Previous Post

August 21, 2018

Genetic information is not itself material

Next Post

August 22, 2018 Honoring Maimonides

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is a "scroll" most similar to today?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Statue Table Carpet Book