Category:First Vision/Forgiveness of sins

Forgiveness of Joseph's Sins During the First Vision

Parent page: First Vision

Joseph Smith (1832): "for I become convicted of my sins...I saw the Lord and he spake unto me saying Joseph my son thy sins are forgiven thee"

Joseph Smith:

from the age of twelve years to fifteen I pondered many things in my heart concerning the sittuation of the world of mankind the contentions and divi[si]ons the wicke[d]ness and abominations and the darkness which pervaded the of the minds of mankind my mind become excedingly distressed for I become convicted of my sins....therefore I cried unto the Lord for mercy for there was none else to whom I could go and to obtain mercy and the Lord heard my cry in the wilderness and while in the attitude of calling upon the Lord </span>in the 16th year of my age a piller of fire 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. go thy way walk in my statutes and keep my commandments [1]


Joseph Smith (9 Nov. 1835): "another personage soon appeard like unto the first, he said unto me thy sins are forgiven thee"

Joseph Smith's journal (scribe Warren Parrish):

a personage appeard in the midst of this pillar of flame which was spread all around, and yet nothing consumed, another personage soon appeard like unto the first, he said unto me thy sins are forgiven thee [2]


Orson Pratt (1840): "He was informed that his sins were forgiven"

Orson Pratt:

he was enwrapped in a heavenly vision and saw two glorious personages who exactly resembled each other in their features or likeness. He was informed that his sins were forgiven. [3]

Notes

  1. Joseph Smith Letterbook 1, pp. 1-6. This electronic text was copied from Wikisource. The editor notes that insertions are indicated like this and deletions are indicated like this. Text in blue is in Smith's own handwriting, the remainder in the handwriting of Frederick G. Williams. "History, circa Summer 1832," The Joseph Smith Papers.
  2. "Journal, 1835–1836," The Joseph Smith Papers.
  3. "Appendix: Orson Pratt, A Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, 1840," The Joseph Smith Papers.