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Stained glass depiction of Joseph Smith's First Vision, completed in 1913 by an unknown artist (Church History Museum, Salt Lake City).. The First Vision (also called the grove experience by members of the Community of Christ) refers to a theophany which Latter Day Saints believe Joseph Smith experienced in the early 1820s, in a wooded area in Manchester, New York, called the Sacred Grove.
Joseph Smith was born on December 23, 1805, in Vermont, on the border between the villages of South Royalton and Sharon, to Lucy Mack Smith and her husband Joseph Smith Sr., a merchant and farmer. [6] He was one of eleven children. At the age of seven, Smith had a bone infection and, after receiving surgery, used crutches for three years. [7]
The teachings of Joseph Smith include many religious doctrines as well as political ideas and theories, many of which he said were revealed to him by God. Joseph Smith is the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement and is recognized by multiple Latter Day Saint churches as the founder.
Joseph Smith claimed to receive power from God to translate ancient texts from dead languages into English. He said he did this by means of "the gift and power of God" and by means of the Urim and Thummim, which he said was delivered to him by an angel named Moroni. The most prominent of his translations was the Book of Mormon.
The account of the First Vision—in which Smith sees both God the Father and Jesus Christ simultaneously—challenges the doctrine of the trinity. Additionally, the part describing Moroni's appearance to the young Joseph Smith alludes to a prophecy contained in Isaiah 29.
Members of the largest Latter Day Saint denomination, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, regard Smith as a prophet who correctly predicted the rise of their church. [4] They argue that Joseph Smith predicted he would find "three witnesses to the word of God", and later found three men who would corroborate his story of the plates.
The early life of Joseph Smith covers his life from his birth to the end of 1827. Smith was born in Sharon, Vermont, the fifth of eleven children born to Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith. By 1817, Smith's family had moved to the "burned-over district" of western New York, an area repeatedly swept by religious revivals during the Second Great Awakening.
Since the early 20th century, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has identified Jesus as the biblical god Jehovah . [27] The faith regards the Father as the literal biological father of Jesus with Mary. [28] Because Jesus was the Son of God, he had power to overcome physical death.