Today we’re wondering how Joe Smith saw the face of God when he went to the woods to pray and yet his own prophecy said that it would’ve been impossible…
Early Spring 1820
Joseph Smith goes to the woods in Palmyra to pray. God and Jesus make a personal appearance and tells him not to join any church. – Joseph Smith History 1:17
“It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”
April 7, 1829
Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were out in the woods when they were visited by a heavenly messenger who arrived ‘in a cloud of light’. The messenger announced to the men that he was John the Baptist and had come to deliver the priesthood to them. – Joseph Smith History 1:68-72
September 22-23, 1832
Joe Smith prophesied that no man could see the face of God and live if he didn’t have the priesthood. – D&C 84:21-22, Kirtland, OH
“And without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh; 22 For without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live.”
Now if Smith didn’t receive the priesthood until 1829 how did he see God and live? LDS.org also has their story online of how and when Smith and Cowdery received the priesthood from John the Baptist.
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