Year:1820
Scriptures:
Joel
2:28-29
28
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit
upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your
old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
29
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will
I pour out my spirit.
Joseph
Smith’s first vision began the restoration of the gospel. It
happened in a grove of trees near his home in Palmyra, New York in
the early spring of 1820. We learn from his own words of this
experience.
Joseph
Smith History
11
…I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and
fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of
God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it
shall be given him.
14
…I retired to the woods to make the attempt… early in the spring
of eighteen hundred and twenty…. I had never as yet made the
attempt to pray vocally.
15
…immediately I was seized upon by some power…. Thick darkness
gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were
doomed to sudden destruction.
16
…just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light
exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which
descended gradually until it fell upon me.
17
…I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all
description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me,
calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My
Beloved Son. Hear Him!
18
…I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of
all the sects was right, that I might know which to join….
19
I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all
wrong… that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that
those professors were all corrupt; that: "they draw near to me
with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for
doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but
they deny the power thereof."
20
He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things
did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to
myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into
heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon
recovering in some degree, I went
home.
The
restoration of all things began with this transcendent vision. The
heavens were opened after 1800 years of darkness. The dispensation of
the fulness of times was upon us to prepare for the Second Coming.
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