ATTENTION BOOK OF MORMON BELIEVERS:
JOSEPH SMITH’S VISION DISCREDITED
The well publicized story of Joseph Smith’s First Vision is not a true account of the origin of the Later Day Saint movement. The facts are decidedly against it! First, the historical evidence shows that Joseph Smith Jr. could not have been stirred by on 1820 revival, to ask which church was true. Second, early Mormon statements do not support his claims that in 1820 he learned through a visitation of the Father and the Son that all existing churches were wrong. Third, the details known about Joseph’s early life contradict his assertion that in 1820 by had such a divine visitation and was persecuted by the community for telling such a story.
NO 1850 REVIVAL
First, his neighborhood in 1820 experienced no revival such as he described, in which “great multitudes” joined the Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian churches. The Presbyterian records for the Palmyra Presbyterian Church show that it experienced no revival in 1820 (see, Geneva Presbytery “Records”, Presbyterian Historical Society). The local Baptist Church gained only six on profession of faith the entire year (“Records for the First Baptized Church, in Palmyra,” American Baptist Historical Society), while the Methodists actually lost members this year as well as the preceding and following years (Minutes of the Annual Conferences).
Joseph Smith claimed that his mother, sister and two brothers were led to join the local Presbyterian Church as a result of that 1820 revival. However, four years before he made this claim, his own church paper had stated that the revival in which his family had been led to join the Presbyterian Church took place in 1823 (Messenger & Advocate I, pp. 42, 78). In fact, that account says it was the same 1823 revival that led him to go to his bedroom (not to a sacred grove) and pray “if a Supreme being did exist” to know that “he was accepted of him”. An angel (not a deity) is then reported to have appeared and told him of his forgiveness and of the gold plates.
Joseph’s mother, likewise, knew nothing of on 1820 vision. In her unpublished account she traces the origin of Mormonism to a bedroom visit by on angel. Joseph at the time had been “pondering which of the. churches were the true one”. The angel told him “there is not a true church on Earth, No not one” (First draft of “Lucy Smith’s History”, LDS Church Archives). Furthermore, she tells us that the revival which led to her joining the church took place following the death of her son, Alvin. Alvin died Nov. 19, 1823 and following that painful loss she reports that,
about this time there was a great revival in religion and the whole neighborhood was very much aroused to the subject and we among the rest flocked t [sic] the meeting house to see if there was a word of comfort for us that might relieve our overcharged feelings. (p. 86)
She adds that although her husband would only attend the first meeting, he had no objection to her or the children “going or becoming church members” (emphasis added).
There is plenty of additional evidence that the revival Lucy Smith refers to did occur during the winter of 1824-1825. It was reported in a least a dozen newspapers and religious periodicals. The church records show outstanding increases due to the reception of new converts. The Baptist Church received 94, the Presbyterians 99, while the Methodist work grew by 208. No such revival bringing in “great multitudes” occurred in 1820.
It is clear that the revival Joseph Smith, Jr. described did not occur in 1820, but in 1824. Joseph Smith arbitrarily moved the revival bock four years to 1820 and made it fit a First Vision story that neither his mother nor other close associates had heard of in those early days. The historical facts completely discredit Joseph Smith’s First Vision story. (For further details see, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Spring 1969, pp. 59-100).
The Bible states, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they ore of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” For God “hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son…” (1 John 4:1 and Heb. 1:2).