Joseph Smith's First Vision/John Taylor

Criticism

In an effort to cast doubt on the First Vision, critics appeal to the writing of John Taylor to demonstrate that early members were "confused" about the First Vision, and only adopted the "official" version much later. They seek to demonstrate that the earliest followers taught that an angel, rather than the Father and the Son, appeared to Joseph Smith in 1820.

Richard Abanes refers to “…the discrepancy between today’s official First Vision and the versions of it told by early Mormons, who taught that the First Vision involved an angel (or angels).” In a footnote to this comment he cites several church leaders, including John Taylor. The only citation Abanes gives for President Taylor is for March 2, 1879, but is incorrectly documented.^[1]

Critic Isaiah Bennett has written:

Complications arise when one considers the statements of Smith’s successors as Mormon prophets [including John Taylor]. According to them, Smith had been visited by an angel, from whom he asked advice as to which church to join.^[2]

Bennett cites the same March 2, 1879 sermon, and one other.

Jerald and Sandra Tanner have also cited Taylor’s comments of March 2, 1879.^[3] They later write that “Many other confusing statements about the first vision were made by Mormon leaders after Joseph Smith’s death.” ^[4] Elsewhere the Tanners have stated that “Before the death of Brigham Young in 1877 the first vision was seldom mentioned in Mormon publications. When Mormon leaders did mention it they usually gave confusing accounts.” ^[5]

This warped perspective has unfortunately spilled over into less overtly anti-Mormon reference works. An online wikipedia article on the First Vision states that “The First Vision was not emphasized in sermons by [subsequent leaders such as] John Taylor. This implies that Smith did not stress it strongly during his life, and that many early church leaders had little understanding of its prominence.”^[6]

Source(s) of the Criticism

• Richard Abanes, Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism (Harvest House Publishers: 2005).
• Isaiah Bennett, Inside Mormonism: What Mormons Really Believe (Catholic Answers: 1999).
• Grant Palmer, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 2002).
• Jerald and Sandra Tanner, The Case Against Mormonism, 2 vols., (Salt Lake City, 1967), 1:120–128.
• Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Changing World of Mormonism (Salt Lake City: 1980), 164.
• Dan Vogel, "The Earliest Mormon Concept of God," in Line Upon Line: Essays on Mormon Doctrine, edited by Gary James Bergera, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989), 17–33.

Response

Figure 1: The Sacred Grove, near Palmyra, New York, by George Edward Anderson, photograph, 1907.

These claims are simply false, with reference to the oft-misused John Taylor.^[7] Consider the following evidence, from sermons, letters, and writings, which demonstrate Taylor’s complete awareness of that event, many well before the death of Brigham in 1877.