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View source for Detailed response to CES Letter, First Vision
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- Allen (1970): "the Prophet described his experience to friends and acquaintances at least as early as 1831-32...he continued to do so in varying detail until the year of his death" (view source)
- Backman (1985): "On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts of his sacred experience of 1820" (view source)
- Christensen: "Runnells shifts the argument regarding the First Vision from 'absolutely no record of' to...'the first vision was unknown to the Saints and the world before 1832'" (view source)
- Gordon B. Hinckley (1984): "I am not worried that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave a number of versions of the first vision" (view source)
- Gospel Topics: "The various accounts of the First Vision tell a consistent story, though naturally they differ in emphasis and detail" (view source)
- Gospel Topics: There are other, more consistent ways of seeing the evidence (view source)
- Joseph Smith (14 Nov. 1835): "I received the first visitation of Angels which was when I was about 14" (view source)
- Joseph Smith (14 Nov. 1835): "I received the first visitation of angels, which was when I was about fourteen years old" (view source)
- Joseph Smith (1832): "a piller of fire light above the brightness of the sun at noon day come down from above" (view source)
- Joseph Smith (1842): "surrounded with a brilliant light which eclipsed the sun at noon-day" (view source)
- Joseph Smith (9 Nov. 1835): "I saw many angels in this vision...I was about 14 years old when I received this first communication" (view source)
- Joseph Smith (9 Nov. 1835): "a personage appeard in the midst of this pillar of flame...another personage soon appeard like unto the first...and I saw many angels in this vision" (view source)
- Joseph Smith (9 Nov. 1835): "a pillar of fire appeared above my head...a personage appeard in the midst of this pillar of flame" (view source)
- Joseph Smith's First Vision/Accounts/George A. Smith said First Vision was an "angel" (view source)
- Joseph Smith's First Vision/Accounts/Oliver Cowdery not aware of First Vision in 1834-35 (view source)
- Joseph Smith's First Vision/Accounts/Orson Hyde referred to "angels" (view source)
- Joseph Smith's First Vision/Accounts/Wilford Woodruff spoke of an "angel" (view source)
- Joseph Smith's First Vision/Brigham Young (view source)
- Joseph Smith's First Vision/First Vision accounts in Church publications (view source)
- Joseph Smith's First Vision/John Taylor (view source)
- Joseph Smith's First Vision/Persecution after the vision (view source)
- Joseph Smith: "Jesus Christ became a ministering spirit (while his body was lying in the sepulcher)...After His resurrection He appeared as an angel to His disciples" (view source)
- Juncker (1994): "Unknown to many, the early church fathers often referred to Jesus as an Angel....in antiquity the word 'angel' meant 'messenger'" (view source)
- Neuenschwander (2009): "Joseph's vision was at first an intensely personal experience...it became the founding revelation of the Restoration" (view source)
- Orson Pratt (1840): "a very bright and glorious light in the heavens...He expected to have seen the leaves and boughs of the trees consumed, as soon as the light came in contact with them" (view source)
- Prothero (2003): "in the 1832 version, Jesus appears to Smith alone, and does all the talking himself. Such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing" (view source)
- Question: Are the ages stated in Joseph's accounts of the First Vision 'all over the place?' (view source)
- Question: At what age did Joseph Smith become concerned about religion? (view source)
- Question: By what name did Joseph Smith refer to the First Vision? (view source)
- Question: Did Joseph Fielding Smith remove the 1832 account of Joseph Smith's First Vision from its original letterbook and hide it in his safe? (view source)
- Question: Did Joseph Smith begin his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God? (view source)
- Question: Did Joseph Smith change his stated motivation for praying in later years after he received the First Vision? (view source)
- Question: Did Joseph Smith change his stated motivation for praying in later years? (view source)
- Question: Did Joseph Smith decide that all churches were wrong before he received the First Vision? (view source)
- Question: Did Joseph began his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God? (view source)
- Question: Did Joseph mention a "pillar of fire" or a "pillar of light" in his 1832 account of the First Vision? (view source)
- Question: Did Lucy Mack Smith join the Presbyterian Church after her son Alvin died in 1823? (view source)
- Question: Did Lucy Mack Smith state when she joined the Presbyterians? (view source)
- Question: Did any of Joseph's scribe ever say anything about Joseph's story of the vision changing over time? (view source)
- Question: Did any of Joseph's scribes ever say anything about Joseph's story of the vision changing over time? (view source)
- Question: Did the actual words "God the Father" and "Jesus Christ" appear in Joseph's 1838 account of the First Vision? (view source)
- Question: Did the words "God the Father" and "Jesus Christ" appear in Joseph's 1838 account of the First Vision? (view source)
- Question: Does the 14 November 1835 account reference to the "first vision of Angels" mean that Joseph Smith did not see Deity? (view source)
- Question: Does the use of the capitalized word "Angel" in the 14 November 1835 account refer to Deity? (view source)
- Question: How could Joseph Smith come to the conclusion that all churches were wrong on his own? (view source)
- Question: How do the First Vision accounts compare on the subject of Joseph's motivation for praying? (view source)
- Question: How early was the story of the First Vision known among the members of the Church? (view source)
- Question: Is there a case where Joseph stated that his age was 17 rather than 14 at the time of the First Vision? (view source)
- Question: Is there any reference to God the Father being present in Joseph Smith's 1832 account? (view source)
- Question: Was the ''History of the Church'' falsified when "first visitation of Angels" was changed to "my first vision"? (view source)
- Question: Were any of the changes to the Book of Mormon made in reaction to sectarian criticism? (view source)
- Question: Were any of these changes made in reaction to sectarian criticism? (view source)
- Question: What are the criticisms related to Joseph Smith's accounts of the First Vision? (view source)
- Question: What are the two 1835 First Vision accounts that refer to angels? (view source)
- Question: What changes were made to the 1837 edition of the Book of Mormon? (view source)
- Question: What is the difference between Joseph Smith's first vision and other reported visions of God at the time? (view source)
- Question: What references to the First Vision exist in published documents from the 1830s? (view source)
- Question: What religious excitement was occurring in Palmyra in 1820? (view source)
- Question: What statements did Joseph Smith make about religious excitement in the area of Palmyra? (view source)
- Question: What was Joseph Smith's motivation for going to the grove to pray in 1820? (view source)
- Question: When was Lucy Mack Smith baptized? (view source)
- Question: Why did Joseph Smith make changes to the Book of Mormon such as modifying "God" to read "the Son of God"? (view source)
- Question: Why did Joseph Smith make changes to the Book of Mormon? (view source)
- Question: Why did Joseph Smith state the he was visited by two personages and then just five days later say that he was visited by angels? (view source)
- Question: Why did the Prophet construct the 1832 narrative in a manner such as to exclude explicit mention of the Father's appearance? (view source)
- Question: Why didn't the newspapers in Palmyra take notice of Joseph Smith's First Vision? (view source)
- Question: Why does Joseph Smith state in his 1832 First Vision account that he was in his "16th year" of age? (view source)
- Question: Why does Joseph Smith's 1832 account of the First Vision not mention two personages? (view source)
- Question: Why does Joseph Smith's 9 November 1835 account of the First Vision mention "many angels?" (view source)
- Richard J. Maynes: "Joseph wrote or dictated four known accounts of his First Vision" (view source)
- Saints: "'Joseph,' the Savior said, 'thy sins are forgiven.' His burden lifted, Joseph repeated his question: "What church shall I join?'" (view source)
- Seminary Manual (2013): "Joseph Smith emphasized different aspects of his vision in his multiple accounts" (view source)
- The Joseph Smith Papers: "The historical preamble to the 1830 'articles and covenants,'...appears to reference JS’s vision in speaking of a moment when 'it truly was manifested unto this first elder, that he had received a remission of his sins'" (view source)
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