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| + | #REDIRECT[[Alleged hiding of facts in Church history]] |
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| − | <onlyinclude>
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| − | == Church sources discussing issues with First Vision Accounts==
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| − | A more full summary of discussion of the multiple The First Vision accounts can be found here:
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| − | {{Main|Joseph Smith's First Vision/First Vision accounts in Church publications}}
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| − | ===Multiple accounts===
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| − | {{HiddenFact|fact=Joseph recorded multiple accounts of the First Vision, and some of the details of these accounts differ from one another|location=The ''Ensign'', CES Student Manual}}
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| − | Critics charge that the existence of multiple accounts of the [[First Vision/Accounts|First Vision]] has been hidden. A review of just some of the sources demonstrates that this is simply false:
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| − | ====The ''Improvement Era''====
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| − | *'''April 1970 ''Improvement Era:''''' Here printed for the first time is a report on eight different accounts of the First Vision. <br>Dr. James B. Allen, "Eight Contemporary Accounts of Joseph Smith's First Vision - What Do We Learn from Them?", ''Improvement Era'', April 1970, 4-13. {{link|url=http://us.archive.org/31/items/improvementera7304unse/improvementera7304unse.pdf}}
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| − | On page 12 of this official publication, all known accounts of the First Vision were compared in an easy-to-understand chart, demonstrating that the author and the Church did not think they had anything to hide:
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| − | [[File:First_Vision_Chart_IE_April_1970.PNG|thumb|center|500px|Chart of First Vision account elements from ''Improvement Era'' (April 1970): 12.]]
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| − | ====The ''Ensign''====
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| − | *'''January 1985 ''Ensign:''''' On at least four different occasions, Joseph Smith either wrote or dictated to scribes accounts of his sacred experience of 1820. Possibly he penned or dictated other histories of the First Vision; if so, they have not been located. The four surviving recitals of this theophany were prepared or rendered through different scribes, at different times, from a different perspective, for different purposes and to different audiences. It is not surprising, therefore, that each of them emphasizes different aspects of his experience. <br>—{{Ensign1|author=Milton V. Backman, Jr.|article=Joseph Smith's Recitals of the First Vision|date=January 1985|start=8}}{{link|url=https://www.lds.org/ensign/1985/01/joseph-smiths-recitals-of-the-first-vision?lang=eng}}
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| − | *'''January 1996 ''Ensign:''''': I am glad, for example, that we have several accounts of the First Vision, the ministry of Christ, the Atonement, the plan of salvation, the signs of the last days, and the conditions during the millennium. None of the various accounts exhaust the subject; each contributes to its advancement line upon line, even though important elements may be repeated. We need not regard them as competing or as being at odds with each other, but rather, as enhancing our understanding of the whole.<br>{{Ensign1|author=Keith Meservy|article=Four Accounts of the Creation|date=January 1986|start=?}} {{link|url=https://www.lds.org/ensign/1986/01/four-accounts-of-the-creation?lang=eng&_r=1}}
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| − | *'''April 1996 ''Ensign:''''' How many First Vision reports were made while the Prophet was alive? It is better to ask how many independent accounts came from contact with the Prophet. Some vision narratives were republished and are really copies of an original record.
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| − | We now know of nine contemporary reports from the Prophet himself or from those who personally heard him relate his first vision: (1) the Prophet’s handwritten description in 1832, an attempt to start a manuscript history of the Church; (2) a Church secretary’s brief 1835 journal entry of Joseph talking with a visitor who called himself Joshua, the Jewish minister; (3) the 1838 history discussed above, published in 1842 and now in the Pearl of Great Price; (4) Orson Pratt’s publication, the first publicly disseminated, of the Prophet’s vision in his Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, issued in 1840 in Edinburgh, Scotland; (5) Orson Hyde’s revision of Orson Pratt’s pamphlet, published in 1842 for German readers and adding some insights that may have come from his contact with Joseph Smith; (6) the Wentworth Letter, created in response to editor John Wentworth’s inquiry and published by Joseph Smith in 1842 in Times and Seasons; this account adapted parts of Orson Pratt’s pamphlet; (7) Levi Richards’s diary about Joseph Smith preaching in the summer of 1843 and repeating the Lord’s first message to him that no church was His; (8) a newspaper interview in the fall of 1843; (9) Alexander Neibaur’s 1844 journal entry of a conversation at the Prophet’s house.<br> {{Ensign1|author=Richard L. Anderson|date=April 1996|article=Joseph Smith’s Testimony of the First Vision|start=}} {{link|url=https://www.lds.org/ensign/1996/04/joseph-smiths-testimony-of-the-first-vision?lang=eng&_r=1}}
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| − | *'''January 2005 ''Ensign:''''' During the lifetime of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the story of his First Vision was told in print several times, by him (in 1832, 1835, 1838–39, and 1842), or by others who had heard his account and retold it (in 1840, 1842, 1843, and 1844). <br>—{{Ensign1|author=Ronald O. Barney|article=The First Vision: Searching for the Truth|date=January 2005|start=14–19}} {{link|url=https://www.lds.org/ensign/2005/01/the-first-vision-searching-for-the-truth?lang=eng&_r=1}}
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| − | ====CES manuals====
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| − | *'''CES Manual 2003''': Church Educational System, “Additional Details from Joseph Smith’s 1832 Account of the First Vision,” in ''Presidents of the Church: Student Manual'' (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2003), 5–6. {{link|url=http://institute.lds.org/manuals/presidents-of-the-church-student-manual/pres-ch-01-03-1.asp}}
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| − | *'''CES Manual 2003''': Church Educational System, “The First Vision,” in ''Church History in the Fullness of Times: Student Manual'' (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2003), 29–36. {{link|url=http://institute.lds.org/manuals/church-history-institute-student-manual/chft-01-05-3.asp}}
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| − | ====Journals====
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| − | * Dean C. Jessee, "The Early Accounts of Joseph Smith's First Vision," BYU Studies 9 (Spring 1968-1969): 275-294.
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| − | * Richard Lloyd Anderson, "Circumstantial Confirmation of the First Vision Through Reminiscences," BYU Studies 9 (1968-1969): 373-403.
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| − | ====Books====
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| − | *'''2009''': Matthew B. Brown, ''A Pillar of Light: The History and Message of the First Vision'' (American Fork, UT: Covenant, 2009).
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| − | *'''2005''': {{OpeningtheHeavens|author=James B. Allen and John W. Welch|article=The Appearance of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith in 1820|start=35|end=75}} See also ''BYU Studies'' version:{{pdflink|url=http://byustudies.byu.edu/Products/MoreInfoPage/MoreInfo.aspx?prodid=1954&type=7}}
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| − | *'''2002''': {{PWJSOrig|start=5|end=6, 75–76, 199–200, 213}}
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| − | *'''2002''': {{PWJS|start=9|end=20}}<!--Jessee-->
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| − | *'''1989''':Milton V. Backman, Jr., "Verification of the 1838 Account of the First Vision," in Pearl of Great Price: Revelations from God, edited by Charles D. Tate and H. Donl Peterson (Salt Lake City: UT, Deseret Book, 1989), 237-247.
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| − | *'''1989''': {{PJSVol1|start=6|end=7, 127, 272–73, 429–30, 444, and 448–49.}}
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| − | *'''1985''': Dean C. Jessee, “The Early Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” in Robert L. Millet and Kent P. Jackson, eds., ''Studies in Scripture, Volume 2: The Pearl of Great Price'' (Salt Lake City: Randall Book, 1985), 303–314.
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| − | *'''1984''': Dean C. Jessee, ''The Early Accounts of Joseph Smith's First Vision (Mormon Miscellaneous reprint series)'' (Mormon Miscellaneous, 1984).
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| − | *'''1980''': Milton V. Backman Jr., ''Joseph Smith’s First Vision: Confirming Evidences and Contemporary Accounts'', 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980).
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| − | *'''1981''': Adele Brannon McCollum, “The First Vision: Re-Visioning Historical Experience,” in Neal E. Lambert, ed., ''Literature of Belief: Sacred Scripture and Religious Experience'' (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1981), 177–96.
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| − | *'''1978''' Truman G. Madsen, "The First Vision and Its Aftermath," in Joseph Smith the Prophet (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1978), 7-18.
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| − | *'''1971''': Milton V. Backman, ''Joseph Smith’s First Vision: The first vision in its historical context'' (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1971).
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| − | *'''1971''': Milton V. Backman, ''Joseph Smith's First Vision: Confirming Evidences and Contemporary Accounts'' (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1971).
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| − | *'''1965''': Paul R. Cheesman, "An Analysis of the Accounts Relating to Joseph Smith's Early Visions" (Master's thesis. College of Religious Instruction, Brigham Young University, 1965). '''''Cheeseman was a graduate student who was the first to discover the 1832 account.'''''
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| − | </onlyinclude>
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| − | {{Endnotes sources}}
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