Joseph Smith's Answered Prayer for Divine Direction

In 1820, during a religious revival in New York, a young boy named Joseph Smith, concerned about his salvation, searched the scriptures and was struck by James 1:5. He went into the woods near his home and prayed to know which church was true. God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him in a vision, informing him that the existing churches were incorrect, that they had a form of godliness but denied the power thereof, and instructed him not to join any of them.

In a 1832 autobiographical account, Joseph Smith explains that at age twelve he began searching the scriptures, becoming deeply troubled by the lack of religious denominations that built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. He describes being overcome by a sense of his own sins and those of the world, leading him to pray in the wilderness. He records that a pillar of fire rested upon him, that he was filled with the spirit of God, and that he saw the Lord, who informed him that the world lay in sin and that the existing churches had turned aside from the gospel. Later, in an 1835 journal entry dictated to clerk Warren Parrish, Joseph provides additional details of his experience in the grove: he felt a physical inability to pray, describing his tongue as being "swolen" in his mouth. He then heard a noise behind him like someone walking, which caused him to spring to his feet. Upon kneeling again, he was able to pray, at which point a pillar of fire appeared above his head and he beheld two personages, one of whom testified that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.