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#In March 1826, Smith was arrested in Bainbridge, New York and charged with being “a disorderly person and an impostor” because of his occult practices in looking for buried treasure. There are official court records of his conviction.<ref>Marquardt and Walters, ''Inventing Mormonism'', p. 70.</ref>

#In March 1826, Smith was arrested in Bainbridge, New York and charged with being “a disorderly person and an impostor” because of his occult practices in looking for buried treasure. There are official court records of his conviction.<ref>Marquardt and Walters, ''Inventing Mormonism'', p. 70.</ref>

#In 1828, Smith applied for membership in the Methodist Church. His wife Emma was already a member of the church; both circumstances cannot be reconciled with the warning he supposedly received from divine beings in 1820 that the creeds of all denominations were “an abomination” and he was not to join any of them. In response to Smith’s request for church membership, Emma’s cousin Joseph Lewis raised an objection to allowing Smith’s name to be added to the church rolls on the grounds of Smith’s dealing in magic, the occult, and money-digging:<blockquote>I [Joseph Lewis], with Joshua McKune, a local preacher at that time, I think in June, 1828, heard on Saturday, that Joe Smith had joined the church on Wednesday afternoon, (as it was customary in those days to have circuit preaching at my father’s house on week-day). '''We thought it was a disgrace to the church to have a practicing necromancer, a dealer in enchantments and bleeding ghosts, in it'''. So on Sunday we went to father’s, the place of meeting that day, and got there in season to see Smith and talked with him some time in father’s shop before the meeting. Told him that his occupation, habits, and moral character were at variance with the discipline, that his name would be a disgrace to the church, that there should have been recantation, confession and at least promised reformation—that he could that day publicly ask that his name be stricken from the class book, or stand an investigation. He chose the former, and did that very day make the request that his name be taken off the class book.<ref>''The Amboy Journal'', (June 11, 1879): p. 1; also ''Early Mormon Documents'', vol. 4, pp. 309–10, as cited in “The First Vision 200 Years Later,” p. 6.</ref></blockquote>  

#In 1828, Smith applied for membership in the Methodist Church. His wife Emma was already a member of the church; both circumstances cannot be reconciled with the warning he supposedly received from divine beings in 1820 that the creeds of all denominations were “an abomination” and he was not to join any of them. In response to Smith’s request for church membership, Emma’s cousin Joseph Lewis raised an objection to allowing Smith’s name to be added to the church rolls on the grounds of Smith’s dealing in magic, the occult, and money-digging:<blockquote>I [Joseph Lewis], with Joshua McKune, a local preacher at that time, I think in June, 1828, heard on Saturday, that Joe Smith had joined the church on Wednesday afternoon, (as it was customary in those days to have circuit preaching at my father’s house on week-day). '''We thought it was a disgrace to the church to have a practicing necromancer, a dealer in enchantments and bleeding ghosts, in it'''. So on Sunday we went to father’s, the place of meeting that day, and got there in season to see Smith and talked with him some time in father’s shop before the meeting. Told him that his occupation, habits, and moral character were at variance with the discipline, that his name would be a disgrace to the church, that there should have been recantation, confession and at least promised reformation—that he could that day publicly ask that his name be stricken from the class book, or stand an investigation. He chose the former, and did that very day make the request that his name be taken off the class book.<ref>''The Amboy Journal'', (June 11, 1879): p. 1; also ''Early Mormon Documents'', vol. 4, pp. 309–10, as cited in “The First Vision 200 Years Later,” p. 6.</ref></blockquote>  

==Various Versions of the First Vision==

==Various Versions of the First Vision==

In 1965, Mormon scholar Paul Cheesman finished his Master’s thesis at Brigham Young University entitled ''An Analysis of the Accounts Relating Joseph Smith’s Early Visions''. This contained an account, written in 1832 in Joseph Smith’s handwriting, of the First Vision. The 1832 account had been suppressed for over 130 years because of its divergences from the official or canonical version, which was written six years later. The handwritten account contradicts the “canonical” account found in the ''Pearl of Great Price'' in giving the correct age of Joseph as 14. More seriously, in the 1832 account only Jesus was said to have appeared, but in later versions it was either angels or the Father and Son who appeared to Smith.  

'''1832 Version: Only Jesus appears.''' In 1965, Mormon scholar Paul Cheesman finished his Master’s thesis at Brigham Young University entitled ''An Analysis of the Accounts Relating Joseph Smith’s Early Visions''. This contained an account, written in 1832 in Joseph Smith’s handwriting, of the First Vision.<ref>Joseph Smith, Jr.,

Also disagreeing with the canonical narration of the vision, “Most of the accounts of the First Vision prior to 1875 described the appearance of either one or more angels, but rarely God and Jesus.”<ref> “The First Vision 200 Years Later,” p. 3.</ref>

''The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith'', compiled  by Dean Jesse (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002), pp. 10-11.</ref> The 1832 account had been suppressed for over 130 years because of its divergences from the official or canonical version, which was written six years later and then published in 1842. The handwritten account contradicts the “canonical” account found in the ''Pearl of Great Price'' in giving the age of Joseph as 15, whereas he would have been 15 if the “vision” occurred in 1820. More seriously, in the 1832 account only Jesus was said to have appeared.

 

'''1835 Version: a “messenger” appears.''' The ''Latter-day Saints Messenger and Advocate'' stated that it would give “a full history of the rise of the church” (Vol. 1, p. 13). On page 42 of the same volume it was said that it would contain “a correct statement of events.” In the February 1835 issue Oliver Cowdery told how Joseph Smith made his first contact with God: A “messenger” appeared to him in his bedroom. There is no mention of the Father or the Son.

 

'''1835 Version as told to Erastus Holmes: only angels.''' Smith said: “I received the first visitation of Angels when I was about 14 years old.”<ref>Smith, ''Personal Writings'', p. 113. This account has been changed in the ''History of the Church'', Vol. 2, p. 312, to read “my first vision” instead of “visitation of Angels.”</ref>. Also, “Most of the accounts of the First Vision prior to 1875 described the appearance of either one or more angels, but rarely God and Jesus.”<ref>''The First Vision 200 Years Later, '' p. 3.</ref>

 

'''1842, account in ''Times and Seasons'': Two personages, Father and Son.''' One pointed to the other and said, “This is my beloved Son, hear him.”<ref>''Times and Seasons'', Vol.3, no. 10, p. 748.</ref> This eventually became the official version.

 

'''1845, Lucy Smith: An angel.''' In the first draft of her autobiography, Lucy Smith, Joseph’s mother, remembered Mormonism starting with a visit, in 1823, by “an angel” who told him “. . . there is not a true church on the Earth.” Later, in the published version, she said nothing about her own recollection of the vision but was persuaded to use instead Joseph’s account from ''Times and Seasons''.<ref>First draft of Lucy Smith’s family history, p. 46, Church Archives; ''Early Mormon Documents'', Vol. 1, pp. 289-90.</ref>

==The Theory That There Was No First Vision==  

==The Theory That There Was No First Vision==