#first vision

Hello! This post is an introduction to the Restoration of the Gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ. “What restoration?” you’re probably asking - here’s the answer:

The early Christian church quickly fell into apostasy after the ascension of Jesus and the death of the Apostles. The churches that sprang up during this time - known as the Great Apostasy - believed they were correctly following the Gospel. However, the priesthood, the authority to perform ordinances necessary to follow Christ and receive salvation, was lost after the death of the Apostles. This rendered humanity lost and without God’s power available to them. Incorrect doctrines and practices seeped in, causing fractures in Christendom. The numerous Christian denominations we see today are a result of the Great Apostasy and humanity’s attempts to find salvation and redemption. 

In 1820, 15-year-old Joseph Smith was living with his family on a farm in upstate New York, United States. The era in which Joseph was living was filled with religious revival, doubt, and spiritual insecurity. The Second Great Awakening had upended American traditional religious beliefs and ushered in many new beliefs. Joseph’s family was caught up in this and attended many different churches together until his father gave up and his mother settled on attending a Presbyterian congregation, though she was never entirely sure of her decision. Joseph began reading the Bible. He was also plagued with worry about which denomination was correct. Joseph soon came across James 1:5 in the Bible, 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.” Joseph decided to pray to God and ask him for clarification on which church to join. Joseph wrote the following on his experience:

“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. 

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 marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

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!” (Joseph Smith - History 1:15-17)

Joseph saw God the Father and Jesus Christ with his own eyes - how incredible is that! Joseph asked them which church he should join, and they responded by telling him that all were in error. No church taught the true and correct Gospel of Christ. This event is known as the First Vision. In subsequent visions and visitations, Joseph Smith was led to the Book of Mormon, a book of scripture, detailing the ministry of Christ in the Americas. The priesthood was also restored through Joseph, restoring God’s power and saving ordinances to the Earth - meaning that we can find true joy and eternal life after death! Later, Joseph founded a new church, one that included God’s power (priesthood) and taught everyone how to find eternal life - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The First Vision is just one part of the Restoration of the Gospel, and I will be sharing more about the Restoration in future posts. Please feel free to message me If you have any comments or anything to discuss! If you’re questioning the truth of all of this, ask God about it in prayer. “And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.” (Moroni 10:4)

Resources:

ComeUntoChrist.org

The First Vision

First Vision Podcast

Facts about the Sacred Grove:

By the time 11-year-old Joseph Smith arrived in New York, he had experienced both the cruelty and compassion those desperate times drew out of people.

Over the next few years, as he worked with his parents and older siblings to carve out a living for their family of 10, he often reflected on “the situation of the world of mankind.”

As a young person with deeply felt spiritual questions, Joseph felt drawn to the lively religious landscape of upstate New York. Unfortunately, the debate was not always civil. Records from the era contain not only sharp rebukes of ideas but also snide attacks on those who held them. Joseph often felt caught in the cross fire of this “war of words.”

As he searched for truth, Joseph felt God’s presence in the world around him—in the light of the sun and the beauty of the moon, in the richness of the earth and the wealth of life flourishing on it. In addition to attendance at different churches and personal meditation, Joseph searched for God by studying the Bible. And one day, while reading James 1:5, he felt that God was speaking directly to him through that ancient text.

“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.”

We do not and cannot know all that was in Joseph’s heart that morning. We know he felt the weight of a broken world and of his own shortcomings. We know he longed for a faith and community led by Jesus Christ. And we know that God knew his heart and saw that it was open.

“At length,” he later wrote, “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.”

But as magnificent as the vision was, even more important was its message. Jesus told Joseph that people had turned away from Him; though they still spoke of Christ, they had lost the full power of His truth.