First Vision
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The First Vision of Joseph Smith, Jr. is a vital part of Latter Day Saint (or Mormon) belief. Smith said he had a theophany, in which God the Father and Jesus Christ told him to reestablish Christ's church.
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Background
Northern and western New York frequently experienced religious revivals, which would later lead to its being termed the Burned-over district. Several religions were established in this era, including the faith Smith founded, sometimes called the Latter day saint movement, represented by its largest sect, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
As a boy living in Palmyra, New York, Joseph Smith, Jr., reported he was unsure which of the various religious sects he should join. His father's family had converted to the Presbyterian faith, and four had joined the local church. He was considering joining the Methodist church when he claims the following events happened.
Summary of Joseph Smith, Jr.'s Official Account of The First Vision
In the spring of 1820 when he was fourteen years old, Smith reported he was reading the Bible when he came across the following verse in the first chapter of the Epistle of James:
- James 1:5 - 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.
Smith felt deeply impressed by this particular scripture, believing he needed guidance in choosing the proper church to join.
One morning, he went into a grove of trees (called "the sacred grove" by Latter-day Saints) behind the family's farm, knelt down, and began his first vocal prayer.
Almost immediately after starting his prayer, Smith reported a confrontation with a power he regarded as evil, which completely inhibited his speech. A darkness gathered aroud him, and Smith believed that he would soon be totally destroyed. He continued his prayer non-verbally, asking for God's aid, feeling hopeless and resigned to destruction. At this moment, he reported that a light brighter than the sun descended towards him. With the arrival of the light, Smith reported he was delivered from the evil power.
In the light, Smith "saw two personages standing in the air" in front of him. One being pointed to the other and stated that this was his "Beloved Son." (Smith reported that the two beings were God the Father and Jesus.) As Smith again could speak, he asked to know which religious sect he should join. Smith claimed he was told that all existing religions had been corrupted from Jesus Christ's teachings. (See Great Apostasy.)
In the years following this First Vision, Smith claimed to have received more instructions from God, some of which were given through messengers such as angels. Eventually, Smith and five others incorporated what would become known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The official account of Smith’s First Vision is available at this external link:[1] (http://scriptures.lds.org/js_h/1)
Criticisms of the First Vision
Critics have noted that the "official" account related above is but the final version of Smith's First Vision.
There are several earlier records of the First Vision (some of which were made second-hand). Smith participated in recording at least four accounts of the First Vision, the first of which was recorded in 1831 or 1832 (after the Church of Christ was officially organized in 1830). A detailed account was not published until the April 1, 1841 issue of The Times and Seasons, the church's official paper. [2] (http://www.mission2mormons.org/timeline.html)
Critics note that the accounts of the first vision are, in many respects, inconsistent. They note that Smith's earliest version of his experience states only that an angel visited him—rather than God the Father and Jesus Christ—and that the accounts grew increasingly elaborate and detailed.
Beyond inconsistencies in the recorded accounts of Smith's First Vision, critics note that:
- Smith tried joining the Methodist church in June of 1828, a curious action for one who'd been specifically instructed by God the Father and Jesus Christ that he should join no established denomination.
- Joseph prayed to know “if a Supreme being did exist?” preceding his 1823 vision of Moroni
- There are contradictory differences between the “official” version and Smith's handwritten account recorded in 1832 (Allen contends that “No one should expect Joseph Smith, or anyone else, to repeat a verbatim account each time he tells it.[3] (http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=review&id=533)
- The First Vision is not mentioned in Brigham Young and John Taylor implies a fabrication (however it is included in Lucy Mack Smith's history)
- Critichs have argued that no widespread revival occurred in 1820 when Smith asserted; but
- Apologists counter that discrepancies could be explained by Smith tailoring the account to different audiences, thereby highlighting different aspects of the vision. Additionally, they point to evidence that Smith called Jesus Christ an angel or a heavenly messenger.
- Apologists have speculated that inconsistencies are due to second-hand retellings of the First Vision, which Smith kept to himself for some years before “officially” discussing the sacred event. Yet this notion is contradicted by Smith’s own statements; he insisted that he told the account almost immediately after it happened: “"I soon found, however, that my telling the story had excited a great deal ofprejudice against me among professors of religion, and was the cause of great persecution,which continued to increase ... I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true”.[4] (http://www.xmission.com/~country/reason/firstvis.htm)
The notion that Smith’s First Vision developed gradually is not exclusive to vitriolic anti-mormons. Grant H. Palmer is a graduate of Brigham Young University’s American History program, and for many years he taught or managed the LDS church’s Seminary and Institute programs for the High School- and College-aged faithful. He argues there is plain, direct evidence--primarily Smith’s own writings--demonstrating that Smith’s First Vision evolved over several years, and that the “current LDS interpretations of Joseph’s first vision ... simplify and retrofit later accounts to provide a seemingly authorotative, unambiguous recital.” (Palmer, 235)
In summary, Palmer writes, “It seems clear that the first vision narratives offered between 1832 and 1838 were expanded and became more miraculous ... over time, spiritual events were retold in a way that was more literal, more physical, as if they occurred in the material rather than the metaphysical realm. This may have been a function of selective memory on the one hand and, more particularly in Joseph Smith’s case, a life lived as much in the invisible as in the temporal world.” (Palmer, 254) “Joseph added new elements to his later narratives that are not hinted at in his earlier ones. His first vision evolved from a forgiveness epiphany to a call from God the Father to and Jesus Christ to restore the true order of things.” (Palmer, 260)
Following the publication of his book An Insider's View of Mormon Origins in November 2002, Grant H. Palmer was disfellowshipped from the LDS Church on December 12, 2004. Apologists have rebutted some of Palmer’s conclusions; see External Links below
See below for the details and circumstances of the different versions of Smith's First Vision
1830 Allusion
Palmer notes that “The earliest allusion, oral or written, to the first vision” is a passing reference transcribed in June of 1830, and later included in the Book of Commandments. This allusion is now in Doctrine and Covenants, chapter 20, verse 5, a reference that Smith “’had received a remission of his sins’. Nothing is said about a vision, but the later recital ... reveals that in his vision he received forgiviness of sins ”(Palmer, 235)
Following this brief allusion, we have several second-hand reports of an angel visiting Smith. One such reference was from a letter Smith’s mother Lucy wrote to her brother Solomon Mack in 1831: “Joseph ... was visited by an holy Angel ... and gave him the means of which ... he should translate this book (the Book of Mormon)”. (Pyle, 256) None of these second-hand reports mention a visitation from Jesus or God the Father.
1832 Account
The first lengthy account of Smith’s vision dates from 1832, and Palmer reprints it in full. (Palmer, 236-237) It is the only version Smith recorded in his own handwriting. Smith writes that “from the age of twelve years to fifteen” he contemplated what he saw as the general poor state of mankind in regards to religion, and became “exceedingly distressed for I became convicted of my sins ... by searching the scriptures I found that mankind did not come unto the Lord ... and there was no society or denomination that build upon the gospel of Jesus.” (all spellings as in Smith’s original text) Smith goes on to write, “in the 16th year of my age ... a pillar of light above the brightness of the sun at noon day” appeared above him. Smith writes that a single figure appeared to him: Jesus, who tells Smith, “thy sins are forgiven thee ... behold and lo I come quickly.” No mention is made of Smith seeing God the Father or of being charged with reestablishing Christ’s church.
In this early account, Smith himself dates the first vision some two years later than in the "official" account.
Palmer writes, “We might expect that after the church’s organization in early 1830, Joseph would cite the first vision as the source of his call, since it came directly from Jesus Christ. He does not. Even in his 1832 and 1835 narratives, he doed not yet mention the appearance of God the Father, his divine commission to open the last dispensation, or his appointment as the prophet of the Restoration. These ommissions are peculiar.” (Palmer, 240)
James B. Allen, who from 1972 held the offical position of Assistant Church Historian in 1972, made a similar assertion, noting that no account of Smith’s miraculous First Vision was in general circulation before the 1840’s: “According to Joseph Smith, he told the story of the vision immediately after it happened the early spring of 1820. As a result, he said, he received immediate criticism in the community. There is little if any evidence, however, that by the early 1830's Joseph Smith was telling the story in public. At least if he were telling it, no one seemed to consider it important enough to have recorded it at the time, and no one was criticizing him for it ... The fact that none of the available contemporary writings about Joseph Smith in the 1830's, none of the publications of the Church in that decade, and no contemporary journal or correspondence yet discovered mentions the story of the first vision is convincing evidence that at best it received only limited circulation in those early days ... as far as non-Mormons were concerned there was little, if any, awareness of it in the 1830's ... As far as Mormon literature is concerned, there was apparently no reference to Joseph Smith's first vision in any published material in the 1830's ... From all this it would appear that the general church membership did not receive information about the first vision until the 1840's and that the story certainly did not hold the prominent place in Mormon thought that it does today.”[5] (http://www.xmission.com/~country/reason/firstvis.htm)
1834 Account
Late 1834 saw the publication of a vision account by Oliver Cowdery. [6] (http://www.irr.org/mit/First-Vision-Scans/first-vision-1834-35.html)
1835 Account
Smith recorded an account in his diary in1835. He wrote that in 1820, two personages appeared, but neither is specifically identified [7] (http://www.irr.org/mit/First-Vision-Scans/first-vision-1835A.html).
1838 Version
Smith offered a new version of the First Vision in1838. Palmer argues that this is due to a leadership crisis.
Smith’s counselor Frederick G. Williams left the church in late 1837; shortly thereafter, Martin Harris and John Whitmer were excommunicated. These actions aggrivated earlier tensions (especially the catastrophic insolvency of the church’s “anti-bank”, the Kirtland Saftey Society), and soon there was open dissent and arguement against Smith’s authority, and his claims regarding The Book of Mormon.
By late 1838 the following prominent Mormons had either left the church or been excommunicated: William E. McLellin, brothers Luke and Lyman Johnson, John F. Boynton, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Hyrum Page, Jacob Whitmer, Thomas B. Marsh, and Orson Hyde. McLellin, Boynton and Luke Johnson were fully a quarter of the original Quorum of Twelve Apostles.
During this same time, Palmer reports that some 300 persons--perhaps fifteen percent of the church’s general membership--became disaffected as well and quit the church. (Palmer, 248) Palmer suggests that this extended crisis caused a degree of cognative dissonance, and spurred Smith to reassert the validity of his leadership.
Palmer writes that on April 27, 1838, Smith began dictation of “a revised and more impressive version of his epiphany. He announced that his original calling had not come from an angel in 1823, as he had said for a decade, but from God the Father and Jesus in 1820.” (Palmer, 248-251)
“In 1838” continues Palmer, “Joseph’s memory was that he was the recipient of ‘severe’ persecution for having talked about his 1820 vision. This is innacurate, according to the historical record. The persecution came from (Smith’s) talking about treasure digging and later, in 1827, about the golden plates. There is no evidence of prejudice resulting from his first vision.”(Palmer, 245) Palmer argues that if Smith’s charge that “all the sects ... united to persecute me” was accurate, this widespread persecution would have been evidenced in writings of Smith’s critics, in the writings of his supporters, or in the wealth of afidavits collected in 1833 by D.P. Hurlburt. But no one recalls this “severe” persecution Smith said occurred , “Not even his family remembers it,” a strong arguement against its authenticity. (ibid)
A Chronology of Various First Vision Accounts
- 1827, in a sworn affidavit, given by Williard Chase; Chase says Joseph Smith Sr. related an account that had occurred in 1823 [8] (http://www.irr.org/mit/First-Vision-Scans/first-vision-1827.html)
- 1827, as given by Martin Harris to John Clark, unpublished until 1842; First Vision dated to 1824 or 1825. [9] (http://www.irr.org/mit/First-Vision-Scans/first-vision-1827b.html), *1830, as related by Joseph Smith to Peter Bauder, published in 1832; First Vision undated: [10] (http://www.irr.org/mit/First-Vision-Scans/first-vision-1830.html)
- 1832, as written by Joseph Smith; the first account in his own handwrting:[11] (http://www.irr.org/mit/First-Vision-Scans/first-vision-1832.html)
- 1834, as written by Oliver Cowdery, published in an offical LDS periodical: [12] (http://www.irr.org/mit/First-Vision-Scans/first-vision-1834-35.html) First Vision dated to 1823
- 1835, as written by Smith’s in his journal; First Vision dated to 1820 [13] (http://www.irr.org/mit/First-Vision-Scans/first-vision-1835A.html)
- 1832, as related by Joseph Smith to Erastus Holmes, unpublished until 1852; First Vision dated to 1820:[14] (http://www.irr.org/mit/First-Vision-Scans/first-vision-1835B.html)
- 1838, as written and/or dictated by Joesph Smith, officially unpublished until 1842; First Vision dated to 1820: [15] (http://www.irr.org/mit/First-Vision-Scans/first-vision-1838.html)
- 1844, as approved by Smith, First Vision dated to 1820: [16] (http://www.irr.org/mit/First-Vision-Scans/first-vision-1844.html)
- 1859, as related by Martin Harris, first vision dated to 1827: [17] (http://www.irr.org/mit/First-Vision-Scans/first-vision-1859.html)
- 1893, as related by Joesph Smith’s brother, William; First Vision dated to 1820: [18] (http://www.wasatchnet.net/users/ewatson/wmsmith.htm)
Sources
Palmer, Grant H, An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins, 2002, Signature Books, ISBN 1560851570
External links
- Excerpts (http://scriptures.lds.org/js_h/1) from Joseph Smith, Jr.'s official testimony and history
- An official account (http://www.mormon.org/learn/0,8672,959-1,00.html)
- Various Accounts (http://www.byui.edu/Ricks/employee/WILLIAMSG/241/la/talks/1st_vision_accounts.htm) of The First Vision
- Questions (http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDSFAQ/FQ_first_vision.shtml) about Joseph Smith's First Vision Accounts on jefflindsay.com
- No Compromising (http://www.i4m.com/think/intro/must_believe_vision.htm) Joseph Smith's First Vision
- Mormonism--Shadow or Reality? Chapter 8 The First Vision (http://www.xmission.com/~country/reason/firstvis.htm)
- Asked and Answered: A Response to Grant H. Palmer (http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=review&id=533), a review of An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, by Grant H. Palmer, Reviewed By: James B. Allen
- Side by side comparison of First Vision accounts (http://www.wasatchnet.net/users/ewatson/harmony.htm)