The First Vision, and my issues with "them"

Updated 1/16/18

Issue #1. The First Vision

Growing up in the church, we all know the story of the first vision; it is one of those things that we can recite nearly from birth. So, we are taught that the first vision takes place in the spring of 1820. This vision was instrumental for a few points, first, that the true church was not currently on the earth, and second, that God and Christ are separate individuals.

            I started my research on this topic when I saw an essay on the churches website about it. I found this odd, why would there be debate as to information surrounding this integral part of the church. Just as President Hinckley taught:

“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.”

            So the essay on the churches website, right from the title I was slightly confused. First Vision Accounts; accounts, with an “s” at the end, as in, pleural. What do you mean “accounts?” There was THE first vision, the same one I still have memorized from my mission, the same one that President Hinckley is talking about. Ok, so there are multiple accounts out there, why are there multiple, what is the difference between them, why did we chose the one we all know, and why have we never heard about the others? Is it simply how others recorded hearing the same story? Is something fishy going on?

            Ok, from the essay it lists 4 different accounts written by Joseph: 1832, 1835, 1838, 1842, and then also lists other secondhand accounts written by those around Joseph. Wait a second?! The first vision took place in 1820, but we have no record of it being written down until 1832, 12 years after the fact. I find that very odd. Especially when we consider that Joseph was a rather decent record keeper, and did keep a journal. Hey, wait, 1832, wasn’t the church organized in April of 1830? We don’t have any account of the first vision until 2 years after the church was even organized? That just seems a bit off to me, like really off.

1.      1832 Account: From the essay from the church, ” the only account written in Joseph Smith’s own hand, is found in a short, unpublished autobiography Joseph Smith produced in the second half of 1832.”

From this autobiography description of the event we learn that he was 15 years old when it took place. He also states that he had already come to the conclusion that all churches were wrong, and he was looking for forgiveness of his sins. Only Jesus appeared to him. Was told he was forgiven of his sins, but nothing was said about bringing the church back to the earth. It almost then instantly switches to when he was 17 and was again looking for forgiveness from his sins when an Angel appeared and told him about the Gold Plates that were written by Moroni and Mormon. But only states it was an angel, never giving a name for the messenger angel, but definitely leads you to believe that it was not Moroni.

2.      1835 Account: From the essay we read, “In the fall of 1835, Joseph Smith recounted his First Vision to Robert Matthews, a visitor to Kirtland, Ohio. The retelling, recorded in Joseph’s journal by his scribe Warren Parrish, emphasizes his attempt to discover which church was right, the opposition he felt as he prayed, and the appearance of one divine personage who was followed shortly by another. This account also notes the appearance of angels in the vision.”

This time the goal of the prayer was to find the correct religion. It also now talks about not being able to speak for some reason (no darkness). Personage appeared (not named) in a pillar of fire, soon followed by another personage (also not named). It was this second personage who told Joseph that his sins were forgiven and testified that Christ is the son of God. Also noted that there were many angels too. Again it goes on to talk about the visions seen when he is 17, and again it just states that it was an unnamed angel that came to him.

3.      1838 Account: The essay states, “The narration of the First Vision best known to Latter-day Saints today is the 1838 account. First published in 1842 in the Times and Seasons, the Church’s newspaper in Nauvoo, Illinois, the account was part of a longer history dictated by Joseph Smith between periods of intense opposition. Whereas the 1832 account emphasizes the more personal story of Joseph Smith as a young man seeking forgiveness, the 1838 account focuses on the vision as the beginning of the “rise and progress of the Church.” Like the 1835 account, the central question of the narrative is which church is right.”

Again the goal of this prayer is to find what church was correct. This time too something stopped him from speaking for a time, as well as a thick blackness appears around him. Light appears, 2 personages, with one of them calling the second one Jesus Christ. Was told this time that none of the current religious sects were correct. It does also continue to go on and talk about the night of September 21^st, 1823 when another being came to him. This time the messenger stated that his name was Nephi, then continued to give a similar accounting about the plates, but failed to state that they were in a nearby hill.

4.      1842 Account: This account accompanied what was to become, the articles of faith, in response to the “Wentworth Letter” that most of us have heard of. The essay from the church states that this, “account, intended for publication to an audience unfamiliar with Mormon beliefs, is concise and straightforward.”

Here too he states that he was confused as to which religion to join. Here there is nothing about being unable to speak, or any darkness. He does state that he saw, “two glorious personages who exactly resembled each other in features, and likeness.” It doesn’t state that either of these personages were named in this account. They do tell him that all denominations were, “believing in incorrect doctrines,” and was thus told to not join any. It also continues and goes into the visit in September 1823 from an unnamed angel teaching that he was, “chosen to be an instrument in the hands of God.”

Another issue that I just now discovered is the fact that I always remember being taught that it was Moroni that came to Joseph in the 1823 vision where he learned about the Gold plates. After the readings from the essay and these sources, it only named the angel in one account, and the name given there was Nephi. From all of these early accounts the name of Moroni is only mentioned as one of the primary authors of the book. Why then are we taught that it was Moroni that appeared in this vision while all of the early evidence of it states otherwise?

Sorry for the tangent, back to the original thought. OK, we have multiple accounts of the First Vision that were either written by, or dictated by Joseph Smith himself. What of these “Secondhand Accounts?” There are accounts from multiple individuals, ranging from members of the early Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, to early church members, and even a newspaper editor who interviewed Joseph Smith in 1843. Again, these early accounts begin around 1840, with the oldest being from 1844. These accounts are similar in style, but just as the accounts from Joseph himself, there are differences in accounts. The only one that I will really look at deeper is the Journal account written by Levi Richards. The reason that I want to look deeper here is what is stated on the website by the church.

            Levi Richards, Journal, 11 June 1843. Following an 11 June 1843 public church meeting at which Joseph Smith spoke of his earliest vision, Levi Richards included an account of it in his diary.

“He went into the grove & enquired of the Lord which of all the sects were right— re received for answer that none of them were right, that they were all wrong, & that the Everlasting covena[n]t was broken” (directly copied from source with formatting left).

           

This makes it sound as if this was the first time that Joseph talked about the first vision in a public setting. This occurred in 1843, 13 years after the church was organized. Yet in no other journal by other members do we seem to have found evidence of hearing about the first vision from Joseph in a public setting. This is 23 years after it was to have taken place. We already don’t have any record of it by Joseph until 12 years after the fact; and now we know that there doesn’t seem to be any indication that the population of the church heard about it from Joseph himself until 23 years after the fact, and 3 years after the church was organized.

            What of other early leaders of the church? We do have a few accounts.

Brigham Young: “The Lord did not come with the armies of heaven ... but He did send his angel to this same obscure person, Joseph Smith jun., who afterwards became a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, and informed him that he should not join any of the religious sects of the day, for they were all wrong.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 2, 1855, p.171)

Wilford Woodruff: “The same organization and Gospel that Christ died for ... is again established in this generation. How did it come? By the ministering of an holy angel from God, out of heaven, who held converse with man, and revealed unto him the darkness that enveloped the world ... He told him the Gospel was not among men, and that there was not a true organization of His kingdom in the world ... Joseph was strengthened by the Spirit and power of God, and was enabled to listen to the teachings of the angel. ... The man to whom the angel appeared obeyed the Gospel.” (Journal of Discourses, vol.2, 1855, pp.196-197)

George A. Smith: “He [Joseph Smith] went humbly before the Lord and inquired of Him, and the Lord answered his prayer, and revealed to Joseph, by the ministration of angels, the true condition of the religious world. When the holy angel appeared, Joseph inquired which of all these denominations was right and which he should join, and was told they were all wrong.” (President George A. Smith, Journal of Discourses, 1863, vol.12, pp.334)

John Taylor: “How was it, and which was right? None of them was right, just as it was when the Prophet Joseph asked the angel which of the sects was right that he might join it. The answer was that none of them are right. What, none of them? No. We will not stop to argue that question; the angel merely told him to join none of them that none of them were right.” (Journal of Discourses, 1879, vol.20, pp.167)

            I think that of all of these, the one from John Taylor is the most interesting. Here it is, 1879, now some 35 years after Joseph was killed, and we are still being taught that he saw only an angel during the first vision. Every single one of them states that it was an angle that appeared. These are four other men, prophets, and none of them agree with what has since become cannon and taught by missionaries everywhere.

            So, overall concerning the topic of the first vision: here are my hang-ups concerning these multiple accounts. Why did it take 12 years before we see any accounts of this experience? Then, if this is something as paramount and world changing as this would be, why is there confusion and differences in who appeared in the vision? I would think if something that amazing were to happen, you would be able to remember right off the bat if there were 1 or 2 individuals, as well as who they were. It was from the first vision alone that we were able to answer a point of confusion for generations, were God and Christ 2 separate entities? If there were in fact two individuals that appeared, and that those two individuals were in fact Christ and God.

            Something that I also stumbled across, a talk given in the April General Conference, 1957 by S. Dilworth Young, First Council of the Seventy; it seems he too was confused by the multiple accounts. So I feel a little better, at least I am not alone, and a general authority no less. Another point made here is that it seems the truth of there being multiple accounts of the first vision was kept rather quiet well up until the mid 1900’s.

“I cannot remember the time when I have not heard the story … concerning the coming of the Father and the Son to the Prophet Joseph Smith. …I am concerned however with one item which has recently been called to my attention on this matter. There appears to be going about our communities some writing to the effect that the Prophet Joseph Smith evolved his doctrine from what might have been a vision, in which he is supposed to have said that he saw an angel, instead of the Father and the Son. According to this theory, by the time he was inspired to write the occurrence in 1838, he had come to the conclusion that there were two beings.

“This rather shocked me. I can see no reason why the Prophet, with his brilliant mind, would have failed to remember in sharp relief every detail of that eventful day. I can remember quite vividly that in 1915 I had a mere dream, and while the dream was prophetic in nature, it was not startling. It has been long since fulfilled, but I can remember every detail of it as sharply and clearly as though it had happened yesterday. How them could any man conceive that the Prophet, receiving such a vision as he received, would not remember it and would fail to write it clearly, distinctly, and accurately?” (S. Dilworth Young, Improvement Era – general conference edition, June 1957)

            The first vision is the entire beginnings of this church. This single event, if it happened, than the work that was to follow would be the greatest thing to happen on earth in well over a thousand years. And if it did not happen, than this whole work is a fraud. But now, with all of this knowledge, I am at a loss as to what I should believe. We have 4 separate accounts, 4 different versions, and little consistency. The version that I quoted endlessly on my mission doesn’t even line up with the teaching of four other prophets of this church, how should it line up with what I have been taught to believe?