Joseph’s Methodist Minister Treats His Vision with Contempt
Joseph Smith—History 1:21–22
21 Some few days after I had this vision, I happened to be in company with one of the Methodist preachers, who was very active in the before mentioned religious excitement; and, conversing with him on the subject of religion, I took occasion to give him an account of the vision which I had had. I was greatly surprised at his behavior; he treated my communication not only lightly, but with great contempt, saying it was all of the devil, that there were no such things as visions or revelations in these days; that all such things had ceased with the apostles, and that there would never be any more of them.
22 I soon found, however, that my telling the story had excited a great deal of prejudice against me among professors of religion, and was the cause of great persecution, which continued to increase; and though I was an obscure boy, only between fourteen and fifteen years of age, and my circumstances in life such as to make a boy of no consequence in the world, yet men of high standing would take notice sufficient to excite the public mind against me, and create a bitter persecution; and this was common among all the sects—all united to persecute me.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote:
“Strange bedfellows these—Sadducees and Pharisees, bitter religious enemies of each other, now uniting in an unholy alliance to fight Jesus and His doctrines. But such is ever the case with the various branches of the devil’s church. One thing always unites warring sects of religionists—their common fear and hatred of the pure truths of salvation. Sects of modern Christendom fight each other on nearly all fronts save one—on that they unite to oppose Joseph Smith and the gospel restored through his instrumentality.”
(Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [1965–73], 1:378.)
