Orson Spencer said an "angel" was the first manifestation?

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Criticism

Orson Spencer wrote a letter in Nauvoo, Illinois in 1842 that said Joseph Smith's "first" spiritual manifestation was of an angel - not the Father and the Son.

Source(s) of the criticism

Jerald Tanner and Sandra Tanner, The Case Against Mormonism, (Salt Lake City: Modern Microfilm Co., 1967), 98.

Response

Orson Spencer's letter - which was written on 17 November 1842 - was first published in the Nauvoo Times and Seasons newspaper on 2 Janaury 1843 (Times and Seasons, vol. 4, no. 4, 2 January 1843, 56-57) and reprinted in the British Millennial Star newspaper in July 1843 (Millennial Star, vol. 4, no. 2, June 1843, ----).

As demonstrated by the following references, shortly before Orson Spencer penned his letter to a non-LDS clergyman the First Vision story had been made available in three differnet publications to the citizens of Nauvoo. And in each case the First Vision was portrayed as happening BEFORE Joseph Smith's encounter with the angel.

• Orson Pratt's pamphlet called An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions was advertised for sale and it was said in the advertisement: “This . . . work will be found to contain information of great importance, as it will save the traveling elders the labor of constantly relating, over and over again, those things in which every new enquirer is so deeply interested, and upon which he is so very anxious to obtain correct information” (Times and Seasons, vol. 2, no. 19, 2 August 1841, 502).

• The same advertisement and note were repeated for An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions (Times ad Seasons, vol. 2, no. 20, 16 August 1841, 518).

• The same advertisement and note were repeated for An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions (Times and Seasons, vol. 2, no. 21, 1 September 1841, 534).

• The Wentworth Letter was published (Times and Seasons, vol. 3, no. 9, 1 March 1842, 706–707).

• The 1838 recital - PART 1 - was published (Times and Seasons, vol. 3, no. 10, 15 March 1842, 727–28).

• The 1838 recital - PART 2 - was published (Times and Seasons, vol. 3, no. 11, 1 April 1842, 748–49).

Parley P. Pratt published PARTS 1–2 of the 1838 recital “From the ‘Times and Seasons’” (Millennial Star, vol. 3, no. 2, June 1842, 22–23).

Endnotes

None

Further reading

FAIR web site

• FAIR Topical Guide: