Editing First Vision (section)

==Interpretations and responses to the vision==
Smith said that he was persecuted by local "professors of religion" after sharing his story.<ref>[https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-june-1839-circa-1841-draft-2/4 "History, circa June 1839–circa 1841 &#91;Draft 2&#93;," p. 4, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed March 31, 2020]</ref> Historian D. Michael Quinn noted that at the time, the Smith family practiced various [[Cunning Folk Traditions and the Latter Day Saint Movement|Cunning Folk traditions]] that were criticized by leaders of organized religion, and that Smith's vision may have given Smith confidence to ignore those leaders and continue being an active participant in the Cunning Folk culture.<ref>{{Harvnb|Quinn|1998|p=31}}</ref>

Among [[Latter Day Saint movement|contemporary denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement]], the First Vision is typically viewed as a significant (often the ''most'' significant) event in the [[Restoration (Latter Day Saints)|latter day restoration]] of the [[Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)|Church of Christ]]. However, the faiths differ in their teachings about the vision's precise meaning and details. Secular scholars and non-Mormons view the vision as a deliberate deception, false memory, delusion, or hallucination, or some combination of these.<ref>[[Michael Coe]], professor emeritus of Anthropology at Yale, has called Joseph Smith "a great religious leader" and "one of the greatest people who ever lived" because "like a shaman in anthropology," like "magicians doing magic," he "started out faking it" but ended up convincing himself (as well as others) that his visions were true ({{citation |contribution-url=https://www.pbs.org/mormons/interviews/coe.html |contribution=Interview: Michael Coe |title=The Mormons |author=''[[Frontline (US TV series)|Frontline]]'' and ''[[American Experience]]'' |editor=[[Helen Whitney]] |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]|title-link=The Mormons (film) }} )</ref>

===The Godhead in Latter Day Saint theology===
{{see also|God in Mormonism}}
The first vision is often used to illustrate various LDS doctrines about the attributes of God and the nature of the Godhead.  The LDS Church teaches that the vision shows that the members of the Godhead are three separate beings.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/eng/manual/gospel-topics/godhead|title=Godhead|website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org}}</ref>

In academia it is assumed that differences in Smith's first vision accounts reflect an evolving concept of the Godhead.<ref name="Harper, S. C. 2019 page 55">Harper, S. C. (2019). First vision memory and Mormon origin. New York: Oxford University Press. page 55</ref><ref>Kurt Widmer. Mormonism and the Nature of God: A Theological Evolution, 1830-1915. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2000.</ref> For example, references to God in the early writings by Smith, including the Book of Mormon, can be seen as more [[Trinity|Trinitarian]] or [[Modalistic Monarchianism|modalistic]], where God is a single entity, but manifests himself in different modes, sometimes as the Father, sometimes as the Son, but always as an expression of the same one God.<ref name="Bergera, G. J. 1989">Bergera, G. J. (1989). Line upon line: essays on Mormon doctrine. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. Chapter 3</ref>  Modalism was common in upstate New York at the time,<ref>Vogel, D. (2004). Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet. Signature Books. page 150, 151</ref> so the appearance of a single personage (Jesus) in Smith's 1832 account would be consistent with prevailing modalistic thought.<ref name="signaturebookslibrary.org">{{Cite web|url=http://signaturebookslibrary.org/new-approaches-to-the-book-of-mormon-2/|title=New Approaches to the Book of Mormon – 04 &#124;}}</ref>

Smith's early revelations and writings frequently referred to the Father and the Son being one, but after May 1833, he never again referred to God the Father and Jesus as being one.<ref>Kirkland, Boyd ''Jehovah as the Father:The Development of the Mormon Jehovah Doctrine'' Sunstone 9 (Autumn 1984):37</ref>  In 1835, the [[Lectures on Faith]] were published as part of the Doctrine and Covenants, teaching a form of [[Binitarianism]] where the Father is a "personage of the spirit" and the Son is a "personage of tabernacle" looking exactly the same in appearance, with the Holy Ghost being the shared mind between them.<ref name="signaturebookslibrary.org"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/eng/history/topics/lectures-on-faith|title=Lectures on Theology ("Lectures on Faith")|website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://lecturesonfaith.com/|title=Lectures on Faith|website=Lectures on Faith}}</ref>  Joseph Smith's later accounts of the First Vision reflects the theology of the Lectures on Faith, for example, the 1835 account notes that "a personage appeared in the midst of this pillar of flame, ... Another personage soon appeared, like unto the first."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG_zu2Q1cko|title=Joseph Smith's First Vision (Pt 1)-Dan Vogel|via=www.youtube.com}}</ref>  By the 1840s Smith was teaching a form of [[social trinitarianism]]—that members of the Godhead were separate and distinct individuals united in purpose.<ref name="Bergera, G. J. 1989"/><ref>{{Harvtxt|Bushman|2008|p=6}}</ref>

LDS Church scholars generally do not accept the view that the early Latter Day Saints were modalists or binitarian.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr/vol13/iss2/13|title=The Development of the Mormon Understanding of God: Early Mormon Modalism and Other Myths|first1=Ari|last1=Bruening|first2=David|last2=Paulsen|date=January 1, 2001|journal=[[Review of Books on the Book of Mormon]] |volume=13|issue=2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiyEJ6qhz4E|title=The First Vision: A Comparative Analysis &#124; Keith Wilson and Katy Pratt Sumsion|via=www.youtube.com}}</ref>  Smith himself also rejected criticism that his views of God had changed, saying "I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods."<ref name="Harper, S. C. 2019 page 55"/>

===Early awareness by Latter Day Saints===
The importance of the First Vision within the [[Latter Day Saint movement]] evolved over time. Early adherents were unaware of the details of the vision until 1840, when the earliest accounts were published in [[Great Britain]]. An account of the First Vision was not published in the United States until 1842, shortly before [[Death of Joseph Smith|Smith's death]]. [[Jan Shipps]] has written that the vision was "practically unknown" until an account of it was published in 1842.<ref>{{harvnb|Shipps|1985|p=30}}. The first extant account of the First Vision is the manuscript account in Joseph Smith, "Manuscript History of the Church" (1839); the first published account is Orson Pratt, "An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records" (Edinburgh: Ballantyne and Hughes, 1840); and the first American publication is Smith's letter to John Wentworth in ''[[Times and Seasons]]'' '''3''' (March 1842): 706–08, only two years before Smith's assassination. (These accounts are available {{harvnb|Vogel|1996}})</ref> LDS historian [[Richard Bushman]] wrote, "At first, Joseph was reluctant to talk about his vision. Most early converts probably never heard about the 1820 vision."<ref>{{harvnb|Bushman|2005|p=39}}</ref>

===Interpretation and use by the LDS Church===
According to the LDS Church, the vision teaches that God the Father and Jesus Christ are separate beings with glorified bodies of flesh and bone; that mankind was literally created in the image of God; that Satan is real but God infinitely greater; that God hears and answers prayer; that no other contemporary church had the fullness of Christ's gospel; and that revelation has not ceased.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Callister |first=Tad |date=November 2009 |title=Joseph Smith—Prophet of the Restoration |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2009/11/joseph-smith-prophet-of-the-restoration.p4-p5,p7-p9?lang=eng#p10 }}</ref> In the 21st century, the vision features prominently in the Church's program of proselytism.<ref>{{harvnb|Widmer|2000|p=92}}</ref>

An official website of the LDS Church calls the First Vision "the greatest event in world history since the birth, ministry, and resurrection of Jesus Christ."<ref>{{citation |url=http://josephsmith.net/article/the-first-vision |title=The First Vision |date=9 September 2013 |work=JosephSmith.net |publisher=LDS Church }}</ref> In 1998, [[President of the Church (LDS Church)|church president]] [[Gordon B. Hinckley]] declared,
<blockquote>Our entire case as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rests on the validity of this glorious First Vision. It was the parting of the curtain to open this, the dispensation of the fullness of times. Nothing on which we base our doctrine, nothing we teach, nothing we live by is of greater importance than this initial declaration. I submit that if Joseph Smith talked with God the Father and His Beloved Son, then all else of which he spoke is true. This is the hinge on which turns the gate that leads to the path of salvation and eternal life.<ref>{{Citation | title=What Are People Asking about Us? |author-link=Gordon B. Hinkley |first1=Gordon B. |last1=Hinkley |journal=Ensign |date=November 1998 |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1998/11/what-are-people-asking-about-us |access-date=2012-04-26 }}</ref></blockquote> In 1961, Hinckley had gone further: "Either Joseph Smith talked with the Father and the Son or he did not. If he did not, we are engaged in a blasphemy."<ref>''[[Improvement Era]]'' (December 1961) p. 907. [[David O. McKay]], the ninth church president, also declared the First Vision to be the foundation of the faith. David O. McKay, ''Gospel Ideals'' (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1951) p. 19.</ref> Likewise, in a January 2007 interview conducted for the PBS documentary ''[[The Mormons (film)|The Mormons]]'', Hinckley said of the First Vision, "it's either true or false. If it's false, we're engaged in a great fraud. If it's true, it's the most important thing in the world .... That's our claim. That's where we stand, and that's where we fall, if we fall. But we don't. We just stand secure in that faith."<ref>({{citation |contribution-url=https://www.pbs.org/mormons/interviews/hinckley.html |contribution=Interview: Gordon B. Hinckley |title=The Mormons |author=''[[Frontline (US TV series)|Frontline]]'' and ''[[American Experience]]'' |editor=[[Helen Whitney]] |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]|title-link=The Mormons (film) }}. The full quotation mentions the ultimate reality of Moroni and the Book of Mormon translated from the plates: "Well, it's either true or false. If it's false, we're engaged in a great fraud. If it's true, it's the most important thing in the world. Now, that's the whole picture. It is either right or wrong, true or false, fraudulent or true. And that's exactly where we stand, with a conviction in our hearts that it is true: that Joseph went into the [Sacred] Grove; that he saw the Father and the Son; that he talked with them; that Moroni came; that the Book of Mormon was translated from the plates; that the priesthood was restored by those who held it anciently. That's our claim. That's where we stand, and that's where we fall, if we fall. But we don't. We just stand secure in that faith.</ref>

A 2012 Pew Research survey of self-identified members of the LDS Church asked how important believing that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ was to being a "good Mormon." 80% responded that it was essential, 13% responded that it was important but not essential, and 6% responded that it was either not too, or not at all essential.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2012/01/Mormons-in-America.pdf|title=Gregory Smith, "Mormons in America: Certain in Their Beliefs, Uncertain of Their Place in Society" Pew Research Center, page 13}}</ref>

====Historical usage====
[[File:Joseph F. Smith in the Sacred Grove.jpg|thumb|right|upright|LDS President [[Joseph F. Smith]] in the Sacred Grove in 1905, helping to establish the First Vision as a defining element of the theology of the LDS Church]]
The canonical First Vision story was not emphasized in the sermons of Smith's immediate successors, [[Brigham Young]] and [[John Taylor (Mormon)|John Taylor]], within the LDS Church. [[Hugh Nibley]] noted that although a "favorite theme of Brigham Young's was the tangible, personal nature of God," he "never illustrates [the theme] by any mention of the first vision."<ref>''[[Improvement Era]]'' (November 1961) p. 868.</ref> This is not to say that Young did not teach about the First Vision, since he clearly did on multiple occasions.<ref>E.g., ''[[Journal of Discourses]]'' '''12''': 68–69.{{full citation needed|date=November 2021}}</ref>

Taylor gave a complete account of the First Vision story in an 1850 letter written as he began missionary work in France,<ref>"[Smith's] mind was troubled, he saw contention instead of peace; and division instead of union; and when he reflected upon the multifarious creeds and professions there were in existence, he thought it impossible for all to be right, and if God taught one, He did not teach the others, 'for God is not the author of confusion.' In reading his bible, he was remarkably struck with the passage in James, 1st chapter, 5th verse, '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.' Believing in the word of God, he retired into a grove, and called upon the Lord to give him wisdom in relation to this matter. While he was thus engaged, he was surrounded by a brilliant light, and two glorious personages presented themselves before him, who exactly resembled each other in features, and who gave him information upon the subjects which had previously agitated his mind. He was given to understand that the churches were all of them in error in regard to many things; and he was commanded not to go after them; and he received a promise that the 'fulness' of the gospel should at some future time be unfolded unto him: after which the vision withdrew, leaving his mind in a state of calmness and peace."

John Taylor, Letter to the Editor of the Interpreter Anglais et Français, Boulogne-sur-mer (25 June 1850).{{full citation needed|date=November 2012}}</ref> and he may have alluded to it in a discourse given in 1859.<ref>"What could the Lord do with such a pack of ignorant fools as we were? There was one man that had a little good sense, and a spark of faith in the promises of god and that was Joseph Smith-a backwoods man. He believed a certain portion of scripture which said—"If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God who to all men liberally and upbraideth not." He was fool enough in the eyes of the world, and wise enough in the eyes of God and angels, and all true intelligence to go into a secret place to ask God for wisdom, believing that God would hear him. The Lord did hear him, and told him what to do." ''[[Deseret News]]'' (Weekly), December 28, 1859, p. 337</ref> Throughout the late 1870s and 1880s, Taylor made multiple, explicit references to the First Vision in his sermons, books and letters.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/mormonism-and-wikipedia-the-church-history-that-anyone-can-edit/|title=Mormonism and Wikipedia: The Church History That "Anyone Can Edit" &#124; The Interpreter Foundation|first=Roger|last=Nicholson|journal=Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-Day Saint Faith and Scholarship |date=September 14, 2012|volume=1 }}</ref> These included his 1886 letter to his family, one of his last major theological pronouncements in which he stated "God revealed Himself, as also the Lord Jesus Christ, unto his servant the Prophet Joseph Smith".<ref>[[B. H. Roberts]], ''The Life of John Taylor'' (Salt Lake City, Bookcraft, 1963) p. 394.</ref>

Three non-Mormon students of Mormonism, Douglas Davies, Kurt Widmer, and [[Jan Shipps]], agree that the church's emphasis on the First Vision was a "'late development', only gaining an influential status in LDS reflection late in the nineteenth century."<ref>"Historians have pondered the various phrases of this vision's evolution and tend to see its present form as a 'late development,' only gaining an influential status in LDS self-reflection late in the nineteenth century." {{citation |first1=Douglas J. |last1=Davies |title=An Introduction to Mormonism |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2003 |page=136}}; {{harvnb|Widmer|2000|pp=92–107}}; {{harvnb|Shipps|1985|pp=30–32}}.</ref>  The first important visual representation of the First Vision was painted by the Danish convert [[C. C. A. Christensen]] sometime between 1869 and 1878; [[George Manwaring]], inspired by the artist, wrote a hymn about the First Vision ("Oh, How Lovely Was the Morning", later renamed "Joseph Smith's First Prayer"), first published in 1884.<ref>{{Harvnb|Allen|1980|pp=53–54}}.</ref>

Widmer states that it was primarily through "the post 1883 sermons of Latter-day Saint Apostle [[George Q. Cannon]] that the modern interpretation and significance of the First Vision in Mormonism began to take shape."<ref>{{harvnb|Widmer|2000|p=93}}; ''[[Journal of Discourses]]'' '''24''':340–41, 371–72. "The emergence of the First Vision is a syncretic approach to deal with past doctrinal inconsistencies on a broad scale. What it attempts to do is, in one giant sweep, gather all of the doctrinal inconsistencies, such as a plurality of Gods, God being an exalted man, the purpose of the Church, and the calling of Joseph Smith, and place it into an earlier time frame." Widmer,{{specify|date=April 2012}} p. 105.</ref> As the sympathetic but non-Mormon historian [[Jan Shipps]] has written, "When the first generation of leadership died off, leaving the community to be guided mainly by men who had not known Joseph, the First Vision emerged as a symbol that could keep the slain Mormon leader at center stage."<ref>{{harvnb|Shipps|1985|p=32}}.</ref> The centennial anniversary of the vision in 1920 "was a far cry from the almost total lack of reference to it just fifty years before."<ref>{{Harvnb|Allen|1980|p=57}}: "The Mutual Improvement Associations issued a special commemorative pamphlet, the vision was memorialized in music, verse and dramatic representations, and the church's official publication, the ''Improvement Era'', devoted almost the entire April issue to that event."</ref> By 1939, even [[George D. Pyper]], the Church's [[Sunday School (LDS Church)|Sunday School]] superintendent and manager of the [[Mormon Tabernacle Choir]], found it "surprising that none of the first song writers wrote intimately of the first vision."<ref>George D. Pyper, ''Stories of Latter-day Saint Hymns: Their Authors and Composers'' (Salt Lake City: Deseret Press, 1939), 34. Pyper noted that [[Parley P. Pratt]]'s earlier "An Angel from on High" and "Hark Ye Mortals" "referred to [[Cumorah]] and the ''Book of Mormon''" rather than to the First Vision.</ref>

Church president [[Joseph F. Smith]] helped raise the First Vision to its modern status as a pillar of church theology. Largely through Joseph F. Smith's influence, Smith's 1838 account of the First Vision became part of the canon of the church in 1880 when the faith canonized Smith's [[Joseph Smith–History|early history]] as part of the [[Pearl of Great Price (Mormonism)|Pearl of Great Price]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Bitton|1994|p=86}} as quoted in {{Harvnb|Anderson|1996}}</ref> After [[plural marriage]] ended at the turn of the 20th century, [[Joseph F. Smith]] heavily promoted the First Vision, and it soon replaced polygamy in the minds of adherents as the main defining element of [[Mormonism]] and the source of the faith's perception of persecution by outsiders.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Flake|2004|pp=120–21}}.</ref> From 1905 to 1912, the story of the First Vision began to be incorporated into church histories, missionary tracts, and Sunday school lesson manuals.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Flake|first1=Kathleen|title=The Politics of American Religious Identity: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot|date=2005|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press}}</ref>  As a result, belief in the First Vision is now considered fundamental to the faith, second in importance only to belief in the divinity of Jesus.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Allen|1966|p=29}}.</ref>

In 1920, the LDS Church held a commemoration in the Sacred Grove to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the First Vision. At the 200th anniversary in 2020, a video recording of [[President of the Church (LDS Church)|church president]] [[Russell M. Nelson]] reading "[[The Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Bicentennial Proclamation to the World]]" in the grove was released at the church's [[general Conference (LDS Church)|general conference]].

===Perspectives within the Community of Christ===
The [[Community of Christ]] generally refers to the First Vision as the "grove experience" and takes a flexible view about its historicity,<ref>According to its website, the church "does not legislate or mandate positions on issues of history. We place confidence in sound historical methodology as it relates to our church story. We believe that historians and other researchers should be free to come to whatever conclusions they feel are appropriate after careful consideration of documents and artifacts to which they have access. We benefit greatly from the significant contributions of the historical discipline." {{citation |url=http://www.cofchrist.org/ourfaith/faq.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070203202848/http://www.cofchrist.org/ourfaith/faq.asp |archive-date=2007-02-03 |url-status=dead |title=Frequently Asked Questions |website=Community of Christ}}</ref> emphasizing "the healing presence of God and the forgiving mercy of Christ" felt by Joseph Smith.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.cofchrist.org/history/default.asp |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20131021174727/http://www.cofchrist.org/history/default.asp |archive-date=2013-10-21 |title=Community of Christ History |website=Community of Christ}}</ref>  The modern church is [[Trinity#One God in three persons|Trinitarian]], and in contrast to the LDS Church, does not use the First Vision as evidence for the Godhead being three separate beings.<ref>Paul Edwards, ''Our Legacy of Faith: a brief history of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS)'' (Herald Publishing House, 1991)</ref><ref>"Basic Beliefs." Community of Christ, www.cofchrist.org/basic-beliefs.</ref>

[[William Smith (Latter Day Saints)|William Smith]], a younger brother of Smith, and a key figure in the early Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church, renamed the [[Community of Christ]] in 2001), gave several accounts of the First Vision, although in 1883 he stated that a "more elaborate and accurate description of his vision" was to be found in Smith's own history.<ref>William Smith, "On Mormonism," in {{harvnb|Vogel|1996|p=496}}.</ref>

The RLDS Church did not emphasize the First Vision during the 19th century.<ref>{{Harvnb|Howard|1980|p=24}}.</ref> In the early-20th century, there was a revival of interest, and during most of the century, the First Vision was viewed as an essential element of the [[Restoration (Latter Day Saints)|Restoration]]. In many cases, it was taught as the foundation and even the embodiment of the Restoration.<ref>{{Harvnb|Howard|1980|p=25}}.</ref> The vision was also interpreted as a justification for the exclusive authority of the RLDS Church as the [[Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)|Church of Christ]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Howard|1980|pp=25–26}}.</ref>

In the mid- to late-20th century, writers within the RLDS Church emphasized the First Vision as an illustration of the centrality of [[Jesus]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Howard|1980|p=27}}.</ref> The church began taking a broader view of the vision, and used it as an example of how God evolves the church over time through revelation and restoration.<ref>{{Harvnb|Howard|1980|pp=27–28}}.</ref> There was less emphasis on the [[Great Apostasy]] and a growing belief that the First Vision itself was not necessarily identical with Smith's later reconstructions and interpretations of the vision, what one RLDS Church Historian has called "genuine historical sophistication."<ref>{{Harvnb|Howard|1980|p=28}}.</ref> In 1980, this Church Historian noted that he had "systematically brought to the attention" of hundreds of church members "the substantive differences in half a dozen accounts of the First Vision" and expressed his satisfaction that RLDS scholars, "deeply moved and augmented by the presence of the wondrously diverse and conflicting accounts of the First Vision," could "begin the exciting work of developing a mythology of Latter Day Saint beginnings."<ref>{{Harvnb|Howard|1980|pp=28–29}}.</ref>

===View of The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite)===
[[The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite)]], a [[Rigdonite]] branch with 15,000 members headquartered in Pennsylvania, has had an independent history since the 1844 [[succession crisis (Latter Day Saints)|succession crisis]]. The church refers to the vision obliquely in a lengthy excerpt from Smith's 1842 account included in its official literature, in which the date "1820" and "a personage" (singular, not plural) are mentioned in paraphrases.<ref>{{citation |first1=Timothy Dom |last1=Bucci |year=1952 |title=Apostasy and Restoration |location=Monongahela, Pa |publisher=Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonites) |oclc=34452615}}. The reference quotes the 1842 account as found in the LDS Church Pearl of Great Price, with some exceptions including the following paraphrases: 1) "As the light shown down on him, a personage appeared...." (2, 6) "This was in the year 1820" (6). The summary following the excerpt (10) emphasizes the importance of the Book of Mormon, but makes no additional comment about the First Vision.</ref>

===Church of Christ (Temple Lot)===
The [[Church of Christ (Temple Lot)]], a branch with 7,000 adherents, rejects many of Smith's post-1832 revelations.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.churchofchrist-tl.org/history.html |title=History of the Church of Christ |work=churchofchrist-tl.org |publisher=[[Church of Christ (Temple Lot)]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080421070901/http://www.churchofchrist-tl.org/history.html |archive-date=2008-04-21}}</ref> Nevertheless, the church uses several elements of the 1842 account of the First Vision, including Smith's desire to know which church he should join, his reading of James 1:5, his prayer in the grove, the appearance of God the Father and Jesus Christ, the statement by Jesus that all existing churches were corrupt, and the instruction that Smith should join none of them.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.churchofchrist-tl.org/mormon.html#how |title=Book of Mormon: How did we get it |publisher=Church of Christ (Temple Lot) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420182348/http://www.churchofchrist-tl.org/mormon.html#how |archive-date=2008-04-20 }}</ref>

===Criticism and response===
Writing of the "unusual excitement on the subject of religion" described in the First Vision story canonized by the LDS Church, [[Milton V. Backman]] said that although "the tools of the historian" could neither verify nor challenge the First Vision, "records of the past can be examined to determine the reliability of Joseph's description regarding the historical setting."<ref>{{Harvnb|Backman|1969|p=2}}</ref> [[Grant H. Palmer|Grant Palmer]] and other critics claim that there are serious discrepancies between the various accounts, as well as [[anachronisms]] revealed by lack of contemporary corroboration.<ref>A recent skeptical summary of the First Vision stories is [[Grant H. Palmer|Grant Palmer]], ''An Insider's View of Mormon Origins'' (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002), 235–54. Palmer, a retired LDS religious instructor was [[Excommunication (LDS Church)|disfellowshipped]] by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after publishing this book. Palmer concludes his chapter, "The 1832 account describes Joseph's experience most accurately. Smith's 1832 description does not forbid him from joining a church, nor does it mention a revival or persecution. Instead, he became convicted of his sins from reading the scriptures and received forgiveness from the Savior in a personal epiphany. He stated that his call to God's work came in 1823 from an angel, later identified as Moroni. When a crisis developed around the Book of Mormon in 1838, he conflated several events into one. Now he was called by God the Father and Jesus Christ in 1820 during an extended revival, was forbidden to join any existing church, and was greatly persecuted by institutions and individuals for sharing his vision of God. This version is not supported by historical evidence." (253–54)</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Brodie |first1=Fawn |title=No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet |date=1946 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York |pages=24–25 |quote=Joseph's first autobiographical sketch of 1834, which we have already mentioned, contained no whisper of an event that, if it had happened, would have been the most soul-shattering experience of his whole youth. The description of the vision was first published by Orson Pratt in his ''Remarkable Visions'' in 1840, twenty years after it was supposed to have occurred. Between 1820 and 1840 Joseph's friends were writing long panegyrics; his enemies were defaming him in an unceasing stream of affidavits and pamphlets, and Joseph himself was dictating several volumes of Bible-flavored prose. But no one in this long period even intimated that he had heard the story of the two gods. At least, no such intimation has survived in print or manuscript... Joseph's mother, when writing to her brother in 1831 the full details of the Book of Mormon and the founding of the new church, said nothing whatever about the "first vision"... The first published Mormon history, begun with Joseph's collaboration in 1834 by Oliver Cowdery, ignored it altogether, stating that the religious excitement in his neighborhood occurred when he was seventeen (not fourteen)... Joseph's own description of the first vision was not published until 1842, twenty-two years after the memorable event...  If something happened that spring morning in 1820, it passed totally unnoticed in Joseph's home town, and apparently did not even fix itself in the minds of members of his own family. The awesome vision he described in later years may have been the elaboration of some half-remembered dream stimulated by the early revival excitement and reinforced by the rich folklore of visions circulating in his neighborhood.}}</ref> Other critics, like [[Fawn Brodie]] and [[Jerald and Sandra Tanner]], argue that the Smith's accounts are not unique and not much different from similar visions and accounts being reported by others, such as Elias Smith and Asa Wild, around the same time.<ref>[http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changech6.htm  ''The Changing World of Mormonism''] by Jerald and Sandra Tanner (Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Mission, 1981), p. 159. The Elias Smith citation is from Elias Smith, ''The Life, Conversion, Preaching, Travels, and Sufferings of Elias Smith'' (Portsmouth, N.H., 1816, pp. 58-59).</ref>

Leaders of the LDS Church have acknowledged that the First Vision as well as the [[Book of Mormon]] and Smith himself constitute "stumbling blocks for many." [[Apostle (Latter Day Saints)|Apostle]] [[Neal A. Maxwell]] wrote:
<blockquote>In our own time, Joseph Smith, the First Vision, and the Book of Mormon constitute stumbling blocks for many—around which they cannot get—unless they are meek enough to examine all the evidence at hand, not being exclusionary as a result of accumulated attitudes in a secular society. Humbleness of mind is the initiator of expansiveness of mind.<ref>Neal A. Maxwell, ''Meek and Lowly'' (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1987) p. 76.</ref></blockquote>

In a 2007 [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] documentary, [[Richard Mouw]], an [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] [[Theology|theologian]] and student of Mormonism, summarized his feelings about the First Vision:
<blockquote>My instinct is to attribute a sincerity to Joseph Smith. And yet at the same time, as an evangelical Christian, I do not believe that the members of the godhead really appeared to him and told him that he should start on a mission of, among other things, denouncing the kinds of things that I believe as a Presbyterian. I can't believe that. And yet at the same time, I really don't believe that he was simply making up a story that he knew to be false in order to manipulate people and to gain power over a religious movement. And so I live with the mystery.<ref>{{citation |contribution-url=https://www.pbs.org/mormons/etc/script.html |contribution=Part One (Night One Transcript) |title=The Mormons |author=''[[Frontline (US TV series)|Frontline]]'' and ''[[American Experience]]'' |editor=[[Helen Whitney]] |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]|title-link=The Mormons (film) }}</ref> </blockquote>