I was always an obsessive member of the church. I read my scriptures daily. I hardly missed a Sunday. I repented often and sought guidance from Church leaders. I studied relentlessly, at home, on a mission, in Sunday school and seminary, trying to find answers to my questions. I thought I’d read it all. I thought I’d gotten to the bottom of the religion.
It wasn’t until after my mission that I discovered the world of Mormonism outside Mormonism; that is, the information about the Church that was absconded by the Church.
I taught converts the story of the First Vision Every day it seemed. I believed I was telling the truth. Upon later research, I discovered I’d preached a fool’s gold story. Not worthless, but not quite accurate.
The First Vision occurred in 1820. The first time it was ever recorded was in 1832. 12 years later. Until then, no one had ever heard of the First Vision. This is not an exaggeration. Neither Joseph’s mother, his father, his siblings, nor any priest or publication in the state of New York ever made mention of Joseph’s vision until after 1832. To make matters worse, the first account of the First Vision was much different than the one we use today. It described Joseph as having seen one being, rather than two. It described a different sequence of events. It did not describe any satanic darkness, and it had Joseph experiencing the vision at a different age than we currently believe.
For years, Church members were unaware of this first account. Many still are. Even stranger, Church historians also seemed to be unaware of the existence of this account.
Joseph Fielding Smith was the Church Historian for over fifty years, from 1921 to 1970. He served as a prophet for nearly sixty years. While Church historian, he alone had access to the journals of Joseph Smith, journals which were not published, journals which had been hidden from the public eye, journals which held the mysterious First Vision Account. During his stewardship, the page upon which this account was written was torn from its binding, erasing it from history. Access was not given to this account for many years. It was deemed too destructive to the faith of the members. When rumors spread about the existence of the vision account, (near the end of Joseph Fielding Smith’s tenure as Lead Historian of the Church,) the page was Scotch-Taped back into place.
When questions regarding the removal of this account arose, the Church was forced to admit its fraud:
“Scholars with the Joseph Smith Papers have concluded that someone…removed the pages of the 1832 history from its bound volume sometime between 1930 and 1965.”
“By the early 1960s…the 1832 history was made available to researchers, having been reunited with the volume from which it had been removed.” [1]
Joseph Fielding Smith, considering the 1832 account of the First Vision to be detrimental to the faith of the members of the church, tore it from its binding and hid it away. In hiding it away, the Prophet stripped the saints of their agency. He denied them the opportunity to make an educated choice on the truthfulness of the First Vision, coercing them to choose what he thought best. This is not agency.
[1] “Was the 1832 account of the First Vision cut out of a letter book and restricted from public access?”, www.churchofjesuschrist.org
