lulu wrote:After being expelled from the Methodist class (although it's not clear how long after because the expulsion cannot be exactly dated) Joseph Smith tells one of the Whitmers that a church has to be organized. As far as I know, this is the first time Joseph Smith said that. The all churches are an abomination phrase of the first version of the first vision hadn't been written yet.
Interesting, lulu.
1820 being the year given for the FV.
1828 being the year that JSJr was not accepted into the Methodist church.
The 1832 FV account claiming god told JSJr, regarding existing religions, that 'none doeth good no not one they have turned aside from the gospel'.
Then, 1839 the FV account is embellished with the specifics that god told JSJr that he should join no church, that their creeds were an abomination. That none do good is quite different than don't join any of them. The story just gets better and better with each re-telling, but if JSJr was told by god in 1820 not to join any, why did he try to join the Methodist church in 1828?
Also, my impression is that Lucy Mack Smith portrayed the Smith family as almost at once believing JSJr and falling in line. Yet if god had told JSJr in 1820 that he was to join no church, why did so many of the Smith's join the Presbyterian church?
ETC: lulu pointed out below 1828 (not 1838) as the date of JSJr's rejection by the Methodist church. Corrected to get the chronology right.