Occasionally my posts will give background information about the Church. For my first background section, I have chosen to tell the beginning of the Joseph Smith story.
To understand the story of Joseph Smith, it is important to recognize that God has followed a pattern in calling prophets throughout time. God loves His children. He wants His children to return to live with Him after this life. To help His children, God calls prophets to teach His word and to be a witness for Jesus Christ. The Bible has many examples of prophets. Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses are all prophets. God spoke to them and they delivered God’s word to the people. In this pattern, we also notice that eventually people reject the truth and reject the prophet. This time period is called an apostasy, or a falling away from the truth. After many prophets, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to the earth. Jesus established a Church, taught and lived the truth, called disciples and gave them authority. The people rejected the Son of God and crucified Him. They also persecuted and rejected His disciples. This led to a time known as the Great Apostasy, where Christ’s authority and true gospel was lost. (See 2 Thes. 2:1-3)
A restoration of the truth was necessary. God followed His pattern as He did anciently and called another prophet. This prophet was Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith was born in 1805 in Sharon, Vermont. When he was 14 years old, his family was living near Palmyra, New York. There was a great religious revival going on in the area. Joseph was confused about which church he should join--even his family members went to different churches. One day he read a verse in the Bible, James 1:5, which says:
"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 believed this passage of scripture and decided to do as it said. In the spring of that year (1820), Joseph went to the woods outside his home and prayed to God. In answer to his prayer, God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph. Joseph describes what happened in his own words:
“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!”
The Father and the Son called Joseph Smith to be a prophet and told him that he had a great work to do. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet and he truly had this vision of the Father and Son, just as he said he did.
Part of this great work was to bring for The Book of Mormon, which I will discuss in another post.
To read the full account in Joseph Smith’s own words, click here.
To learn more about Joseph Smith, click here or here.
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