(Part eighteen of a series compiled by Dennis B.Horne)
As far as I can discover, it
seems to me that President Hinckley had more to say about Joseph Smith’s First
Vision than any other modern prophet or apostle. As the below quotations
demonstrate, he had studied the historical records, was informed on the
scholarship (including the faulty arguments of the critics), had visited the
sacred grove repeatedly, and had pondered and prayed and received a witness
from the Holy Spirit, probably multiple witnesses, that what Joseph testified
took place did. President Hinckley’s testimony of the First Vision must
therefore be considered one of the greatest prophetic witnesses given since the
event of the vision itself. The below selections are given in chronological
order:
Joseph Smith likewise was a figure
of loneliness. I have a great love for the boy who came out of the woods, who
after that experience could never be the same again, who was berated and
persecuted and looked down upon. Can you sense the pathos in these words of the
boy prophet?
For I had seen a vision; I knew it,
and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at
least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation. [JS—H
1:25]
When I was a boy, twelve years of
age, my father took me to a meeting of the priesthood of the stake in which we
lived. I sat on the back row while he, as president of the stake, sat on the
stand. At the opening of that meeting, the first of its kind I had ever
attended, three or four hundred men stood. They were men from varied
backgrounds and many vocations, but each had in his heart the same conviction,
out of which together they sang these great words:
Praise to the man who communed with
Jehovah!
Jesus anointed that Prophet and Seer.
Blessed to open the last
dispensation,
Kings shall extol him, and nations
revere.
Something
happened within me as I heard those men of faith sing. There came into my
boyish heart a knowledge, placed there by the Holy Spirit, that Joseph Smith
was indeed a prophet of the Almighty. In the many years that have since passed,
years in which I have read much of his words and works, that knowledge has
grown stronger and ever more certain. Mine has been the privilege of
bearing witness across this nation from sea to shining sea, and on continents
north and south, east and west, that he was and is a prophet of God, a mighty
servant and testifier of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Great is his glory and endless his
priesthood:
Ever and ever the keys he will hold.
Faithful and true, he will enter his
kingdom,
Crowned in the midst of the prophets
of old.
That testimony I reaffirm to you
this day, as I also affirm that he who presides at this conference is the legal
successor to him of whom I have spoken. I know that, and I leave my testimony
in the name of him of whom Joseph Smith was a witness and of whom I also am a
witness, even the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Two weeks ago today I was in Nauvoo,
the City of Joseph, with two of my brethren of the First Quorum of the Seventy
and twelve mission presidents and their wives for a mission presidents’
seminar. The touch of autumn was on the land—the leaves golden, a little haze
in the air, the nights cool, the days warm. The tourist season was over, and
the old city was quiet and beautiful. We held our first meeting in the restored
Seventies Hall, where in the 1840s men prepared themselves, through study and
through teaching one another the doctrine of the Kingdom, to go out to declare
the message of the gospel to the world. This was the forerunner of the
Missionary Training Center. As we met in that and other
homes and halls in Nauvoo, it was as if the figures of the past were with
us—Joseph and Hyrum, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, John Taylor, Wilford
Woodruff, the brothers Pratt—Orson and Parley—and a host of others. . . .
In my looking back from Nauvoo the
other day I thought of the forces that moved the Smith family from generations
of life in New England to western New York, where they had to come if the
foreordained purposes of God were to be accomplished. I thought of the loss of
the family farm, of poor crops in that thin soil, of the great freeze of 1816
when a killing frost in July forced upon them the decision to look elsewhere;
then of the move to Palmyra, of the purchase of a farm in Manchester, and of
the revival preachers who stirred the people and so confused a boy that he
determined to ask God for that wisdom so lacking in the contending revivalists.
That was the real beginning of it
all, as you know—that spring day in the year 1820 when he knelt among the trees,
opened his mouth in prayer, and beheld a glorious vision in which he spoke with
God the Eternal Father and His Son, the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Then followed
the years of instruction, the instructor an angel of God who on a dozen
occasions taught, rebuked, warned, and comforted the boy as he grew into the
young man.
On the morning of April 6th when we drove to this scene,
I had great difficulty restraining tears because of the strong emotions that
welled within me. I felt particularly emotional over standing in the restored
Whitmer home under circumstances designed to simulate the meeting which
occurred 150 years earlier where the Prophet Joseph Smith and his associates
stood. Those of us who were in the little log house on April 6, 1980, were
touched by the Spirit of the Lord in a wonderful way, as we were also when we
moved over to the chapel. I was moved and impressed to reflect on the wonderful
ways of the Almighty and of the terrible price paid by those who have gone
before us for what we enjoy today. There came a strong
and certain reaffirmation of my conviction that God our Eternal Father lives
and that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior and the Redeemer of the world, that
the Father and the Son in very deed appeared to the boy Joseph Smith in
the grove. . . . I knew
with renewed certitude that the Book of Mormon is exactly what Joseph said it
is . . . I felt to rejoice over
the opportunity to be a part of this great eternal work restored to the earth.
(Gordon B. Hinckley, "Thoughts and Feelings of Gordon B. Hinckley
on the Occasion of the General Conference of the Church, Part of Which
Originated in Fayette, New York, 6 April 1980," unpublished memorandum,
LDS Church Archives. Cited in Go
Forward With Faith, chap 18.)
This gospel dispensation, of which
we are the beneficiaries, opened with a glorious vision in which the Father and
the Son appeared to the boy Joseph Smith. Having had that experience, the boy
recounted it to one of the preachers of the community. He treated the account
“with great contempt, saying it was all of the devil, that there were no such
things as visions or revelations in these days.” (JS—H 1:21.)
Others took up the cry against him.
He became the object of severe persecution. But, he said, and note these words:
“I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two
Personages, and they did in reality speak to me; and though I was hated and
persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they
were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil against me
falsely for so saying, I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute me for
telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can
withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually
seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I
could not deny it, neither dared I do it.” (JS—H 1:25.)
There is no lack of certitude in
that statement. For Joseph Smith that experience was as real as the warmth of
the sun at noonday. He never flagged nor wavered in his conviction.
The second cornerstone—the first
vision of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The year was 1820, the season spring. The
boy with questions walked into the grove of his father’s farm. There, finding
himself alone, he pleaded in prayer for that wisdom which James promised would
be given liberally to those who ask of God in faith. (See James 1:5.) There, in
circumstances which he has described in much detail, he beheld the Father and
the Son, the great God of the universe and the risen Lord, both of whom spoke
to him.
This transcendent experience opened
the marvelous work of restoration. It lifted the curtain on the long-promised
dispensation of the fulness of times.
For more than a century and a half,
enemies, critics, and some would-be scholars have worn out their lives trying
to disprove the validity of that vision. Of course they cannot understand it.
The things of God are understood by the Spirit of God. There had been nothing
of comparable magnitude since the Son of God walked the earth in mortality.
Without it as a foundation stone for our faith and organization, we have
nothing. With it, we have everything.
Much has been written, much will be
written, in an effort to explain it away. The finite mind cannot comprehend it.
But the testimony of the Holy Spirit, experienced by countless numbers of
people all through the years since it happened, bears witness that it is true,
that it happened as Joseph Smith said it happened, that it was as real as the
sunrise over Palmyra, that it is an essential foundation stone, a cornerstone,
without which the Church could not be “fitly framed together.”
I believe in
prayer, in the invitation to come unto my Eternal Father in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I believe in the integrity of the promise “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” (James 1:5).
It was that promise that prompted the boy Joseph Smith to
go into the grove, there to kneel in supplication and seek an answer to his
question.
I believe, without reservation, in
the reality of the vision he described. From that wellspring of
communication between the God of Heaven, the resurrected Redeemer of the World,
and a boy, pure in heart and unschooled, has grown this magnificent and
wonderful and true Church that is spreading over the earth to bless the lives
of all who will hear its message.
I believe in prayer, that prayer which is the practice of
those who have been called to leadership in this Church and which brings forth
inspiration and revelation from God for the blessing of his church and people.
I believe in prayer, the precious and wonderful privilege given each of us for
our individual guidance, comfort, and peace.
I have not spoken face to face with all of the prophets
of this dispensation. I was not acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith, nor
did I ever hear him speak. My grandfather, who as a young man lived in Nauvoo,
did hear him and testified of his divine calling as the great prophet of this
dispensation. But I feel I have come to know the Prophet Joseph Smith.
I have read and believed his
testimony of his great first vision in which he conversed with the Father and
the Son. I have pondered the wonder of that as I have stood in the grove where
he prayed, and in that environment, by the power of the Spirit, I have received
a witness that it happened as he said it happened.
I
have read the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God.
By the power of the Holy Ghost I have received a testimony and a witness of the
divine origin of this sacred record. Joseph Smith did not write it of his own
capacity.
When I was about 14 or 15, my brother and I would
accompany our parents to the General Conference held in the Tabernacle. At that
time there was room for everyone who wished to get in. Heber J. Grant was
President of the Church. In imagination, I can still see and hear him. He stood
tall. He did not read from a manuscript. He spoke from his heart. His voice
rang out in moving words of testimony concerning Joseph Smith and the Book of
Mormon.
From these and other experiences of my younger years,
there came accretions of knowledge and faith concerning the Prophet Joseph. Was
there ever doubt? Yes, admittedly at times, particularly in my university days.
That was a time of general cynicism. It was the bottom of the Great Depression,
a depression so deep and severe that the present recession, by comparison,
seems to be a season of prosperity.
I read in those days, and have since read, much of the
writing leveled against the Prophet by critics, not a few, who have worn out
their lives trying, honestly or dishonestly, to find some flaw of character,
some note of history to destroy the credibility of Joseph Smith. I am grateful
to say that I have survived them all, and that the more I have read, the
stronger has grown my faith in and my love for this most remarkable and
wonderful man. His detractors, without exception, insofar as I know, have had
their day in the sun, and then have faded into oblivion, while the name of
Joseph Smith has been honored in ever-widening circles around the earth.
I thank him, I honor him, I love him for the faith,
simple and trusting, that impelled him to go into the grove to ask of God,
“nothing doubting.” From that experience came knowledge of Deity beyond any
comprehended by the learned of the world through centuries of time. God, he
learned, is indeed in form like a man. He hears. He speaks. He introduces His
Beloved Son and directs Joseph to listen. The Son speaks, even the Resurrected
Lord Jesus Christ, the firstborn of the Father, and the Savior and Redeemer of
the world. He, too, is in form like a man. He counsels the boy before Them.
Those to whom he told this wondrous story ridiculed him.
I thank him and love him for the courage to stand up to those who were much his
senior and who mercilessly condemned him. “For I had seen a vision,” he said;
“I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared
I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under
condemnation” (JS-H 1:25). Because of his experience and his testimony, I know
to whom I may go in prayer, petitioning the Father in the name of His Beloved
Son. . . .
I have walked where he walked through the fields to the
Sacred Grove. Some years ago in company with the Rochester stake president, the
Cumorah mission president, and a Regional Representative, I
went to the Sacred Grove early in the morning of a spring Sabbath day. It had
been raining in the night. Little drops of water glistened on the tiny new
leaves. We prayed together in that quiet and hallowed place, and there came
into my heart at that time a conviction that what the Prophet described
actually happened in 1820 here amidst the trees.
I thank my Father in Heaven for the
testimony I have of the reality of the First Vision. I
have stood among the trees where Joseph knelt as a boy, and heard the
whisperings of the Spirit that it happened as he said it happened. I have
read the words of critics, who from 1820 until now have tried to destroy the
validity of that account. They have made much of the fact that there were
several versions and that the account as we now have it was not written until
1838. So what? I find security for my faith in the simplicity of his narrative,
in its lack of argument, in its straightforward reasonableness, and in the fact
that he sealed his testimony with his life’s blood. Could there have been a
stronger endorsement?
Is it strange that James, writing
anciently, would invite all who lacked wisdom to ask of God in faith?
(see James 1:5). Is it
strange that such prayer would receive an answer? I thank the Lord for the
faith to believe that the answer to that prayer came with a glorious manifestation
of the Eternal Father and His Beloved Son, to part the curtain after centuries
of darkness and open a new and promised and final dispensation of the gospel.
Did it happen? I have no doubt of it. Was it not time, as a great age of
enlightenment began to dawn upon the world, that these, the Father and the Son,
should reveal themselves to show their form and power and living reality, and
thus declare, once and for all, the true nature of Deity?
God lives. He is our Eternal Father, the Creator and
Governor of the Universe, the Almighty who is above all. He who is above all
deigned to talk with a boy in a grove of trees in upstate New York. He who is above
all will hear your prayer and hear mine. He lives. Jesus is the Christ, the
foreordained Son of God who condescended to come to earth, who was born in a
manger, in a conquered nation among a vassal people, the Son of God, the Only
Begotten of the Father in the flesh, the Firstborn of the Father and the Author
of our salvation. He is our Redeemer, our Savior, through whose Atonement
eternal life is made possible for all who will walk in obedience to His
teachings. May testimony grow in our hearts that this is in reality the church
of the living God and that it will continue to gain momentum and move forward
to fulfill its divine destiny. (Go Forward With Faith,
chap 25; Address at Crawley, England, Fireside, 26 August 1995)
And then comes the ringing testimony
of the Prophet of this dispensation that in a wondrous theophany he saw and was
spoken to by the Almighty Father and the Risen Son. That vision, glorious
beyond description, became the wellspring of this The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, with all the keys, authority, and power found therein, and
the sustaining comfort to be found in the testimony of its people.
We are met to worship the Lord, to
declare His divinity and His living reality. We are met to reaffirm our love
for Him and our knowledge of His love for us. No one, regardless of what he or
she may say, can diminish that love.
There are some who try. For
instance, there are some of other faiths who do not regard us as Christians.
That is not important. How we regard ourselves is what is important. We
acknowledge without hesitation that there are differences between us. Were this
not so there would have been no need for a restoration of the gospel. President
Packer and Elder Ballard recently spoke of this in other settings.
I hope we do not argue over this
matter. There is no reason to debate it. We simply, quietly, and without apology
testify that God has revealed Himself and His Beloved Son in opening this full
and final dispensation of His work. . . .\
A week ago I was in Palmyra, New
York. I there dedicated two buildings. One was a restoration of the small log
home in which the Joseph Smith Sr. family first lived in that area. It was in
this humble home that the 14-year-old Joseph determined to go into the nearby
grove to ask of God and experienced an incomparable vision of the Father and
the Son. . . .
How grateful I am for the testimony
with which God has blessed me of the divine calling of Joseph Smith, of the
reality of the First Vision, of the restoration of the priesthood, of the truth
of this, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1998/04/we-bear-witness-of-him?lang=eng
As I mentioned earlier in this
conference, I’ve recently been in Palmyra, New York. Of the events which
occurred in that area, one is led to say: “They either happened or they did
not. There can be no gray area, no middle ground.”
And then the voice of faith
whispers: “It all happened. It happened just as he said it happened.”
Nearby is the Hill Cumorah. From
there came the ancient record from which was translated the Book of Mormon. One
must accept or reject its divine origin. Weighing of the evidence must lead
every man and woman who has read with faith to say, “It is true.”
And so it is with other elements of
this miraculous thing which we call the restoration of the ancient gospel, the
ancient priesthood, and the ancient Church.
This testimony is now, as it has
always been, a declaration, a straightforward assertion of truth as we know it.
Simple and powerful is the statement of Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon
concerning the Lord, who stands at the head of this work:
“And now, after the many testimonies
which have been given of him, 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” (D&C 76:22–24).
It is in this spirit that I add my
own witness. Our Eternal Father lives. He stands as the great God of the
universe, ruling in majesty and power. And yet He is my Father, to whom I may
go in prayer with the assurance that He will hear, listen, and answer.
Jesus is the Christ, His immortal
Son, who under His Father’s direction was the Creator of the earth. He was the
great Jehovah of the Old Testament, who condescended to come into the world as
the Messiah, who gave His life on Calvary’s cross in His wondrous Atonement
because He loved us. The work in which we are engaged is their work, and we are
their servants, who are answerable to them.
“We
believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the
Holy Ghost” (A of F 1:1). This first article of faith epitomizes our doctrine.
We do not accept the Athanasian Creed. We do not accept the Nicene Creed, nor
any other creed based on tradition and the conclusions of men.
We
do accept, as the basis of our doctrine, the statement of the Prophet Joseph
Smith that when he prayed for wisdom in the woods, “the light rested upon me
[and] 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!” (JS—H 1:17).
Two
beings of substance were before him. He saw them. They were in form like men,
only much more glorious in their appearance. He spoke to them. They spoke to
him. They were not amorphous spirits. Each was a distinct personality. They
were beings of flesh and bone whose nature was reaffirmed in later revelations
which came to the Prophet.
Our
entire case as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rests
on the validity of this glorious First Vision. It was the parting of the
curtain to open this, the dispensation of the fulness 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.
Remember that God is in His heaven, that He is your
Father and my Father and that He is the Father of His Only Begotten Son in the
flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ, who lived and died for each of us. And after long
generations of apostasy since He was raised from the dead, they, the Father and
the Son, have appeared again and parted the curtain in this, the dispensation
of the fulness of times, and brought back the ancient priesthood with all its
powers and gifts and authority and the true Church of the Lord which carries
His holy name, even the name of Jesus Christ, and it is our Father’s wish to
bless us. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to live well. He desires to
bless us. And we must put our trust in Him (regional conference, Santiago,
Chile, 26 Apr. 1999).
This is God’s holy work. This is
His Church and kingdom. The vision that occurred in the Sacred Grove was just
as Joseph said it was. We are building a new temple overlooking this hallowed
ground to further testify to the reality of this most sacred event. As I
recently stood in the snow to determine where this new temple will stand, there
came into my heart a true understanding of the importance of what happened in
the Sacred Grove. The Book of Mormon is true. It testifies of the Lord
Jesus Christ. His priesthood has been restored and is among us. The keys of
that priesthood, which have come from heavenly beings, are exercised for our
eternal blessing. Such is our testimony—yours
and mine—a testimony which we must share with others.
As a Church we have critics, many of them. They say we do
not believe in the traditional Christ of Christianity. There is some substance
to what they say. Our faith, our knowledge is not based on ancient tradition,
the creeds which came of a finite understanding and out of the almost infinite
discussions of men trying to arrive at a definition of the risen Christ. Our
faith, our knowledge comes of the witness of a prophet in this dispensation who
saw before him the great God of the universe and His Beloved Son, the
resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. They spoke to him. He spoke with Them. He
testified openly, unequivocally, and unabashedly of that great vision. It was a
vision of the Almighty and of the Redeemer of the world, glorious beyond our
understanding but certain and unequivocating in the knowledge which it brought.
Now, in
conclusion, I hope that all of you will remember that on this Sabbath day you
heard me bear my witness that this is God’s holy work. The vision given the
Prophet Joseph in the grove of Palmyra was not an imaginary thing. It was real.
It occurred in the broad light of day. Both the Father and the Son spoke to the
boy. He saw Them standing in the air above him. He heard Their voices. He gave
heed to Their instruction.
It was the resurrected Lord who was
introduced by His Father, the great God of the universe. For the first time in
recorded history, both the Father and the Son appeared together to part the
curtains and open this, the last and final dispensation, the dispensation of
the fulness of times.
Never forget that this Church began with the humble
prayer of the boy Joseph Smith in the grove of his father’s farm. From that
remarkable experience, which we call the First Vision, has grown this work
until today it is established in 160 nations, with a membership of over 12
million. It is the very personification of Daniel’s vision of a stone cut out
of the mountain without hands rolling forth to fill the whole earth (see Daniel 2:44–45).
Joseph, when he was 14 years of age, had an experience in
that glorious First Vision that was different from any other recorded
experience of any man. At no other time of which we have any record have God
our Eternal Father and His Beloved Son, the risen Lord, appeared on earth
together.
At the time of the baptism of Jesus by John in the river
Jordan, the voice of God was heard, but He was not seen. At the Mount of
Transfiguration, again the voice of God was heard, but there is no record of
His appearance. Stephen saw the Lord on the right hand of the Father, but They
did not address or instruct him.
Following His Resurrection, Jesus appeared to the
Nephites in the Western Hemisphere. The voice of the Almighty was heard three
times, introducing the risen Christ, but there was no appearance of the Father.
How truly remarkable was that vision in the year 1820
when Joseph prayed in the woods and there appeared before him both the Father
and the Son. One of these spoke to him, calling him by name and, pointing to
the other, said, “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (Joseph
Smith—History 1:17).
Nothing like it had ever happened before. One is led to
wonder why it was so important that both the Father and the Son appear. I think
it was because They were ushering in the dispensation of the fulness of times,
the last and final dispensation of the gospel, when there would be gathered
together in one the elements of all previous dispensations. This was to be the
final chapter in the long chronicle of God’s dealing with men and women upon
the earth.
Following the Savior’s death, the Church He had
established drifted into apostasy. Fulfilled were the words of Isaiah, who
said, “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they
have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting
covenant” (Isaiah 24:5).
Realizing the importance of knowing the true nature of
God, men had struggled to find a way to define Him. Learned clerics argued with
one another. When Constantine became a Christian in the fourth century, he
called together a great convocation of learned men with the hope that they
could reach a conclusion of understanding concerning the true nature of Deity.
All they reached was a compromise of various points of view. The result was the
Nicene Creed of A.D. 325. This and subsequent creeds have become the
declaration of doctrine concerning the nature of Deity for most of Christianity
ever since.
I have read them all a number of times. I cannot
understand them. I think others cannot understand them. I am sure that the Lord
also knew that many would not understand them. And so in 1820, in that
incomparable vision, the Father and the Son appeared to the boy Joseph. They
spoke to him with words that were audible, and he spoke to Them. They could
see. They could speak. They could hear. They were personal. They were of
substance. They were not imaginary beings. They were beings tabernacled in
flesh. And out of that experience has come our unique and true understanding of
the nature of Deity.
No wonder that when Joseph in 1842 wrote the Articles of
Faith he stated as number one, “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in
His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost” (Articles of
Faith 1:1).
He [the Lord] further said, concerning that which is
taught by His servants, that “those who receive it in faith, and work
righteousness, shall receive a crown of eternal life;
“But those who harden their
hearts in unbelief, and reject it, it shall turn to their own condemnation.” (D&C
20:14–15.)
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