Doctor Steuss wrote: Then again, maybe all accounts are right, and Joseph in having the heavens opened was able to dwell within the multiverse thus causing a seeming paradox to those who were limited to the confounds of only this "reality."
So like in the movie Groundhog Day, thanks to a temporal loop, he could have relived these experiences in different ways?
I didn't even hear about the different versions of the First Vision till the past year or so. Therefore it was only one more nail in an already closed coffin as far as I'm concerned.
In my opinion if all this happened as represented our God isn't concerned with accuracy, integrity or reliability in the least.
Insert ironic quote from fellow board member here.
When I share spiritual experiences I decide what to share based on audience. Sometimes I tone it down, sometimes I focus on different aspects. I don't have a problem with all the accounts.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
cksalmon wrote:Lucy Mack Smith, in her letter to her brother Solomon Mack Smith, and dating from January 1831, extolling the virtues of her son's Restoration, the coming forth of Book of Mormon, etc., apparently in an attempt to evangelize Solomon to Mormonism, utterly fails to mention any priesthood restoration. One might conclude that she knew nothing of it.
CKS
It's possible Joseph didn't understand what was going on.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
charity wrote:Two words for you critics. RETROSPECTIVE ENLIGHTENMENT.
For us idiots, could we get more than two words, Charity?
MANY RETROSPECTIVE ENLIGHTENMENTS
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
charity wrote:Two words for you critics. RETROSPECTIVE ENLIGHTENMENT.
For us idiots, could we get more than two words, Charity?
MANY RETROSPECTIVE ENLIGHTENMENTS
I just learned the name, although the phenomena are familiar to us all. It means when something doesn't strike you as important, or you don't understand it completely at the time. But when you have learned or matured, you understand it better later. Children often have experiences they don't have the vocabulary to describe, but can describe it later when they learn more words. Another would be when make some little decision, but then it ends up having a large impact.
In the case of the first vision, Joseph, at age 14, went into the woods to ask a personal question for only his own edification. What happened was the restoration of the Gospel and the beginning of an entire new dispensation. The enormity of the event could hardly have been fully known to the a young boy. Yes, he had a personal visitation from God and Jesus. But at the time he could not have anticipated all that would flow from that.
For a helpful guide to understanding this I recommend The History of the Church, (vol.1, I think, going from memory here), and Gregory A. Prince, Power From On High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood (Signature Books, 1995). Prince offers some possible explanations as to why this was not made known until later, and why Whitmer never heard it. Quinn also covered this in his first volume of the Hierarchy series, mentioning that there is "considerable debate" about this. We need to be careful about drawing immediate conclusions, particularly when scholars of this haven't done so.
charity wrote: RETROSPECTIVE ENLIGHTENMENT I just learned the name, although the phenomena are familiar to us all. It means when something doesn't strike you as important, or you don't understand it completely at the time.
That makes perfect sense. When J.R.R. Tolkien first had an idea for a Hobbit character, the Noldarin and Sindarin languages complete with runes and grammatical structure did not jump out at him that instant. Ideas need time to germinate and evolve.