Cory,

Thank you for this thoughtful comment! I also love Church history and am fascinated by the lives of the early Church leaders and members, including those who fell away. While there are several early Church members who denounced their testimonies, it’s important to remember that none of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon ever did. While each fell away from the Church, two were rebaptized: Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery. David Whitmer never rejoined the Church, but he issued several statements saying that he would never deny his testimony of seeing the plates.

Each of these men did wonderful things for the Church and we appreciate their contributions. While we don’t know how Heavenly Father will judge them, we can be grateful for the work they did, and try to avoid the pitfalls they allowed to come into their lives.

The late general authority Glenn L. Pace said something interesting about people who leave the Church, then avidly try to defame it: “It seems that history continues to teach us: You can leave the Church, but you can’t leave it alone. The basic reason for this is simple. Once someone has received a witness of the Spirit and accepted it, he leaves neutral ground. One loses his testimony only by listening to the promptings of the evil one, and Satan’s goal is not complete when a person leaves the Church, but when he comes out in open rebellion against it.”

I think it’s important to extend mercy to many of those early Church members. While we don’t condone their actions, we also must understand that since the Church was just in its beginnings, Satan was working extra hard to try to keep it from spreading. He does the same thing today as he did then! We need to be aware of that and keep him out of our lives.