What is the significance of joseph smith

As far as missionary work is concerned, it is evident that here too the story of the First Vision had little, if any, importance in the s.

Such important early converts as Parley P. Kimball all joined because of their conversion through the Book of Mormon, and none of their early records or writings seem to indicate that an understanding or knowledge of the First Vision was in any way a part of their conversion. John Corrill tells of his first contact with the Mormons through Parley P.

Their message concerned the Book of Mormon, but Corrill reported nothing of having heard of a prior vision. Pratt converted John Taylor in , the story he told him was of the angelic visitations connected with the Book of Mormon, of the priesthood restoration, and of the organization of the Church. There is no evidence that anything was said of the First Vision. Rather, Taylor was converted on the basis of the Book of Mormon and the fact that Mormonism taught certain principles which he had already concluded were essential and which he had been waiting to hear someone preach.

It seems evident that, at least in the s, it was not considered necessary for prospective converts to Mormonism to know the story. It is assumed, of course, that if they believed in the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, as well as the other claims of Joseph Smith to divine authority and revelation, the story of the First Vision would not have been difficult for them to believe once they heard it.

Neither Mormon nor non-Mormon publications made reference to it, and it is evident that the general membership of the Church knew little, if anything, about it.

Belief in the story certainly was not a prerequisite for conversion, and it is obvious that the story was not being used for the purpose of illustrating other points of doctrine. In this respect, at least, Mormon thought of the s was different from Mormon thought of later years. Hugh Nibley, grandson of Neibaur, makes the following commentary:. In reply he was told some remarkable things, which he wrote down in his journal that very day.

But in the ensuing forty years of his life. Brother Neibaur seems never once to have referred to the wonderful things the Prophet told him—it was quite by accident that the writer discovered them in his journal.

Why was the talkative old man so close-lipped on the one thing that could have made him famous? Because it was a sacred and privileged communication; it was never published to the world and never should be. Nibley takes the point of view that the story of the vision was not told in those early years because of its sacred nature. One of the most significant documents of that period yet discovered was brought to light in by Paul R. Cheesman, a graduate student at Brigham Young University.

This discovery is a handwritten manuscript apparently composed about and either written or dictated by Joseph Smith. It contains an account of the early experiences of the Mormon prophet and includes the story of the First Vision. While the story varies in some details from the version presently accepted, enough is intact to indicate that at least as early as Joseph Smith contemplated writing and perhaps publishing it. The mere existence of the manuscript, of course, does nothing to either prove or disprove the authenticity of the story, but it demonstrates the historical fact that in the early s the story of the vision was beginning to find place in the formulation of Mormon thought.

Under the date of November 9, , the story is told of a man visiting Joseph Smith calling himself Joshua, the Jewish minister. In the back of the book, however, is a most curious and revealing document. It is curious in several ways. Finally, in order to read the document, one must turn the book upside down, which suggests that the manuscript certainly was not intended to be part of the finished history.

The importance of the manuscript here lies in the fact that the scribe wrote down what Joseph Smith said to his visitor, and he began not by telling the story of the discovery of the Book of Mormon but with an account of the First Vision. Again, the details of the story vary somewhat from the accepted version, but the manuscript, if authentic, at least demonstrates that by the story had been told to someone. While reminiscences are obviously open to question—for it is easy for anyone, after many years, to read back into his own history things which he accepts at the time of the telling—some of them at least sound convincing enough to suggest that the story might have been circulating on a limited basis.

In , Edward Stevenson published his reminiscences. He first saw Joseph Smith in , and, according to Stevenson,. In that same year, , in the midst of many large congregations the Prophet testified with great power concerning the visit of the Father and the Son, and the conversation he had with them.

Never before did I feel such power as was manifested on these occasions. We were proud, indeed, to entertain one who had conversed with the Father and the Son, and been under the tuition of an angel from heaven. Lorenzo Snow heard Joseph Smith for the first time when he was seventeen years old. Years later, he recalled the experience in these words:.

As I looked upon him and listened, I thought to myself that a man bearing such a wonderful testimony as he did, and having such a countenance as he possessed, could hardly be a false prophet. He certainly could not have been deceived, it seemed to me, and if he was a deceiver, he was deceiving the people knowingly; for when he testified that he had had a conversation with Jesus the Son of God, and talked with Him personally, as Moses talked with God upon Mount Sinai, and that he also heard the voice of the Father, he was telling something that he either knew to be false or to be positively true.

If this statement is accurate, it means that Joseph Smith was telling the important story in When reading the statement in context, however, it will be immediately noted that Snow did not say that he heard Joseph tell the actual story—only that he heard him testify that he had conversed with the Son and heard the voice of the Father.

Other reminiscences may be found which would indicate that the story was being told in the s, but at this point the extent of the telling is not clear, and the weight of evidence would suggest that it was not a matter of common knowledge, even among Church members, in the earliest years of Mormon history.

The question for historical consideration, then, is when and how the story of Joseph Smith assumed its present importance, not only as a test of faith for the Mormons but also as a tool for illustrating and supporting other Church doctrines. It seems apparent that after Joseph Smith decided to write the story in , the way was clear for its use as a missionary tool.

It is not known, of course, how generally the membership of the Church knew of the story by the end of the decade, but in the year , Orson Pratt published in England a missionary tract entitled Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records. This early pamphlet contained a detailed account of the First Vision which elaborated upon several details that Joseph Smith touched on only briefly. This also contained an elaborate account of the vision.

By the s, the story of the vision had become an important part of Church literature. The founder of Mormonism was born on December 23rd, Related Articles. Making Mormons Normal. Popular articles. When the Men Came Marching Home. Until then he had been a young man claiming a divine gift and a mission to translate a book.

After he became the prophetic leader of a people. Smith claimed to lead the church, as he had translated the Book of Mormon, by direct revelation. He received scores of revelations dealing with trivial details of administration and cosmic visions of the life hereafter. Among the first was a command to take the Book of Mormon to the Indian tribes being settled along the frontier in western Missouri.

In September and October of four missionaries set out, reaching their destination in midwinter. They preached to the Indians and enjoyed some small success before government agents stopped them, fearing that the presence of Christian preachers would jeopardize the fragile peace with the tribes.

Byproducts of this journey turned out to be even more significant than the mission to the Indians. En route the missionaries stopped in Kirtland, Ohio, and made more converts in a few weeks than Smith had assembled in a year.

Some of these new members visited him in New York, and by the end of Smith received a revelation directing the entire church to move to Ohio. Kirtland was regarded as a temporary location because of another outcome of the Missouri mission. The Book of Mormon had spoken of the construction of a New Jerusalem where all converts were to gather and form a new society called Zion in preparation for the Second Coming of Christ. Revelations had indicated that Zion was to be somewhere in the West, and in the summer of Smith and other leading figures in the church traveled to Missouri, where he received a revelation designating the exact site for the New Jerusalem near Independence in Jackson County.

For the next five or six years church efforts focused on the organization of Zion. While Smith continued to live in Ohio, his ultimate aim was to direct new converts to Missouri where the New Jerusalem was to rise. But the plans for Zion quickly ran into trouble. The people of Jackson County were unhappy at the prospect of Mormons inundating their society and in the fall of drove them out of the county.

For a few years the Mormons remained in Clay County across the Missouri River from Independence, until the Missouri government agreed to open a new area for them, organized as Caldwell County in north central Missouri. For the time being, church members were required to suspend their hopes for the establishment of Zion at the site of the New Jerusalem.

In Kirtland Smith continued to plan for Zion. He rounded out the organization of the leadership structure, appointing twelve apostles as second in command to himself, sent missionaries throughout the United States and to England, and saw to the construction of a temple in Kirtland, which was dedicated in He claimed to be visited by ancient prophets, who restored their authority to him, and by Christ himself.

Smith also made plans for the Kirtland economy. In Zion property was to be redistributed to people according to their needs, and their surplus each year was to be returned to a common treasury. Although this system had to be abandoned because of the expulsion from Jackson County, Smith had become accustomed to reordering many aspects of ordinary life along religious lines. In Kirtland he organized a bank as part of a broad economic program. Undercapitalization doomed it from the start, and the panic of sealed its fate.

The opposition rose to such a pitch that he felt his life was in danger. He and other church leaders fled Kirtland for Missouri in early Smith had plans for another temple in Caldwell County at the Mormon settlement of Far West, Missouri, but these ambitions were never realized. Enmity toward the Saints was building once again and broke out in violence at an election in August.

The concentration of Mormons in the area had allowed them to dominate voting results, arousing the wrath of other citizens.

A bizarre sect could be tolerated in small numbers, but not when it threatened to control all local political offices. In the summer and fall of , pitched battles broke out between the Missourians and the Mormons, claiming lives on both sides. Governor Lilburn Boggs issued an order for the Mormons to leave the state or face extermination. On 31 October Smith and other leaders were arrested and imprisoned awaiting trial while the Saints fled eastward to Illinois in search of refuge.

The record, engraved on gold plates, gave the history of a people who lived on the American continent during the time of Christ. Joseph translated the plates in about 3 months, and the Book of Mormon was first published in New York by E.

Grandin in Although born a farmer, Joseph worked as an editor, entrepreneur and businessman. In the years he led the fledgling Church, Joseph organized an international missionary program and founded what is today one of the largest women's organizations in the world. He oversaw the building of three cities and directed the construction of two temples — all the while facing intense persecution from local mobs, who eventually drove Church members from all three cities Joseph settled.

Because the Saints' religious and civil rights as American citizens had been denied them despite numerous and repeated appeals to the federal government, Church leaders announced Joseph Smith's candidacy for President of the United States in January By May, Joseph had been officially nominated by a Nauvoo , Illinois, convention.

His political platform called for government intervention on behalf of religious and civil rights in the face of persecution. Ironically, Joseph and his brother were killed by a mob in June of that same year, cutting short Joseph's run for political office. Joseph and his older brother Hyrum were shot to death on 27 June by a mob of to men. They had been imprisoned in an Illinois jail on false charges of riot and treason after surrendering themselves to the law.

Joseph was 38; Hyrum was