A
Allweather
Guest
Zerinus writes in his new blog:
““Joseph Smith didn’t start Mormonism from the premise of the Apostasy. He didn’t say, “Christianity is apostate; therefore let’s start a new religion”. That may be the Protestant position, but it is not the LDS position. Joseph Smith was just 14 years old when he had his First Vision; and he didn’t go to the woods in order to start a new religion. He went there to inquire of the Lord to know which church was right, so that he could know which one to join.””
According to Richard Bushman in Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling, there was considerable religious ferment both within the Smith family during Jr’s formative years, as well as in the community of Palmyra. Jr had “Methodist leanings” and for awhile was a participant in a probationary class of the Palmyra Methodist Church. Meantime, Lucy, Jr’s mother, joined the Western Presbyterian Church, where she attended services with Hyrum, Sophronia and Samuel. Sr was more apathetic, and probably feeling himself a failure due to financial misfortunes resulting both from events outside, as well as inside his own control. He stayed home from church, and Jr, Alvin, and William stayed home with him.
It is clear from Bushman’s account that the Smith family, like the Palmyra community, was religiously divided during an era of competition between protestant sects.
When one takes a closer look at the family circumstances of the Smiths, it becomes more clear that on the morning when Jr walked into the woods to pray, he had in fact been pondering the question of the so-called apostasy (even if he hadn’t yet arrived at that term for it). It is a lot more likely that the “visions” served more to confirm in the boy-mind conclusions he’d already reached at his tender age.
Then, seeing the manner in which the tale of the visions were unfolded beginning in 1832, twelve years later, is a strong indication that the entire vision story was a fabrication meant to reinforce Jr as a prophet, seer, revelator before his followers, who prior to 1832 had never heard of the First Vision.
““Joseph Smith didn’t start Mormonism from the premise of the Apostasy. He didn’t say, “Christianity is apostate; therefore let’s start a new religion”. That may be the Protestant position, but it is not the LDS position. Joseph Smith was just 14 years old when he had his First Vision; and he didn’t go to the woods in order to start a new religion. He went there to inquire of the Lord to know which church was right, so that he could know which one to join.””
According to Richard Bushman in Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling, there was considerable religious ferment both within the Smith family during Jr’s formative years, as well as in the community of Palmyra. Jr had “Methodist leanings” and for awhile was a participant in a probationary class of the Palmyra Methodist Church. Meantime, Lucy, Jr’s mother, joined the Western Presbyterian Church, where she attended services with Hyrum, Sophronia and Samuel. Sr was more apathetic, and probably feeling himself a failure due to financial misfortunes resulting both from events outside, as well as inside his own control. He stayed home from church, and Jr, Alvin, and William stayed home with him.
It is clear from Bushman’s account that the Smith family, like the Palmyra community, was religiously divided during an era of competition between protestant sects.
When one takes a closer look at the family circumstances of the Smiths, it becomes more clear that on the morning when Jr walked into the woods to pray, he had in fact been pondering the question of the so-called apostasy (even if he hadn’t yet arrived at that term for it). It is a lot more likely that the “visions” served more to confirm in the boy-mind conclusions he’d already reached at his tender age.
Then, seeing the manner in which the tale of the visions were unfolded beginning in 1832, twelve years later, is a strong indication that the entire vision story was a fabrication meant to reinforce Jr as a prophet, seer, revelator before his followers, who prior to 1832 had never heard of the First Vision.
