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The '''First Vision''' of [[Joseph Smith]] is recognized by the [[Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (Mormons) as the starting event of their religious movement. According to the standard narrative of this event, Joseph Smith, while a young boy of 14, became concerned about his salvation and religious truth. While seeking God in the woods in the spring of 1820, a heavenly being (or beings) appeared to him and declared that God was going to inaugurate the “restitution of all things.” This vision, on April 6, 1820, is considered the foundation of the LDS church, so that LDS President [[Gordon Hinckley]] declared at the October 1998 Church Conference, “Our entire case as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rests on the validity of this glorious First Vision . . . Nothing on which we base our doctrine, nothing we teach, we live by is of greater importance than this initial declaration.”<ref>Gordon B. Hinckley, “What Are People Asking About Us?” ''The Ensign'' (November 1998): 70–71.</ref>

The '''First Vision''' of [[Joseph Smith]] is recognized by the [[Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (Mormons) as the starting event of their religious movement. According to the standard [[narrative]] of this event, Joseph Smith, while a young boy of 14, became concerned about his salvation and religious truth. While seeking God in the woods in the spring of 1820, a heavenly being (or beings) appeared to him and declared that God was going to inaugurate the “restitution of all things.” This vision, on April 6, 1820, is considered the foundation of the LDS church, so that LDS President [[Gordon Hinckley]] declared at the October 1998 Church Conference, “Our entire case as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rests on the validity of this glorious First Vision . . . Nothing on which we base our doctrine, nothing we teach, we live by is of greater importance than this initial declaration.”<ref>Gordon B. Hinckley, “What Are People Asking About Us?” ''The Ensign'' (November 1998): 70–71.</ref>

The first published account of Smith’s vision was composed in 1838 or 1839 and then printed in the Mormon newspaper ''Times and Seasons'' in 1842.<ref> Hugh Nibley, "Censoring the Joseph Smith Story," in ''The Improvement Era'' (Salt Lake City: Mutual Improvement Associations), 64:490.</ref> It was canonized in ''The Pearl of Great Price'' in 1880. In the canonical version Smith relates that when he was 15,<ref>According to the date of his birth, he was only 14; later in the account he makes the same mistake, saying that he was “an obscure boy, of a little over fourteen years of age.”</ref> there was a revival of religion in his neighborhood that resulted in his mother, sister, and two brothers joining the Presbyterian denomination. Smith was undecided about which church to join, and so he went into the words to pray. He was then overcome by “thick darkness,” after which a pillar of light appeared and “two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description” appeared above him. “One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is my Beloved Son, Hear Him!” After composing himself, Smith asked the personages which sect was right so that he could join it, to which the Personage replied that “all their creeds were an abomination in his sight” and Smith was forbidden to join any of them. Smith claimed that he returned home and began to share what he learned in this vision, which resulted in his experiencing “great persecution.”<ref>[https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp?lang=eng Account of First Vision] 1.7–22.</ref>

The first published account of Smith’s vision was composed in 1838 or 1839 and then printed in the Mormon newspaper ''Times and Seasons'' in 1842.<ref> Hugh Nibley, "Censoring the Joseph Smith Story," in ''The Improvement Era'' (Salt Lake City: Mutual Improvement Associations), 64:490.</ref> It was canonized in ''The Pearl of Great Price'' in 1880. In the canonical version Smith relates that when he was 15,<ref>According to the date of his birth, he was only 14; later in the account he makes the same mistake, saying that he was “an obscure boy, of a little over fourteen years of age.”</ref> there was a revival of religion in his neighborhood that resulted in his mother, sister, and two brothers joining the Presbyterian denomination. Smith was undecided about which church to join, and so he went into the words to pray. He was then overcome by “thick darkness,” after which a pillar of light appeared and “two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description” appeared above him. “One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is my Beloved Son, Hear Him!” After composing himself, Smith asked the personages which sect was right so that he could join it, to which the Personage replied that “all their creeds were an abomination in his sight” and Smith was forbidden to join any of them. Smith claimed that he returned home and began to share what he learned in this vision, which resulted in his experiencing “great persecution.”<ref>[https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp?lang=eng Account of First Vision] 1.7–22.</ref>