***They were not lost, an angel of God took them back. Several people saw, touched, and lifted the plates.****
But when the witnesses were pressed about seeing the plates they admitted what they ACTUALLY saw was what appeared to be a book on a table, and the book was COVERED with a tablecloth.
another said it this way, “When a person who you know cannot tell a lie, and that person tells you of a certain city you have never been to, you can WITH THE EYE OF FAITH actually see that city.”
So, by their own testimonies later, they NEVER saw the golden plates.
“But when the witnesses were pressed about seeing the plates they admitted what they ACTUALLY saw was what appeared to be a book on a table, and the book was COVERED with a tablecloth.”
That was a time PRIOR to when they saw them, while the BoM was still being translated. Later they saw the plates firsthand and handled them and they were quite clear that they actually saw them.
“Gentlemen, do you see that hand? Are you sure you see it? Are your eyes playing a trick or something? No. Well, as sure as you see my hand so sure did I see the angel and the plates.” — Martin Harris
“The Book of Mormon is no fake. I know what I know. I have seen what I have seen and I have heard what I have heard. I have seen the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon is written. An angel appeared to me and others and testified to the truthfulness of the record, and had I been willing to have perjured myself and sworn falsely to the testimony I now bear I could have been a rich man, but I could not have testified other than I have done and am now doing for these things are true.” — Martin Harris (at his death)
“Of course we were in the spirit when we had the view, for no man can behold the face of an angel, except in a spiritual view, but we were in the body also, and everything was as natural to us, as it is at any time.” — David Whitmer
Once when David Whitmer was accused of being deluded into thinking he had seen an angel and the plates he reportedly said in reply “No sir! I was not under any hallucination, nor was I deceived! I saw with these eyes, and I heard with these ears! I know whereof I speak!”
http://en.fairmormon.org/Book_of_Mormon_witnesses:Spiritual_or_literal
http://en.fairmormon.org/%22shown_to_me_by_a_supernatural_power%22