The First Vision

Today I read Joseph Smith History verses 1 - 20. I was originally going to read all of Joseph Smith History in one sitting but as Joseph Smith has broken it down into sections, almost like chapters, I decided to keep the normal pattern up of reading 1 section per day. Some days I feel like I could actually quote the entirety of the early part of Joseph Smith's history I have studied it so much. But it always a pleasure to review it and remind myself of the First Vision.

As I read his own account I can only imagine what life in those days must have been like for Joseph Smith. To be so young and have so much tumult going on around him must have been a real challenge. Especially when even his own family was divided on the subject. His mother and a few of his siblings were in the Presbyterian faith but his father did not join with them. I would think that regardless of what faith it was, it would be hard to be in a household that did not all belong to the same faith.

It is of course really hard, if not impossible, to know how one would really react when reading such a scripture as James 1:5 for the first time. Growing up in the church, I'm pretty sure I knew the gist of that scripture at a very young age since it is part of the Joseph Smith story. But a scripture like that must have been like a lifeline to a drowning sailor to Joseph during this tumultuous time. To be told that you could ask God and not only would He give you the knowledge you seek, but He also would not chastise you for asking Him must have seemed a wonderful promise indeed. I can only imagine the excitement Joseph must have had as he read that verse and really pondered what it meant. As he made his decision that it was exactly what he was going to do, was to ask God.

Now, perhaps nothing shows just how atypical of a teenager Joseph was so much as his reaction to his attack by Satan as he tried to pray out loud on his own for the first time. Think of your typical 14 year old. If they did something for the very first time and the reaction they got was a very real attack on their person from Satan himself, what would be their reaction? In my experience, teenagers are quick to pass judgment and declare something "stupid" after only a few seconds of effort and desire to move on. Given that, I would think that most 14 year olds would have immediately stopped praying and perhaps even apologized for whatever they did wrong. They would have, rightly so, associated the presence of the devil with their praying and immediately stopped.

However, Joseph did just the opposite. Now, this is being written 18 years after the fact, so perhaps he is putting his own spin of current thinking on an even that happened long ago, we don't know. But Joseph was able to reason that his only chance for salvation from this enemy was to pray even more. And he did so and the result was what we typically in the church refer to as the First Vision. He saw light all around him, emanating from a pillar in front of him. When his eyes adjusted, he saw that there were two persons standing in the air in the middle of that light. If he had been able to distinguish it, he would have noticed that the light actually was being emitted from these two persons, but given the circumstances, I think we can forgive Joseph for not noticing this fact.

Now, Joseph does not state as such, but I suspect these two persons were almost indistinguishable from each other, perhaps he even thought he was seeing double. But as we well know, one of them said Joseph's name and pointed to the other and then introduced the Savior of all mankind, Jesus Christ. Jesus then told Joseph many things, among which was that He did not want Joseph to align himself with any of the religions of the day, that none of them had the fulness of His Gospel. Now, that is all we are told in this scripture but I am confident that Joseph asked more things than this and that Jesus told him many more things than just this.

I can only imagine Joseph's awe and wonder at having God the Father and Jesus the Son appear in person to answer his inquiry. I wonder if he even thought it was strange. He does not state what he was expecting to happen so maybe he was not surprised at all but just figured this must be what James had meant. It really is impossible to know what it must have been like for Joseph because we are looking through the glasses of hindsight and almost 200 years of experience and we know how unique this vision was. But would Joseph know? Most, if not all, his experience with things religion were coming from the Bible and the preachers of the day, which we KNOW were not preaching heavenly visitations in those days. It's really impossible to know and Joseph really does not tell us. Now we do know that because of this First Vision his idea of answers to prayer was skewed as he will tell us on the night he met Moroni.

Thank the heavens and all that is good in the world for that First Vision which ushered in the restoration of the truth and the fulness of the Gospel. Without it, I would not be sitting hear writing this and you would not be reading this. Thank goodness that Joseph wanted to know the truth and would not accept anything less than 100% certainty on the subject of which religion to join. Sadly for Joseph, it was the end of his easy life and the beginning of a life long struggle that, as you well know, ended in his death. But I guarantee if given the choice, he would not have traded it for anything in this world or the next! Until tomorrow.