Mormon Musings

Sometimes this deep infusion of Christ into modern revelation [i.e., including through the Book of Mormon] does not achieve its purpose in people’s lives. Some people’s faith is based more on Joseph Smith than on Jesus Christ. When they begin to question the Prophet, they lose faith in the Savior. We all know of Latter-day Saints whose faith is shaken by new facts, such as the existence of the alternate accounts of the First Vision which I have talked about today. When this new information builds up, they grow concerned. Could it all be wrong? Their consternation goes so far that they consider leaving the church, painful as that would be.  For a long time, I would try to answer their specific questions, try to persuade them there was another way of understanding the facts that were bothering them. I reminded them that people like me and many other informed Latter-day Saints are aware of all the disruptive information and still believe in Joseph Smith. We would talk for hours, but n...

“Our entire case as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rests on the validity of this glorious First Vision.  It was the parting of the curtain to open this, the dispensation of the fulness of times.  Nothing on which we base our doctrine, nothing we teach, nothing we live by is of greater importance than this initial declaration.  I submit that if Joseph Smith talked with God the  Father and His Beloved Son, then all else of which he spoke is true.  This is the hinge on which turns the gate that leads to the path of salvation and eternal life.” President Gordon B. Hinckley -”What Are People Asking About Us?”  Ensign,  Nov. 1998, 70

“What was learned from the First Vision?” The existence of God our Father as a personal being, and proof that man was made in the image of God. That Jesus is a personage, separate and distinct from the Father. That Jesus Christ is declared by the Father to be his Son. That Jesus was the conveyer of revelation as taught in the Bible. The promise of James to ask of God for wisdom was fulfilled. The reality of an actual being from an unseen world who tried to destroy Joseph Smith. That there was a falling away from the Church established by Jesus Christ–Joseph was told not to join any of the sects, for they taught the doctrines of men. Joseph Smith became a witness for God and his Son, Jesus Christ.” President James E. Faust -in Conference Report, Apr. 1984, 92-93;  Ensign,  May 1984, 68

It caused me serious reflection then, and often has since, how very strange it was that an obscure  a boy , of a little over fourteen years of age, and one, too, who was doomed to the necessity of obtaining a scanty maintenance by his daily  b labor , should be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the great ones of the most popular sects of the day, and in a manner to create in them a spirit of the most bitter  c persecution  and  d reviling . But strange or not, so it was, and it was often the cause of great sorrow to myself. However, it was nevertheless a fact that I had beheld a  a vision . I have thought since, that I felt much like Paul, when he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account of the vision he had when he saw a light, and heard a voice; but still there were but few who believed him; some said he was dishonest, others said he was  b mad ; and he was ridiculed and reviled. But all...