What this early apostate revealed about the Book of Mormon 

I'm not LDS but am a giant history nerd, especially American pioneer history, so of course a lot of LDS history is very interesting to me. Looking forward to more LDS church history videos!

I love William McClellin's testimony of the Book of Mormon. His response to James Cobb is one of my all-time favorite stories, and he preserves some of the best testimonies from the three and eight witnesses.

“you might just as well fight against the Rocky Mountains” - powerful! Thanks for a great video! ❤

So he believed church leadership was straying from the teachings of the Book of Mormon, and yet you hail that as a win for the Mormon church? Do we know which teachings McLellan was criticizing?

Thanks for continuing the series here! I’m excited for all that is to come!

Something to remember is that after the death of Joseph Smith, the church split into multiple factions--most of which supported Brigham Young and the pilgrimage towards Salt Lake. All of these sects believed and still believe in the Book of Mormon. We see that William McLellin was very opposed to the LDS faith and still wanted to support the Book of Mormon by joining the multiple sects that stemmed from the original faith. However, it's very important to note that even a man who believed in the Book of Mormon and was a member of the Quorum of the 12, did not believe in the leaders, which should cast light on the authority of the church itself. Most importantly, though, was his ex-communication and disfellowship from the church, which is something contradictory to the Bible. Only God can ex-communicate someone from His Kingdom. Yes, you can lose your office based on your actions, but man cannot blot out someone's name from the Book of Life. That is one of the many reasons I cannot view mormons as Christians.

Glad this is a new channel. I was sad the way SU was going when they had that women’s feminist episode.

Excited for the new channel, but this title is WAY to click-baity. I would prefer if the titles were more concrete.

I have enjoyed the stylometry things you guys have done for the Book of Mormon. Maybe you could do a similar one for Doctrine and Covenants, because stylometry is basically a doctrinal theme taught in section 67. The Lord basically challenged the more skeptical apostles to fabricate revelations to see if they could mimic Joseph’s prophetic voice of being Jesus’ mouthpiece. William McLellin allegedly accepted the challenge to contrive scripture and failed despite being a school teacher.

Too bad these early saints didn’t have access to the internet.

Love your videos! But I wish you'd lose the voices and just let the narrator read the quotes. As for McLellan, sounds like he just had problems getting along with people. One question, though. When McLellan died, or since then, did the church leave him excommunicated, or was his temple work subsequently done? I know the church tends to be very compassionate, and in this case I'm pretty sure the church probably did do his work.

Thanks for the great video.

very cool

Supporter from Philippines❤

I'm really excited for your new channel. I'm a big fan. Keep up the good work.

Hello algorithm! 👋

I have to disagree on one thing. He didn't become disillusioned. When he left the church he became "illusioned." His illusion was that he stopped believing the truth.

Thank you so much for your videos, these efforts to share the gospel online are a God sent!

"The people who left the church, but never denounced the Book of Mormon, always fascinated me." In that case you would find me zero fascinating.

Sweet

Now we just need a cool intro video like we had for Faiths and Beliefs

I love the Book of Mormon, but found steadier ground and a stronger spirit in The Church of Jesus Christ based in Monongahela than in the LDS Church. I'm still grateful for the foundation i received growing up, and I still encourage friends struggling in the LDS Church to doubt their doubts first

Not a cult!

good job

Great video. William McLellin is such a wild character. It is very bizarre to me how he asked the sheriff in Richmond Missouri for permission to fight Joseph Smith while Joseph was in prison. The sheriff originally agreed as long as they took off Joseph’s handcuffs. Joseph Smith even agreed to fight him, but then McLellin chickened out because he wanted to have a club and the sheriff wouldn’t let him do that because it wouldn’t be a fair fight. A part of me would have liked to see that fight between the prophet and former apostle, but maybe it was for the best Joseph didn’t beat up excommunicated members

The people who left the church, but never denounced the Book of Mormon, always fascinated me. They couldn't stand church leadership or being a part of a struggling church, but even they, despite their bitterness, could never confidently say that the Book of Mormon was fake.

I just jumped over from your announcement of your new Keystone site. I'm excited that you are still sharing your insights and testimonies.

This is not a criticism of this video but a thought as a Latter Day Saint.-since the BofM is unique to our faith we tend to think how powerful it is when people leave the church but still retain a belief in the Book of Mormon . However, to many of these early apostates this is the equivalent of people who believe the Bible but change which church they go to. It makes sense that many of these converts received a divine witness of the BofM just like they feel about the Bible and they become upset over some new doctrine of the church or their leaders and therefore leave. Like many Christian’s they retain their religious beliefs and go elsewhere. Right now there are a growing number of people who have a strong witness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph smith but deny anything after. Give it enough time and we will see more Book of Mormon believing church’s that are not part of the official church. The only thing that will stop this is the timing of the 2nd coming.

This true historical story of James Cobb can be seen as a reflection of many people today who oppose the Church. It begins with dissatisfaction toward the Church leaders, followed by efforts to find errors in the Church’s scriptures, prophets, and doctrines, claiming them to be false. However, the experiences and records of William McLellin, with his reasoning and logic, stand as a witness to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

This video touched my heart. Much like General Conference you don’t use flash and spunk to declare the truth. You let the truth speak for itself. Thank you for this.

Following after your announcement from Saints Unscripted. Looking forward to more videos!!!

The funny part is that during that time it was common to have these experiences. Its not only Mormons

Hey David

God didn't stop his revelations and gave us only the Bible, he also gave us The Book Of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, The Book of Enoch (Fragments) and other scriptures that we don't have yet. If you refuse to receive more, it's really up to individual, the Lord will not force if this is all your heart and mind willing to accept.

I did many quests to learn about this new channel's objective, and I'm glad to know that it still is in agreement with the gospel. Congratulations and more success!

Great video! It's so surprising to see an apostle of the Lord come and go so many times. It made me laugh a little. It's not technically funny but I still couldn't help it. It's so different back then from today in a way. We can't imagine our apostles apostatizing like half the quorum did back then.

Step son…..🤣….I’m sure there was a lot of them

Chelonia!!!

Your 1000th subscriber here 😊 glad to see this channel instantly monotizable

How would he have answered the anachronisms in the Book of Mormon?

So much Forensic evidence, re BoM, at this point a testimony is technically redundant; however, vastly more powerful. We have less than perfect leaders of the church today. My testimonies are of the Restoration, not the, less than truthful, leaders.

Very interesting video! The theme is simple: The BOM can be a true ancient record AND the church leveraging its teachings can be like all other human institutions (with their lips they do honor me, but their hearts are far from me). Three examples of this video: McLellin, Page, David Whitmer. The BOM is the "keystone of religion" that sadly got minimalized to be the "keystone of JS's religion" embedded in the brand of this channel. Thanks in part to the ambitions and editorial contributions of OC and SR and others. With all such editorial licenses, the TRUE ancient record is still embedded within. And where did JS get such innovative content. Ay! There is the rub. Personally, I would like vey much to see the unadulterated first text. Which I am certain JS protected very carefully. When he buried the "Manuscript" at the Nauvoo house and talked about it like a Bane, I honestly believe that was his reference to the "institution building" and the philosophies of men that followed. Emma likely hid these important papers under her dress crossing the frozen Mississippi. And likely, the main sinod (Brigham) house them under lock and key. The key data point was the interview with David Whitmer by the Brigham sinod regarding the purchase of the "printer's manuscript" where David was defending it was the "original" - they considered the 90-year old senile, but he was revealing the secret "blood oath agreement" to never reveal the truth of the first text. Cosmic humor to apply the Mahan oath's to something so sacred.

This was a superb video and I'm now more well informed! Thank you!

Huh. I thought I was gonna learn something. Sad =/

Sempre excelente vídeos! / always excellent videos!

It seems like he found the truth in the end.

He had problem with the leadership. So...the book was never denounced, but the leadership was? So Mormon churches/organizations/leaders is what he had problems with? Yeah. That sounds WAY better.

Even angels can be Satan, 2 COR 1:14 The devil makes himself look like an angel of light, but I am not surprised, even Satan disguises himself as an angel. One may want to be careful when dealing with angels.

Nice

Awesome video

Really like the video without the comic asides.

No exmos here yet, this place is pure.

Thank you so much Sir for your new channel and its excellent presentations defending the truth claims of the Savior’s gospel. Looking forward to your other videos and content.

Very interesting video! Congrats and best wishes on your new channel! I look forward to what’s in store.

Subscribed. Excited for this new channel.

You are the reason I left the church. You've pointed out hundreds of problems with the churchs history without any real answers.

The Church doesn't X-Communicate anymore. They simply remove the name from records.

If his testimony of the BoM is well received, what are we to make of his concerns with Church leadership?

How can a book be declared to be pure and sacred, which has been changed about 3,800 times since its original version. The early versions of the Book of Mormon contained no mention of the Mayas or Jesus preaching in Mesoamerica. It only described Jesus preaching in the Great Lakes region of North America., Smith only added what was initially a brief mention of the Mayas after Frederick Catherwood published a book about his exploration of the Yucatan Peninsula. The full version of the Nephite Thing took about 50 years of changes to the Book of Mormon.