Joseph Smith’s First Vision was not a sudden event.

Things happened to prepare the way for Joseph, things like the Second Great Awakening, the teachings of his parents, and the power of the scriptures.

Today we tell the story of those events while our scholars help us to understand. This week on The Joseph Smith Papers.

KJZZ television, in cooperation with the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, presents this weekly series highlighting the research of scholars and historians as they prepare for the publication of The Joseph Smith Papers. And now your host, Glenn Rawson.

We open up today’s show standing on the edge of the Sacred Grove. We’ll join Richard Bushman and others of our scholars, who will instruct us.

It's important to understand at the outset what the First Vision means to us as Latter-day Saints.

I've been very much aware of this opening in the woods and the path that leads to the Sacred Grove. I think we all want to walk down there.

All of the revealed religions have founding miracles

which launched them. And this event here,

coupled with the events around Cumorah and the coming of the Book of Mormon, are sacred events.

I think many of us feel that if once these events are established,

then all the rest of the Restoration follows.

It’s sort of the basic. This is the foundation event of the Church’s organization and development.

Now, maybe if you’re like me,

you can assume that because it was such an important thing, Joseph told a lot of people about it,

but the evidence suggests just the opposite.

There are interesting ambiguities around this event, as really there are about all historical events.

The first one is

that Joseph was extremely reticent to talk about this First Vision.

When he went home and his mother asked him—when she said he looked a little peaky or wan or something—“What’s wrong?” And he says, “Never mind.” He wouldn’t tell her about it.

And in that first decade,

there were probably not more than a handful of Latter-day Saints who knew about the First Vision.

Joseph would later write or dictate four different accounts of the First Vision.

The first came in 1832 and was never meant to be published.

Then in 1835, he told an acquaintance, and it was written down.

And then came the 1838 account that was written in Far West, and that’s what became a part of our Pearl of Great Price.

Finally, there was the 1842 account,

and that was part of the famous Wentworth Letter.

Now, these four separate accounts will be published as part of The Joseph Smith Papers.

Of course, when you tell a story different times, other things come out.

The first account, he goes convicted of his sins

and wants to know if he can be forgiven.

And as he records it in 1832, the first words of the Lord are “Your sins are forgiven you.”

It’s a matter of personal redemption. In the 1838 account,

the big question is which church is right?

And the Lord tells him that none of them are right.

All of this, I think, is an indication of how Joseph Smith was learning from his own

visions. It's not immediately apparent what is happening,

and what that suggests to me is that the Restoration is not just a moment. It's not just here and at the hill and with John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John, and it's not even just an episode or even a decade.

The Restoration is ongoing.

We continue to learn about what this gospel means to us.

There were important events, as we mentioned, that occurred that led up to the Prophet Joseph’s First Vision.

Now, today, as we talk about those different events,

we’ll make reference to the accounts that were written.

For example, this one here, the 1838 account, from which comes our Pearl of Great Price version that we have. And others as well we’ll refer to: the 1832 and the 1835.

Now, to begin, quoting from the Prophet Joseph’s own account in 1838, he said, “Some time in the second year

after our removal to Manchester, there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement

on the subject of religion.”

And what was happening in America about 1820?

The First Vision took place during what some people have called

the world's greatest revival.

The world’s greatest revival began around 1800 and continued right up to about the time of the Civil War. And why?

Why in the United States did you have this unusual religious development? First, it was a new nation, and with the birth of the new nation was a birth of religious liberty.

There was greater religious liberty in the United States than any other Christian land.

Second, there were more religious groups in America than in any other land. It was a land of multiple faiths,

and also it was a land where many people lived far from a church.

There were more unchurched people in the new nation than any other nation.

There’s a relationship between your farm and a church,

attendance and a church meetinghouse,

and most people were living on farms.

People scattered out into the wilderness,

and subsequently there was not a church building,

not regular services that were being held, in most communities.

Into this kind of religious vacuum

went the Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians.

They were all holding meetings, revival-type meetings,

to encourage people to join their churches.

Joseph said that this revival spirit, (quote) “Commenced with the Methodists, [and] soon became general among all the sects in that region of country.”

Can I ask you why it started with the Methodists?

Because more people were joining the Methodist Church at that time than any other religious community, and every three weeks

a Methodist itinerant minister appeared in the area where Joseph lived and preached to the people. They seemed to be the most aggressive missionaries, then. They were very, very successful missionaries for a variety of reasons. They had the best missionary program.

And subsequently, it’s logical that he was influenced first

by the Methodists—fastest-growing religion in America in 1820.

Evidently, this was not just a Palmyra phenomenon, for as Joseph wrote, “Indeed the whole district of country seemed affected by it

and great multitudes united themselves to the different religious parties,

which created no small stir and division among the people,

some crying, ‘Lo, here’ and some Lo there.”

And what evidence is there that great multitudes were joined in churches? We have reports from newspapers.

For example, the Palmyra Register: published in the summer of 1820,

reports of large numbers joining churches, and large numbers in some communities,

specifically in the area north of Albany, more so than anyplace else. The Palmyra area reported that in this area north of Albany,

in some areas and some communities, a hundred to two hundred people were joining the churches. Hundreds, hundreds. Out of a single meeting, or annually, or monthly?

No. Some of these increases would have been

during a two- or three- month period. That’s a lot. That’s a lot of people. But imagine a hundred to two hundred people joining churches in some of these small communities, according to the reports of the Palmyra newspaper.

So, New York State was the center of religious revivalism.

And it's true that there were revivals all over America,

but probably the storm center,

the area of greatest revivalism, was upstate and western New York.

It was into this storm center that Father Smith moved his family. And of course, that storm center had an effect on Joseph, for as Joseph wrote:

“I was at this time in my 15th year.

My father’s family was proselyted to the Presbyterian faith and four of them joined that church,

namely, my mother Lucy, my brothers Hyrum, Samuel Harrison, and my sister Sophronia.”

Now, even though Lucy in the family joined the Presbyterian Church, it was another matter with Father Smith.

It’s interesting that the minister who

gave a funeral sermon at Alvin’s demise

said he was going to hell because he had not been baptized.

This really—

That would have affected the family.

Well, it really rankled Joseph Smith Sr.

But there's no indication that it rankled Lucy or the children,

because it's right after that that Lucy is instrumental in seeing Hyrum, Sophronia, and Samuel, or Harrison,

come into the Presbyterian Church.

They’re baptized probably in the 1824 revivals,

shortly after Alvin’s death.

“During this time of great excitement,” Joseph said, “my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasiness,

but though my feelings were deep and often poignant, still

I kept myself aloof from all these parties

though I attended their several meetings as often as occasion would permit.”

Now, that was in the 1838 account. In 1832, which is this one that we have right here,

Joseph said about that same occasion—

he said “at about the age of 12,”

he said he “became convicted of [his] sins” and “cried unto the Lord for mercy” because then he said, “for there was none else to whom I could go.”

And then in the 1835 account, Joseph said, “[I] consider[ed] it of . . . first importance that I should be right in matters relating to eternal [consequence].”

Joseph Smith was concerned about the circumstances of his own life, of his own salvation.

His mother later said he was a contemplative young man. He thought deeply about these kinds of things.

And that all weighed in to the circumstance that he later tells us of putting him into the grove near his father's farm.

“I felt to mourn for my own sins and for the sins of the world,

for I learned in the scriptures that God was the same yesterday, today, and forever.” In regard to the First Vision, Joseph Smith—

there are a number of catalysts that were working on Joseph.

He was concerned about his immortal soul and said that he had been since the age of 12.

And he was ranging out, and we have information on his having visited a Baptist congregation.

We have information that he went among the Methodists,

and perhaps this was where he was primarily attracted:

to the Methodists. As I say, there were many factors that were working on him: the family prayers and the family Bible-reading and his mother’s urging

and people “Lo here!” and “Lo there!”

Remember that Joseph described it as a time of “great excitement.”

In the summer of 1819, the Methodists called a camp meeting in Phelps,

a community near Palmyra.

A revival is an outburst, a quickening, a religious excitement. Camp meeting is a meeting during which many revivals took place.

Camp meetings were the meetings, primarily conducted by Methodists,

where people, sometimes of different religious faiths,

preached, and sometimes they lasted two and three days. So, camp meetings were the meetings that led to revivals.

It was part of the technique used to excite the people.

So, a revival is the excitement, the awakening, the quickening, and the camp meeting

is the meeting during which often that quickening took place.

A minister would stand on a lump, on, say, a tree stump,

and he would preach until he got tired, and then another person would stand up and preach, and sometimes they were interdenominational.

You might have a Methodist, a Baptist, and a Presbyterian preaching, or it just might be the Methodist,

but they would preach all day and all night.

And sometimes these meetings really became exciting.

Sometimes people went into the jerks. They’d start to jerk. Often the jerks began by swinging their bodies this way and then going down and falling on the ground and rolling around. They went in the jerks, the rolls. They even went in the barks— they got down on the ground and they went crawling around as if they were dogs, barking and barking.

They had an exercise called Training the Devil.

They wanted to drive the devil out of the community, so the barking dogs would go around and try to tree the devil.

The devil would go to the tree, and then they would stand around the tree and they would bark, and the devils would go right out of the camp meeting.

So, they were exciting. And so, you can see that people would gather not

for real purpose of trying to be converted.

They gathered to watch the acrobats in action.

Oh, pure entertainment.

And you can imagine the Smith family traveling over to Phelps to attend the camp meetings that were held there.

Of all the voices in that tumult, there came to be one that appealed to Joseph.

He said in his 1838 account, “In process of time, my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them.”

Now, we have to wonder, why was it that Joseph was drawn to the Methodist sect?

There was a man who came into the community as a revival preacher.

His name was Reverend George Lane, and George Lane

had been on the Methodist circuit

for a good many years as [inaudible].

“The exhortations of the presiding elder, George Lane, were overwhelming.

Sinners quailed under them, and many cried aloud for mercy.

The meeting included the Sabbath, and continued about a week, [and] sixty person professed to find peace,

and thirty joined the church.”

Now, this was 1819, and it was done in Pennsylvania,

but again shows you the charisma of the particular elder.

Later in Kirtland, Joseph described these early days to Oliver Cowdrey, who wrote in the Messenger and Advocate:

“[The] one Mr. Lane, a presiding elder of the Methodist Church, visited Palmyra, and vicinity.

Elder Lane was a talented man possessing a good share of literary endowment and apparent humility.

There was a great awakening, or excitement raised on the subject of religion, and much inquiry for the word of life.

Large additions were made to the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches.

Mr. Lane's manner of communication was peculiarly calculated to awaken the intellect [to] the hearer, and [to] arouse the sinner to look [after] him[self] for safety—much good instruction was always drawn from his discourses on the scriptures,

and in common with others, our brother’s mind became awakened.”

We don’t know of any time that Joseph conversed with George Lane,

but we do know that Joseph knew of George Lane and confirmed it because of what he told Oliver,

saying that Reverend George Lane has “awakened my sensibility.”

And so Oliver includes that. Reverend George Lane’s sister joined the Church.

She married a young man by the name of Foote,

who finally—she was a strong Methodist and didn't subscribe to Mormonism or enter the waters of baptism until Nauvoo and just before her death. But she did follow the pursuits of the Church as far as Nauvoo.

Though he leaned toward Methodism,

still, his mind was far from being made up.

Joseph said: “But so great were the confusion and strife among the different denominations, that it was impossible for a person young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who was right and who was wrong.

My mind at times was greatly excited,

the cry and tumult were so great and incessant.”

So, why was there this confusion and strife for the Prophet?

What was happening between the churches?

In the 1842 account, Joseph explained further.

He said: “I found that there was a great clash in religious sentiment;

if I went to one society they referred me to one plan, and another to another,

each one pointing to his own particular creed as the summum bonum of perfection;

considering that all could not be right, and that God could not be the author of so much confusion,

I determined to investigate the subject more fully, believing that if God had a church it would not be split up into factions,

and that if he taught one society to worship one way, and administer in one set of ordinances,

he would not teach another principles which were diametrically opposed.”

Then Joseph Smith also said in his 1838 account that there was a war of words and contest of opinions.

So I was interested in trying to determine what was the nature of the war of words. What were they arguing about?

Well, you can check the beliefs of the Baptists and the Methodists and the Presbyterians and find the differences. And then you can read the sermons of the ministers at the time

and find out what they were preaching.

What were they talking about?

Well, one of the areas of controversy is, What must I do to be saved? And in Joseph’s 1832 account, he emphasized that he had for three years about,

from the age of 12 to 15, he was involved in a quest for religious truth. And what he wanted to know was what must he do to be saved. The ministers were giving different responses. Saved by grace. Saved by works. Saved by grace. Saved by works. There was a question: What about baptism? Is baptism necessary? Can you be saved without baptism?

And then there was a great debate over the concept of God. In America in 1819,

there was a great controversy over whether or not the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were three persons, one essence, or whether or not Christ and the Father were separate. And so it was an age of great controversy.

Now, there’s a sense of helpless desperation because Joseph wrote:

“I often said to myself, what is to be done?

Who of all these parties are right? Or are they all wrong together?

And if any one of them be right which is it?

And how shall I know it?

While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contest of these parties of religionists,

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, [who] giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.”

William Smith chimed in,

the brother of the Prophet, and said yes,

Reverend George Lane had a decided effect on the family.

He preached a sermon entitled “Which Church Shall I Join?”

and used as his texts James 1 and 5. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.”

And William said coming home, Joseph sat down and pondered that and probably reread the scripture.

And perhaps it had already been a subject in their family reading of the scripture.

But William said Joseph was altogether decided on going out,

and in a childlike, humble faith knelt down and prayed.

However Joseph came to know about James 1 and 5,

it’s important to note that that verse had an impact on him.

Joseph said: “Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again,

knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God,

I did; for how to act

I did not know; and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know. . . .

At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion

or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God.

I at last came to the determination to ask of God,

concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom,

and would give liberally and not upbraid, I might venture.”

This was a time when people were making decisions,

and Joseph Smith was not the only person

who said, “Which church should I join?”

But a point I want to draw upon there that—you just alluded to it.

Joseph’s question about religion was not just a mild concern. This wasn't like, Gee, I wonder which one it is.

This was a. . . This was a soul question. This was something he agonized over for a long time. This was intense.

Three years. Not just reading James 1 and 5.

For three years, he was agonizing, trying to decide which church he should join. Then he read James 1 and 5. Then he went into the grove.

And he was very, very confused. Which church? Are they all wrong?

So, he said that in his account:

Are they all wrong, or which one is right?

He didn’t know. And he went in the grove, and he asked the question “Which church should I join?”

And he received an answer: “You should join none of them,

for they are all wrong.” And then he was called to be a prophet

of the Restoration. You know, for any of us who ever agonized over those same kinds of questions, you know, Joseph becomes, like, the quintessential representative for all of us who've ever wondered about religion and what's true and what's not.

He was living at a time when many people were not members of a church, and he decided that he wanted to

be a member of the right church— which church?

And it’s helped me appreciate that he was different from most people.

Most people did not spend— young boys did not spend three years seeking and searching an answer,

and he was ready to receive an answer, even though he was only 14.

He had studied, he had investigated,

and the time was right for him to be told,

“Now is the time to prepare to restore

the fulness of the gospel upon the earth.”

Joseph wrote,

“So in accordance with this my determination to ask of God,

I retired to the woods to make the attempt.”

Now, we call that the Sacred Grove.

It was in 1842, in his account then, that Joseph said, “I retired to . . . [the] grove.”

Joseph wrote, “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.”

Now, that was in 1838. In the 1835 account, right here,

Joseph said, “Information was what I most desired at this time, and with a fixed determination to obtain it,

I called upon the Lord for the first time.”

Joseph continued, “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.” Now, in 1835, Joseph wrote: “I heard a noise behind me like some person walking towards me.

I strove again to pray, but could not.

The noise of walking seemed to draw nearer.

I sprung up on my feet and looked around, but saw no person or thing that was calculated to produce the noise of walking.” And then continuing on in his 1838 account,

Joseph said: “Thick darkness gathered around me

and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

But exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me

out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me,

and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction, not to an imaginary ruin

but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world who had such a marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—

just at this moment of great alarm

I saw a pillar of light.”

“And the Lord heard my cry in the wilderness and while in the attitude of calling upon the Lord a pillar of fire”—

and he scratched out the word fire

and wrote the word light— “a pillar of light above the brightness of the sun at noon day come down from above and rested upon me

and I was filled with the Spirit of God and the Lord opened the heavens upon me and I saw the Lord

and he spake unto me saying, Joseph, my son,

thy sins are forgiven thee.”

That’s the primary reason,

based upon this earliest text, that Joseph went into the grove: concerned about his own soul,

and the Lord resolved that for him.

The First Vision: how it came to take its rightful place in our history and our theology. Next week on The Joseph Smith Papers.