Editing First Vision (section)

===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"/>