Joseph Smith’s First Vision Was a Lie: The Shocking Truth the Mormon Church Hid for Over a Century
Smoke, Mirrors, and Sacred Lies: Joseph Smith’s First Vision and the Making of a Cult
Joseph Smith didn’t just found a religion—he founded a movement based on shifting sand, revisionist history, and a tangled web of ever-changing origin stories. At the heart of that web lies the so-called “First Vision,” a tale so riddled with contradictions, omissions, and retroactive embellishments that it might as well be a theological choose-your-own-adventure. And yet, this ever-mutating account has been held up as the cornerstone of Mormonism.
Let’s call it what it is: a masterclass in cult construction, built not on divine consistency but on obfuscation and narrative control.
God, Jesus and Ol’ Joe as Sheep. Why Not? It is just as believable as any of the other versions of the “First Vision” Joe Smith used to start his cult.
The First Vision: How Many Gods Does It Take to Start a Religion?
The LDS Church teaches that in 1820, 14-year-old Joseph Smith walked into the woods near Palmyra, New York, and saw God the Father and Jesus Christ, who told him all existing churches were an abomination. Sounds simple—until you dig into the historical record.
Joseph didn’t actually write down any version of this so-called life-altering vision until 1832—12 years later, and two years after he founded the church in 1830. In this earliest known account, Joseph said he saw one personage, identified as Jesus Christ, and made no mention of God the Father appearing at all. 1
In fact, this first version doesn’t even refer to a "religious confusion" among churches, but focuses on his desire for forgiveness of sins.
Compare that to the 1838 canonical version found in Joseph Smith—History in the Pearl of Great Price, which the Church now teaches as gospel truth. In this version, Joseph is told not to join any church because they’re all corrupt, and he clearly sees two personages—God and Jesus—both speaking to him.
What changed?
The Versions (Plural) of the First Vision
Let’s take a quick walk through a few of the many variations of Joseph’s multiple origin stories:
1832 One being (Jesus)Forgiveness of sinsPersonal confusion. No mention of a church rejection
1835 Two beings (unclear identities) + many angels. Again sins and vague references to religious contention. Beings appear sequentially
1838 God the Father and Jesus Christ. Told not to join any church. Strong anti-church language. This is the "official" version
1842 Two personages (vague). Confirmation of authority. Highly polished public version. Known as the Wentworth Letter
These are not simple retellings of the same event. They are structurally different narratives with varying theological implications. In one, Joseph is a sinner begging for grace. In another, he's a prophet being directly commissioned by the Godhead to start the "only true church."
How can a foundational vision—a supposed literal encounter with the divine—morph so drastically over time?
Cult 101: Control the Narrative, Hide the Contradictions
For decades, the Church hid the earliest versions of the First Vision. The 1832 account was not made public until 1965, over 130 years after it was written—and only after pressure from historians and researchers. 6
The Church’s apologists claim that differences in the story are natural and expected. Memory fades. Emphasis changes. But we’re not talking about forgetting what someone wore to a party. We’re talking about whether Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus, just Jesus, or a crowd of angels.
You don’t “forget” how many divine beings you saw—or whether you saw God the Father Himself.
Unless, of course, you’re fabricating a story to bolster your prophetic claims and using it as a spiritual loyalty test for your followers. Sound familiar?
Joseph Smith: Prophet or Prototype Cult Leader?
Let’s not mince words: Joseph Smith operated like a textbook cult leader. He was charismatic, authoritarian, and opportunistic. He dictated not only what spiritual truth was, but when and how it changed.
His version of the “truth” conveniently evolved in lockstep with his own authority. When he needed legitimacy, the vision included Jesus. When he wanted exclusivity, it included a divine rejection of all other churches. When his own theology matured to the point of requiring a separate Father and Son, he went back and rewrote history.
This is the same man who “translated” Egyptian papyri into the Book of Abraham—only for those same papyri to be later translated by real Egyptologists as common funerary texts, utterly unrelated to Abraham. 7
The Fallout: Faith Built on Fiction
Many members, especially those born into the Church, never even hear about the earlier versions until they stumble upon them in ex-Mormon Reddit threads or podcasts. That’s not by accident. The Church has actively whitewashed and correlated its curriculum to sanitize history, presenting Joseph’s most theologically useful vision as though it were the only one ever recorded.
In reality, this vision is the original doctrinal shell game, manipulated over years to serve the ever-growing ambitions of its author.
Ask yourself: If the foundation is this shaky, how sturdy can the rest of the house be?
Conclusion: A Cult by Any Other Name
Joseph Smith wasn’t a confused farm boy guided by divine light. He was a mythmaker, a manipulator, and ultimately, a cult founder who crafted his legacy by constructing a false past and hiding it from his own followers.
The “First Vision” isn’t a holy moment. It’s a smoking gun.
Sources
Footnotes
Joseph Smith, 1832 First Vision Account, Church History Library, MS 155, Folder 1. ↩
Joseph Smith, 1835 First Vision Account, Diary, 9–11 November 1835. ↩
Joseph Smith, 1838 First Vision Account, Joseph Smith—History 1:1–26. ↩
Joseph Smith, Wentworth Letter, 1842. ↩
Dean C. Jessee, The Early Accounts of Joseph Smith's First Vision, BYU Studies 9:3 (Spring 1969). ↩
D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994). ↩
Robert K. Ritner, The Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri: A Complete Edition, Smith-Pettit Foundation, 2013. ↩
What do the non cultist think about what appears to be an active imagination and lies from Joseph Smith? Is this a normal Christian Religion or is it as most people believe, a cult and a scam. Leave your coments below.