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First vision accounts getting detailed attention in CES devotional


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8 hours ago, Hamba Tuhan said:

What we can learn from the First Vision in the context of all that followed is certainly different from what young Joseph might have learnt from the First Vision.

From the linked lesson:

Emphasize that the visit of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith is rich in doctrinal significance. President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “I submit that in the few minutes that Joseph Smith was with the Father and the Son, he learned more of the nature of God the Eternal Father and the risen Lord than all the learned minds in all their discussions through all centuries of time” (Church News, 24 Oct. 1998, 6).

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8 hours ago, Robert F. Smith said:

Brother Brigham probably had it destroyed because it was a false version of Lucy Mack's history.  2001).

It was written (dictated) by Lucy Mack Smith beginning in 1844.  It was not a "false version", but a history as she remembered Joseph's life and the events up until his death:

http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Joseph_Smith_by_His_Mother

.

From the Joseph Smith Papers:

"In June 1844, the church suffered the loss of its president and prophet, JS, and his brother, church patriarch Hyrum Smith. The Smith family, already devastated, endured another heartbreak a few weeks later with the death of JS’s brotherSamuel. That fall their widowed mother, Lucy Mack Smith, perhaps in part as a salve to her grief, began recording her family’s story. Writing to her only surviving son, William, on 23 January 1845, Smith informed him, “I have by the council of the 12 [Apostles] undertaken a history of the family, that is my Fathers Family and my own.” She added:

People are often enquiring of me the particulars of Joseph’s getting the plates seeing the angels at first and many other thing which Joseph never wrote or published I have told over many things pertaining to these matters to different persons to gratify their curiosity indeed have almost destroyed my lungs giving these recitals to those who felt anxious to hear them I have now concluded to write down every particular as far as possible and if those who wish to read them will help me a little they can have it all in one piece to read at their leasure—"

 

Lucy did not mention or write about what we now call the first vision in this history.  I'd have to read it again, but iirc, Lucy only wrote about the angel appearing to Joseph in his room for the first time. That was what I was pointing out, here.  We can discuss why she may have done this, but it's a fact that it was not in this history as first written. 

 

Edited by ALarson
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13 hours ago, Hamba Tuhan said:

'ALL of the visitations'? No, just one vision retold four times.

You're certainly welcome to your opinion, but to write off the harmonising of multiple accounts as an act of 'faith' reveals a significant lack of familiarity with the historical enterprise. As I pointed out earlier, multiple accounts of a single event by the same author have been common in my research, and harmonising such accounts is just what real historians do. I can only guess why you seem so much to want the existence of the four First Vision accounts to be seen as problematic.

I don't think you understand what I'm trying to say.

If all of those different characters (Lord, God, Jesus, many angels) appeared to Joseph in the first vision then a harmonized version of that vision would include all of these characters and likely a progression of events, (God appears- then God and Jesus in a pillar of light- but only after the angels appear in a pillar of fire). For the accounts to harmonize they must all be included as part of the vision which currently they are not.

It's like harmonizing the gospel accounts of Jesus' birth. We have angels, shepherds, wise men etc. even though Luke 2 doesn't mention wise men it's a standard harmonized portion of the nativity. We either harmonize or we don't but I don't see how you can say all of these first vision accounts are in harmony without including the details from all of them. All of those details, harmonized together,  present an expanded vision and theoretically would provide greater insight to God and His purposes in appearing to JS.

Edited by HappyJackWagon
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10 hours ago, Rajah Manchou said:

Did this missionary visit the island once and then retell the story four different times? or did he visit the island four different times?

TBH, the Jesuit and European accounts I encounter in my research of Southeast Asian history drive me batty. Do you not struggle constantly trying to unravel the tangled mess of fantasy, reality and faith? My favorite is the explorer (Marignolli I think) who visited the East Indies in the 14th century and met the Queen of Sheba who gave him a golden girdle and told him that the Three Wise Men were living with Elijah at the top of a nearby mountain. Or the countless accounts of explorers like Marco Polo who claimed to have traveled through the hidden Christian Kingdom of Prester John. Are these multiple dissonant accounts true? Historians don't think so. Most likely they were attempts to convince the Pope to fund their missions. And then there are the Jesuit miracles:

"It was said that Francis Xavier was caught up in a storm as he was travelling to Malacca in the year 1546. With much faith, he threw his cross into the sea, asking God to make it an instrument to pacify the turbulent sea. God indeed came to his aid. The storm halted and the sea calmed down. But he lost his cross. According to the story, Francis Xavier, upon reaching the shores of Malacca, found a crab crawling towards him holding the missing cross in on of it's claws. This story was so important that it was depicted on the altar at the canonization ceremony and was one of four miracles represented on the banner that decorated St. Peter Church on that occasion."

Should we believe it? How do historians cut through the revisions to get at the truth? Which version of the Jesuit missionary story above do you believe is most accurate? 

Just clarifying here for the record that the quote Ralph Manchou gave with this post is actually from Hamba Tuhan, even though my name was placed on it mistakenly.

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2 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Just clarifying here for the record that the quote Ralph Manchou gave with this post is actually from Hamba Tuhan, even though my name was placed on it mistakenly.

Yeah, apologies for that. Not sure what buttons I clicked, but Hamba already responded helpfully. Thanks Scott

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20 hours ago, Wiki Wonka said:

I don't read Joseph's 1832 statement (written in Joseph's own hand and demonstrating his atrocious grammar and sentence structure) as being that he concluded that there was no true church upon the entire earth. He was only familiar with a few of them. He checked them out, and none of them seemed to conform to his understanding of the New Testament: so they were all " apostatized" in his opinion.

If I had the creator of the world standing in front of me, I'd ask the question of whether or not there was a true church somewhere on the earth, because the ones I was familiar with didn't seem to qualify. It would have never entered my heart that all of them were wrong.

Fair enough.  Do you also think you'd remember how old you were when you had the creator of the world standing in front of you?

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6 hours ago, ALarson said:

It was written (dictated) by Lucy Mack Smith beginning in 1844.  It was not a "false version", but a history as she remembered Joseph's life and the events up until his death:

http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845

Lucy did not mention or write about what we now call the first vision in this history.  I'd have to read it again, but iirc, Lucy only wrote about the angel appearing to Joseph in his room for the first time. That was what I was pointing out, here.  We can discuss why she may have done this, but it's a fact that it was not in this history as first written. 

 

It's possible she was conflating the First Vision with Moroni's visits.  On page 40 she writes:

 

 

Quote

 

About this The 3 harvest time had now arrived since we  opened our new farm and all the our sons were actively  employed in assisting their Father to cut down the grain  and storing it away in order, for winter One evening  we were sitting till quite late conversing upon the  subject of the diversity of churches that had risen up  in the world and the many thousand opinions in existence as to the truths contained in scripture  Joseph who never said many words upon any subject  but always seemed to reflect more deeply than common persons of his age upon everything of a religious  nature This After we ceased conversation he went to  bed <and was pondering in his mind which of the churches were the true one.> an but he had not laid there long till <he saw> a bright  <light> entered the room where he lay he looked up and  saw an angel of the Lord stood <standing> by him The angel spoke  I perceive that you are enquiring in your mind which is  the true church there is not a true church on Earth No  not one Nor <and> has not been since Peter took the Keys <of the Melchesidec priesthood after the order of God> into the  Kingdom of Heaven the churches that are now upon the Earth are all man made churches.

 

Since her account was written in 1844, nearly 6 years after Joseph Smith's account, we can only conclude that it is more accurate and reliable (since later accounts tend to be more reliable), so we should probably go with her version.

I would also point out that her book contains an insane amount of detail about people and events in the history of their family that took place in the late 1700s and early 1800s (many that had nothing to do with Joseph).  Just read the first 10 pages.  It is extremely odd that she would have clear recall of dollar amounts, distances between cities, or the price of a bushel of wheat, but forget about that time her son saw the creator of the universe in a nearby grove of trees. 

Especially odd in light of the fact that her objective in writing the book was to "write down every particular [of Joseph's upbringing and visions] as far as possible and if those who wish to read them will help me a little they can have it all in one piece to read at their leasure"

Edited by cinepro
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20 hours ago, Wiki Wonka said:

If I had the creator of the world standing in front of me, I'd ask the question of whether or not there was a true church somewhere on the earth, because the ones I was familiar with didn't seem to qualify. It would have never entered my heart that all of them were wrong.

Joseph said it never entered his heart that all of them were wrong, too.  He just admitted to needing some help figuring out which one of them he should join,  feeling like he didn't have enough wisdom on his own to be able to figure that out.  And seeing that people understood the same passages of scripture so differently that it an appeal to the Bible, alone, was just not enough for him to be able to figure that out.  So when he read what James said about asking God for more wisdom he thought he would try that out and see how that went.  And then he hit the jackpot, with our Father and Jesus both showing up to help him as well as the rest of us to know how to figure that out.

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21 minutes ago, cinepro said:

Since her account was written in 1844, nearly 6 years after Joseph Smith's account, we can only conclude that it is more accurate and reliable (since later accounts tend to be more reliable), so we should probably go with her version.

I would also point out that her book contains an insane amount of detail about people and events in the history of their family that took place in the late 1700s and early 1800s (many that had nothing to do with Joseph).  Just read the first 10 pages.  It is extremely odd that she would have clear recall of dollar amounts, distances between cities, or the price of a bushel of wheat, but forget about that time her son saw the creator of the universe in a nearby grove of trees. 

Especially odd in light of the fact that her objective in writing the book was to "write down every particular [of Joseph's upbringing and visions] as far as possible and if those who wish to read them will help me a little they can have it all in one piece to read at their leasure"

All very true, IMO.  She also stated that she had repeated the details many times to people in order "to gratify their curiosity indeed have almost destroyed my lungs giving these recitals to those who felt anxious to hear them I have now concluded to write down every particular as far as possible".   So, it appears that she knew the details well (and it seems she would have been corrected by Joseph if she was reciting them over and over incorrectly, especially regarding something as important as this.) 

.

Edited by ALarson
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26 minutes ago, Ahab said:

Joseph said it never entered his heart that all of them were wrong, too.  He just admitted to needing some help figuring out which one of them he should join,  feeling like he didn't have enough wisdom on his own to be able to figure that out.

Except for the earliest personal account (1832) where it reads...

Quote


… thus from the age of twelve years to fifteen I pondered many things in my heart concerning the situation of the world of mankind the contentions and divi[si]ons the wicke[d]ness and abominations and the darkness which pervaded the of the minds of mankind my mind become exceedingly distressed for I become convicted of my sins and by searching the scriptures I found that <mankind> did not come unto the Lord but that they had apostatised from the true and living faith and there was no society or denomination that built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ

Kind of sounds like it had entered his heart and mind by this account.

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20 minutes ago, HappyJackWagon said:

Except for the earliest personal account (1832) where it reads...

Kind of sounds like it had entered his heart and mind by this account.

Well yeah by age 15 (1832) it should have since that's when the Lord had told him not to join any of them.  

With God's help we can all get better at putting 2 and 2 together.

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1 minute ago, Ahab said:

Well yeah by age 15 (1832) it should have since that's when the Lord had told him not to join any of them.  

With God's help we can all get better at putting 2 and 2 together.

In the 1832 account he talks about being in his 16th year at the time of the vision. You might want to read the account. What I quoted occurred before the vision.

I'm curious how we can harmonize the detail of JS having previously decided that all other churches were in apostasy and his statement that it had never entered his heart. This is a minor example of how these contradictions do not build a stronger story. The conflicts do not harmonize.

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41 minutes ago, HappyJackWagon said:

In the 1832 account he talks about being in his 16th year at the time of the vision.

Meaning he was 15 when it happened.

Interesting thing about birthdays is that the one you're celebrating is a celebration of your last year.

Like when you celebrated your 1st one that year is then already over and you are then at the beginning of your next year.

So on his 15th birthday he was then beginning his 16th year.

 

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47 minutes ago, HappyJackWagon said:

I'm curious how we can harmonize the detail of JS having previously decided that all other churches were in apostasy and his statement that it had never entered his heart. This is a minor example of how these contradictions do not build a stronger story. The conflicts do not harmonize.

Timing plays a part.  It never entered his heart until it did and he then talked about how it didn't until it did.

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1 hour ago, Ahab said:

Meaning he was 15 when it happened.

Interesting thing about birthdays is that the one you're celebrating is a celebration of your last year.

Like when you celebrated your 1st one that year is then already over and you are then at the beginning of your next year.

So on his 15th birthday he was then beginning his 16th year.

 

Joseph got a couple of dates wrong in the 1832 account.

- You are correct...by stating "16th year of my age," he was saying that he was 15 years old. The phrase "in the 16th year of my age" was added in between the lines of Joseph's handwriting by Joseph's scribe Frederick G. Williams. Joseph apparently asked Williams to add it in later. However, the age was wrong - it should have been the "15th year". Two years later, in 1834 when Oliver began writing a history of the Church, Oliver stated Joseph's age as 14. Oliver appears to have had a copy of Joseph's 1832 history that he was using as a basis for this, which, as we know, said "16th year" (age 15) . However,  Oliver plainly stated that Joseph was 14. How did he know this? He only could have gotten that corrected information from Joseph himself. Also, if you look at the actual text itself, it's actually pretty hard to tell whether or not it is actually a "16" or a "15" because of an overwrite of another character. Looks like "16" to me.  Check it out - An image of that writing is located here: "in the 16th year of my age" 

- Joseph also got the date of Moroni's visit wrong by one year. The 1832 account says that he was seventeen years old when Moroni came on " 22d day of Sept. AD 1822". Joseph would have been 16 years old on that date, and he would have turned 17 in December 1822. However, Moroni's visit was actually on 22 September 1823. Joseph stated his correct age, but he got the year wrong.

So, Joseph messed up on dates and ages. When Joseph wrote in the 1832 history that " I was merely instructed in reading and writing and the ground <rules> of arithmetic which constituted my whole literary acquirements," he wasn't kidding. 

Edited by Wiki Wonka
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26 minutes ago, Wiki Wonka said:

Joseph got a couple of dates wrong in the 1832 account.

- You are correct...by stating "16th year of my age," he was saying that he was 15 years old. The phrase "in the 16th year of my age" was added in between the lines of Joseph's handwriting by Joseph's scribe Frederick G. Williams. Joseph apparently asked Williams to add it in later. However, the age was wrong - it should have been the "15th year". Two years later, in 1834 when Oliver began writing a history of the Church, Oliver stated Joseph's age as 14. Oliver appears to have had a copy of Joseph's 1832 history that he was using as a basis for this, which, as we know, said "16th year" (age 15) . However,  Oliver plainly stated that Joseph was 14. How did he know this? He only could have gotten that corrected information from Joseph himself. Also, if you look at the actual text itself, it's actually pretty hard to tell whether or not it is actually a "16" or a "15" because of an overwrite of another character. Looks like "16" to me.  Check it out - An image of that writing is located here: "in the 16th year of my age" 

- Joseph also got the date of Moroni's visit wrong by one year. The 1832 account says that he was seventeen years old when Moroni came on " 22d day of Sept. AD 1822". Joseph would have been 16 years old on that date, and he would have turned 17 in December 1822. However, Moroni's visit was actually on 22 September 1823. Joseph stated his correct age, but he got the year wrong.

So, Joseph messed up on dates and ages. When Joseph wrote in the 1832 history that " I was merely instructed in reading and writing and the ground <rules> of arithmetic which constituted my whole literary acquirements," he wasn't kidding. 

I looked at that manuscript, and I can't make either a 15 or a 16 out of that. It's too illegible.

 

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14 hours ago, Ahab said:

Timing plays a part.  It never entered his heart until it did and he then talked about how it didn't until it did.

Creative history.

In the 1832 account Joseph states that all denominations are in apostasy so he goes to the grove and prays. He has his vision where the Lord appears to him. OK.

Later, Joseph says it had never occurred to him that other churches may be wrong, but he goes to the grove and prays and finds out all other churches are in apostasy.

It doesn't matter if he was in his 14th year or in his 16th year like the different accounts indicate but significant changes to his story like whether he already supposed all churches to be apostate or whether God told him all other churches were apostate, seems important and further damages his credibility.

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1 hour ago, HappyJackWagon said:

Creative history.

In the 1832 account Joseph states that all denominations are in apostasy so he goes to the grove and prays. He has his vision where the Lord appears to him. OK.

Later, Joseph says it had never occurred to him that other churches may be wrong, but he goes to the grove and prays and finds out all other churches are in apostasy.

It doesn't matter if he was in his 14th year or in his 16th year like the different accounts indicate but significant changes to his story like whether he already supposed all churches to be apostate or whether God told him all other churches were apostate, seems important and further damages his credibility.

I think Wiki Wonka has already given a good response to this concern:

Quote

 

I don't read Joseph's 1832 statement (written in Joseph's own hand and demonstrating his atrocious grammar and sentence structure) as being that he concluded that there was no true church upon the entire earth. He was only familiar with a few of them. He checked them out, and none of them seemed to conform to his understanding of the New Testament: so they were all " apostatized" in his opinion.

If I had the creator of the world standing in front of me, I'd ask the question of whether or not there was a true church somewhere on the earth, because the ones I was familiar with didn't seem to qualify. It would have never entered my heart that all of them were wrong

 

I don't know whether or not  you've read it already. Doesn't seem like it. If you have, it seems you are intentionally choosing to ignore rather than address it.

 

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19 hours ago, cinepro said:

Fair enough.  Do you also think you'd remember how old you were when you had the creator of the world standing in front of you?

Maybe, maybe not. 

For some memorable events in my life, I don't remember my precise age. For some I had thought I was a certain age, but when I associate them with other events that had to have happened at the same period of time I realize I have been off by a year or more. 

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1 hour ago, Scott Lloyd said:

I think Wiki Wonka has already given a good response to this concern:

I don't know whether or not  you've read it already. Doesn't seem like it. If you have, it seems you are intentionally choosing to ignore rather than address it.

 

I didn't see it, but it's not a particularly strong argument. The argument is essentially that Joseph didn't know all of them were wrong. Some of them, sure, but not ALL. So we can choose to interpret words as we like. I'm not opposed to finding alternate possibilities but like Wiki said, he reads it a different way than I do.

Joseph wrote that mankind had apostatized which certainly fits the current church narrative of total apostasy. There was "no society or denomination" that hadn't apostatized.

Quote

 by searching the scriptures I found that <mankind> did not come unto the Lord but that they had apostatised from the true and living faith and there was no society or denomination that built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ

I understand the desire to make sense of it by suggesting that he didn't claim ALL denominations were in apostasy, but that's not what he wrote. Maybe he was writing hyperbole. That's possible. But it would call into question the other parts of the vision. Were they accurate/literal or hyperbolic symbolism.

 

 

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For heaven's sakes..if I had a vision even at the age of twelve, I would remember that every day of my entire life!  I would fear for my life if there was any discrepancy at all in retelling.

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2 minutes ago, Jeanne said:

For heaven's sakes..if I had a vision even at the age of twelve, I would remember that every day of my entire life!  I would fear for my life if there was any discrepancy at all in retelling.

The fact that Joseph recounted it the next day (or soon thereafter) to a minister indicates that did not initially think he had any particular reason to fear for his life.

And I repeat, I can't always fix a specific time frame to memorable events in my life -- I don't believe that everyone necessarily can.

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24 minutes ago, HappyJackWagon said:

I didn't see it, but it's not a particularly strong argument. The argument is essentially that Joseph didn't know all of them were wrong. Some of them, sure, but not ALL. So we can choose to interpret words as we like. I'm not opposed to finding alternate possibilities but like Wiki said, he reads it a different way than I do.

Well, at least you're addressing it now rather than ignoring it altogether, which seems to be a pattern with you -- to repeated arguments that have already been answered.

I disagree that it's not a strong rebuttal. I find it more than reasonable.

Quote

 

Joseph wrote that mankind had apostatized which certainly fits the current church narrative of total apostasy. There was "no society or denomination" that hadn't apostatized.

I understand the desire to make sense of it by suggesting that he didn't claim ALL denominations were in apostasy, but that's not what he wrote. Maybe he was writing hyperbole. That's possible. But it would call into question the other parts of the vision. Were they accurate/literal or hyperbolic symbolism.

 

I don't believe hyperbole has anything to do with it. I think it's a matter of your misunderstanding a frame of reference.

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