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Detailed response to CES Letter, First Vision
Response to "First Vision Concerns & Questions"
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I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision anymore than I am worried that there are four different writers of the gospels in the New Testament, each with his own perceptions, each telling the events to meet his own purpose for writing at the time. I am more concerned with the fact that God has revealed in this dispensation a great and marvelous and beautiful plan that motivates men and women to love their Creator and their Redeemer, to appreciate and serve one another, to walk in faith on the road that leads to immortality and eternal life.
—Gordon B. Hinckley, “God Hath Not Given Us the Spirit of Fear,” Ensign, Oct 1984, 2 off-site
- Response to section: "There are at least 4 different First Vision accounts by Joseph Smith"
- Response to section: "The dates / his ages are all over the place"
- Response to section: "The reason or motive for seeking divine help – bible reading and conviction of sins, a revival, a desire to know if God exists, wanting to know which church to join – are all over the place"
- Response to section: "Who appears to him – a spirit, an angel, two angels, Jesus, many angels, the Father and the Son – are all over the place."
- Response to section: "The historical record shows that there was no revival in Palmyra in 1820"
- Response to section: "Why did Joseph hold a Trinitarian view of the Godhead, as shown previously with the Book of Mormon, if he clearly saw that the Father and Son were separate embodied beings in the official First Vision?"
- Response to section: "There is absolutely no record of a First Vision prior to 1832"
- Response to section: "In the 1832 account, Joseph said that before praying he knew that there was no true or living faith or denomination upon the earth"
Response Section
"There are at least 4 different First Vision accounts by Joseph Smith"
{{CESLetterItem |claim=The author notes that "There are at least 4 different First Vision accounts by Joseph Smith". |answer=
- The author got one fact correct:
There are more than four. The Church website notes "at least four accounts of the First Vision." - Answer:
Primary sources
Summary: Original text of Joseph's accounts of the First Vision- 1832 account—
Brief Summary: This is the earliest known account of the First Vision written by Joseph Smith. Source: Joseph Smith Letterbook 1, pp. 1-6. Published in: Dean Jessee, Personal Writings of Joseph Smith. (Click here for full article)∗ ∗ ∗ - 1835 account—
Brief Summary: This account was written by Joseph Smith in his diary. Joseph described his vision to Robert Matthias, also known as "Joshua the Jewish minister". Joseph Smith Diary (1835–1836), original in Joseph Smith Collection, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah. Published in: Dean Jessee, Personal Writings of Joseph Smith. (Click here for full article)∗ ∗ ∗ - 1835 (Erastus Holmes account)—
Brief Summary: Erastus Holmes account Deseret News 2.15 (May 29, 1852); also in Millennial Star 15. 27 (July 2, 1853): 424; Jessee, The Papers of Joseph Smith, 2: 79-80; cf. Dan Vogel (editor), Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1996–2003), 5 vols, 1:207.; DHC 2. 312. (Click here for full article)∗ ∗ ∗ - 1840 (Orson Pratt account) (Click here for full article)
∗ ∗ ∗ - 1842 (Joseph Smith History of the Church)—
Brief Summary: "Joseph Smith’s History of the Church," Times and Seasons 3. 10 (15 Mar. 1842): 726-28 (Click here for full article)∗ ∗ ∗ - 1842 (Wentworth letter account)—
Brief Summary: Wentworth letter. (Times and Seasons, 3.9 (1 Mar. 1842), p. 706-710 (Click here for full article)∗ ∗ ∗ - 1842 (Orson Hyde account) (Click here for full article)
∗ ∗ ∗ - 1843 (The Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette)—
Brief Summary: “The Prairies, Nauvoo, Joe Smith, the Temple, the Mormons, etc.,” editor, David Nye White, The Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette 58 (September 15, 1843): 3 (Click here for full article)∗ ∗ ∗ - 1843 (Levi Richards account)—
Brief Summary: Levi Richards’s diary about Joseph Smith preaching in the summer of 1843 and repeating the Lord’s first message to him that no church was His (see Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of Joseph Smith, 2nd Edition, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1996), 215. (Click here for full article)∗ ∗ ∗ - 1844 (Daniel Rupp account)—
Brief Summary: : “Latter Day Saints, by Joseph Smith, Nauvoo, Illinois,” in I. Daniel Rupp, HE PASA EKKLESIA: An Original History of the Religious Denominations at Present Existing in the United States (Philadelphia: J. Y. Humphreys, 1844), pp. 404; The account for Rupp was published in the original history of the Church published in “History of Joseph Smith,” Millennial Star 22. 7 (February 18, 1860): 102-3; also in Dean Jesse, Papers of Joseph Smith, 1:448. (Click here for full article)∗ ∗ ∗ - 1844 (Alexander Neibaur account)—
Brief Summary: Alexander Neibaur Journal, 24 May 1844 (Click here for full article)∗ ∗ ∗
- 1832 account—
Gospel Topics, located on lds.org., "First Vision Accounts"
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gospel Topics, located on lds.org.The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story, though naturally they differ in emphasis and detail. Historians expect that when an individual retells an experience in multiple settings to different audiences over many years, each account will emphasize various aspects of the experience and contain unique details. Indeed, differences similar to those in the First Vision accounts exist in the multiple scriptural accounts of Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus and the Apostles’ experience on the Mount of Transfiguration.3 Yet despite the differences, a basic consistency remains across all the accounts of the First Vision. Some have mistakenly argued that any variation in the retelling of the story is evidence of fabrication. To the contrary, the rich historical record enables us to learn more about this remarkable event than we could if it were less well documented.
Click here to view the complete article
"The dates / his ages are all over the place"
"The reason or motive for seeking divine help – bible reading and conviction of sins, a revival, a desire to know if God exists, wanting to know which church to join – are all over the place"
"Who appears to him – a spirit, an angel, two angels, Jesus, many angels, the Father and the Son – are all over the place."
"The historical record shows that there was no revival in Palmyra in 1820"
"Why did Joseph hold a Trinitarian view of the Godhead, as shown previously with the Book of Mormon, if he clearly saw that the Father and Son were separate embodied beings in the official First Vision?"
"There is absolutely no record of a First Vision prior to 1832"
"In the 1832 account, Joseph said that before praying he knew that there was no true or living faith or denomination upon the earth"
==Notes
- [note] Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism (Urbana and Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois Press; Reprint edition, 1987), 53. ISBN 0252060121.