This person's thesis perpetuates the fraud. It takes an accepted narrative and makes it a romantic beginning to Mormonism. It places words and feelings into Joseph Smith's mouth and posits that The First Vision was when Joseph Smith was "called" to be the first Mormon prophet.

"It was these feelings and thoughts that led Joseph to pray in a grove of trees near his home. He prayed on bended knee and asked to know which of the sects were right. Joseph’s describes his experience as being difficult to believe. From that point forward he claimed to have seen God and Jesus Christ. He shared with many others that God had called him to be a prophet to lead his church in the modern era. This one event was only the beginning of what is now known as the Mormon Church and has sparked the interest of performance throughout history."
http://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=thea_etds

And a Mormon prophet from the 21st Century understood that this narrative was fundamental.

“Our whole strength rests on the validity of that [first] vision. It either occurred or it did not occur. If it did not, then this work is a fraud. If it did, then it is the most important and wonderful work under the heavens.”
—President Gordon B. Hinckley
http://indiemormon.com/quotes/all-or-nothing/

The first recorded First Vision. Looks more like a fraud to me than something genuine. Joseph embellished the ponderings of his youth into a prophetic calling adding a non-Protestant idea of 'two personages' along the way. This "first" First Vision is inline with a less "Restoration" concept of The First Vision and more along the lines of "awe shucks" I needed my sins forgiven and no sect out there could do it for me so I did it myself.

"thus 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 and by searching the scriptures I found that mand <​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"

"when I considered upon these things my heart exclaimed well hath the wise man said the <​it is a​> fool <​that​> saith in his heart there is no God13 my heart exclaimed all all these bear testimony and bespeak an omnipotant and omnipreasant power a being who makith Laws and decreeeth and bindeth all things in their bounds14 who filleth Eternity who was and is and will be from all Eternity to Eternity and when <​I​> considered all these things and that <​that​> being seeketh such to worshep him as worship him in spirit and in truth15 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 <​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 Lord16 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 behold I am the Lord of glory I was crucifyed for the world that all those who believe on my name may have Eternal life <​behold​> the world lieth in sin and at this time and none doeth good no not one they have turned asside from the gospel and keep not <​my​> commandments they draw near to me with their lips while their hearts are far from me and mine anger is kindling against the inhabitants of the earth to visit them acording to thir ungodliness and to bring to pass that which <​hath​> been spoken by the mouth of the prophets and Ap[o]stles17 behold and lo I come quickly as it [is?] written of me in the cloud <​clothed​> in the glory of my Father18 and my soul was filled with love and for many days I could rejoice with great Joy and the Lord was with me but could find none that would believe the hevnly vision nevertheless I pondered these things in my heart"
http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/2

I thought I should add at least one defense.

Basically this says that The First Vision happened because Joseph didn't "memorize" the experience...
https://mormonhub.com/blog/faith/lds-history/why-are-there-differences-between-joseph-smiths-4-first-vision-accounts/

I don't know about you but if it were God the creator and Jesus, just Jesus, or someone else, I think I would remember that particular detail. How about you?

Lamest Venn diagram ever...

The First Vision was so special that he didn’t tell a soul about it for something like 12 years, including his so called persecutors. No wonder he couldn’t get the details straight.

A "vision" is a dream. Joe dreamed it all up. You cannot disprove a dream.

As Hinkley said, it either happened or it didn't, but here's my little twist on it: Either he outright lied and it didn't happen or he did see some personages, but they weren't who he thought they were because there's a scripture (2 Corinthians 11:14) that Satan and his minions can appear as angels of light.

When I was 13 or 14, I went out into the woods to do the same thing Joseph did...Oh God....ohhhhhhhh!

So that was *you* behind the big old tree!

No, it was Hie; I was in the bushes by the stream.

Give said the little stream to the bushes. Boner you are so giving.

Holy voyeur Batman, maybe Joseph was wrestling with himself when Elohim and Jehova so rudely interrupted? Lucifer muscled in for some of the action.

Lucifer is all about self abuse. Elohim and Jehovah float around with their almost nude Celestial bodies encouraging their creations to have non-gay sex.

"...wrestling with himself..."

Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

He hadn't created bishops to beat yet.

Did Joseph Smith decide that no church was true beforehand or did God tell him that in the First Vision?

"searching the scriptures I found that mand <​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"

The canonized story in the Pearl of Great Price says "it was impossible for a person young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who was right and who was wrong."

"(for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)"

It never entered into his heart that all were wrong, so why did he say otherwise in his 1832 tale?

mikemitchell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It never entered into his heart that all were
> wrong, so why did he say otherwise in his 1832
> tale?

I figured he made it up. He claimed lots of heavenly visitations. It is only logical that they would climb to the top eventually...if it were fraud.

Hinckley should have stuck with the BOM as the keystone of Mormonism. You can drive a truck through the holes in the First Vision story.

Maybe Gordo is the architect of the end of Mormonism?

I think Hinckley understood that the most important thing was to have people go all in. The official version of the First Vision does that. It provides the Mormon Church with a strong raison d'etre. It basically tells the average LDS member: "All the other churches are corrupt this is the only true one, so you do what we say please."

Good point. Benson centered Mormonism on the book. Hinckley centered it on the vision. I wonder where the next center will be?

Continuing revelation? I know, I know...D&C is obviously a string of attempts by JS to remain relevant (isn't that all the First Vision really was?) and to push whatever contemporary fad that caught his fancy (much like the BoM and BoA?).

When was the last supposed revelation, anyway? Was is 1978? Even then it wasn't a very relevant revelation since the rest of society was already way ahead of their supposed revelation-inspired doctrine.

GregS Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Continuing revelation? I know, I know...D&C is
> obviously a string of attempts by JS to remain
> relevant (isn't that all the First Vision really
> was?) and to push whatever contemporary fad that
> caught his fancy (much like the BoM and BoA?).

Good way to put it. I think Smith was desperate to retain followers even to the point of bragging about it. He switched things with his "continuing revelations" to keep his followers engaged and form a masonic-like group of inner circles.

> When was the last supposed revelation, anyway? Was
> is 1978? Even then it wasn't a very relevant
> revelation since the rest of society was already
> way ahead of their supposed revelation-inspired
> doctrine.

Nothing since Smith has been as exciting as Smith. Nothing. It has been a long protracted tail of a trail of Mormonism since him.

I think GBH knew, and his “It either actually happened or it’s a total fraud” was his way of having fun at the expense of his brainwashed rubes. So he was admitting to the ruse in a tongue-in-cheek way. If only the current first presidency had that kind of humor.

Also, remember when Mike Wallace asked him is he was a prophet? His response was “I am sustained as such”. Let me translate that for you: “No.”

Lol. Yup!

A guy on 'Quora' just "answered" a question about why JS seemed to have so many versions and pasted the same poor Venn diagram in his post as ElderB' linked to, but in classic TBM style, steered away from the actual question and said the church is good--He says: "Remember, examine the fruits before the roots. Go to an LDS worship service. Join Mormons on a service project. Get to know the people and understand why they emphasize family life above all else. See the fruits."

"...fruits before the roots?" Hey, even Mussolini made the trains run on time, right?


Anyway, the guy pulls out the old trope of "The four gospel writers all told slightly different stories about Jesus, so should we discount them?" This is total BS, because, well....it's 4 different guys telling incidents of one story! JS was *one* guy telling 4 stories about one incident!

However, a new one on me was a twist to the "They were different so that proves they were true" angle: the guy said he was "...someone relatively familiar with the vagaries of witness recollections..."

Trust me, if God and Jesus appeared above me, AFTER I HAD GONE OUT SPECIFICALLY TO PRAY ABOUT THE SUBJECTS THEY THEN EXPLAINED TO ME, I would remember it better--it would be seared into my brain forever.

Hell, I was in line at a buffet next to Robert DeNiro once, and said: "These meatballs are great."

I remember it that way and tell it the same way because I felt like an idiot afterwards; I didn't say it was DeNiro and Joe Pesci, or DeNiro's agent, or his wife.

And the topper to this 'Quora' "answer"?

The guy is a retired attorney....

Chicken N. Backpacks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And the topper to this 'Quora' "answer"?
>
> The guy is a retired attorney....

Makes sense. There are some who just love a hopeless case.

So there I was, an inactive Mormon on a first date with an inactive Mormon woman, and we started talking about our degree of belief in the church. Not a great romance-promoting topic. I was, like, 85% of the way out of the church. She was more like an 85% believer who didn't "uphold the standards of the church."

She asked, "Do you believe the First Vision? Because it all comes down to that."

It was the first time anyone had asked me that, and I suddenly realized I didn't believe it. Not one bit. Not the First Vision or anyone else's visions. It was only a few months later that I realized I was an atheist.

So I never bothered with any of the apologetics about the First Vision. It wasn't until I started hanging out at RFM that I encountered the supposedly best defenses for it which, of course, assumed there was a deity that could appear.

For an argument believers in the idea that their founding prophet wavered on the appearance of God only adding God later as a further refinement to match his changing opinion on the nature of God holds no water.

I learned about the multiple versions after descending into disbelief. It was further validation that I was right. How could a detail about the presence of the creator of The Universe (Joe claiming he knew what neighborhood in The Universe God lives in) have NOT been remembered. IT creates special pleading because if a human being can have experiential proof the existence of the creator of The Universe one can only assume it is unforgettable.

This isn't time travelling men in black erasing Joe's memory just so God can restore it with all things is it?

Didn't Joseph apply to the Methodist church *after* the (supposed) first vision? Perhaps the Methodist church is the "true church."

Yes he did try to join other churches.

Kind of silly if he was instructed not to join any of them.

By the pens of one to several witnesses frauds are exposed. Joe's own mother is one of the great witnesses of his frauds.