The First Vision — Two Divine Personages Appear to Young Joseph Smith (Spring 1820)

In the spring of 1820, fourteen-year-old Joseph Smith retired to a grove of trees near his family's farm in Palmyra (Manchester), New York, to pray about which church to join. He had found great confusion in religious sentiment and determined: "If God had a church, it would not be split up into factions, and that if he taught one society to worship one way, and administer in one set of ordinances, he would not teach another principles which were diametrically opposed."

In response to his prayer, he witnessed a pillar of light descending from heaven, in which he saw two personages — God the Father and Jesus Christ. In Joseph's own account, recorded by I. Daniel Rupp in 1844, he described: "While fervently engaged in supplication, my mind was taken away from the objects with which I was surrounded, and I was enrapt in a heavenly vision, and saw two glorious personages, who exactly resembled each other in features and likeness, surrounded with a brilliant light, which eclipsed the sun at noonday. They told me that all the religious denominations were believing in incorrect doctrines, and that none of them was acknowledged of God as His Church and Kingdom. And I was expressly commanded to 'go not after them,' at the same time receiving a promise that the fullness of the gospel should at some future time be made known unto me."

In the Wentworth Letter (1842), Joseph recorded the same vision: "While fervently engaged in supplication my mind was taken away from the objects with which I was surrounded, and I was enwrapped in a heavenly vision and saw two glorious personages who exactly resembled each other in features and likeness, surrounded with a brilliant light which eclipsed the sun at noon-day. They told me that all religious denominations were believing in incorrect doctrines and that none of them was acknowledged of God as His Church and kingdom."

This vision marked the beginning of the Restoration of the Gospel and has been described as one of the most significant spiritual events in modern religious history. Joseph recounted the experience multiple times throughout his life, each account consistent in its core elements. The First Vision became the foundation for the entire restoration of the gospel.