Among Joseph Smith’s progenitors were many who sought to know the
true God in their day. Joseph’s own parents were deeply spiritual, and
although they did not find the full truth about God in the churches
around them, they honored the Bible as God’s word and made prayer a
part of daily life. The Prophet’s brother William recalled: “My
father’s religious habits were strictly pious and moral. … I was called
upon to listen to prayers both night and morning. … My parents, father
and mother, poured out their souls to God, the donor of all blessings,
to keep and guard their children and keep them from sin and from all
evil works. Such was the strict piety of my parents.”1
William also said: “We always had family prayers since I can remember.
I well remember father used to carry his spectacles in his vest pocket,
… and when us boys saw him feel for his specs, we knew that was a
signal to get ready for prayer, and if we did not notice it mother
would say, ‘William,’ or whoever was the negligent one, ‘get ready for
prayer.’ After the prayer we had a song we would sing; I remember part
of it yet: ‘Another day has passed and gone, We lay our garments by.’ ”2
This early spiritual training sank deep into young Joseph Smith’s
soul. When he became concerned about his eternal welfare and sought to
know which church to join, he knew he could turn to God for answers:
“I learned in the scriptures that God was the same yesterday, today,
and forever, that he was no respecter to persons, for he was God. For I
looked upon the sun, the glorious luminary of the earth, and also the
moon rolling in [its] majesty through the heavens and also the stars
shining in their courses; and the earth also upon which I stood, and
the beast of the field and the fowls of heaven and the fish of the
waters; and also man walking forth upon the face of the earth in
majesty and in the strength of beauty, [with] power and intelligence in
governing the things which are so exceedingly great and marvelous, even
in the likeness of him who created them.
“And when I considered upon these things my heart exclaimed, Well
hath the wise man said it is a fool that saith in his heart there is no
God [see Psalm 53:1].
My heart exclaimed, All these bear testimony and bespeak an omnipotent
and omnipresent power, a Being who maketh laws and decreeth and bindeth
all things in their bounds, who filleth eternity, who was and is and
will be from all eternity to eternity. And when I considered all these
things and that that Being seeketh such to worship him as worship him
in spirit and in truth [see John 4:23], therefore I cried unto the Lord for mercy, for there was none else to whom I could go and obtain mercy.”3
Joseph’s faithful prayer for mercy and wisdom was answered with the
First Vision. That vision gave the young Prophet far greater knowledge
about God than any of the churches of his day possessed, knowledge that
had been lost to the world for centuries. In the First Vision, Joseph
learned for himself that the Father and the Son are individual beings,
that Their power is greater than the power of evil, and that man is
indeed fashioned in God’s imagetruths that are essential in
understanding our actual relationship to our Father in Heaven.
Other revelations about the nature of God followed, including many
that are now in our latter-day scriptures. As God’s chosen instrument
in restoring gospel truth to the world, the Prophet testified of God
throughout his ministry. “I am going to inquire after God,” he
declared, “for I want you all to know Him, and to be familiar with Him.
… You will then know that I am His servant; for I speak as one having
authority.”4