First Vision Accounts
"Critics of Mormonism have delighted in the discrepancies between the canonical account and earlier renditions,......such complaints, however, are much ado about relatively nothing. Any good lawyer (or historian) would expect to find contradictions or competing narratives written down years apart and decades after the event. And despite the contradictions, key elements abide."
- Stephen Prothero
Non LDS Author
There are four seperate accounts of the first vision that were given by Joseph Smith. Critics claim they prove Joseph Smith was not a prophet because they contradict each other. However, a closer look reveals the gist of each is the same, but details differ. Like the 4 Gospels, they teach the same thing, but details differ. Again, we turn to the Gospel Topics Essays for our first look. Other pertinent information appears below that.
First Vision Accounts Videos
The Saints Unscripted Youtube channel provides a nice overview of the various accounts of the First Vision:
Again, Stephen C Harper, Dept Chair of Church History and Doctrine and Brigham Young University, participates in a podcast regarding memory and the first vision.
Why have many members of the church never heard that there are 4 different accounts of the first vision?
Stephen C Harper, Dept Chair of Church History and Doctrine and Brigham Young University, provides a detailed explanation of the different accounts:
In this video, Latter Day Saints Q & A delineates the main objections raised by critics of Joseph Smith’s First Vision and offer clarifying, faithful resolutions based on accurate records and references.
This documentary takes the finest scholars of Joseph Smith's First Vision and explores with them the circumstances and history of the various accounts of the visitation of God the Father and Jesus Christ to the boy Joseph Smith