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Archive for the ‘First Vision of Joseph Smith’ Category

 While doing some research for another article, I came across a sermon on the subject matter we’re looking at today.

As a reminder, here’s Joe Smith’s official version of his 1st Vision —

Joseph Smith-History 1:17-19 “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! 18 My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join. 19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”” [emp. added]

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Today we’re taking a look at what the LDS Church has peddled at doorsteps around the world. It’d be laughable if not for the untold tragedies left in its wake.

If you’re LDS, we pray the info here gives you pause. Ask yourself why there are so many variations to Joseph Smith’s story that came straight from Smith himself. These aren’t made up ‘anti-Mormon’ stories, rather, these are firsthand accounts of what he said happened in a grove of trees.

If someone showed up on your doorstep with so many contradictions about a major life event, would  you believe them?

When I was a member  of the Church I always thought I was just confused again, or mistaken about things I was taught. After I left, I realized I had a pretty good memory after all…

The following synopsis of events is so confusing it’d make the most confident person stop, and wonder what they just read. It’s amazing they have young folks barely out of puberty, telling the oft repeated story of another youngster in a grove of trees. (more…)

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Heber’s Faulty Memory; God Didn’t Appear to Joseph Smith

Journal of Discourses 6:29 “Do you suppose that God in person called upon Joseph Smith, our Prophet? God called upon him; but God did not come himself and call, but he sent Peter to do it. Do you not see? He sent Peter and sent Moroni to Joseph, and told him that he had got the plates. Did God come himself? No: he sent Moroni and told him there was a record, and says he, “That record is matter that pertains to the Lamanites, and it tells when their fathers came out of Jerusalem, and how they came, and all about it; and, says he, “If you will do as I tell you, I will confer a gift upon you.” Well, he conferred it upon him, because Joseph said he would do as he told him. “I want you to go to work and take the Urim and Thummim, and translate this book, and have it published, that this nation may read it.” Do you not see, by Joseph receiving the gift that was conferred upon him, you and I have that record?” – Heber C. Kimball, Salt Lake City, November 8, 1857

Proverbs 18:2 “A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.”

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Ensign, ‘The Shield of Faith,’ May 2000; “I believe that the appearance of God the Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in 1820 to Joseph Smith unlocked the heavens not only to the great spiritual knowledge revealed in this dispensation but also to secular knowledge.” – James Faust

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Gordon B. Hinckley boldly proclaimed none else but God Almighty came down to earth and told Joe Smith all of Christianity was wrong. He also asserted the entire church rests itself on the validity of this ‘glorious first vision’. It’s a dismal outlook on life if this is what the Church is banking on. His claim gives investigators many reasons to reject their church. There’s no less than eleven different versions of the first vision.

Why don’t they set their validity on Jesus?

 

General Conference, ‘What are People Asking about Us?,’ October 1998; “Our entire case as members of TheGordonBHinckley Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, rests on the validity of this glorious First Vision” (Also see Church News, Oct.
10, 1998, p.17).

 

 

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James 1:8 “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

Joseph Smith's first visionLatter-day Tracts [Pamphlets], p. 1; “Witnesses of the Book of Mormon…In 1823, a young man living in New York State prayed to learn which of the many existing churches he should join. The answer to his prayer brought forth the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to the young man, Joseph Smith, and called him to be the first prophet of the latter days.” [emp. mine]

However, three years earlier in 1820…

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If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. – Augustine of Hippo, Sermons

JosephTeaching3If you thought you misread the title of our post, it’s okay, you’re not alone. The first thing that came to my mind was the quote listed above.

The shameless applause for Joe Smith makes it difficult to believe they don’t venerate that man; everything they do revolves around their founder, Joseph Smith. Case in point is our subject matter today.

As an aside –

The image above was part of the chapter we’ve highlighted here. You’ll take notice of the occultic markings of the Nauvoo Temple behind Joe Smith. This type of imagery, along with their doctrines, are saturated with demonic influence everywhere Mormons look.

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Joseph Smith's first visionToday we’re looking at a well known biblical verse Mormons use when testing for truth. They like this verse because according to Joseph Smith, it’s the whole reason he went to the woods to pray and ask God for help.

Joseph Smith-History 1:11; “…I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”

Smith explained it never occurred to him all the churches were wrong, but that was the very thing God revealed to him when he knelt down to pray, and ask which church he should join.

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One of my first memories in life was sitting in my ward building learning for the first time Joseph Smith was tarred and feathered in 1832 just because he told people about the vision he had.  The horror I felt in my body was something I can still feel just as I did 50+ years ago.

What I wasn’t taught in those early impressionable years, is my focus here today. It wasn’t until after I got out of the Church that I learned about the contradictions in Smith’s story. While there were a handful of questions in my mind when I left Mormonism, it never dawned on me just how many contradictions there were, or the vastness and totality of what he’d done.

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All NINE versions of Joseph Smith’s First Vision
by Mark Grote

“As of 1834, Joseph Smith’s first published autobiographical sketch contained no whisper of an event that, if it had happened, would have been the most soul-shattering experience of his whole youth.

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