as prepared by Dennis B. Horne
Note: this narration is only of
the prayer and vision, not other closely related matters. It contains
descriptive material (not word-for-word) from the four main accounts
originating with Joseph Smith. I put it together to show how they collectively enlarge
our understanding by adding depth, breadth, and detail. One quickly understands
why this vision is today viewed as the foundation of the Restored Church.
Editorial commentary is in parenthesis:
Young Joseph looked around to
ensure he was alone and then called upon the Lord for the first time vocally
(having previously prayed in his heart). As Joseph began to pray, the devil
exercised his power to stop Joseph’s tongue from speaking (vocalizing) and he
heard noises like someone walking behind him (noises probably made by Satan).
Joseph strove harder to pray but heard more walking noises behind him. He
jumped up and looked around but saw no one. He felt surrounded by overwhelming
darkness. He thought he was doomed to destruction and knew it was the power of
the unseen devil at hand. Joseph again kneeled; his tongue was loosed and he
called on the Lord in mighty prayer, and he was heard.
While praying, a pillar of light or
fire brighter than the noon sun appeared above his head, descended, and rested
on him. The instant that Joseph saw the light the devil left him. He was filled
with the Spirit of the Lord and unspeakable joy (which means he was
transfigured at this time so that he could abide the presence of God).
Joseph’s mind was then taken from
notice of his surroundings as he became enwrapped in vision. He was encircled
by heavenly fire or light that consumed nothing in the grove. A (first)
Personage, “the Lord” (meaning the Father), opened the heavens and appeared.
Momentarily another Personage
appeared and Joseph saw “the Lord” (Jesus Christ the Son of God) who exactly
resembled the Father. Joseph was now beholding two Personages whose brightness
and glory he could not find words to describe but that looked like each other.
They both stood above him in the air. The first Personage to appear spoke and
said, “Joseph, this is My Beloved Son, Hear Him.” (This was the Father
introducing and bearing witness of His Son.)
(We are not sure what order all of
the conversation occurred in; probably Jesus spoke first.) Joseph collected
himself enough to ask Them which Church was right, thinking to join it. Jesus,
the second Personage, told Joseph that his sins were forgiven and that he
should keep the commandments. Jesus told Joseph that He (Jesus Christ) was the
Son of God.
Jesus told Joseph not to join any
existing church (or sect or denomination) for they were all wrong; their
(ancient formally prepared) creeds were an abomination in His sight; the local
professors or ministers of Protestant religion that Joseph knew were corrupt
(teaching false doctrines) and drew near to Jesus with their lips but their
hearts were far from Him. They taught the philosophies or commandments of men
for doctrine and had a form of Godliness, but in truth denied Him and His
power. All religious denominations were believing incorrect doctrines and none
were acknowledged of Him. Jesus again commanded Joseph not to join any
church—to “go not after them.”
Jesus also told Joseph that He was
crucified for the world so that believers may have eternal life. None then
living were good (in the sense of being authorized ministers teaching pure truths);
people had turned from the gospel and did not keep His commandments. God’s
anger is kindled against the inhabitants of the earth (the result of the great
apostasy). Jesus said He will come the second time soon, as prophesied, in
glory. Jesus told Joseph other things which Joseph chose not to divulge then.
One item that he later recorded was that he (Joseph) was promised that the fulness
of the gospel would at some future time be made known to him.
Joseph saw many angels during this
vision. (I speculate that they were Michael or Adam, Gabriel or Noah, Enoch,
Abraham, Melchizedec, Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, and John, the brother of Jared,
Nephi, other Book of Mormon prophets, and various others who were dispensation
heads and prophets.)
When all of the personages, the Gods
and angels, had departed, Joseph found himself lying on his back looking up
into the sky because the extraordinary manifestation and transfiguration had
spiritually and physically exhausted him.
A Doctrinal Summary
of the First Vision from the Teachings of Apostles and Prophets
[The below
quotations and most doctrinal concepts are taken from the teachings found in
the blog articles of the 20-part series (most of which have not yet been posted),
so I have not footnoted them. I have put these concepts together in a fairly
understandable fashion, but readers will quickly observe that they could also have
been presented as bullet points. In a way, this precious material distills some
of the most salient and interesting doctrinal concepts taught to the Church over
the last century.]
One reason
that Joseph Smith received the answer to his prayer that he did at age fourteen
was because he had “perfect trust” in God and “no doubt in his mind.” Further,
Elder Orson F. Whitney believed that God will not appear to just any young man
or woman who asks Him the same question—that being which church is right, even
one with no doubt and perfect trust. Joseph was foreordained and fore-prepared
for this visitation.
Agreeing,
Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught: “I do not think that the Father and the Son
would have appeared to an ordinary fourteen-and-a-half-year-old boy, if he had
gone out into that grove of trees to ask the Lord which of all the churches was
right. . . . The Lord had been preparing Joseph Smith for that event from all
eternity. . . . Joseph Smith had the spiritual stature, the strength for
righteousness that enabled him to endure the vision.”
What was
Joseph Smith’s form of communication with the Father and the Son on that
occasion? When serving as a member of the First Council of the Seventy, Elder
McConkie wrote, in an internal book review: “You indicate that Joseph Smith
communed with the Father and the Son ‘as one man speaketh with his friend.’
This, of course, is what the record says that Moses did in talking to the God
of Israel. I may be wrong, but I always assumed that this kind of communication
meant that a man talked to God face to face with all his faculties. That is, it
is the kind of communion that Joseph Smith had in the Kirtland Temple when the
Lord appeared to accept the building. In the case of the First Vision Joseph,
presumably, was in a trance; that is, he was unconscious. He came to himself
after the vision was over. This view may, or may not be correct, it is just
what I always have assumed this phrase meant.”
This ruminating
by Elder McConkie brings up the question of whether Joseph was speaking
directly with the Father and the Son, or was in some kind of trance, wherein
the communication may have been more of an out-of-body spiritual experience. For
example, the prophet Mormon reports that the Nephite disciples were not sure
themselves regarding their own heavenly experience: “And whether they were in
the body or out of the body, they could not tell; for it did seem unto them
like a transfiguration of them. . .” (3 Nephi 28:15). Elder McConkie recognizes
that his assumption may or may not be correct. Bearing on this question, I note
this statement from Elder Orson F. Whitney, who passed away some fifteen years
before Elder McConkie’s call as a General Authority: “I stood within the very
grove where it is believed the Father and the Son appeared to and conversed
with him as one man converses with another.”
Other
Apostolic commenters have reinforced the directness of actual face-to-face
communication, though it is of course also acknowledged that the Holy Ghost was
involved. Elder Charles W. Penrose wrote: “We may not perhaps exactly explain
how and by what means Joseph saw the Father and the Son. He called it a vision.
That is right, it was a vision. But what is a vision of that kind? A vision
like that which Moses had when he saw the Lord face to face. He saw the Father
and spoke to him, and the Lord spoke to him. Moses declared that he saw him,
not with his natural eyes, but with his spiritual vision. . . .” Other Apostles
have likewise affirmed that the communication was direct vocal conversational
speaking. Perhaps the notion of Joseph falling into a trance to communicate is
incorrect.[1]
Others who have commented have stated that Joseph conversed with these Heavenly
Personages, in a state of transfiguration, and then, by the conclusion, lost
his physical strength (as did Moses), falling to the ground on his back. (It is
well-established one must be transfigured to endure the presence of God.)
President
Marion G. Romney taught: “He heard their voices, for they both spoke to him. He
was given a personal introduction to the resurrected Jesus by the Father
himself.” On another occasion he reiterated the same thing: “When he came out
of that sacred interview he knew with certainty the nature of God. He had seen
and conversed with him. From him he had received a personal introduction to his
resurrected Son Jesus Christ.” The definiteness of this conversation is a
consistent teaching among the prophets and apostles. Over and over they
indicate that he “spoke with” or “conversed with” the Father and the Son in
full possession of his faculties.
While it is
declared that this is the greatest vision or visitation ever given to a mortal
man of which we have scriptural record, it should also be understood that no priesthood
authority was given to Joseph during this vision, to act at this time; that power
came later with visits from angels with keys.
Another
item worth consideration is that the length of Joseph’s conversation with Jesus
is not known, and Joseph did not share with others everything he was told by
Jesus. Some things he stated that he held back, that he did not write; perhaps
they were too sacred to share.
Among other
things, in his vision, Joseph learned: the Father and the Son are two distinct
beings; they have bodies of flesh and bones; Jesus is God’s son; God bears
testimony that Jesus is His son; Jesus speaks for God His father (even today);
that God’s church was not then on earth, that a complete apostasy had occurred
on earth. Joseph was persecuted for repeating what Jesus told him about His
church being absent from earth. We do not apologize for what the Lord told
Joseph about all other churches.
Further,
Joseph learned that there are no winners in contentious religious debates; the
devil is real and powerful but is nothing compared to heavenly light; that he
(Joseph) was made in God’s image; that he or anyone could ask God in faith and
be answered (though not in the same way)—and that God has a work for him to do
later. As a result of this visitation, Joseph became a perfect witness of God
and Jesus.
Less
thrilling is the truth that Satan is a real spirit personage of great power. President
J. Reuben Clark wrote: “From that sacred hour in the grove, Satan never forgot
Joseph for a moment until his murderers had finished their work, and never to
this day has Satan forgotten Joseph's mission and work. Slander, vilification,
falsehood, persecution, plunderings, whippings, mobbings, law courts, jails,
were daily piled upon Joseph for a quarter of a century, and then he was
massacred by a mob. . . .” President Hinckley adds, the idea that all ministers
of religion are not corrupt, but those that Joseph Smith dealt with after
sharing his vision, and many he dealt with later, were.
The First
Vision is the heart and foundation of the restored Church of Jesus Christ and is
the most remarkable vision ever received in the history of the world, given at
this time because it began or opened the final culminating dispensation of the
fulness of times. The visitation of God
and Jesus sanctified the sacred grove.
Lastly,
many of these Apostles and Prophets declare their witness that this visitation
occurred to be perfect, with no doubt or mistake or error involved. They have
absolute knowledge that it is absolute truth and reality.
Joseph
was wearied with his experience in the Grove. The encounter, however long or
short, demanded much from him. He says, “I came to myself.” I think it
inappropriate to say that he had been in a trance or a mystic state. The
clearest parallels come from the ancient records of Moses and Abraham and
Enoch. Like those prophets of old, Joseph was filled with a spirit which
enabled him to endure the presence of God. Is that spirit enervating or is it
energizing? My considered answer is, “Yes.” It is both. It demands from us a
concentration and a surrender comparable to nothing else possible in this life.
But it also confers great capacities that transcend our finite mental,
spiritual, and physical powers.
In
1832, emerging from the vision on the three degrees of glory (Doctrine and
Covenants 76) with his companion in the vision, Sidney Rigdon, the Prophet
looked strong, while Sidney was limp and pale. To this the Prophet, with a
certain humility as also perhaps with a little condescension, said, “Sidney is
not as used to it as I am.” But after the First Vision, he was feeble. It was
difficult for him to go home. Similarly, in his 1823 encounter with Moroni, the
repetitive encounter, he was left weak, and his father sent him home. He
couldn’t even climb the fence, though he was usually a strong and vigorous boy.
Neibaur reports him saying of his condition immediately following the First
Vision, “I . . . felt uncommon feeble.”
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