View source for Question: What is the difference between Joseph Smith's first vision and other reported visions of God at the time?

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|L=Question: What is the difference between Joseph Smith's first vision and other reported visions of God at the time?
|H=Question: What is the difference between Joseph Smith's first vision and other reported visions of God at the time?
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|L1=The type of event that we now refer to as Joseph Smith's First Vision was not entirely uncommon at the time
|L2=Joining a church at that time required one to explain one's standing with God to a preacher
|L3=One difference between Joseph's vision and others is that Joseph was told not to join any denomination
|L4=Neither Joseph nor others at that time offered the First Vision as a reason to become Latter-day Saints
|L5=The establishment of the restored Church of Jesus Christ began with the Book of Mormon
}}
==Question: What is the difference between Joseph Smith's first vision and other reported visions of God at the time?==
{{POGPCentralJSH|title=The Visionary World of Joseph Smith|url=https://www.pearlofgreatpricecentral.org/the-visionary-world-of-joseph-smith/|number=19}}
===The type of event that we now refer to as Joseph Smith's First Vision was not entirely uncommon at the time===
There were at the time people who went to the wood to pray after reading the Bible, and as a result received visions and epiphanies. ''The Encyclopedia of Mormonism'' (1992; 2007) noted that "[i]nitial skepticism toward Joseph Smith's testimony was understandable because others had made similar claims to receiving revelation from God."<ref>William O. Nelson, "[https://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Anti-Mormon_Publications Anti-Mormon Publications]," ''Encyclopedia of Mormonism'' Daniel H. Ludlow ed. (New York, NY: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1992; 2007) 45-46.</ref> Similarly, the Church's new narrative history ''Saints'' (2018) notes that after Joseph's vision when he spoke to the reverend about his vision that "[a]t first the preacher treated his words lightly. People claimed to have heavenly visions from time to time."<ref>Matthew J. Grow, Richard E. Turley Jr., Steven C. Harper, Scott A. Hales eds., ''Saints Volume 1 - The Standard of Truth'' (Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2018), 17. The book cites Richard Bushman, “[https://byustudies.byu.edu/content/visionary-world-joseph-smith The Visionary World of Joseph Smith],” ''BYU Studies'' 37:1 (1997-1998): 183–204.</ref>
Visionaries are not that uncommon in environments where people are routinely open to the divine. Even the famous Charles Finney had one. Finney, after retiring to the woods to pray, described the experience:

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Just at this moment I again thought I heard someone approach me, and I opened my eyes to see whether it were so. But right there the revelation of my pride of heart, as the great difficulty that stood in the way, was distinctly shown to me. An overwhelming sense of my wickedness in being ashamed to have a human being see me on my knees before God, took such powerful possession of me, that I cried at the top of my voice, and exclaimed that I would not leave that place if all the men on earth and all the devils in hell surrounded me. "What!" I said, "such a degraded sinner I am, on my knees confessing my sins to the great and holy God; and ashamed to have any human being, and a sinner like myself, find me on my knees endeavoring to make my peace with my offended God!" The sin appeared awful, infinite. It broke me down before the Lord.

Just at that point this passage of Scripture seemed to drop into my mind with a flood of light: "Then shall ye go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. Then shall ye seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." I instantly seized hold of this with my heart. I had intellectually believed the Bible before; but never had the truth been in my mind that faith was a voluntary trust instead of an intellectual state. I was as conscious as I was of my existence, of trusting at that moment in God's veracity. Somehow I knew that that was a passage of Scripture, though I do not think I had ever read it. I knew that it was God's word, and God's voice, as it were, that spoke to me. I cried to Him, "Lord, I take Thee at Thy word. Now Thou knowest that I do search for Thee with all my heart, and that I have come here to pray to Thee; and Thou hast promised to hear me."

That seemed to settle the question that I could then, that day, perform my vow. The Spirit seemed to lay stress upon that idea in the text, "When you search for me with all your heart." The question of when, that is of the present time, seemed to fall heavily into my heart. I told the Lord that I should take Him at his word; that He could not lie; and that therefore I was sure that He heard my prayer, and that He would be found of me.

He then gave my many other promises, both from the Old and the New Testament, especially some most precious promises respecting our Lord Jesus Christ. I never can, in words, make any human being understand how precious and true those promises appeared to me. I took them one after the other as infallible truth, the assertions of God who could not lie. They did not seem so much to fall into my intellect as into my heart, to be put within the grasp of the voluntary powers of my mind; and I seized hold of them, appropriated them, and fastened upon them with the grasp of a drowning man.

I continued thus to pray, and to receive and appropriate promises for a long time, I know not how long. I prayed till my mind became so full that, before I was aware of it, I was on my feet and tripping up the ascent toward the road. The question of my being converted, had not so much as arisen to my thought; but as I went up, brushing through the leaves and bushes, I recollect saying with emphasis, "If I am ever converted, I will preach the Gospel."<ref>Charles G. Finney, [https://archive.org/stream/memoirsofrevchar1876finn#page/12/mode/2up "Memoirs of Charles G. Finney,"] (1876) 16-18.</ref> 
</blockquote>

Although Finney doesn't claim to have seen any personages, he does describe a communication with God. Joseph Smith describes his experiences in much the same way as others in his environment did.

===Joining a church at that time required one to explain one's standing with God to a preacher===

Keep in mind that Joseph prayed to find out if his sins had been forgiven. And he discovered that they had. This pleased him greatly. Why did he pray about this matter? The reason is that joining a church at that time often required that one explain one's standing with God to a preacher. We are dealing with Protestant sects. And conservative Protestants believe that one is saved (justified) at the moment one confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and
Savior. So Joseph, as he faced the competing Protestant sects, was deeply concerned about his sins. One had to demonstrate to oneself and also convince a preacher that one had been saved--that is, justified. And there were many instances in which prayers were answered by visions in which the person learned that God had forgiven their sins.

===One difference between Joseph's vision and others is that Joseph was told not to join any denomination===

The difference between Joseph's experience and many other accounts by visionaries, is that, in addition to being told that his sins were in fact forgiven, he was also told not to join any denomination. When he told that part of his visionary experience, it got him into big trouble with preachers. It was not the vision that was a problem for preachers, but his reporting that he should not join some sect.

So the fact is, contrary to our current way of telling his story, the First Vision was not the beginning of Joseph's call as Seer, Prophet, Revelator and Translator. His vision signaled the ''beginning'' of the restoration. It did not begin the ''work'' of the restoration.It steered him away from joining one of the competing denominations. It was Joseph's subsequent encounters with Moroni that made him a Seer, and eventually the founding Prophet of a fledgling Church, and not his initial vision, which was initially for him a private event about which he was reluctant to talk, though eventually he dictated some accounts that were found and published during our lifetime. Joseph told a few people about it, word got around, and this caused him much trouble with Protestant preachers.

===Neither Joseph nor others at that time offered the First Vision as a reason to become Latter-day Saints===

Joseph eventually wrote the account of that early vision late in his life because rumors about it had circulated and caused him difficulty. But neither Joseph nor any of the
other early Saints offered that vision as a reason for others to become Latter-day Saints during his lifetime. It was only much later that what we now call the First Vision began to take on a special importance for the Saints. One reason is that Americans soon did not live in a visionary environment. The great Charles Dickens, writing in England, explained why. He called Joseph Smith vision an absurdity--"seeing visions in the age of
railways."

Wilford Woodruff came into the Church of Jesus Christ because he had known earlier in his life someone he believed was a prophet who had alerted him to the soon to be restoration of primitive Christianity. This remarkable story, which was included in the lesson manual on President Woodruff, illustrates the visionary world in which Joseph was raised. Though there were a few--one or two--instances in which the visionary reported encounters with two heavenly messengers, it was most often God the Son who they reported appearing to them.

But there have been and still are peoples not impacted by post-enlightenment skepticism about divine things who are open to visions and other dramatic encounters with the divine, though they often do not speak in public
about such things, since they tend to see them as strictly private blessings and not something about which one ought to be gossiping and boasting.

===The establishment of the restored Church of Jesus Christ began with the Book of Mormon===

The first missionaries in the Church used The Book of Mormon, not the First Vision, as a witness that the heavens were open, and that each individual, by applying the promise in Moroni 10:3-5, can receive a direct manifestation from Heavenly Father, through the Holy Ghost, that The Book of Mormon is true.  After that testimony is gained, it follows that Joseph Smith is a true prophet, as he brought The Book of Mormon forth and restored the fullness of the Gospel under the direction of the Savior.

The fledgling Church of Christ began with the Book of Mormon, the witnesses to the plates, the restoration of priesthood keys, and not directly with what we call the First Vision, though that initial experience assisted in Joseph avoiding what could be perceived as damaging sectarian contamination. The historical record shows that Joseph never gave any attention to the creeds or arguments of quarreling preachers. This was the purpose served by the First Vision. 

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[[es:Pregunta: ¿Cuál es la diferencia entre la primera visión de José Smith y otras visiones de Dios informadas en ese momento?]]
[[pt:Pergunta: Qual é a diferença entre a primeira visão de Joseph Smith e outras visões relatadas de Deus no momento?]]
[[Category:Questions]]