Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith – The First Vision

“Our whole strength rests on the validity of that vision. It either occurred or it did not occur. If it did not then this work is a fraud. If it did then it is the most important and wonderful work under the heavens.” Gordon B. Hinckley

            Does God communicate with mankind? Sure, he spoke personally with Adam and Eve in the Garden, as some believe. How does God typically speak to us though? Through prophets, chosen seers set apart as His mouthpiece. He spoke to Jared, Enoch, Noah, Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses and Joshua, Isaiah, Malachi; John the Baptist, Jesus Christ and his Twelve Disciples, as well as a plethora of men and prophets in the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the prophets today, currently President Thomas S. Monson.

            For most people, that last part is a whole lot to swallow. It’s for this reason I’m writing today about an experience had by Joseph Smith Jr that has come to be known as the First Vision.

            Circumstances

            Joseph Smith Jr. received his namesake from his father, Joseph Sr. His father and mother, Lucy Mack had eleven children, of which Joseph was the fifth. He was born on December 23, 1805 in Sharon, Vermont. In 1816, after several moves, Joseph Sr. moved to Palmyra, New York, and his family later followed. Up until the 1830’s, the nation was undergoing the Second Great Awakening, so called as it was a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment and the secularism that went along with it. Joseph Smith Jr. was raised in a family where they joined every morning and evening for prayers, scripture reading, and hymn-singing.

            When he was 15, his mother, two brothers, Hyrum and Samuel, and his sister Sophronia joined the Presbyterian faith. In his recorded history, he states, “my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and often poignant, still I kept myself aloof from all these parties, though I attended their several meetings as often as occasion would permit” (Joseph Smith-History, v.8). Joseph wondered on matters deeply spiritual, and felt a great desire to join the correct, or at least the most correct church.

            James 1:5

            A scripture that can be recited by nearly every Latter-day Saint, it reads:

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

Joseph Smith records he read the above scripture and determined to ask of God which church he must join. Others cite his brother William as saying Joseph heard the scripture quoted by a religious minister, and also suggesting his brother ask of God. Many of those who believe William believe that man was Methodist minister, Reverend George Lane, who visited the area around Palmyra during a large Methodist conference in 1819.

          
            

Before The Vision

In the spring of 1820, after coming to the conclusion that he would “do as James directs, that is, ask of God” (JS-H 1:13), he made his way into a grove of trees on their 100 acreage. When he found the place he had before decided to go, he knelt down and began a vocal prayer. He records that some great power took hold of him, binding his tongue. He records that “Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction” (JS-H 1:15). But he wasn’t. He did everything he could, praying for deliverance, and “at the very moment when [he] was ready to sink into despair and abandon [himself] to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin... just at this moment of great alarm...”

The Vision

“I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me... When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”

            If we are to believe this, which many people do, in its simplest form it shows that God and Jesus Christ exist. Even more, it means they have bodies of flesh and blood like us, that we were created in their image, that they have two separate bodies, and that like the people in Biblical times, we’re not being left alone.

            So Joseph Smith asked his question: Which church should he join? He was told that he shouldn’t join any of the churches, that none of them contained the fullness of Christ’s church. The way my missionaries explained it to me, the Gospel is like a glass table. After Christ and his disciples died (well, except John the Beloved and the three Nephites) the Gospel, or the table, shattered. From that, men picked up pieces of the Gospel and made their own churches, many, without a doubt, with the best of intentions. Each church had a piece, but not the every piece. The Restoration, completed through Joseph Smith, enabled that glass table to be repaired.

            Ramifications

            Like stated above, if this did occur, then Jesus Christ and God exist, and not only that, they also possess bodies of flesh, from their image we were created, and they possess separate and distinct bodies. As amazing as those concepts are, I think a greater reality is the fact that God hasn’t left us here to try to manage on our own, to try to work out our salvation without a chance of success. In other words, the promise that was made by James is true – if we ask God in faith, God will provide us with answers. Also, because of what Joseph experienced prior to receiving the Vision, he understood and appreciated the reality of Satan. Obviously, the big point of this is the fact that Joseph Smith was told all the churches at the time didn’t contain the truth, and this prepared him in his future task of restoring Christ’s church on the earth. President Joseph F. Smith said:

“The greatest event that has ever occurred in the world, 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.” (Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, p. 495-96.)

            Inconsistencies (READ Assumed Problems)

            There are nine accounts of the first Vision given by the Prophet Joseph Smith. There wouldn’t be anything wrong with this, critics say, except for the fact that they differ, some differing in a manner which seems to be great. I cannot enter into this in great detail, but I would like to touch on it, and since it was a problem for me in the early days of my membership, it seems important to me to include this and explain, at least a little, that just because they differ, it doesn’t mean the event never occurred, or that Joseph somehow evolved his story to be more and more grandiose. I won’t include the text of each version, but they were given as follows:

(1) the Prophet’s handwritten description in 1832, an attempt to start a manuscript history of the Church;

(2) a Church secretary’s brief 1835 journal entry of Joseph talking with a visitor who called himself Joshua, the Jewish minister;

(3) the 1838 history discussed above, published in 1842 and now in the Pearl of Great Price;

(4) Orson Pratt’s publication, the first publicly disseminated, of the Prophet’s vision in his Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, issued in 1840 in Edinburgh, Scotland;

(5) Orson Hyde’s revision of Orson Pratt’s pamphlet, published in 1842 for German readers and adding some insights that may have come from his contact with Joseph Smith;

(6) the Wentworth Letter, created in response to editor John Wentworth’s inquiry and published by Joseph Smith in 1842 in Times and Seasons; this account adapted parts of Orson Pratt’s pamphlet;

(7) Levi Richards’s diary about Joseph Smith preaching in the summer of 1843 and repeating the Lord’s first message to him that no church was His;

(8) a newspaper interview in the fall of 1843;

(9) Alexander Neibaur’s 1844 journal entry of a conversation at the Prophet’s house. (Papers of Joseph Smith 1:1, 125–27, 265–67, 387–91, 405–9, 430, 444, 461.)

These accounts of the Vision are not all the same, obviously. So clearly something has to be wrong, right? Some critics cite this as evidence of an evolution of Joseph Smith’s experience. However, if a man were to get up on the stand in front of a judge on several different occasions, I think suspicion would arise if the man told the exact same story with the exact same words on each occasion. When I tell a story of one experience to a friend, I won’t emphasize the same points, or speak the same words I would use when talking to my mother, or a significant other, or a young child. It’s only through combining each record that we find the original. Just because some details are omitted in one version and included in another does not mean that those details have evolved through excessive story-telling or the like.

The 1932 record of the First Vision seems to refer to the presence of only one being. While I cannot provide the accounts (unless you go and pick up a copy of The Papers of Joseph Smith) in their entirety, this particular account refers to their being the Lord, who opened the heavens to Joseph, while the Son explains more to Joseph. This account seems to focus mainly on the words of the Saviour and seems to just hint at the presence of God there.

As my seminary teacher once told me: If the First Vision really happened, then Joseph is a Prophet. If Joseph is a Prophet, then the Book of Mormon is true. If the Book of Mormon is true, then the Church is truly God’s Church, and God's work.

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith - Faith in Christ

            Introduction to the Author

           As this is my first official post on this very excellent blog, I’d like to start off with a little bit of an introduction to who I am, how I got here and where I’m going.

            First off, my name is Katie Plett, and I’m from the cities of Langley, Surrey, and Maple Ridge in British Columbia, in the land known as Canada. As a little bit of a background, I first became aware of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when I was 13, when my mother was going through some rough times and was run into by the Sister Missionaries. She was eventually baptized, as was my little brother. My sister was in Manitoba at the time, and when she found out that our mom and brother had gotten baptized, she was enraged. She spoke to me often on the phone and told me not to listen to “the Mormons,” although at the time I didn’t need her to tell me that. I was very angry at my mother’s decision, and I let my anger drive a wedge between my brother and me. I had convinced myself before this that God didn’t care about me, and didn’t listen to my prayers; I decided since He didn’t listen to me, I wouldn’t listen to Him. The way I saw it, God was going back on the bargain I had made with Him now that the Sisters, Elders, and the Church were in my life.

            A pair of Sisters, who I will always consider “my missionaries,” asked if they could teach me, and since I had previously made a connection with them, I agreed. Much to my mother’s astonishment, she would often come home to find the Sisters teaching me – the first few times this happened she thought maybe she had forgotten about a lunch or dinner appointment with them. After a few lessons, one of the Sisters asked me how I felt when we read the Book of Mormon together, and I responded that I felt good. Excitedly, she asked if I would pray about the Book, and I said I would. Well, I didn’t. The next time we met, she eagerly asked if I had prayed, and I told her I hadn’t. It was easy to tell that this upset her, but she would cheer up and again challenge me to pray. I don’t remember how many times this happened, but one night after I went through my bedtime routine and got into bed, I found that I had lacked any ability to fall asleep. It just wasn’t happening. I turned over various thoughts in my mind but eventually came back to the Sisters challenge, and how every time I failed to pray to know whether the Book was true or not, they were actually sad, troubled, and hurt by my failure. 

            I remember staring at my ceiling and finally saying aloud, “What the heck?” So I knelt down and closed my eyes, and tried to think of what to say. It’s hard to explain, but while I was still organizing my thoughts and before really “commencing,” the prayer, I felt exactly what I read I would feel. The Lord says it succinctly: “you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right” (Doctrine & Covenants 9:8). This was a feeling that spread from my chest to the very tips of my fingers and toes, and I felt as though someone had put their arms around me. This was astonishing, because I was fairly convinced God had forgotten about me, and that He didn’t care whether I was troubled, or in pain, or suffering. When I met again with the Sisters, I was again asked if I had prayed. “Yes,” I said, feeling like my feet had been thrown out from under me. The Sister who asked me had a huge smile on her face, “And?” she asked. “It’s true,” I said, or rather mumbled. “So do you want to be baptized?” I felt severely humbled by my experience, but after having a relatively secret baptism (my mother only discovered it when a man in the ward walked up to her after sacrament and congratulated her on my decision), here I am coming up on 7 years.

            Right now I’m preparing my papers to submit so I can serve a mission, which I get to do in 76 days, but who’s counting, right? Hopefully I can contribute something awesome to this blog before I leave, while still remaining spiritual about it, of course. While I’m here though, I’ll post regularly about various teachings, sermons, doctrines, etc., taught by our first President, the Prophet Joseph Smith, and when space permits, various arguments presented against his teachings by anti-Mormons and the like.

Faith in Christ

Absolutely basic, and essential really, to any Christian religion is the need of faith in Christ. This is because we were not there when Christ was born, we did not hear him teach, and we did not witness his brutal sacrifice. We do not have physical evidence to show that Christ is the Son of God, which is why we cannot authenticate, in the traditional sense of the word, Christ’s divine origin, mission, and resurrection. However, just because it cannot be proven, does not mean it is, or can be disproven. As Christians have faith that Christ existed, so do others need to have faith that he did not.

Faith is not just confidence or trust in something or someone; it is a hope that something which you cannot see is true. Paul said simply to the Hebrews, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

It is not enough to simply have faith that Christ is the Son of God, although that is tremendously interesting, and may help one develop faith that Christ and God exist; it does not help us in our quest to return to their presence. “Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence...” (Moses 6:57). Through the fall of Adam and Eve, sin entered the world. And because all of mankind sins, we are separated from God and Christ.

As Christians, it is not enough to simply have faith that Christ was born, lived, and died. It is not hard to imagine someone existing. It is much harder however, to have faith that someone existed who could remove us from our sins, was resurrected, and enables us to return to God’s presence. But Christ did that, and that is what our faith needs to be based in, the fact that salvation comes to us through the sacrifice, or Atonement of Christ.

By merely telling of his experiences, Joseph Smith showed his faith in, as well as bore his testimony of Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith recorded that, “[he] saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description... One of them spake unto [him], calling [him] by name, and said – pointing to the other – “This is My Beloved Son, Hear Him.” (History of the Church, Vol. 1, pg 5). During the early years of Church history, Joseph received revelations from the Lord which have been compiled into what is known today as the Doctrine and Covenants (Explanatory Introduction, Doctrine & Covenants).

As though that is not evidence enough of Joseph Smith’s faith and the importance of Christ’s Atonement and Resurrection, Joseph Smith also lectured much on those subjects. On one such occasion, “to save [himself] the trouble of repeating the same a thousand times over and over again,” Joseph Smith had the following printed in the Elder’s Journal: “The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it” (History of the Church, Vol. 3, pg 30).

In what has become known as the “Wentworth Letter,” Joseph Smith reiterated the “rise, progress, persecution, and faith of the Latter-day Saints” (History of the Church, Vol. 4, pg 535). Parts of what he wrote then has since become regarded as “The Articles of Faith,” and the first, third, and fourth declare the following:

We believe in God the eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost... We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. We believe that the first principle and ordinances of the Gospel are: (1) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ;  (2) Repentance;  (3) Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins;  (4) Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

            Joseph Smith taught of the Atonement, Resurrection and salvation afforded us by Christ; the very concepts taught by the Bible are taught in the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine & Covenants and Pearl of Great Price, by the Prophet Joseph Smith and by every Prophet who succeeded him.

Romans 10:6-11, 13

But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed... For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Helaman 14:15-17

For behold, he surely must die that salvation may come; yea, it behooveth him and becometh expedient that he dieth, to bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, that thereby men may be brought into the presence of the Lord. Yea, behold, this death bringeth to pass the resurrection, and redeemeth all mankind from the first death—that spiritual death; for all mankind, by the fall of Adam being cut off from the presence of the Lord, are considered as dead, both as to things temporal and to things spiritual. But behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord.

            Doctrine & Covenants 76:22-24

And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of [Christ], this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father— That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.

            To believe that Christ was born, lived and died is just not enough. To lead us to salvation, our faith, as the scriptures teach, as Joseph Smith taught, as we are taught today by our Prophet and the Apostles, needs to be centered on Jesus Christ, that he not only was born, lived, and died, but that he atoned for our sins and was resurrected, because “... if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain” (1 Cor. 15:14).