In the early 1800s a 14-year-old boy—Joseph Smith—found himself grappling with important questions—Does God speak to man? Which church should I join? What does the Lord expect of me?
He searched in vain for answers from various denominations in and around Palmyra, New York. None of these churches were able to answer his questions. In fact, they just seemed to create larger concerns in his young mind.
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| "This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" |
Undeterred, the boy pondered a familiar scripture found in James 1:5. No scripture, he said, had ever come with such force into his heart or the heart of any human being.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.And that is exactly what young Joseph did; he asked God. Early one spring morning in 1820 he went to a grove of trees near his home. He knelt to pray. He couldn't possibly have imagined what was about to happen—
I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me...When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him! (Joseph Smith—History 1:16-17)God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith and told him to join no church, for none of them contained the fulness of the everlasting gospel nor the priesthood authority necessary to perform saving ordinances. In due time they would call Joseph Smith to be a prophet and to restore the Savior's Church once again on the Earth.
MORE ONLINE
The Wondrous Restoration, Elder Neal A. Maxwell
Four Cornerstones of Faith, President Gordon B. Hinckley
Joseph Smith—Prophet of the Restoration, Elder Tad R. Callister
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