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Joseph Smith—History

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InProgress/Table of contents revamp/Scripture/Joseph Smith History

Joseph Smith's announcement that he saw the Father and the Son in 1820 has produced a broad response, from faithful to critical. This set of articles addresses the multiple accounts of the First Vision, the events leading to and occurring after the vision, and a review of the doctrinal developments from the vision.

To view articles about the First Vision, click "Expand" in the blue bar:

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Articles about the First Vision

Accounts	Accounts of Joseph Smith's First Vision Multiple accounts of the First Vision Differences in First Vision accounts
Historical context	Events leading to the First Vision Events after the First Vision
Doctrinal impact	The First Vision and doctrine

Video published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Video published by BYU Religious Education.

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Learn more about Joseph Smith's First Vision

Key sources	"First Vision Accounts," Gospel Topics Essays, November 2013.
Wiki links	Joseph Smith's First Vision
FAIR links	Don Bradley, "Joseph Smith's First Vision as Endowment and Epitome of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (or Why I Came Back to the Church)," Proceedings of the 2019 FAIR Conference (August 2019). link Don Bradley, "The Original Context of the First Vision Narrative: 1820s or 1830s," Proceedings of the 2013 FAIR Conference (August 2013). link Steven C. Harper, "Four Accounts and Three Critiques of Joseph Smith’s First Vision," Proceedings of the 2011 FAIR Conference (August 2011). link Andrew Knaupp and Sal Velluto, "Pillar of Light: A Graphic Novel Adaptation of Joseph Smith’s First Vision," Proceedings of the 2020 FAIR Conference (August 2020). link
Online	Craig L. Foster, "Understanding the Year 1820," Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 45/18 (11 June 2021). [369–370] link Brian C. Hales, "Seeking a Global Context for the First Vision," Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 45/17 (11 June 2021). [363–368] link Steven C. Harper, "Evaluating Three Arguments Against Joseph Smith's First Vision," Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 2/2 (12 October 2012). [17–34] link Spencer Kraus, "Honoring Joseph's Theophany Two Centuries Later," Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 50/4 (28 January 2022). [71–78] link Neal Rappleye, "Rediscovering the First Vision," Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 15/5 (17 April 2015). [29–32] link
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Sub categories	accounts bias Brigham Young denied Church hiding different versions late invention no such thing as visions religious excitement

Joseph Smith: Other visionary experiences

Topics

Moroni's visit (summary)

• • Nephi or Moroni in 1823? (Click here for full article)
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  • Moroni as an "angel of Satan" (Click here for full article)
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Joseph Smith's early conception of God

Personages who appeared to Joseph Smith

Swedenborg and three degrees of glory

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God the Father

Jump to Subtopic:

• Characteristics of God
• Early teachings
• Deification of man
• Trinity
• Theodicy
• Worship of God
• Multiplicity of Gods
• Interaction with God
• Heavenly Mother

Mormon beliefs regarding the characteristics of God

Jump to Subtopic:

• Elohim and Jehovah in Mormonism
• God's knowledge
• Mormonism and biblical statements that "God is a Spirit"
• Joseph Smith's King Follett discourse on the nature of God
• Do Latter-day Saints actually believe in a practice called "Celestial sex"?
• Criticisms regarding the character of God
• Mormonism and the belief in the corporeality of God

Elohim and Jehovah in Mormonism

Summary: It is claimed that Elohim, Jehovah, Adonai and other similar Old Testament Hebrew names for deity are simply different titles which emphasize different attributes of the "one true God." In support of this criticism, they cite Old Testament scriptures that speak of "the LORD [Jehovah] thy God [Elohim]" (e.g., Deuteronomy 4:2; 4:35; 6:4) as proof that these are different titles for the same God.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question: Are Elohim and Jehovah the same deity?

God's knowledge

Summary: Most Latter-day Saints hold to unlimited foreknowledge. This has been the traditional view of most Christians since the post-New Testament period, and it is one doctrine that Joseph Smith didn't seem to question, as there are no revelations that address it. Indeed, it appears that most LDS leaders and scholars simply haven't questioned its veracity.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question: Does Jesus already know who will be returning to God's presence?

Mormonism and biblical statements that "God is a Spirit"

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question: Does the Mormon doctrine that God has a physical body contradict the Bible's statement in John 4:24 that "God is a Spirit"?
• Question: Does the Book of Mormon teach that God is a spirit?
• Question: Is the doctrine that God the Father and Jesus Christ have physical bodies not Biblical?
• Question: How would a statement that "God is a spirit" be interpreted in ancient Judasism?
• Mormons have "picked up" discarded beliefs of early Christians
• Mormonism does not use the Nicene Creed, and invokes earlier Christian ideas that were overshadowed by Plato
• Question: What are the Lectures on Faith?
• Question: What does Lecture 5 of the Lectures on Faith say about the nature of God?
• Question: Did Joseph began his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God?
• Question: What are modern Church leader's views on the Lectures on Faith?

Joseph Smith's King Follett discourse on the nature of God

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question: Does what Joseph Smith taught about the creation of spirits contradict the scriptures?
• Question: What was Gordon B. Hinckley's opinion about the King Follett Discourse?
• Question: Why does TIME's report make it appear the Pres. Hinckley is downplaying Joseph Smith's statements in the King Follett Discourse?
• Question: Why didn't Gordon B. Hinckley say more about the King Follett Discourse in the TIME Magazine interview?

Do Latter-day Saints actually believe in a practice called "Celestial sex"?

Summary: Mormonism and the nature of God/"Celestial sex"

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe in a practice called "celestial sex," and that this is the manner in which "spirit children" are formed?
• Question: What have Latter-day Saint leaders actually said about the method of procreation in the afterlife?
• Question: Did Bruce R. McConkie claim that our heavenly parents created our spirits "through some kind of sexual union"?

Criticisms regarding the character of God

Jump to Subtopic:

• Elder Jeffery R. Holland: "it is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much"
• Question: Why would God send poisonous serpents to kill the Children of Israel?
• Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe in a "part-time racist" and "psychopathic schizophrenic" god?
• Question: Does the Book of Mormon refute Joseph Smith on the nature of God?
• Question: Did Elder Dallin Oaks say that "so-called Christianity sees God as an entirely different kind of being"?

Mormonism and the belief in the corporeality of God

Summary: Some Christians object to the Mormon belief that God has a physical body and human form by quoting scripture which says that "God is not a man" (e.g. Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29, Hosea 11:9). Some have also asked how God can be material and do things like float and move through walls.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question: Why do the Latter-day Saints believe God has a body?
• Question: What are the common objections to a belief in God's corporeality?
• Question: Does the doctrine that God has a physical body contradict the Bible?
• Question: If only God the Father had a physical body at the time Adam was created, why did He say 'Let us make man in OUR image'?
• Question: Since Mormons believe that God possesses a physical body, does that mean that He cannot be omnipresent?
• Question: Is the doctrine that God the Father and Jesus Christ have physical bodies not Biblical?
• Non-LDS Christian view of Joseph Smith's theology of divine embodiment
• Non-LDS Christian Stephen H. Webb: The "sameness of Jesus" and humanity
• Non-LDS Christian Stephen H. Webb: Mormonism an exciting mirror for other Christians
• Mormonism does not use the Nicene Creed, and invokes earlier Christian ideas that were overshadowed by Plato
• Mormons have "picked up" discarded beliefs of early Christians
• Non-LDS Christian Stephen H. Webb: Revelation versus "historical guesswork" about Jesus
• Mormons are not Arians
• "Smith would have held his own in debating with" Neo-Platonists, Gnostics, and early Christian theologians
• LDS doctrine rejects Neo-Plantonic accretions, but this does not make them automatically false
• Augustine's views about matter are perhaps less coherent than Joseph Smith's
• Non-LDS Christian Stephen H. Webb: Creedal Christians can learn from LDS views about Jesus Christ and creation

Early teachings about God in the Book of Mormon, from Joseph Smith, and among Church members

Jump to Subtopic:

• Early Mormon beliefs regarding the nature of God
• Lecture of Faith 5 teaches the Father is "a personage of spirit"
• Brigham Young's Adam-God theory

Early Mormon beliefs regarding the nature of God

Summary: Some evangelical Christians attempt to show that the LDS idea of deification is unbiblical, unchristian and untrue. They seem to think that this doctrine is the main reason why the LDS reject the Psychological Trinity.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question: What is the historic church's concept of the Trinity and why do Mormons reject it?
• Question: Did Joseph begin his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God?
• Question: Does the Book of Mormon teach that Christ and the Father are a single individual expressing himself in different modes?

Lecture of Faith 5 teaches the Father is "a personage of spirit"

Summary: Lectures on Faith, which used to be part of the Doctrine and Covenants, teach that God is a spirit. Joseph Smith's later teachings contradict this. More generally, critics argue that Joseph Smith taught an essentially "trinitarian" view of the Godhead until the mid 1830s, thus proving the Joseph was "making it up" as he went along.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question: What are the Lectures on Faith?
• Question: What does Lecture 5 of the Lectures on Faith say about the nature of God?
• Question: How would a statement that "God is a spirit" be interpreted in ancient Judasism?
• Question: Did Joseph began his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God?
• Question: What are modern Church leader's views on the Lectures on Faith?
• Question: Is the Father embodied or a spirit in the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants?

Brigham Young's Adam-God theory

Summary: Brigham Young taught that Adam, the first man, was God the Father. Since this teaching runs counter to the story told in Genesis and commonly accepted by Christians, critics accuse Brigham of being a false prophet. Also, because modern Latter-day Saints do not believe Brigham's "Adam-God" teachings, critics accuse Mormons of either changing their teachings or rejecting teachings of prophets they find uncomfortable or unsupportable.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question: What is the Adam-God Theory?
• Question: What is the history of Brigham Young's Adam-God Theory and why was it rejected by the Church?
• Stephen E. Robinson: "Yet another way in which anti-Mormon critics often misrepresent LDS doctrine is in the presentation of anomalies as though they were the doctrine of the Church"
• Matthew Brown (2009): "Brigham Young repeated these ideas and expounded upon them during the next 25 years. His viewpoints have been variously classified as doctrine, theory, paradox, heresy, speculation, and some of the mysteries"
• Question: If the Adam-God doctrine isn't true, how come D&C 27:11 calls Adam the Ancient of Days which is clearly a title for God in Daniel 7?
• Question: What attempts have been made to reconcile the Adam-God Theory with the doctrines of the Church?
• Question: Was the "Adam-God" theory ever taught as part of the temple endowment ceremony as something called "the lecture at the veil"?

Mormon belief in the deification of Man

Jump to Subtopic:

• Gospel Topics: "Latter-day Saints see all people as children of God in a full and complete sense"
• Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe that they will one day 'supplant' God?
• Question: What were the views of early Christians on the deification of man?
• Question: Was the Latter-day Saint concept of deification derived from Greek philosophy?
• Question: What Biblical scriptures discuss the doctrine of the deification of man?
• Question: If a person faithfully practices Mormonism during this life, do they become a god after they die?
• Question: Do Mormon men believe that they will become "gods of their own planets" and rule over others?
• Question: If God was once like us, does that mean that God was once a sinner?
• Question: What do Mormons believe regarding the nature of angels?
• Theosis

Latter-day Saint views of the Trinity

Summary: A collection of articles that address the Latter-day Saint view of the concept of the Trinity.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Early Mormon beliefs regarding the nature of God
• Mormons and the Nicene Creed

Early Mormon beliefs regarding the nature of God

Summary: Some evangelical Christians attempt to show that the LDS idea of deification is unbiblical, unchristian and untrue. They seem to think that this doctrine is the main reason why the LDS reject the Psychological Trinity.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question: What is the historic church's concept of the Trinity and why do Mormons reject it?
• Question: Did Joseph begin his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God?
• Question: Does the Book of Mormon teach that Christ and the Father are a single individual expressing himself in different modes?

Mormons and the Nicene Creed

Jump to Subtopic:

• Gospel Topics: "Latter-day Saints Do Not Accept the Creeds of Post–New Testament Christianity"
• Question: Does the definition of the Trinity predate the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds?
• Question: Does the Nicene Creed define who is Christian, and who is not?
• Mormonism does not use the Nicene Creed, and invokes earlier Christian ideas that were overshadowed by Plato
• Augustine's views about matter are perhaps less coherent than Joseph Smith's
• Question: Was Nicean Trinitarianism always a key part of Christian belief?
• Question: Why was Nicean Trinitarianism introduced at all?
• Question: What were early Christian beliefs on the nature of God?
• Question: Does the Bible contain also the necessary elements for Trinitarianism?
• Question: Are there new ideas necessary for creedal Trinitarianism?
• Question: What does John 10:30 have to do with Trinitarianism?
• Question: What does 1 John 5:7-8 have to do with Trinitariansim?
• Question: Is modern Trinitarianism understood in the same sense by all who accept it?
• LDS doctrine rejects Neo-Plantonic accretions, but this does not make them automatically false
• "Smith would have held his own in debating with" Neo-Platonists, Gnostics, and early Christian theologians

Theodicy: The Problem of Evil

Summary: This page discusses the problem of evil—can one believe in a good, just, loving God when one considers all the suffering and evil in the world?

Jump to Subtopic:

• Why would a loving God allow the death of innocents?

Why would a loving God allow the death of innocents?

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question: Why would a loving God would kill innocent children in the flood of Noah's day?
• Question: Why would a loving God kill the firstborn of Egypt? (Exodus 12:12)
• Joseph Fielding Smith: "This was also in the similitude of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ"

How Latter-day Saints worship God

Jump to Subtopic:

• Why do we worship or praise God?
• Do the Latter-day Saints use praise of God as part of their prayers and songs in worship?
• Question: Does the Church violate the Biblical command against "graven images" by displays sculptures of Christ?

Mormonism and the multiplicity of gods

Jump to Subtopic:

• Mormonism and the concept of infinite regress of gods
• Mormons, polytheism and the Nicene Creed

Mormonism and the concept of infinite regress of gods

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question:Is it true that Mormon doctrine teaches a "genealogy of gods," in which God the Father had/has a god, and this god had a god, and so forth?
• Gospel Topics, "Becoming Like God"

Mormons, polytheism and the Nicene Creed

Summary: Some non-LDS Christian claim that Latter-day Saints are polytheists because we don't believe the Nicene Creed. Others say Mormons are polytheists because they believe humans can become gods. Is this an accurate characterization of LDS belief?

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question: Are Mormons polytheists because they don't accept the Nicene Creed?
• Question: Are Christians monotheists?
• Question: What scriptures explain the Mormon view of Jesus' divine Sonship?
• Question: How is Mormon belief compatible with Isaiah's statement that beside the Lord "there is no God?"
• LDS trinitarian views are not polytheistic
• Mormons are not Arians
• Joseph Smith's theology is not pagan—his theology is vast as the multiverse, and eliminates Neo-Platonism and Augustine
• Common misrepresentation: Joseph Smith does not teach polytheism or "supplanting God" with his doctrine of human divination
• Gospel Topics on LDS.org, "Becoming Like God"

Man's interaction with God

Jump to Subtopic:

• Mormonism and biblical statements that no man has seen God

Mormonism and biblical statements that no man has seen God

Summary: It is claimed by some that the Bible teaches that God cannot be seen by mortals, and that therefore claims by Joseph Smith and others to have seen God the Father or Jesus Christ must be false. The most commonly used Biblical citation invoked by those who make this assertion is John 1:18, which reads “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question: How could Joseph Smith have seen God if the Bible says that God cannot be seen by mortals?
• Question: Does Doctrine and Covenants 84 say that one cannot see God without holding the priesthood?
• Question: Why did Jesus say “Never have I showed myself unto man whom I have created” to the Brother of Jared, when Enoch and others had already seen Jehovah face to face?
• Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, "Can a Man See God? 1 Timothy 6:16 in Light of Ancient and Modern Revelation"

Heavenly Mother

Jump to Subtopic:

• Gospel Topics: Our theology begins with heavenly parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them
• Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe in a female divine person, a "Heavenly Mother" as counterpart to God, the Heavenly Father?
• Question: Are we allowed to pray to our "Heavenly Mother"?
• Question: Is it true that little is known about our Heavenly Mother because she is "protected"?
• Question: Is Heavenly Mother not talked about more because the prophets are sexist?
• BYU Studies Article: A Mother There