Joseph’s “Sacred Grove”
Joseph Smith Testimony 1:14-15; “So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally. 15 After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.”
Encyclopedia of Mormonism, pg 1247; “A grove of trees on the Joseph Smith, Sr., farm near Palmyra, New York, is revered 
by Latter-day Saints as the vicinity where Joseph Smith experienced his first vision, the divine manifestation of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ that began the restoration of the gospel in this dispensation. For that reason, Latter-day Saints honor the place as sacred. The grove is part of the forest that once covered the Smiths’ 100-acre farm in Manchester Township as well as much of western New York.”
Deuteronomy 12:2-3; “Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.”
Deuteronomy 16:21-22; “Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee. Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the LORD thy God hateth.”
There are no less than 52 verses in the Bible where God tells us not to worship Him in groves of trees. He told the Israelites this back in their days of the Exodus. In Deuteronomy He reminded them again not to plant trees and worship under them as it led to worshiping the earth.
The Southern Kingdom of Judah found themselves nearly wiped off the earth for behaving this way again, thus God sent the Babylonians in and put His children into exile for a time. He called Judah the whore who was prostituting herself in the groves of trees as she lifted her skirts for foreign gods. Jeremiah 13:22-27.
Worshiping foreign gods in groves of trees is still a very popular tradition for those who practice Neo-paganism, Shamanism, etc which are derivatives and branches of different types of witchcraft. These groups are just some of those who purposefully go to these places for worship.
Because Smith and his family were heavily involved in witchcraft it comes as no surprise this is where he’d go to seek counsel from his god. His mother related in her journal how the family was learning the practice of Abrac which was a form of writing out Masonic prayers and chants in a specific order. Furthermore, we also have the writings of the beloved Mormon historian BH Roberts who also concurs the family was steeped in the ungodly practice.
A Comprehensive History of the Church, 6 vols., 1930, v. 1, pp. 26‑27; “It may be admitted that some of [Smith’s ancestors] believed in fortune telling, in warlocks and witches… Indeed it is scarcely conceivable how one could live in New England in those years and not have shared in such beliefs. To be credulous in such things was to be normal people.” – B. H. Roberts, Mormon Historian
Sadly, most Mormons have no idea that God abhors this behavior as the Church has taught them to obey only their counsel. Shockingly everything they’ve taught the Mormon people to do is exactly the opposite of what God has said and most don’t even stop to think about this or seek the Lord’s advice of where you shouldn’t bow the knee.
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