 |
| Joseph Smith's First Vision, 1913, artist unknown, stained glass window |
In Mormon folklore, today is the 195th anniversary
of Joseph Smith experiencing what the Latter-day Saints know as the First Vision, the occasion when Joseph Smith received a visitation of the Father and the Son in response to
Joseph’s first vocal prayer. (In reality, no one knows the precise date of the
First Vision; Joseph Smith merely stated that it occurred “early in the spring”
of 1820.)
The First Vision is crucial to the Latter-day Saint faith
for several reasons:
- It is the foundation of the claim that God commissioned the LDS Church because other Christian churches were not commissioned by the Lord, or had departed from His ways.
- It is the foundation for the LDS sense of the Godhead as being composed of three separate Personages, rather than the three-in-one Persons of traditional Christianity.
- It is the foundation for the LDS claim that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.
If the First Vision happened, in the way that Joseph Smith
said it did, then the LDS Church is what it says it is: the Restored Church of
the living God. If the First Vision did not happen—that is, if it were a
fabrication, or some kind of hallucination or delusion, of Joseph Smith’s—then the
LDS Church is an extremely well-meaning sham.
The stakes are high with the First Vision.
All the more important it is, then, to deal with the claims
that some have made, to the effect that the existence of different versions of
the First Vision, each differing from the others in certain details, suggests
that Joseph Smith essentially made up the First Vision out of whole cloth.
I have studied this matter for some time, consulting such
sources as Joseph Smith’s own writings, not only in the LDS Standard Works but
in other collections, including some not published by the LDS Church at all. I
have also studied the works of historians, such as Richard Bushman’s excellent,
readable, and comprehensive biography, Joseph
Smith—Rough Stone Rolling. And this is what I have concluded.
I simply do not see a problem here at all.
Sure, Joseph Smith states in one account that he met one
Personage, and in another that he met two such Personages. Angels work into some accounts, and not others. As I have come to understand it, these are not
mutually contradictory accounts, but simply reflect a different emphasis in what Joseph
Smith wished to convey at different times.
It is important to understand, as Dr. Bushman points out, that
the First Vision was not “the First Vision” to Joseph Smith: it was a deeply
personal experience, the meaning of which changed for him as he matured. At
first, what impressed him most was the forgiveness of his sins by Jesus. Later,
as he came to bear the burdens of Church leadership, he came to put less emphasis on the meaning of the vision for his
personal life, and more on what it meant for the Church and its message to the
world.
Is this not a very human thing? In my own life, I have come
to understand the significance of different events—struggles, successes,
relationships, even the meaning of an entire marriage—differently, as I have
matured and gained perspective. One should not expect this to be any different
for Joseph Smith, who emphasized repeatedly that he was a man, and a prophet
only when acting as such. If anything, to me, this maturing perspective argues
for the reality of the First Vision, and the truth of Joseph Smith’s narratives
thereof.
I would invite readers to peruse the different versions of
the First Vision for themselves. There are links to them within an essay published on the Church’s
website.
Of course, all that this blog entry does is deal with an
objection to the First Vision. The real issue is, did it really happen? And for
that, I suggest that readers do what Joseph Smith did, and what I did myself to
learn of the truth of this experience: seek personal revelation through prayer.
-
Readers are welcome to comment on this post, below.
I invite you to become a “follower” of this blog through the
box in the upper-right-hand corner of this page, to be informed of future
posts.
I discuss the growth of the Church of Jesus Christ in my
book, The Rise of the Mormons, and I discuss
another important issue in my book, Latter-day Saint
Women and the Priesthood of God (both available here.)
Visit the page of “That Mormon Guy Mark” on Facebook.
Visit MarkKoltko-Rivera’s website.
Mark Koltko-Rivera’s
LDS bio.
[The photo of the 1913 stained glass window, “Joseph
Smith’s First Vision,” artist unknown, was obtained from the official LDS
website. Being a reproduction of an artwork over a century old, it is in the
public domain.]
Copyright 2015 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights
Reserved.
