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Added section "The Theory That There Was No First Vision"
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. 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>
==Historical Problems==
==Historical Problems==
Historians have pointed out some problems that historical records of the time present to this account, in addition to the wrong age the account gives for Smith.
Historians have pointed out some problems that historical records of the time present to this account, in addition to the wrong age the account gives for Smith.
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 15. 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.
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 15. 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.
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>
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 Theory That There Was No First Vision==
The problems that historians see with the canonical account of the First Vision, listed above, may be summarized as follows: 1) No written contemporary records of the account before 1832; 2) Three contradictory versions of whom was seen in the account, especially significant considering the importance of a person supposedly seeing God in the flesh; 3) No indication of any change in Smith’s behavior that would be expected from a spiritual experience of this magnitude, as evidenced by his still dabbling in the occult in 1825 and again in 1826, the latter attested by court records; 4) The records of his attempt to join the Methodist Church in 1828, although the main message he supposedly received in the First Vision was that all denominations were corrupt and he was to join none of them.
In order to make sense of these problems with the traditional account of the First Vision, non-Mormon historians discount its historicity. If the event never happened, then every one of the problems just listed finds a solution. Further, those familiar with the history of the time point to another event on which Joseph Smith modeled his narrative: the account given by evangelist Charles G. Finney relating the spiritual experience he had while seeking God in the woods near Adams, New York on October 10, 1821. Finney began his evangelistic career in 1825. In 1830-31 he led a revival meetings in Rochester, New York, that was described by a pastor from New York City as follows: "The whole community was stirred. Religion was the topic of conversation in the house, in the shop, in the office and on the street. The only theater in the city was converted into a livery stable; the only circus into a soap and candle factory. Grog shops were closed; the Sabbath was honored; the sanctuaries were thronged with happy worshippers; a new impulse was given to every philanthropic enterprise; the fountains of benevolence were opened, and men lived to good."<ref>Eddie Hyatt, ''2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity'' (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2002), p. 26.</ref>
The publicity that Finney was receiving throughout New York and elsewhere was surely known among the band of followers of the new prophet who had based his claim to authority on the publication of a new “Bible” in 1830. Palmyra, which was the Smith family home starting in 1816, and where young Joseph claimed he found the golden plates of the Book of Mormon, is only 20 miles from Rochester. The fame of Charles Finney had surely reached that town. Was this leader of a new religious movement to be outdone by an evangelist who was accepted by the traditional churches, churches that did not accept Joseph Smith’s claims to be a prophet? The theory that Joseph Smith’s “First Vision” was a fabrication therefore not only explains the various problematic circumstances surrounding its history, but also finds a motive for the invention of the account: it copied the conversion experience of Charles Finney as he earnestly sought the Lord in a forest setting just a few years before. Joseph Smith was not to be outdone by an evangelist who was preaching the traditional Gospel to people who had no need of a new revelation, but who were finding their lives transformed by the old message of salvation brought about by the death and resurrection of Christ. The prophet who was bringing a new message for the latter days must have a similar experience, even if it took him a while to determine just exactly what should take place in that experience, and which heavenly beings were involved.
==Resources==
==Resources==
*[https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp?lang=eng Account of First Vision] in ''Pearl of Great Price''.
*[https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp?lang=eng Account of First Vision] in ''Pearl of Great Price''.