Not only an answer though, but an answer that was given in the most direct and personal way possible. An answer that, though it would dramatically alter Joseph's personal life, and set him on a course for humiliation and persecution, would bring salvation to innumerable souls.
An answer from the lips of God Himself.
What took place that day in a humble grove of trees would bring spiritual light to a world that for centuries had been clawing and clamoring for truth in benighted darkness. It would become an entreasured juncture in the annals of history, as the day that God broke His silence to once again commune with men.
This is the story of the first vision:
As said, it was the spring of 1820 at Palmyra, New York . This was a time and place of unprecedented religious excitement. Every major christian religion devisable by man (along with countless denominations of those major religions) was clamoring for followers. Curious throngs would be drawn to parks and other public places where priests and preachers could always be found standing atop rustic pedestals and bellowing out furiously passionate sermons to scattered congregations and lingering passerbys. Every minister promoting his own religion, condemning all others, and, no doubt, attempting to use his own boisterous fervor to drown out the sermons of his neighbors.
It is therefore no small wonder that Joseph Smith found himself overwhelmed by the commotion and disarray in this contest of opinions. When one faith insists that they know their church is true and another insists otherwise, and both claim God disapproves of the other church and esteems their own, who can know the truth for certain?
Joseph Smith describes his confusion best with his own words:
"My mind at times was greatly excited, the cry and tumult were so great and incessant. The Presbyterians were most decided against the Baptists and Methodists, and used all the powers of both reason and sophistry to prove their errors, or at least, to make people think they were in error. On the other hand, the Baptists and Methodists in their turn were equally zealous in endeavoring to establish their own tenets and disprove all others.
In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself:What is to be done? Who of all these parties is right or are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know?" (Joseph Smith History)
The answery to his query was to be found in the place where all answers to life's most perplexing questions are to be found. I am of course speaking of the scriptures. While studying the Holy Bible Joseph came across a verse in James. James 1:5 states, "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." Joseph decided to take advantage of this promise, saying:
"At length I came to the conclusion that I muse either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is ask of God. I at length came to the determination to 'ask of God' concluding that if he gave wisdom to them taht lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture." (Joseph Smith History)Now that the exposition is set, we come back to where we began. Without informing his friends or kin of his intentions, Joseph Smith snuck away to a grove of trees behind his family's farm to pray, knowing no other way to do as James directed, and ask of God. While praying, something miraculous occurred. Something does not require embellishment, for once again, Joseph Smith's own words describe his experience better than any speculative articulation. This is what he saw:
"I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me... When the light rested upon me 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!" (Joseph Smith History)The two Personages described were God, our Heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. They appeared to Joseph Smith, and spoke with him face to face.
Furthermore, they answered his question. They told him that the true church of Christ had been lost to the earth shortly after the death of His apostles, but also that it would soon be restored. Jesus Christ forbade Joseph from joining any church at that time and told him a great many other things that he was forbidden from writing and sharing. Because of the responsibilities inherent to the privileges of revelation, Joseph Smith was called to act as a modern day prophet of God.
[It would be well to note at this time that in order to experience this visitation, Joseph Smith (as the mortal prophets of the Old Testament and a once mortal Jesus Christ Himself) had to be temporarily transfigured in order to withstand the raw refulgent power of God and Christ's celestial glory. The full and unabridged account of Joseph's personal history can be found at - LDS.org - Joseph Smith History . This primary account, all written with Joseph's own words, is an invaluable source of insight to the young Joseph's earnest consternation, and even includes further details of his own eventual prophetic ministry.]
This visitation preluded a restoration of Jesus Christ's true church and prompted the inception of what we now know today to be The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The First Vision was the spark that first kindled the small flames of a marvelous work, and these flames quickly swelled to an inferno. From this visitation, we can all know with certainty that the LDS Church is the true church of God because it was founded by His command. And to this very day, it continues to be organized and directed according to His divine will.
Later in his adult years, Joseph Smith was executed by persecutionists while compliantly serving an incarceration in CarthageJail at Nauvoo, Illinois for crimes that he did not commit. He was martyred there for refusing to retract his testimony of God. However his death did not interfere with the progress of the LDS Church. No unhallowed hand can stop God's work from progressing without His divine consent, and God did not have a mind to rescind his interest in the welfare of humankind. After all, His work had only just begun. So a new prophet was called by God to take his place, and prophets continue to be called even to this day.
I bear my testimony that God has once again reached out to His earthly children. I know that He has once again called servants to be His prophets, just as He called Moses, Noah, Elijah, Enoch, and others, and He has given them the authority to lead and guide His temporal church in these modern days (God's Prophet's and Apostles Today). I know that through modern day prophets He has organized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with Jesus Christ Himself, our Savior and Redeemer, always and forever, acting as its chief cornerstone.
I know that God truly does answer prayers. People may scoff at the notion that God would choose to restore His Church through a fourteen-year-old boy, but they fail to consider that perhaps the reason why God chose a fourteen-year-old boy to restore His church was because after thousands of years of human beings attempting to use their own falliable wisdom to reformate what they knew to be incorrect church doctorine, a fourteen-year-old boy was the only one who thought to ask the only Being who's opinion truly matters: God.
And if he was not the only one willing to ask, perhaps he was the first one truly willing to listen.
I know Joseph Smith was chosen as a prophet, and charged with ushering in a new dispensation of Christ's gospel. A dispensation that continues to this day. I know he saw God the Father, and Jesus Christ, and I know that through this inaugural revelation, Christ's true church has been restored to the earth today. It is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and it is a church I am proud to be a part of.
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