And I the Lord command him, my servant Martin Harris, that he shall say no more unto them concerning

these things, except he shall say, I have seen them, and they have been shown unto me by the power

of God. Doctrine and Covenants, Section 5 verse 26. Hello listeners, this is Nick from Book of

Mormon Central, and today's podcast addresses the question,

why did Martin Harris come back to the church?

Despite being one of the earliest and most important contributors to the restoration, in late 1837,

Martin Harris was cut off from the church for associating with a splinter

group that was undermining Joseph Smith and church leaders.

Within just a few months, however, Martin was already parting ways with this faction because

they were rejecting the Book of Mormon, something that, as one of the three witnesses,

Martin simply could not do because he knew the Book of Mormon

was true. Over the next few years, Martin's relationship with the main body of the church was

somewhat ambiguous. In July 1840, Martin had reportedly come into the church again. In 1841,

when a stake was officially re-established in Curtland, Martin's name was among those submitted

for inclusion in the high priest's quorum, but he was not sustained due to an objecting vote.

About a month later, however, a newspaper in Painesville reported that Martin Harris believes

that the work of the restoration in its commencement was a genuine work of the Lord, but that Joseph Smith,

having become worldly and proud, has become forsaken of the Lord. In the fall of 1842, Martin seems

to have more officially been readmitted into the church. Elders Lyman White, John P. Green,

and Alexander Badlam reorganized the Kirtland steak,

and many were rebaptized at that time, including Martin Harris, according to letters written

from Kirtland in early 1843. Martin's status in the church from that point until Joseph Smith's

...