{"id":41254,"date":"2021-01-05T09:22:26","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T14:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timesandseasons.org\/?p=41254"},"modified":"2021-01-06T20:57:36","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T01:57:36","slug":"or-are-they-all-wrong-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2021\/01\/or-are-they-all-wrong-together\/","title":{"rendered":"“Or, are they all wrong together?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this week\u2019s chapter in the Come, Follow Me <\/em>manual<\/a>, one of the core areas of discussion is \u201cwhy are there various accounts of the First Vision?\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s an opportunity to explore the other accounts of the First Vision in a way that is potentially helpful to members of the Church.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0The section mentions that: \u201cAlthough these accounts differ in some details, depending on the audience and setting, they are otherwise consistent.\u00a0 And each account adds details that help us better understand Joseph Smith\u2019s experience.\u201d\u00a0 The manual offers a link to the Gospel Topics Essay, which in turn links to the different accounts, and then asks: \u201cWhat do you learn from reading all of these accounts?\u201d \u00a0While I\u2019ve offered my thoughts<\/a> on what the messages of the First Vision were according to what\u2019s actually in the accounts (more or less my response to that final question), I want to take some time to look at a relatively minor example of how \u201ceach account adds details that help us better understand Joseph Smith\u2019s experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within the canonized account of the First Vision, there is an inconsistency that has often stood out to me.\u00a0 In discussing his confusion caused by several Protestant sects proselyting and contending with each other, Joseph Smith states that: \u201cI often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together?\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Later, when he is talking about being in the middle of the vision, he states that: \u201cI asked the Personages \u2026 which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)\u2014and which I should join.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 So, which is it?\u00a0 Did he ask himself if they were \u201call wrong together\u201d before the vision or had it \u201cnever entered into [his] heart that all were wrong?\u201d\u00a0 As a missionary, I talked about this occasionally with my companions and one of the more common apologetic moves made in these discussions was that while Joseph Smith may have had the thought that all the Churches were wrong pass through his mind, he didn\u2019t seriously consider it (i.e., it \u201cnever entered into my heart\u201d, it only briefly entered his mind).\u00a0 We do, however, have different accounts of the First Vision available that give us a view of what Joseph Smith remembered thinking prior to the First Vision.<\/p>\n

The earliest major account is one that was written by Joseph Smith himself sometime around 1832.\u00a0 In it, Joseph Smith makes it clear that his struggle with finding the path to salvation spanned years: \u201cFrom the age of twelve years to fifteen I pondered many things in my heart concerning the sittuation of the world.\u201d\u00a0 By studying the scriptures and talking with \u201cthose of differant denominations\u201d during that time, he states that he \u201cdiscovered that <they did not\u00a0adorn<\/span>>\u00a0instead of<\/span>\u00a0adorning<\/span>\u00a0their profession by a holy walk and Godly conversation\u00a0agreeable to what I found contained in that sacred depository\u201d and that \u201cI found\u00a0that\u00a0mand<\/span> <mankind> did not come unto the Lord but that they had apostatised from the true and liveing faith and there was no society or denomination that built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded in the new testament.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0 In this account, those were the conclusions that he came to during the time leading up to the First Vision.\u00a0 Thus, in the 1832 account, he indicates that it not only \u201centered into my heart that all were wrong,\u201d as he put it in the 1838 account, but that it was his conviction going into the First Vision that \u201cthere was no society or denomination that built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other two major accounts were recorded in 1835 and 1842, though they are less helpful on the question at hand. \u00a0The 1835 account was a journal entry recorded by a scribe from a time Joseph Smith told a visitor about \u201cthe circumstances connected with the coming forth of the book of Mormon.\u201d\u00a0 This account is relatively neutral and silent on the topic of Christian sects, briefly mentioning that when he was \u201clooking upon<\/span> <at> the different systems taught the children of men, I knew not who was right or who was wrong\u201d but he wanted to know.\u00a0 Even when describing his vision with the two personages, however, no further mention is made about this concern during this account.[5]<\/a>\u00a0 The 1842 account is a part of the Wentworth letter\u2014a brief history of the Church and Joseph Smith\u2019s life written for non-members (this is the same document that the Articles of Faith and the Standard of Truth come from). \u00a0Like the 1835 account, it doesn\u2019t give us a clear answer on the question at hand.\u00a0 He only states that upon examining the different denominations, he felt that \u201cif God had a church it would not be\u00a0split up into factions, and that if he\u00a0taught one society to worship one way,\u00a0and administer in one set of ordinances,\u00a0he would not teach another principles\u00a0which were diametrically opposed.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 This only indicates that he felt like there should be one true Church and that he wanted to be a part of it, but doesn\u2019t indicate whether or not he considered the possibility that none of the existing sects or denominations were that one true Church prior to the vision.<\/p>\n

There are also several second-hand contemporary accounts written by associates of Joseph Smith.\u00a0 These documents give us a glimpse of what the people around Joseph Smith understood him to be saying about the First Vision.\u00a0 The earliest to be published was Orson Pratt\u2019s and it is similar to the 1842 Wentworth Letter in what it says about Joseph Smith\u2019s thoughts prior to the vision (so, not terribly useful here).[7]<\/a>\u00a0 More interesting for this discussion is Orson Hyde\u2019s 1842 Ein Ruf aus der W\u00fcste<\/em>, which, according to one translation, states that \u201cafter he had sufficiently convinced himself to his own satisfaction that darkness covered the earth and gross darkness [covered] the nations, the hope of ever finding a sect or denomination that was in possession of unadulterated truth left him.\u201d \u00a0According to Hyde, Smith\u2019s prayer to the Lord for answers was a direct consequence of this conclusion.[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Most of the other accounts are more in line with the 1835 and 1842 accounts in not talking about whether or not Joseph Smith considered the possibility of there being no true Church prior to the vision, only stating things like Joseph \u201cwas desirous to know what Church to join,\u201d[9]<\/a> or that he \u201ccould not find out\u00a0which of all the sects were\u00a0right,\u201d so he turned to God for an answer.[10]<\/a>\u00a0 The interesting outlier is an account from the journal of Alexander Neibaur, which records that when Joseph Smith went to pray, he and asked the Lord: \u201cMust I join the Methodist\u00a0Church[?]\u201d[11]<\/a>\u00a0 This lines up with the 1838 account\u2019s statement that \u201cin the process of time my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them,\u201d[12]<\/a> though it takes that idea further than Joseph Smith did in his own writings in indicating that he asked specifically about one church during the vision. \u00a0Thus, of the five contemporary second-hand accounts, one indicates that Joseph Smith concluded that all churches were wrong, three give no statements about conclusions prior to the First Vision, and one indicates that Joseph Smith wondered if Methodism was the Lord\u2019s Church.<\/p>\n

Now that we\u2019ve gone down the rabbit hole of the various accounts out there, do we have an answer to the original question at hand?\u00a0 Did Joseph Smith ask himself if they were \u201call wrong together\u201d before the vision or \u201chad [it] never entered into [his] heart that all were wrong?\u201d\u00a0 Most of the accounts are ambiguous, only stating that he was looking for the church that would lead him to salvation and that he couldn\u2019t figure out which one was the correct one, so he went to God to ask.\u00a0 Those accounts don\u2019t answer the question either way.\u00a0 At least one secondary account mentions that he seriously considered the possibility that the Methodists were the group God wanted him to join (which is also mentioned briefly in the 1838 account), which doesn\u2019t preclude the possibility that he also considered at some point that they might all be wrong, only that he strongly considered the idea that the Methodist church was the Lord\u2019s church at some point along the way.\u00a0 And, finally, two accounts seem to indicate that Joseph Smith concluded that all the churches were wrong.<\/p>\n

I believe, based on the above, that Joseph Smith did at least<\/em> ponder the possibility that the Christian churches were \u201call wrong together\u201d prior to the First Vision.\u00a0 The 1832 account is the account written closest to the time of the event itself and the only one we have in Joseph Smith\u2019s handwriting, so that account has some pretty good weight behind what it says.\u00a0 And that account says that Joseph Smith concluded that \u201cthere was no society or denomination that built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded in the new testament\u201d prior to the First Vision.\u00a0 Orson Hyde\u2019s later, secondary account seems to back up that idea with his statement that \u201cthe hope of ever finding a sect or denomination that was in possession of unadulterated truth left him.\u201d\u00a0 Along the way towards making that conclusion, Joseph seems to have flirted with the idea of becoming Methodist, but ultimately chose to not join prior to the First Vision because of a lack of certainty.[13]<\/a>\u00a0 Thus, the earlier statement in the 1838 account that he asked, \u201cwho of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together?\u201d seems to be backed up more strongly in the other accounts than his later statement in the 1838 account that \u201cat this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong.\u201d \u00a0I don\u2019t know why Joseph Smith wrote the latter statement, but in light of the 1832 account, I don\u2019t think that saying that Joseph Smith didn\u2019t seriously consider the possibility that \u201call were wrong\u201d (as a few of my missionary companions suggested) is a correct assessment of the situation.\u00a0 And we can at least get that much of an answer because there are several contemporary accounts available to us and \u201ceach account adds details that help us better understand Joseph Smith\u2019s experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Further Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n