How I Know That Joseph Smith Is A Prophet Pt. 2: The First Vision

Okay, so let's recap a little bit. Joseph is confused, wants to know which church is right, doesn't know where to go because the world is in an apostasy, there aren't any prophets or apostles, ordinances have changed, doctrines vary from church to church, and to top it all off, everybody is fighting about it, but nobody is right. Whew! That's a bleak way to start off a search for the truth, isn't it?

So like I said before, Joseph talks to as many people he can, but they just make him more confused. He writes, "In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?" But he seems to find the best source of knowledge to be the scriptures. One day he found this gem of a scripture, in James 1:5, which states, "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."

"Alright," he says to himself (I'm taking artistic liberty, I'm not actually privy to his thoughts), "this here scripture says that if I don't know something, I should go ask the Person that knows everything. I guess that makes sense."

This scripture really opened up his eyes, apparently, because he says that, "Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine." Not only that, but he couldn't stop thinking about it. It came into his mind over and over again, each time with "great force," prompting him to go and ask God. And so (and I think that there is a great lesson to be learned here) as he pondered the scriptures, his desire to act on what he had learned increased dramatically. It led him to actually apply what James had told him (ask of God), which probably would have been a frightening prospect for a boy so young asking a Being so great, especially since "it was the first time in [his] life that [he] had made such an attempt, for amidst all [his] anxieties [he] had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally." But trusting in God, he made his venture.

He tells us that it was a spring morning in 1820. I imagine that New York at that time and season would be beautiful, the perfect setting for a humble prayer, a quiet attempt to communicate with the Almighty. Joseph went into the woods nearby his home to a place that he had already chosen, where he knew he would not be interrupted....where he could be completely alone, with no distractions to interfere with his attempt to talk with God. He found a spot, knelled, and began to pray.

What happened next was something that Joseph did not expect. As he began to pray, he tells us that he was "seized upon by some power," that tried to keep him from praying. Satan, the enemy of God and of all mankind, was very upset with the Smith boy, and launched a full assault him. Using all of his dark powers, he tried to stop Joseph by stopping his prayer. Why would he do that? Why would the devil be so afraid of a 14 year-old boy that he would attack him in broad daylight? Because about 1800 years ago, Satan had accomplished one of his most devastating victories...the Great Apostasy. Remember what we talked about in the last blog post? Satan had meticulously driven the righteous saints of the primitive church to obscurity through internal corruption and external persecution. The church of Jesus Christ had lost its priesthood authority, the ordinances had been changed, the organization was left in ruin, and mankind slowly "turn[ed] away their ears from the truth, and...turned unto fables." (2 Timothy 4:4). Satan had already rid himself of the Church of the Lamb of God, and he had been spreading his darkness and confusion over the earth for the last 1800 years. That is why he tried in that moment to stop a humble farmboy from praying. That is why what happened next is even more glorious.

I would spoil it with my own words, so I am going to let Joseph describe exactly what happened:

"...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....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!"

For the first time, after almost two thousand years of apostasy and darkness...the heavens were once again opened....and God the Father, with His Beloved Son Jesus Christ at His right hand, came to the earth that They created and literally talked with the boy Joseph face to face. Can you see how glorious an event that was? Can you imagine how intense and wonderful the scene would have been? Can you imagine the millions of angels shouting for joy as light once again entered the earth that had been in darkness and suffering for so long? That is why this event was so important. When Joseph came from the woods later that afternoon and told the world what had happened, he wasn't just telling a story of something cool that had happened. He was reporting to the entire human race that truth, light, and revelation had once again penetrated the darkness, and that God had once again reached out to His children and offered them hope....hope that was so desperately needed in a world that had been on its knees and suffering.

So what did They tell Joseph? In short, They told him that none of the churches that were currently on the earth were correct, but that Joseph would be called to be the prophet that would restore the Church of Jesus Christ, exactly the way that it was before. And Jesus Christ Himself would lead it. Gone were the days of spiritual darkness, gone were the days without priesthood authority, gone were the days of mankind struggling in vain to know the will of God. For the last time, God had reestablished His kingdom on the earth, never again to be taken away until the Second Coming of the Messiah, when He will reign personally over the whole earth.

That is what Joseph learned that spring morning in 1820. Pretty cool, huh?