THE FIRST VISION
“The greatest event that has ever occurred in the world,”
declared President Joseph F. Smith, “since the resurrection of
the Son of God from the tomb and his ascension on high, was
the coming of the Father and of the Son to that boy Joseph
Smith, to prepare the way for the laying of the foundation of
His kingdom --- not the kingdom of man --- never more to
cease nor to be overturned. Having accepted this truth, I find
it easy to accept of every other truth that he enunciated and
declared during his mission of fourteen years in the world.
He never taught a doctrine that was not true. He never
practiced a doctrine that he was not commanded to practice.
He never advocated error. He was not deceived. He saw;
he heard; he did as he was commanded by God --- not
Joseph Smith. The Lord is responsible for it, and not man”
(Gospel Doctrine, 495-96).
Jesus Christ is the Jehovah
of the Red Sea and of
Sinai, the Resurrected
Lord, the spokesman for
the Father in the
theophany at Palmyra --a Palmyra pageant with a
precious audience of one!
(Neal A. Maxwell, Even As
I Am, 120).
This next mid-twentieth-century expression is from a candid
dean of that beautiful St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, who
reportedly said:
All my life I have struggled to find the purpose of living. I
have tried to answer three questions which always seemed
to be fundamental:
The problem of eternity
The problem of human personality
The problem of evil
I know as much about after-life as you do --- nothing. I do
not even know there is one --- in the same sense which the
Church teaches it. I have no vision of Heaven or of a
welcoming God. I do not know what I shall find. I must wait
and see (Daily Express 4).
The millions who have lived on this planet in the midst of the
famine foreseen by Amos, one of hearing the word of God,
have never known the taste and nourishment of whole grain
gospel (Amos 8:11-12).
Instead, they have subsisted on the fast foods of philosophy.
When Jesus spoke of himself as the bread of life, it caused
some to walk no more with him (John 6:66). No wonder Jesus
said, “Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me”
(Matthew 11:6; see also John 6:61). To which I add, brothers
and sisters, “Blessed is he who is not offended by the
Restoration!”
Elder Neal A. Maxwell
“My Name”
Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught:
“Young Joseph was told that his name would be ‘both good
and evil spoken of’ throughout the world (Joseph Smith --History 1:33).
Except from a divine source, how audacious a statement!
Yet his contemporary religious leaders, then much better
known than Joseph, have faded into the footnotes of history,
while the work of Joseph Smith grows constantly and
globally” (Conference Report, Oct. 1983, 75).
President Gordon B. Hinckley taught:
“This glorious First Vision…was the parting of the curtain to
open this, the dispensation of the fullness of times. Nothing
on which we base our doctrine, nothing we teach, nothing
we live by is of greater importance than this initial
declaration. I submit that if Joseph Smith talked with God
the Father and His Beloved Son, then all else of which he
spoke is true. This is the hinge on which turns the gate that
leads to the path of salvation and eternal life” (Conference
Report, Oct. 1998, 90-91).
“…Is not the persecution itself a witness of the reality of the
First Vision?
Or if it were not true, would the worldly wise and the
intellectual religionist today devote their talents and means
to defaming Joseph Smith and the work that bears his
imprint? What is it to anyone else what we believe unless
they in their unbelief fear lest our doctrines are true and
our practices may have divine approval?” (A New Witness
for the Articles of Faith, 8-10).
Elder Bruce R. McConkie, a member of the Quorum of
Twelve Apostles, wrote:
Why should so many religionist unite against an unknown
youth of no renown or standing in the community?
Would the whole sectarian world shiver and shake and call
for a sword if some other unknown fourteen-year-old youth
in an obscure frontier village should claim that he was
visited by angels and that he saw the Lord?
The problem when Joseph Smith announced such a claim
was that it was true and that Lucifer knew of its verity.
Given the tender feelings of this fourteen-year old boy, it is
little wonder that he should wish to tell his experience to his
friends and acquaintances outside the family. One can
sense his profound disappointment when, as was recorded
by Elders Orson Pratt and Orson Hyde, he “could find none
that would believe the heavenly vision” (Allen, Improvement
Era, Apr. 1970, 11).
His prayer was for personal and tactical guidance. The
response, however, was of global and eternal significance
(Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, May 1992, 37).
THE SACRED GROVE
Joseph told an editor of the New York
Spectator:
“I immediately went out into the woods
where my father had a clearing, and
went to the stump where I had struck my
axe when I had quit work, and I kneeled
down, and prayed” (Allen, Improvement
Era, Apr. 1970, 13).
THE SACRED GROVE
THE SACRED GROVE
Joseph told the story of his vision to his family.
His brother William affirmed:
“We all had the most implicit confidence in what he
said. He was a truthful boy. Father and Mother
believed him, why should not the children?” (Deseret
Evening News, 20 Jan. 1894, 11).
At first Joseph was reluctant to talk about his vision.
Most of the early converts probably never heard
about the 1820 vision.
In 1832 when he described the “First Vision” he
abbreviated the experience. As Joseph became
more confident, more details came out.
In 1835, he said that first one personage appeared
and then another. In 1838, he reported that the first
pointed to the other and said, “This is my beloved
Son, hear Him,” Also, that he was told to join none
of the sects.
As late as 1831, he was slow to say much about
Moroni. He was not interested in notoriety.
Joseph did tell a Methodist preacher about the First
Vision.
Newly reborn people customarily talked over their
experiences with a clergyman to test the validity of
the conversion. The preacher reacted quickly and
negatively, not because of the strangeness of
Joseph’s story but because of its familiarity.
Subjects of revivals often claimed to have seen
visions.
THE SMITH LOG HOUSE
SMITH FAMILY LOG HOUSE
THE SMITH FAMILY LOG HOUSE KITCHEN
THE SMITH FAMILY LOG HOUSE UPSTAIRS
In late 1816 the Smiths arrived in
Palmyra and for the first year and a
half they lived in town, selling oil
tablecloths and refreshments from a
cart before they began working
their own farm.
ETCHING LOCATED AT THE SMITH FAMILY FARM
PALMYRA TEMPLE
PALMYRA TEMPLE FROM THE SACRED GROVE
PALMYRA TEMPLE --- STAINED GLASS WINDOWS
Theophany
“Vision of Deity”
Joseph did not intend to start his own church, nor
did he think that truth was not on the earth.
Not since the resurrection of Jesus Christ had
there been such a threat to the devil’s kingdom.
Little wonder, then, that Satan was present that
morning.
JOSEPH HAD THREE QUESTIONS:
1.
Which of all the churches were true?
2.
How did he stand before God and could he be forgiven of his sins?
Joseph wrote in his personal history that “at about the age of twelve years,
my mind became seriously impressed with regard to the all important concerns
for the welfare of my immortal soul” (“Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, 4-5).
3.
He was worried about the general condition of mankind and the
world and what he could do about it.
Notwithstanding the extraordinary nature of this
event, Joseph did not immediately share this
experience with his family, nor did he highlight it to
the membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints before the Church newspaper, Times
and Seasons, published his history in 1842. His vision
remained personal rather than public for years, though
he did tell a local Methodist clergyman in 1820 (From
Darkness Unto Light, 2).
HOW MANY ACCOUNTS OF THE FIRST
VISION ARE THERE?
EIGHT ACCOUNTS OF THE FIRST VISION
1.
The 1831-32 account was written by Frederick G.
Williams and was the earliest account.
2.
The 1835 account was written by Warren Cowdery
(did not remain faithful). It was written to a Jewish
minister by the name of Robert Matthias (called
Joshua) and was one paragraph long.
3.
The 1838 account is the one contained in the Pearl of
Great Price and is hence accepted as official by the
Church. It was written by James Mulholland. James
was a scribe and personal secretary to Joseph Smith
and one of the great souls of this dispensation.
4. The 1840 account was written by Orson
Pratt while in England. It was contained
in a pamphlet entitled “Remarkable
Visions by Joseph Smith.”
5. The 1842 account was written by Orson
Hyde and was very similar to what Orson
Pratt had written.
6. Another 1842 account was written by
Joseph Smith that was part of the
Wentworth Letter send to Chicago.
7.
The 1843 account was published in the New York
Spectator, a newspaper. The editor of the Pittsburg
Gazette paid a visit to Joseph Smith and recounted to
him the vision for accuracy.
8.
The May, 1844 account was called the Alexander
Neibur account. It was written the very day Joseph
Smith told of it to Alexander. It was given about a
month before Joseph was martyred. Alexander was
the German-Jewish dentist that fixed Joseph’s tooth in
Nauvoo that was broken when he was tarred and
feathered in Hiram Ohio. Neibur was faithful to the
end. The Church still has his dental kit. He was the
great-grandfather of Hugh Nibley. He also made
false teeth for Brigham Young.
The Various Elements of Joseph Smith’s First Vision as recorded in the Eight Contemporary Accounts:
1831-32
1835
Frustration/ denom.
Concern/ mankind
Quest/ Forgiveness
Which Church/ True?
Searching/ Scriptures
His prayer
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Satan’s presence
Appearance of light
Appearance/ Deity
x
x
Separate/ “2”
Forgiveness/ Joseph
Testimony of Jesus
Join no Church
Pratt
Hyde
Wentworth
Editor
x
Religious Excitement
Joseph’s concern for his soul
1838-39
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Gospel/ to be restored
Joseph/ filled with love
x
Unsuccessful effort to get others
to believe the Story
x
x
Neibaur
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
What is the Joseph Smith History that is
found in the Pearl of Great Price?
It tells of Joseph’s experiences from his early years through
May 1829.
It was extracted by Elder Franklin D. Richards, who was a
member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, from a much
longer history the Prophet began in 1838.
The extract was first published in England in 1851.
The excerpts came from the first five chapters of what
eventually became the seven-volume History of the Church.
The Joseph Smith --- History became scripture in 1880 when
the Pearl of Great Price was canonized as one of the
standard works of the Church.
Oliver Cowdery wrote eight letters about Joseph’s early
visions, which were published in the Latter Day Saints’
Messenger and Advocate in 1834-35.
Joseph Smith commenced work on a history between July
and November of 1832. Finally in June of 1839, Joseph
undertook the work again.
After settling with his family in Far West,
Missouri, Joseph, “with the assistance of Sidney
Rigdon… embarked on the ambitious project
of writing a history of the Church from its
beginning… The history of Joseph Smith and
the early events of the Restoration now found
in the Pearl of Great Price were a product of
this project begun in April 1838” (Church
History in the Fullness of Times, 187).
THE FIRST VISION ON APRIL 6TH ?
Three General Authorities have made a case that the first
vision took place on April 6th.
If it is true there would have been no leaves on the trees.
Leaves generally begin to grow in the second week of May.
1. Charles Nibley (Conference Report, October 1929, 26-27).
2. Bruce R. McConkie
3. Francis Lyman
FACTS ABOUT THE FIRST VISION:
All eight accounts of the First Vision are good accounts.
Three of the eight accounts stated that at least one person (God
the father) came first and then the other (Jesus Christ) one
followed.
In one account it said that Joseph saw many angels. This should
not surprise us as he knew them all (Doctrine & Covenants
128:21).
Joseph later taught that if we had
enough faith, we would go and ask the
person who knew the most about it
and they would appear.
REVEREND GEORGE LANE, A TRAVELLING METHODIST
MINISTER
JAMES 1:5
Written to Joseph Smith?
Look carefully at James 1:1
Reverend George Lane of the Methodist Church preached a sermon on:
“What Church should I join?”
He taught that the burden was to ask God, using as his text, “James
1:5,” “If any man lacks wisdom let him ask of God who giveth to all
men liberally.”
Reverend Lane may very well be deserving of our thanks!
WHAT DO WE LEARN FROM THE 1ST
VISION?
The Godhead is distinct and separate beings.
The reality of Satan.
Revelation still happens.
God knows us by name.
No true church, a restoration of all things would be necessary.
Ephesians 4:5 --- One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
The Powers of Darkness
Speaking of Joseph’s Smith’s experience with Satan, Elder
Spencer W. Kimball, then a member of the Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles, taught:
“The powers of darkness preceded the light. When (Joseph
Smith) knelt in solitude in the silent forest, his earnest prayer
brought on a battle royal which threatened his destruction.
For centuries, Lucifer with unlimited dominion had fettered
men’s minds. He could ill-afford to lose his satanic hold. This
threatened his unlimited dominion” (Conference Report, Apr.
1964, 98).
A Pillar of Light
Elder Orson Pratt wrote that the pillar of light young Joseph saw
descended gradually, increasing in brightness so that “by the time it
reached the tops of the trees the whole wilderness, for some distance
around, was illuminated in a most glorious and brilliant manner. He
expected to have seen the leaves and boughs of the trees consumed, as
soon as the light came in contact with them…. It continued descending
slowly, until it rested upon the earth, and he was enveloped in the midst
of it.
“…When it first came upon him, it produced a peculiar sensation
throughout his whole system; and, immediately, his mind was caught
away from the natural objects with which he was surrounded; and he
was enwrapped in a heavenly vision” (Allen, Improvement Era, Apr.
1970, 10).
“Join none of them”
Speaking of the Lord’s statement about other churches in Joseph
Smith --- History 1:19, Elder Boyd K. Packer, a member of the
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, explained:
“Now this is not to say that the churches, all of them, are without
some truth. They have some truth --- some of them very much of
it. They have a form of godliness. Often the clergy and
adherents are not without dedication, and many of them
practice remarkably well the virtues of Christianity. They are
nonetheless, incomplete” (Conference Report, Oct. 1971, 8).
“Many Other Things”
President Ezra Taft Benson said that “at no time did Joseph reveal
everything he learned in the First Vision” (The Teachings of Ezra Taft
Benson (1988), 112).
We do, however, learn from the Prophet Joseph Smith that during the
First Vision the Savior told him that “the fullness of the Gospel should at
some future time be made known unto him” (History of the Church,
4:536).
In addition, he was told “many other things” that he was unable to write.
The Presbyterians drew the largest crowds in Palmyra, but the Methodists
attracted many to their meetings also. The Baptists had a wellestablished meetinghouse. By 1823, the Society of Friends had also built
a meetinghouse in Palmyra. Lucy Mack Smith and her children Hyrum,
Sophronia, and Samuel joined the Western Presbyterian Church in
Palmyra, while the other sons held back along with Joseph Smith Sr. In
time Joseph Jr. became “somewhat partial to the Methodist sect,” though
doubt and confusion filled his mind (From Darkness Unto Light, 2).
DURING THIS TIME PERIOD
The Baptist were the largest religious group in the area.
The Methodist were the fastest growing.
Revivals:
Lots of screaming
Grog shops (alcohol)
Merchandizing
About 1,000 people
attended
Lasted all day and night
Joseph Smith called “revivals” a circus.
TREEING THE DEVIL
Joseph taught that the ministers gathered together prior to the starting
of the meeting (revival). They believed that since they were there, the
devil would be there also.
The ministers and followers then began to “tree the devil.” They
gathered in a circle and crawled on there hands and knees barking like
dogs. They eventually met at the tree because it was their belief that
the devil would then be “caught in the tree.”
Why?
Because they believed that the devil couldn’t stand
the noise of a barking dog.
A few believers were assigned to continue to bark at the tree
throughout the day and night. They performed this in shifts throughout
the day to keep the devil “treed.”
THE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT OF JOSEPH
SMITH
Joseph was a remarkably quiet well-disposed child, we did not suspect
that anyone had aught against him. He was out on an errand one
evening about twilight. When he was returning through the dooryard,
a gun was fired across his pathway with evident intention of killing him.
He sprung to the door, threw it open, and fell upon the floor with fright.
We went in search of the person who fired the gun, but found no trace
of him until the next morning when we found his tracks under a wagon
where he lay when he fired. We found the balls that were discharged
from his piece the next day in the head and neck of a cow that stood
opposite the wagon in a dark corner, but we never found out the man,
nor ever suspected the cause of the act (this happened a few months
before the first vision).
THE FIRST VISIONS 1816-1827
For a year and a half after their
arrival, the Smiths lived in Palmyra
without a farm. In Palmyra they
survived by their labor alone.
The wages of Alvin and Hyrum, and
the family’s industry allowed the Smiths
to contract for a farm for the first time
in fifteen years.
Revelations
In 1818 when Joseph Jr. was twelve, he began to be
troubled about his sins, though apparently no one in the
family knew about it.
Joseph’s religious struggles were unknown in the village.
The publication of the Book of Mormon was a surprise to
everyone.
The best barometer of the household’s religious climate
were seven dreams Joseph Sr. had in the years before and
after his son’s first vision. Lucy wrote down five of them,
calling them visions (Lucy recorded them thirty years later,
so there is no way of testing the accuracy of her memory).
Financial pressures increased in 1822 after
Joseph’s elder brother, Alvin, began to build a
frame house for the family. They managed this
extravagant undertaking by making a fatal
mistake. Alvin, left home in order to raise the
money needed, and after much hardship and
fatigue, returned with the required amount. The
payment was not applied to the mortgage. Rather
than putting the money aside for the inevitable time
when the payment would be required, it was spent
on other things. Lucy felt the social pressure to
move up from their log house.
There would be no inheritances for Joseph’s and Lucy
‘s sons. By the standard measures of success in a
rural society, they had failed.
From time to time Joseph Jr. drank too much. As one
Palmyran later said: “every body drank them times.
Joseph regretted his gratification of many appetites
offensive in the sight of God.
A turning point came in the fall of 1823. That night
after the others in the crowded little house had gone
to sleep, Joseph remained awake to pray “to
Almighty God for forgiveness of all his sins and
follies.
Under the top stone was a box made of five
stones set in cement with their flat sides turned
in. Inside lay the plates, the Urim and Thummin,
and the breastplate.
William said they were “melted to tears, and
believed all he said. He had made his first
converts. It struck Lucy that her family
presented the most peculiar aspect of any
family that ever lived upon the earth, all giving
the most profound attention to a boy, eighteen
years of age; who had never read the Bible
through in his life.
Money
Less than two months after Joseph went to the hill, Alvin fell
sick with bilious colic. Alvin had taken greater interest in the
gold plates than any of the other family members.
With Alvin’s death, they now had at least two land payments
to make and no Alvin to help out. Russell Stoddard the
carpenter who had completed the house sued the Smiths for
payment in February of 1825.
The Smiths were doomed to revert to tenancy, and when old
age overtook them, instead of the dignity of a house and
land of their own, they would live as guests in the house of
one of their children.
Marriage
Josiah Stowell Jr. said Joseph was “a fine likely young man
and at the time did not profess religion, he was not a
profane man although I did once in a while hear him swear,
he never gambled to my knowledge…. I never knew him to
get drunk.
Joseph met Emma while he and his father boarded at the
Hale home in Harmony during the treasure-hunting
expedition. Isaac Hale objected to the relationship of
Emma and Joseph because Joseph was a stranger and
followed a business that he did not approve.
Joseph told his mother about Emma Hale and said that she
would be his choice in preference to any other woman he
had ever seen.
Emma preferring to marry Joseph to any other man she knew. Joseph
was 21 and Emma 22 when they eloped.
Emma described Joseph as handsome, over six feet tall with a broad
chest and wide shoulders, light brown hair, blue eyes, and long thick
eye-lashes, bush brows, and a little beard.
The first time Isaac Hale saw Joseph after they eloped he tearfully
rebuked Joseph for stealing his daughter and said he would rather
follow Emma to her grave than have her married to him.
Joseph assured his father in law that his treasure seeking was behind
him, and that “he expected to work hard for a living, and was willing
to do so.”
Apparently convinced, Isaac offered to let the couple live on the Hale
property and to help Joseph get started in business.
“I was merely instructed in reading,
writing, and the ground rules of
arithmetic which constituted my whole
literary acquirements’ (“History of
Joseph Smith by Himself,” 1)” (Church
History in the Fullness of Times, 29-30).
A desolate world, a gloomy desert, a
yearning for relief or redemption. The
visions held the promise that beyond a
gate, through a door, under a tree
could be found healing and salvation.
In some, Joseph Sr. reached his goal; in
others it hovered just beyond reach,
promised but not attained.
Seer Stones
After less than a month Joseph Jr. prevailed upon
Josiah Stowell to stop digging.
Joseph had discovered two stones, one in 1822 while
digging a well for Willard Chase a half mile from
the Smith farm.
The source of the other stone is uncertain.
Emma Smith described one of them as “a small stone, not
exactly black, but was rather a dark color.” In 1841 Joseph
showed his other, whitish stone to the Council of the Twelve in
Nauvoo and told them. Brigham Young reported, “that every
man who lived on the earth was entitled to a seer stone and
should have one, but they are kept from them in
consequence of their wickedness.”
In 1888, when Wilford Woodruff consecrated a seer stone
upon an altar in Manti, Utah, he wrote that it was the stone
“that Joseph Smith found by revelation some thirty feet
under the earth (ground), and carried by him through life.”
For a time Joseph used a seer stone to help people find lost
property and other hidden things, with his reputation
reaching Josiah Stowell.
Money digging was epidemic in
upstate New York
Josiah Stowell was an upright
Presbyterian and an honored man in his
community. The so-called credulity of the
money-diggers can be read as evidence
of their general faith in invisible forces.
The visit of the angel and the discovery of the gold
plates confirmed the belief in supernatural powers.
It may have taken Joseph four years to purge
himself of his treasure-seeking greed. Joseph Jr.
never repudiated the stones or denied their power
to find treasure.
Martin Harris supported, remembered Joseph
saying that “the angel told him he must quit the
company of the money-diggers.