Question: Is there any reference to God the Father being present in Joseph Smith's 1832 account?

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Question: Is there any reference to God the Father being present in Joseph Smith's 1832 account?

A significant phrase in the introductory paragraph is associated with the First Vision: "receiving the testimony from on high"

There is a very significant phrase located in the introductory paragraph of the Prophet's historical narrative. There he indicates that the 1832 document is . . .

"A History of the life of Joseph Smith Jr. an account of his marvilous experience and of all the mighty acts which he doeth in the name of Jesus Ch[r]ist the son of the living God of whom he beareth record and also an account of the rise of the church of Christ in the eve of time according as the Lord brough<t> [it] forth and established [it] by his hand <firstly> he receiving the testamony from on high secondly the ministering of Angels thirdly the reception of the holy Priesthood by the ministring of Aangels to adminster the letter of the Gospel—<—the Law and commandments as they were given unto him—>and the ordinencs, forthly a confirmation and reception of the high Priesthood after the holy order of the son of the living God."

This paragraph not only introduces the document with a heavy emphasis on the Son of God but it also chronologically outlines four inaugural events of the Restoration.

FIRST: Reception of "the testimony from on high" - First Vision

SECOND: The "ministering of angels" - Moroni visitations

THIRD: Reception of the Holy Priesthood to administer the letter of the gospel - Aaronic

FOURTH: Reception of the High Priesthood after the order of the Son - Melchizedek

This 1832 phraseology corresponds with the words spoken by God the Father when He introduced His Son in the Sacred Grove

The significant phrase in the introductory paragraph is the one associated with the First Vision -- "receiving the testimony from on high" (spelling standardized). When this phrase is placed in conjunction with the Prophet's 1835 and 1838 accounts of the First Vision it becomes obvious that the 1832 phraseology closely corresponds with the words spoken by God the Father when He introduced His Son in the Sacred Grove.

(1832 ACCOUNT)

“firstly . . . receiving the testimony from on high”

(1835 ACCOUNT)

“He [God the Father] testified unto me that Jesus Christ is the Son of God”

(1838 ACCOUNT)

"[He] said...This is my beloved Son”

The Father's identification of Jesus Christ as His Son was His "testimony" of Him.

Critics have objected that -- in their minds -- the phrase "from on high" cannot be so easily equated with God the Father. But there is a sizable amount of corroborating evidence for this idea. Consider the following points of connection.

• 3 Ne. 11:3, 5-7 - between April and June 1828

The Father's "voice . . . came out of heaven" [i.e., 'from on high'] and testified of His "Beloved Son."

• D&C 20:16 - April 1830

Joseph Smith stated, "the Lord God has spoken it; and we . . . have heard . . . the words of the glorious Majesty on high."

• Matthew, Mark, Luke, 1 Peter - between 8 March 1831 and 24 March 1832

There are five New Testament scriptures (which Joseph Smith would have been familiar with from his work on the JST) that have distinct parallels to the First Vision story. Jesus Christ's Old World disciples heard the Father's voice come "from heaven" (Mt. 3:17; Mk. 1:11; Lk. 3:22; 2 Pt. 1:17-18) [i.e, 'from on high'] or "out of the cloud" (Mt. 17:5) [i.e., 'from on high'] and in each of these instances the Father testified of His Son and employed the same phraseology that Joseph Smith said He utilized during the First Vision.

• JST John 1:18/19 - between 20 November 1831 and 16 February 1832

"And no man hath seen God at any time, except he [i.e., God the Father] hath borne record of the Son."

• 1832 First Vision account - between 22 September 1832 and 27 November 1832

"receiving the testimony from on high"

• D&C 93:15 - 6 May 1833

Mention is made of the Father's voice being heard "out of heaven."

• Patriarchal Blessing - 9 December 1834

When the Prophet received his Patriarchal Blessing on 9 December 1834 he was reminded by the Patriarch (his father) that during his "youth" he had "heard [God's] voice from on high."

Joseph Smith appears to have equated the voice "from on high" with God the Father both before and after he penned his 1832 First Vision account

This chronological evidence points to the conclusion that Joseph Smith appears to have equated the voice "from on high" with God the Father both before and after he penned his 1832 First Vision account.

"The Lord opened the heavens and I saw the Lord"

Another line from the 1832 account that may be referring to two people may be this line

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

It has been argued that the seperation of "Lord" into two may be referring to the Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Three pieces of evidence can be used to argue for this interpretation.

1. The separation of "Lord" is used scripturally in Psalm 110:1. As John Welch and James Allen have argued, if David can do this, so can Joseph.A couple of critics have taken issue with this evidence for the interpretation, stating that since Psalm 110:1 was originally written in Hebrew with two words for Lord (rendering "Lord" and "LORD" in all caps for the second mention) that the argument fails. . However this line of argumentation is complicated for several reasons.

Robert Boylan:

In the 1832 account of his First Vision, the Prophet Joseph Smith wrote that he saw:

[A] piller of firelight 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. (source)

In this excerpt, Joseph said that “the Lord” opened the heavens and he saw “the Lord.” Some LDS apologists and historians have argued that the first Lord refers to God the Father and the second lord with whom Joseph conversed was Jesus (e.g., Steven C. Harper). While this has been denied by critics, most recently Dan Vogel, it does have strong biblical precedence (biblical exegesis and theology are not Vogel’s strong suits by any stretch of the imagination, so not surprising he is ignorant on this issue), all the more important in light of the influence the Bible had on Joseph Smith, so it would have influenced the language he used (something that is uncontested by LDS and non-LDS alike). We will examine this in this article.

Psa 110:1 (LXX: 109:1) is the most quoted and alluded-to singular Old Testament verse in the New Testament. According to James Dunn in his book, Did The First Christians Worship Jesus? The New Testament Evidence, this verse "runs like a gold thread through much of the New Testament" (p. 103). The Hebrew of this verse reads:

‎ נְאֻם לַאדֹנִי שֵׁב לִימִינִי עַד־אָשִׁית אֹיְבֶיךָ הֲדֹם לְרַגְלֶיךָ YHWH says to my lord: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet

In this verse, one Lord (YHWH) speaks (by oracle [that is the nuance of the Hebrew verb]) to “adoni” (“my adon” or “my lord”), a numerically distinct lord to the first Lord, YHWH.

With the later tradition of not pronouncing the divine name YHWH and with its substitution with Adonai (“my [sovereign] Lord”), later Jewish readers would have said, instead of YHWH says to my lord, it would have been rendered "Adonai says to my adon/lord" or, to render it into Hebrew:

נְאֻם אֲדֹנָי לַאדֹנִי My Lord says to my lord

This is captured in the LXX rendition of this verse:

εἶπεν ὁ κύριος τῷ κυρίῳ μου κάθου ἐκ δεξιῶν μου ἕως ἂν θῶ τοὺς ἐχθρούς σου ὑποπόδιον τῶν ποδῶν σου The Lord said to my lord: sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet

‎As a few examples of this verse's reception in the New Testament, consider the following:

And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question. And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David? For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly. (Mark 12:28-37)

Why it this interesting? In this verse, Jesus understands the singular person of the Father is in view in Shema, and exhausts the referents thereof (cf. John 17:3; 1 Tim 2:5, etc), with the LXX translating YHWH as κυριος (“Lord”); instead, He was the second lord of Psa 110:1 (109:1, LXX), showing that there are “two lords” in view: The Lord God and the Lord Messiah. Indeed, the author of the Gospel of Luke picked this up rather cogently. In his infancy narrative, we read:

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:11)

The Greek for "Christ the Lord" is χριτος κυριος.

However, elsewhere in Luke 2:26, in the narrative of Jesus’ presentation at the temple, we read:

And it was revealed unto him [Simeon] by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

"The Lord's Christ" in Greek is τὸν χριστὸν κυρίου, so we can clearly see that in the Bible, there are two Lords: The Father and the “Lord’s Christ,” the “Lord Messiah” Jesus.

Other texts of Christological importance where Psa 110:1 is alluded to would include:

Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. (Acts 2:30-36)

But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. (Acts 7:55-56)

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. (1 Cor 15:22-28)

And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? (Heb 1:10-13)

While not explicitly quoted in the Book of Mormon, this verse is alluded to a few times therein (which itself should serve to refute Modalism). Two of the clearest examples are the following verses:

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men? (Moroni 7:27) And may the grace of God the Father, whose throne is high in the heavens, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who sitteth on the right hand of his power, until all things shall become subject unto him, be, and abide with you forever. Amen. (Moroni 9:26; cf. Acts 7:55-56; 1 Cor 15:22-28)

Not only is Psa 110:1 alluded to, but coupled with the distinction of the person of the Father and the Son, such refutes the claim that the earliest “Mormon” Christology was a form of Modalism, contra Dan Vogel and other critics.

A number of revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants, pre-dating 1832, are also reliant upon Psa 110:1, further bolstering our thesis. Speaking of Jesus, we read:

And ascended into heaven, to sit down on the right hand of the Father, to reign with almighty power according to the will of the Father. (D&C 20:24)

Elsewhere, we read the following wherein the Father and the Son are numerically distinct from one another, coupled with another allusion to Psa 110:1:

Thus saith the Lord; for I am God, and have sent mine Only Begotten Son into the world for the redemption of the world, and have decreed that he that receiveth him shall be saved, and he that receiveth him not shall be damned--And they have done unto the Son of Man even as they listed; and he has taken his power on the right hand of his glory, and now reigneth in the heavens, and will reign till he descends on the earth to put all enemies under his feet, which time is night at hand. (D&C 49:5-6)

In D&C 76, a revelation dating from February 1832, written only a short time before the 1832 First Vision account, Psa 110:1 is clearly an influence on the theological vocabulary of the young prophet:

And we beheld the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father, and received of his fulness . . .For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father. (D&C 76:20, 23)

So it should be clear that, in light of the influence the KJV, especially the NT had on Joseph Smith, as well as the reception history of Psa 110:1 in the NT, the Book of Mormon, and even his pre-1832 revelations, speaking of two numerically distinct “lords” is not the stretch that critics like Dan Vogel claim it to be.

Notes