DiscussMormonism.com

No, this is not John Pratt. This is Ronald P. Millett.

https://ldsmag.com/the-first-vision-and-great-comets/

"The First Vision and the Restoration of Priesthood Keys during the visit of the Lord Jesus Christ to His Temple were certainly events essential to God’s great plan for the salvation of this world. They are key events of “the plan of redemption, which was prepared from the foundation of the world through Christ.” (Alma 22:13)

I believe that the First Vision in 1820 and the visit to the Kirtland Temple in 1836 were scheduled on the Lord’s calendar before the comet-caused signs were set in synchronized motion to arrive before those events.

To precisely schedule and engineer the two very bright comets (1819 and 1835) plus the small yet spectacular “Leonid storm” comet of 1833 with its orbit and debris fields perfectly aligned could not happen by chance. The comet before the First Vision in 1820 came in 1819. Halley’s Comet and the debris field cloud from Tempel-Tuttle arrived in 1835 and in November of 1833 respectively, being one and two year proximities before the Lord’s visit in 1836."

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From the author's Meridian Magazine profile:

"Ron has long thought that those who deny God’s hand in the creation and progress of life, man and the universe deny both the reality of spirit matter as well as the elemental intelligence proclaimed by Joseph Smith. The theory of evolution does not address at all the implications of Joseph Smith’s revelations about matter, spirit and intelligence and therefore is an incomplete theory.Alma testified that “all things denote there is a God” (Alma 30:44), and Ron enjoys showing how the wonderful discoveries of science are compatible with and testify of the existence of God and the truth of His restored gospel."

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Yep, the solar system evolved in a certain way (over billions of years) so as to produce interplanetary debris to create meteor showers for the edification of the Mormons.

Some years back in a thread since purged from the internet, MDDB discussed the visions that both Heber C. Kimball and Brigham Young claimed occurred on the night Smith collected the gold plates -

Kimball's account:

I had retired to bed, when John P. Greene, who was living within a hundred steps of my house, came and waked me up, calling upon me to come out and behold the scenery in the heavens. I woke up and called my wife and Sister Fanny Young (sister to Brigham Young), who was living with us, and we went out-of-doors.

It was one of the most beautiful starlight nights, so clear that we could see to pick up a pin. We looked to the eastern horizon, and beheld a white smoke arise toward the heavens; as it ascended it formed itself into a belt, and made a noise like the sound of a mighty wind, and continued southwest, forming a regular bow dipping in the western horizon. After the bow had formed, it began to widen out and grow clear and transparent, of a bluish cast; it grew wide enough to contain twelve men abreast.

In this bow an army moved, commencing from the east and marching to the west; they continued marching until they reached the western horizon. They moved in platoons, and walked so close that the rear ranks trod in the steps of their file leaders, until the whole bow was literally crowded with soldiers. We could distinctly see the muskets, bayonets and knapsacks of the men, who wore caps and feathers like those used by the American soldiers in the last war with Britain; and also saw their officers with their swords and equipage, and the clashing and jingling of their implements of war, and could discover the forms and features of the men. The most profound order existed throughout the entire army; when the foremost man stepped, every man stepped at the same time; I could hear the steps. When the front rank reached the western horizon a battle ensued, as we could distinctly hear the report of arms and the rush.

No man could judge of my feelings when I beheld that army of men, as plainly as ever I saw armies of men in the flesh; it seemed as though every hair of my head was alive. This scenery we gazed upon for hours, until it began to disappear.

After I became acquainted with Mormonism, I learned that this took place the same evening that Joseph Smith received the records of the Book of Mormon from the angel Moroni, who had held those records in his possession. (The Life of Heber C. Kimball, p.16–17)
(copied from here - http://scottwoodward.org/visions_heberc ... hesky.html)

I personally believe it was part of the purge on that site because Dr. Peterson made an appearance to discuss his own research on the visions which he had published somewhere. I seem to recall his paper was what served as the basis for the OP. Turned out his research failed to consider if there were astronomical events in the same timeframe that might provide a natural explanation. And there was. The date is a month before but exactly fits recorded descriptions of a rare type of aurora:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25057995?s ... b_contents

"The splendid arch and other striking accompaniments of the aurora of August, 1827, took us by surprise and were viewed with wonder by nearly all the existing generation of the countries where it was visible." - A Professor Olmstead as recorded in the Smithsonian Contributions.

The date for the August 28, 1827 great aurora with the descriptions of it recorded in multiple places being so coincident with Kimball's so called battle in the sky are beyond doubt of one and the same event. Kimball is almost certainly guilty of reassigning the date of the event to September as a post hoc explanation for what had to have been a remarkable once-in-a-lifetime experience.

By the way, the jstor article linked to above is a good read for how auroras were perceived in New England in the 1700s and 1800s.

I think the post hoc method of interpreting signs in the heavens is ages old and part of the collective narrative creation that is religion. Predicting signs in the heavens requires something a little more reliable.
https://www.space.com/27412-christopher ... lipse.html

On Oct. 12, 1492, Columbus came ashore on an island northeast of Cuba, which he later named San Salvador (Holy Savior). Over the next 10 years Columbus would make three more voyages to the "New World." On his fourth and final voyage, while exploring the coast of Central America, Columbus found himself in dire straits.

He left Cádiz, Spain, on May 11, 1502, with the ships Capitana, Gallega, Vizcaína and Santiago de Palos.Unfortunately, thanks to an epidemic of shipworms eating holes in the planking of his fleet, Columbus was forced to abandon two of his ships and finally had to beach his last two caravels on the north coast of an island now known as Jamaica, on June 25, 1503.

Initially, the native peoples (Arawak Indians) welcomed the castaways, providing them with food and shelter, but as the days dragged into weeks, tensions mounted. Finally, after being stranded for more than six months, half of Columbus' crew mutinied, robbing and murdering some of the Arawaks, who themselves had grown weary of supplying cassava, corn and fish in exchange for little tin whistles, trinkets, hawk's bells and other trashy goods. With famine now threatening, Columbus formulated a desperate, albeit ingenious plan. 
Almanac to the rescue

Coming to the admiral's rescue was Johannes Müller von Königsberg (1436-1476), known by his Latin pseudonym, Regiomontanus. He was a highly regarded German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer. Before his death, Regiomontanus published an almanac containing astronomical tables covering the years 1475-1506.

Regiomontanus'almanac turned out to be of great value, for his astronomical tables provided detailed information about the sun, moon and planets, as well as the more important stars and constellations to navigate by. After it was published, no sailor dared set out without a copy. With its help, explorers were able to leave their customary routes and venture out into the unknown seas in search of new frontiers.

Columbus, of course, had a copy of the almanac with him when he was stranded on Jamaica. And he soon discovered from studying its tables that on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 29, 1504, a total lunar eclipse would occur, beginning around the time of moonrise. 

Armed with this knowledge, three days before the eclipse, Columbus requested a meeting with the Arawak chief and informed him that his Christian god was very angry with his people for no longer supplying him and his men with food. Therefore, he was about to provide a clear sign of his displeasure:  Three nights hence, he would all but obliterate the rising full moon, making it appear "inflamed with wrath," which would signify the evils that would soon be inflicted upon all of them.

On the appointed evening, as the sun set in the west and the moon started emerging from beyond the eastern horizon, it was plainly obvious to all that something was terribly wrong. By the time the moon appeared in full view, a small but noticeable dark scallop had been removed from its lower edge.

And, just over an hour later, as evening twilight ended and full darkness descended, the moon indeed exhibited an eerily inflamed and "bloody" appearance: In place of the normally brilliant late winter full moon there now hung a dim red ball in the eastern sky. 

According to Columbus' son, Ferdinand, the Arawaks were terrified at this sight and "with great howling and lamentation came running from every direction to the ships laden with provisions and beseeching the admiral to intercede with his god on their behalf." They promised that they would happily cooperate with Columbus and his men if only he would restore the moon back to its normal self. The great explorer told the natives that he would have to retire to confer privately with his god. He then shut himself in his cabin for about 50 minutes. 

While in his quarters, Columbus turned an hourglass every half hour to time the various stages of the eclipse based on the calculations provided by Regiomontanus' almanac.
Just moments before the end of the total phase Columbus reappeared, announcing to the Arawaks that his god had pardoned them and would now allow the moon to gradually return. And at that moment, true to Columbus' word, the moon slowly began to reappear, and as it emerged from the Earth's shadow, the grateful Arawaks hurried away. They then kept Columbus and his men well supplied and well fed until a relief caravel from Hispaniola arrived on June 29, 1504. Columbus and his men returned to Spain on Nov. 7.

Excellent, Honor. I was not aware of the Kimball account but want to explore it further. Thanks!

I find this fascinating. Ain't the internet grand?

I find it intriguing that a mere small display in the heavens is all an Almighty God could muster for such a "sign" for ushering in the importance of the Last Days. I mean an Omniscient, Omnipotent God can't do anything really spectacular, or at least useful?! What a waste of Omnipotence! It's like the one commentary I read about Jesus healing a blind man. Here the Omnipotent Deity of all creation, the multiple billions of light years of trillions of planets, comets, suns, black holes, quasars, gravity waves, interstellar Cosmic Background Radiation, with all this utterly breath-taking, literally indescribable power and capability, can only muster enough to heal one mere blind human? What a waste of Omnipotence. Why not just simply cure all blindness the world over and really do something helpful and significant?
This Deity can make vast amounts of food for a group of 4,000 or 5,000 from a few mere minnows and bread crumbs (depends which story you read and accept), yet he lets the entire rest of the world starve?! Why not simply share that power and let everyone do this for everyone? Suffering from starvation solved, a thing vastly superior to the mere paltry, hokey display we see in scripture. When it's seen that every miracle is simply a rather insignificant and narrow, fundamentally ignorant human perspective, it all really becomes rather unimpressive and certainly anything but miraculous.

Philo Sofee wrote:I find it intriguing that a mere small display in the heavens is all an Almighty God could muster for such a "sign" for ushering in the importance of the Last Days. I mean an Omniscient, Omnipotent God can't do anything really spectacular, or at least useful?! What a waste of Omnipotence! It's like the one commentary I read about Jesus healing a blind man. Here the Omnipotent Deity of all creation, the multiple billions of light years of trillions of planets, comets, suns, black holes, quasars, gravity waves, interstellar Cosmic Background Radiation, with all this utterly breath-taking, literally indescribable power and capability, can only muster enough to heal one mere blind human? What a waste of Omnipotence. Why not just simply cure all blindness the world over and really do something helpful and significant?
This Deity can make vast amounts of food for a group of 4,000 or 5,000 from a few mere minnows and bread crumbs (depends which story you read and accept), yet he lets the entire rest of the world starve?! Why not simply share that power and let everyone do this for everyone? Suffering from starvation solved, a thing vastly superior to the mere paltry, hokey display we see in scripture. When it's seen that every miracle is simply a rather insignificant and narrow, fundamentally ignorant human perspective, it all really becomes rather unimpressive and certainly anything but miraculous.

Hi Philo, your post reminded me of this old thread and the underlying question in the sermon described in the OP:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29028

There is a relatively well known sermon by the American theologian Frederick Buechner titled, "Message in the Stars". In it, he imagines what would happen if God chose to prove beyond any doubt that HE exists:

“Suppose, for instance, that God were to take the great, dim river of the Milky Way as we see it from down here flowing across the night sky and were to brighten it up a little and then rearrange it so that all of a sudden one night the world would step outside and look up at the heavens and see not the usual haphazard scattering of stars but, written out in letters light years tall, the sentence: I REALLY EXIST, or GOD IS. If I were going to try to write a story or a play about such an event, I would start, of course, with the first night that this great theological headline appeared there in the stars, with suns and moons to dot the i’s and the tails of the comets to cross the t’s. And I would try to show some of the ways that I can imagine people might respond to it. I would show some of them sinking to their knees, not because they are especially religious people but just because it might seem somehow the only natural thing to do under the circumstances. They would perhaps do it without even thinking about it, just crumpling down on their knees there in the tall grass behind the garage.”

After further painting a picture of what this surety might bring, he then continues:

Then the way that I would have it end might be this. I would have a child look up at the sky some night, just a plain, garden-variety child with perhaps a wad of bubble gum in his cheek…. and then I would have the child turn to his father, or maybe, with the crazy courage of childhood, I would have him turn to God himself, and the words that I would have him speak would be words to make the angels gasp. “So what if God exists?” he would say. “What difference does that make?”

It's an interesting question. So what if God exists? Given no other changes in the world as we have it and live it, what difference would it make to anyone if God's existance was certain?

Very good Honor!

Also know by the apologetic argument designation # - Undesignated - To be cataloged in the 'blind faith' section. The substance; god wants to provide some physical evidence for our intellect as to un-worldly happenings, but, not too much.

How much is too much? I'd say something just south of restored amputations. How much is too little? I'd say something just north of his assigning one guy to interpret rock formations for us.