In response to the criticism that “Joseph Smith was not sure if God existed in 1823,” Matthew Brown responded thusly:
Some critics have focused their attention on a Church history document that was produced by Oliver Cowdery in 1835, claiming that it says Joseph Smith did not know if God existed when the angel Moroni appeared to him in 1823. Moreover, critics point out that Oliver’s history was published in the Church’s official newspaper and that the Prophet had helped to create the text (though they fail to demonstrate or explain exactly how much involvement the Prophet had in the project). The passage in question reads as follows:
This would bring the date down to the year 1823 . . . [Joseph] continued to call upon the Lord in secret for a full manifestation of divine approbation, and for, to him, the all important information, if a Supreme Being did exist, to have an assurance that he was accepted of Him. (Messenger and Advocate, vol. 1, no. 5 [February 1835], 78)
There are at least four problems with the interpretation of this text as proposed by nonbelievers. Firstly, the most glaring difficulty with this point of view is that Oliver Cowdery had the Prophet’s unpublished 1832 history in his personal possession and was utilizing it to write his new historical narrative. In this document the Prophet not only plainly stated that he had seen the Lord before he was visited by the angel but also said that before he saw the Lord he believed that “it is a fool that [says] in his heart there is no God.” (Dean C. Jesse, ed., Personal Writings of Joseph Smith rev, ed. [Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Press, 2002], 11).
Secondly, it is important to remember that Oliver edited his text after he had told the preliminary portion of the First Vision story with the correct year appended to it. Brother Cowdery had received a letter from William W. Phelps after the first article of his historical series had been printed, and in that letter Brother Phelps mentioned that he wanted to learn certain information about the Book of Mormon. Oliver obliged by changing the date of focus to 1823, saying that he did not think it was necessary to talk about the revival associated with the First Vision any longer and then proceeding to tell the story of the angel Moroni and the golden plates. This is the content in which the above quotation was made—during a transition in storylines.
Thirdly, a non-LDS newspaper reported that around the first of November 1830 Oliver Cowdery was part of a small group of missionaries who were teaching that Joseph Smith had seen God “personally” (The Reflector, vol. 2, no. 13 [14 February 1831]). This printed statement by the missionaries predates Oliver’s above-mentioned historical narrative by approximately four years and nine months.
Fourthly, a close look at the paragraph where the phrase “if a Supreme Being did exist” occurs reveals that it context is “while this excitement [i.e., revival activity] continued” (MA, vol. 1, no. 5 [February 1835], 78. Richard L. Anderson has noted that since Oliver Cowdery is known to have had access to the 1832 First Vision account his application of the phrase “if a Supreme Being did exist” in an 1823 context “must be regarded as Cowdery’s rhetoric and of mere logical force in the sentence, not an intended historical reference” [BYU Studies, vol. 9, no. 3, Spring 1969, 396 nt. 71]). These two pieces of information do indeed belong to the First Vision storyline. But in this paragraph, and in the paragraphs surrounding it, Oliver was making a transition to a completely different storyline, and in the process he erroneously mixed the two of them together.
With all the preceding evidence at hand, it is not reasonable to believe that in 1823 Joseph Smith did not know whether God existed. Oliver Cowdery’s statement is simply being misinterpreted by the critics. (Matthew B. Brown, A Pillar of Light: The History and Message of the First Vision [American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications, Inc., 2009], 140-142)
For more on Oliver Cowdery's series in the Messenger and Advocate, see:
Roger Nicholson, The Cowdery Conundrum: Oliver’s Aborted Attempt to Describe Joseph Smith’s First Vision in 1834 and 1835
