The First Vision — God the Father and Jesus Christ Appear to Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove (Spring 1820)

In the spring of 1820, fourteen-year-old Joseph Smith Jr., troubled by the competing churches of his day and moved by the promise of James 1:5 ("If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God"), retired to a grove of trees near his home in Palmyra, New York, to pray for guidance. No sooner had he begun than he was seized by a thick darkness that bound his tongue and filled him with the dread of destruction. Exerting all his power to call upon God, he was delivered: a pillar of light, brighter than the noonday sun, gradually descended and rested upon him. In the light appeared two Personages whose brightness and glory defy all description. One of them spoke, calling Joseph by name and said, "This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" Jesus Christ, the Son, answered Joseph's question, declared that his sins were forgiven, and told him that the creeds of the existing churches were an abomination in His sight, that the professors of those creeds were all corrupt, and that Joseph should join none of them. The First Vision is the opening event of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the latter days, the occasion on which God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ personally appeared to a mortal boy and inaugurated the dispensation of the fulness of times.