And in the next breath we say, “I know that Joseph Smith, Junior, was chosen, appointed, anointed, and called as God’s prophet for this age in order to reveal Christ and to reveal salvation.” We bear witness of Christ, and we bear witness of Joseph Smith. [20] For a copy of the Pratt story, see Cheesman, “An Analysis of the Accounts,” appendix C. [21] Orson Pratt, An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records (Edinburgh: Ballantyne and Hughes, 1840), 5. First, it was apparently written in 1835 by someone other than Joseph Smith, for it records the day-to-day events in the Prophet’s life in the third person, as if it were a scribe recording them as he observed them. In private conversation, Mr. Cheesman indicated that the original document was actually not clear—the number could have been either sixteen or fourteen, but sixteen appeared to be more likely. The history commenced with the now famous account of what has been termed the “First Vision,” in which he told of the appearance to him, in 1820, of two heavenly personages. [20] He describes in more detail, for example, the problems running through young Joseph’s mind when he was “somewhere about fourteen or fifteen years old.” The appearance of the light is described in more vivid detail, and the whole account takes on a more dramatic air than any recorded story told by Joseph himself. As far as Mormon literature is concerned, there was apparently no reference to Joseph Smith’s First Vision in any published material in the 1830s. . [12] Compare with Roberts’s edition, History of the Church, 2:304. Joseph himself wrote at least two different accounts for publication. rev. There is little, if any, evidence, however, that by the early 1830s Joseph Smith was telling the story in public. When was it first published? Non-Mormon accounts of the rise of the Church written in the 1830s made no mention of the story of the vision. The several variations in these and other accounts would seem to suggest that, in relating his story to various individuals at various times, Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of it and that his listeners were each impressed with different things. Suffice it to say that by the turn of the century, the device was regularly used. This, of course, is to be expected, for the same thing happens in the retelling of any story. Their message concerned the Book of Mormon, but Corrill reported nothing of having heard of a prior vision. According to Joseph Smith, he told the story of the vision immediately after it happened in the early spring of 1820. Early one morning in the spring of 1820, Joseph went to a secluded woods to ask God which church he should join. [1] The earliest anti-Mormon literature attacked the Book of Mormon and the character of Joseph Smith but never mentioned the First Vision. Joseph was persecuted much of his adult life and was killed along with his brother Hyrum by a mob in Carthage, Illinois, on June 27, 1844. [5] John Corrill, A Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints (St. Louis: printed by author, 1839), 1. [17]. Years later, he recalled the experience in these words: As I looked upon him and listened, I thought to myself that a man bearing such a wonderful testimony as he did, and having such a countenance as he possessed, could hardly be a false prophet. In 1838, however, Joseph Smith decided to write the story for publication, and within a few years it had begun to achieve wide circulation within the Church. Walker wrote of hearing John Alger declare in “Fast meeting” that he had heard Joseph Smith relate the story of the vision, saying “that God touched his eyes with his finger and said, ‘Joseph this is my beloved Son, hear him.’ As soon as the Lord had touched his eyes with his finger he immediately saw the Saviour.” [24] The latter, of course, is only reminiscence, but together with the earlier narratives it demonstrates at least that a few people had this concept of the vision as it gradually took its place among the fundamental teachings of the Church. After centuries of darkness, the Lord opened the heavens to reveal His word and restore His Church through His chosen prophet. The conversation naturally turned to religion, and it is recorded that the Mormon prophet told his guest “the circumstances connected with the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, as recorded in the former part of this history.” [12] From reading the “Manuscript History,” therefore, as well as the printed History of the Church, one would get the impression that at this time Joseph Smith related only the Book of Mormon story. In Joseph Smith’s 1838 account, he said it happened in the fifteenth year of his age. Joseph Smith Joseph Smith (1805-1844), American religious leader, was the founder of a unique American sect, the Mormons, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This paper has been an attempt to trace the significance of the story of Joseph Smith’s First Vision in the development of Mormon thought. In connection with the story of the vision, then, it is important to ask certain questions: When was it first told? In 1827, Joseph retrieved this record, inscribed on thin golden plates, and shortly afterward began translating its words by the "gift of God. The importance of the manuscript here lies in the fact that the scribe wrote down what Joseph Smith said to his visitor, and he began not by telling the story of the discovery of the Book of Mormon but with an account of the First Vision. The significance of Doniphan’s intervention in behalf of the Mormon leaders cannot be overstated. While the story varies in some details from the version presently accepted, enough is intact to indicate that at least as early as 1833 Joseph Smith contemplated writing and perhaps publishing it. 3 The Prophet left some clues as to what he himself understood was the significance his vision in his firsthand accounts of that experience. According to his account, while praying Joseph was visited by two "personages" who identified themselves as God the Father and Jesus Christ. 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