|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Manchester (Palmyra), New York
|
|
|
|
|
Sacred Grove on the Joseph Smith Sr. farm
|
|
|
|
|
First Vision
|
|
|
|
|
Spring 1820
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scripture
|
|
|
|
|
"on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. . .
|
|
|
|
|
". . . I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. . .
|
|
|
|
|
". . . I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until
it fell upon me.
|
|
Sunlight breaks through clouds
of darkness above the Sacred
Grove.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
" . . . 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 1:14-17
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Sacred Grove is a place of peace and serenity, where the
Spirit can be felt.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Key Events
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Within this grove, 14-year old Joseph Smith saw in vision God the Father and his son Jesus Christ in the spring
of 1820.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Here, Joseph showed the golden plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated to eight men in the summer
of 1829. The testimony of these witnesses is
included in the Book of Mormon.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
How the grove often appears early in the
early spring, just after the winter snows
melt.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Words of Joseph Smith
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality speak to me;
and though I was hated and persecuted
for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they were
persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil against me for so saying,
I was led to say in my heart:
Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or
why does the world
think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew
that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least
I knew that by so doing I would offend God,
and come under condemnation." (Joseph Smith History 1:25)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright 2005 Steve Mortensen. All rights reserved.
|
