By Jerald and Sandra Tanner
We had just completed printing Wesley P. Walters’ Master’s thesis and were preparing to go to press with this newsletter, when we received word that he had passed away. We had known for some time that Wesley had serious heart problems, but his death still came as a real blow. Nevertheless, we rejoice in the fact that our good friend and associate in the work has gone home to be with the Lord. While Walters was truly a great scholar, his most important concern was his relationship with his Lord Jesus Christ. Walters also pastored a church in Marissa, Illinois, for as long as we knew him (we first met him in 1961).
Wesley Walters’ contributions in the field of Mormon history were remarkable. He was, in fact, a great detective when it came to ferreting out early Mormon documents. It was Walters who discovered the original document which verified the claim that Joseph Smith was a “glass looker” and that he was arrested and brought before a Justice of the Peace for that practice (see Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? pp. 32-39). In addition, Walters discovered that Joseph Smith’s claim that he had his First Vision in 1820 at the time of a religious revival in Palmyra, New York could not be true. There was no revival in Palmyra that year; it actually occurred in 1824-25 (Ibid., pp. 156-62). Although Mormon scholar Richard L. Bushman tried to refute Walters’ arguments, he acknowledged that Walters had a very important effect on Mormon history:
The Reverend Mr. Walters’ article on the first vision raised quite a stir among Mormon scholars when an early version circulated about a year and a half ago . . . the style of his attack was both refreshing and disconcerting. . . . it was free of the obvious rancor characteristic of anti-Mormon writers . . . They cannot resist twisting the knife. Mr. Walters, by contrast, sticks to his facts. . . . He candidly presents his argument and bluntly tells Mormons to reevaluate the foundations of their church. That kind of frankness is far more disarming than the more pretentious variety. . . . Our consternation was a genuine compliment to the quality of Mr. Walters’ work.
While Mr. Walters has put us on the spot for the moment, in the long run Mormon scholarship will benefit from his attack. . . . Mormon historians asked themselves how many other questions about our early history remain unasked as well as unanswered. Not long after we saw his essay, a committee on “Mormon History in New York” sent a group of scholars east for special research. . . . Without wholly intending it, Mr. Walters may have done as much to advance the cause of Mormon history within the Church as anyone in recent years. (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Spring 1969, pp. 82-83)
Wesley P. Walters had an extremely important effect upon our own work and that of the other ministries to Mormons. While we have researched many areas of Mormon history, when we talked to Wesley Walters we clearly recognized our own inadequacies. Walters was a real historian in every sense of the word, and for this reason we constantly sought his advice. He not only spent untold hours giving us guidance, but also provided an unending stream of photocopies, microfilms and information concerning Mormon history and documents. Our work would not be in the place it is today without his help. In fact, during some of our hardest years he sent us monthly support to keep the ministry going.
Wesley Walters could have acquired a far greater name for himself, but he chose to spend a great deal of his time serving others. He was constantly helping those in other ministries prepare their manuscripts and spent a great deal of his time answering letters and sending photocopies to Mormons and others who had questions. The importance of his work cannot be overstated. While we will really miss him, we thank God that we had the privilege of knowing him and benefiting from his research and wisdom.
Wesley P. Walters received the Lord into his heart long before we met him. His hope for eternal life was firmly based in the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He recognized that he was a sinner and asked God to forgive him and come into his life. His desire to bring others to know the saviour who had changed his life led him into the ministry. While he was pastoring in New York—the birthplace of Mormonism—he encountered the teachings of the Joseph Smith. His examination of LDS teachings led him to the conclusion that Mormonism was another gospel which was not founded on the teachings of the Bible (see Galatians 1:8).
Pastor Walters’ fervent desire was to bring Mormons to the hope that he had in Jesus Christ. In a tract entitled, Enticing Words of Man’s Wisdom, Wesley P. Walters wrote:
The world does not need another man-made, feeling-centered religion by which men try to earn their way to glory through religious deeds and temple ceremonies. It needs to hear afresh the real gospel, that while our sins have justly brought down upon us God’s great anger and condemnation, His love has brought us eternal salvation and glory by sending His Son to die for our personal sins and guilt. Those who place all their confidence in Him alone, He transforms into new creations and makes them citizens of His true Heavenly Kingdom.
As we indicated earlier, we have just finished printing Wesley Walters’ Master’s thesis, The Use of the Old Testament in the Book of Mormon. In this important thesis, Walters demonstrated many errors Joseph Smith fell into when he wrote the Book of Mormon. His research makes it clear that in creating that book, Smith was plagiarizing the King James Version of the Bible rather than translating from ancient gold plates.
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