Resolving Concerns—First Vision No Man Has Seen God
First Vision No Man Has Seen God
Some of those critical of the Church have objected to our belief in Joseph Smith’s first vision experience. They point out that the scriptures say, “No…
First Vision—No Man Hath Seen God
Some of those critical of the Church have objected to our belief in Joseph Smith’s first vision experience. They point out that the scriptures say, “No man hath seen God” (John 1:18; 1 John 4:12). Yet you Mormons say that Joseph Smith saw God.
We have learned from modern scripture that both of these verses have had significant truths—“plain and precious things”—removed from them (1 Nephi 13:28-29). Joseph Smith’s inspired revision of these verses has them: “And no man hath seen God at any time, except he hath borne record of the Son; for except it is through him no man can be saved” (JST-John 1:19). “No man hath seen God at any time, except them who believe. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12).
What John actually taught was that the Father had never appeared to any man, except for the purpose of introducing and bearing record of the Son. The joint appearance of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith shows the pattern that has always been followed (JS-H 2:14-20).
The whole body of revealed truth bears record that Deity has been seen by man. An experience of a vision in Old Testament times is “The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh with his friend” (Exodus 33:11). Similarly, Moses “saw God face to face, and he talked with him, and the glory of God was upon Moses; therefore Moses could endure his presence” (Moses 1:2). “And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Genesis 32:30). The vision of Stephen in Acts 7:55-56 is no less vivid: “He, being full of the Holy Ghost . . . said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” Comparable is the vision of Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon recorded in D&C 76:19 “The Lord touched the eyes of our understandings and they were opened. . . . And we beheld the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father.”
When people reject or stray from the will of the Lord, they withdraw from his spirit (Mosiah 2:36), and visions cease. And, as declared in Proverbs 29:18: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”