Question
Gramps,
I am a bit confused about understanding whether the Prophet Joseph Smith saw the Father and the Son with his Spiritual eyes or with his natural eyes. (Mormon Doctrine: First Vision) “In it Joseph Smith saw and conversed with the Father and the Son, both of which exalted personages were personally present before him as he lay enwrapped in the spirit and overshadowed by the Holy Ghost.” Would you please help me get an answer to this question? Thank you very much.
Edwin
Answer
Edwin,
I often hear this question because people mean different things when they say “spiritual eyes.” And in different circumstances, they can, indeed, mean different things.
For the First Vision, we need to understand that seeing the Father and the Son “in the natural man” (i.e., as mortal flesh) wouldn’t allow us to abide their presence, such is their glory.
However, we have a belief in a principle known as transfiguration. This simply means that the Lord has be ability to exalt our bodies to withstand His presence temporarily.
(Moses) saw God face to face, and he talked with him, and the glory of God was upon Moses; therefore Moses could endure his presence” (Moses 1:2)
To NOT have permission could mean death to our physical bodies.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. (Leviticus 16:2)
Such transfiguration occurred during the First Vision. So, he certainly saw them with “physical eyes.” But they had to be elevated for him to withstand their glory.
In such a theophany, one could say that transfiguration allowed one to see with eyes that were altered spiritually. Thus, it may be acceptable to call them spiritual eyes. But that gives people the impression that he just “imagined it in his head.” Such was NOT the case.
We must understand that spiritual eyes do not automatically exclude physical eyes.
(People like the Brother of Jared) truly saw with their eyes the things they had beheld with an eye of faith” (Ether 12:19)
In private testimony to family, Joseph spoke of how he could not initially see the Father and Son directly because of their glory. He just saw two “figures.” He calls them “personages” in the JSH account. Then one of them physically touched his eyes, and he could see clearly what they looked like. And then they had the conversation that we read of in the Pearl of Great Price.
Many people have tried to take certain phrases in certain circumstances and make them appear as if he imagined it all. They even go so far as to say that the three witnesses (and the 8 witnesses, as well) were hypnotized into believing they saw something that they didn’t see. The problem with that is how many times they all clarified such visions and witnesses. There was no delusion. There was no imagination. There was no deception. They did all physically see what they said they saw.
Of course we were in the Spirit when we had the view, for no man can behold the face of an angel, except in a spiritual view. But we were in the body also, and everything was as natural to us, as it is at any time. – David Whitmer to Anthony Metcalfe, 2 April 1887, in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 5:193
I was not under any hallucination, nor was I deceived! I saw with these eyes and I heard with these ears! I know whereof I speak! – David Whitmer
My eyes saw, my ears heard, and my understanding was touched, and I know that whereof I testified is true. It was no dream, no vain imagination of the mind — it was real. – Oliver Cowdery
The Book of Mormon is no fake. I know what I know. I have seen what I have seen, and I have heard what I have heard. I have seen the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon is written. An angel appeared to me and others and testified to the truthfulness of the record, and had I been willing to have perjured myself and sworn falsely to the testimony I now bear, I could have been a rich man. But I could not have testified other than I have done and am now doing, for these things are true. – Martin Harris, Deathbed testimony.
None of them made any statement that they didn’t see what they saw. They simply made an acknowledgement that some things are not permitted to be seen without divine permission and edification.
Gramps
