The Twelve ExApostles of the Restoration
Faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints often omit the reasons why Martin Harris, David Whitmer or Oliver Cowdrey stood by their Book of Mormon witness to their grave. It's because they invested their whole lives money and reputation into it. David Whitmer an investor in the Book of Mormon publication, wasn't going to allow his excommunication to screw up the ROI on his venture, so founded the Whitmerites faction of the Restoration. So he must believe the book of Mormon as true to gain followers to his faction.
Young Men were converting in numbers to take up plural wives, just look at the ages of the new apostles he replaced the Exed apostles of Missouri with:
The Twelve (in the order presented at the meeting) were Lyman Johnson, age 23; Brigham Young, 33; Heber C. Kimball, 33; Orson Hyde, 30; David W. Patten, 35; Luke Johnson, 27; William E. McLellin, 29; John F. Boynton, 23; Orson Pratt, 23; William Smith, 23; Thomas B. Marsh, 34; and Parley P. Pratt, 27. All had previously served missions.
Note that his co-conspirator Sydney RIgdon is not on this list. After revealing D&C 76 with Joseph Smith, he finds out that Joseph made a proposition to marry his daughter Nancy Rigdon. They both leave the Church. The 33 yr old Heber C. Kimball has a 14-year-old daughter Helen Mar C Kimball that Joseph Smith has his eye on and would take as a Wife after the Plural Marriage to Fanny Alger is swept under the rug.
Source: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2017/10/young-adults/five-lessons-for-young-adults-from-young-apostles/the-calling-of-the-restorations-original-apostles?lang=eng&fbclid=IwY2xjawEx2DtleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHalHV6axXwgsPCLnlTshesbNTYYmrNM5gUzBo9Vmb6h0Ni1zEHKqoa23gw_aem_t7rhFuga2Y4-b4UbxG8c9Q
Freemasonry among the apostles
https://archives.lib.byu.edu/agents/corporate_entities/3759
David Whitmer hearing
John Taylor : https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-john-taylor/the-life-and-ministry-of-john-taylor?lang=eng
Oliver Cowdrey: His earliest published Church History accounts start with Moroni's visit to Joseph (Gospel Topic Essay Responding to Joseph Smith's First Vision Account).
The qourum of the twelve https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/training/library/general-authorities-of-the-church/quorum-of-the-twelve-apostles?lang=eng&fbclid=IwY2xjawEx2DJleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHUbtSbXP4bt8m6dxEaArUL5ILpwCk2g15kA-HUk5oI96injHL6L5mjAARg_aem_RDd3EqAcmKHe9nIvovHocg
Lyman Johnson hearing
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City of , Hancock county Illinois, March 20, 1842.
After the Prophet arrived at Far West, he approved a recent council decision to replace the stake presidency in Missouri, which consisted of David Whitmer, John Whitmer, and William W. Phelps. These three men were later excommunicated for disobedience and rebellion against Church leadership. Both Whitmer and Cowdery were excommunicated in early April 1838.
As they approached Far West after a “long & tedious journey,” Joseph and Sidney were met by the Missouri Saints “with open armes and warm hearts welcomed us to the bosom of their sosciety.”2 But news of internal divisions threatening the Church in Far West quickly put a damper on the joyful reunion. Four days prior to the Prophet’s March 14 arrival, the Far West stake high council excommunicated an unrepentant William W. Phelps and John Whitmer, both counselors in the Missouri stake presidency. The two were accused of profiting from the sale of land intended for the gathering of the Saints to Far West and also for their part in the presidency’s selling of property in Jackson County contrary to previous revelation. The high council had not taken action against David Whitmer, president of the Missouri stake presidency, or assistant president Oliver Cowdery on additional charges. Instead, they waited until after Joseph’s arrival to address this unpleasant item of business. Both Whitmer and Cowdery were excommunicated in early April 1838.
After the Prophet arrived at Far West, he approved a recent council decision to replace the stake presidency in Missouri, which consisted of David Whitmer, John Whitmer, and William W. Phelps. These three men were later excommunicated for disobedience and rebellion against Church leadership. Both Whitmer and Cowdery were excommunicated in early April 1838.
During the final months of 1837, apostasy began to affect the Church in Kirtland, Ohio. Many Latter-day Saints were disillusioned by heavy financial losses as a result of the collapse of the Kirtland Safety Society and began to reject the Prophet’s temporal and spiritual leadership. Among the dissenters were several members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Seventies, as well as the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon plates. In January 1838, as a result of this widespread apostasy and threats of violence, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon received divine instruction to abandon their labors in Kirtland and to flee to Far West, Missouri. Although the revelation pronounced Joseph’s labors “finished in this place,” leaving Kirtland meant parting not only from their homes, but from the Church’s largest stake and its first and only temple. Nevertheless, Joseph and Sidney were admonished to “arise and get yourselves on to a land which I shall show unto you even a land flowing with milk and honey.”1
As they approached Far West after a “long & tedious journey,” Joseph and Sidney were met by the Missouri Saints “with open armes and warm hearts welcomed us to the bosom of their sosciety.”2 But news of internal divisions threatening the Church in Far West quickly put a damper on the joyful reunion. Four days prior to the Prophet’s March 14 arrival, the Far West stake high council excommunicated an unrepentant William W. Phelps and John Whitmer, both counselors in the Missouri stake presidency. The two were accused of profiting from the sale of land intended for the gathering of the Saints to Far West and also for their part in the presidency’s selling of property in Jackson County contrary to previous revelation. The high council had not taken action against David Whitmer, president of the Missouri stake presidency, or assistant president Oliver Cowdery on additional charges. Instead, they waited until after Joseph’s arrival to address this unpleasant item of business. Both Whitmer and Cowdery were excommunicated in early April 1838.
Joseph Smith and His Papers: An Introduction
For one who had little schooling, Joseph Smith left an unusually extensive literary record. From 1828, when he began work on the Book of Mormon at age twenty-two, to 1844, when he was killed at age thirty-eight, Smith produced thousands of pages of revelations, translations, correspondence, declarations, discourses, journals, and histories. His records will fill approximately thirty volumes when publication is complete. The goal of the Joseph Smith Papers Project is to publish every extant document written by Smith or by his scribes in his behalf, as well as other records that were created under his direction or that reflect his personal instruction or involvement.
The publication of his papers some two hundred years after his birth opens a window on a life filled with what Joseph Smith called “marvilous experience.”1 His rise from obscurity to prominence as the founder and first prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not follow a conventional path. Though he was intelligent and strong willed, no ordinary talent can account for his success. His rise as church leader, city builder, and theologian rested on what he believed was a gift of revelation, by which he meant direct communication from God in the form of visions into heaven, heavenly visitors, or more commonly the words of God coming through direct inspiration. Controversial as his claims were, the revelations were the source of his influence among the tens of thousands of people who joined the church while he was alive and the millions who accepted his teachings after his death. Hundreds of pages of revelations accumulated over his lifetime. His major projects, plans, and doctrines originated in revelation. His followers complied with his often-demanding directions largely because they believed them to be from God. When Joseph Smith asked , an early follower, to be church historian, Whitmer initially refused and finally agreed only if the Lord would “manifest it through Joseph the Seer.”2
The revelations ranged from mundane directions for keeping a history or opening a store to visions of heaven and the future. One of the most dramatic revelations came in 1832 when Smith and his associate were puzzling over a biblical passage that raised questions about rewards and punishments in the afterlife.
And while we meditated upon these things, the Lord touched the eyes of our understandings, and they were opened, and the glory of the Lord shone round about; and we beheld the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father, and received of his fulness. . . . And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him, that he lives; for we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the only begotten of the Father.3
The revelation went on to describe a hereafter divided into three degrees of glory, more finely graded than the usual heaven-or-hell division and more in accord with the mixture of good and evil in actual life. The revelations thrilled believers. , a newspaper editor converted a year after the church was organized, called the revelation on the three degrees of glory “the greatest news that was ever published to man.”4 A meeting of Latter-day Saints making publication plans voted that the revelations “be prized by this Conference to be worth to the Church the riches of the whole Earth. speaking temporally.”5
The revelations derived their credibility partly from the prophetic traditions of the Bible. Joseph Smith moved into a role well known to Christians. He was another Moses or Paul. To most Christians, the Bible stood above all other books precisely because it was the word of God to prophets. Now, the Mormons claimed, God spoke again. One early convert to the church approached the preaching of Mormon missionaries skeptically but then reasoned:
I found, on searching the Scriptures, that from the commencement of time, through every age, God continued to send prophets to the people, and always when God had a message for the people, he chose a special messenger to send it by, and it was always headed with a “thus saith the Lord.”
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