Observations placeholder
Smith, Joseph - 01 The first vision
Identifier
028974
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
The Pearl of Great Price, by Joseph Smith - History 1:5-8, 14-19, 22.
Early spring 1820, Manchester, New York, USA
"It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day.. .I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God.. .I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head...
"When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description... One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!'...
"I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right, (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong) and which I should join.
"I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong...
"I soon found, however, that my telling the story had excited a great deal of prejudice against me among professors [believers] of religion, and was the cause of great persecution, which continued to increase; and though I was an obscure boy, only between fourteen and fifteen years of age... yet men of high standing would take notice sufficient to excite the public mind against me, and create a bitter persecution; and this was common among all the sects all united to persecute me."