Saturday, April 4, 2020

Did Joseph Smith Initially Present his encounters with the angel as a "dream"?


In an attempt to support the claim that Joseph Smith originally presented his angelic visitations as dreams, not real-world events, one critic wrote:

Articles in the Palmyra Freeman and the Rochester Gem in August and September 1829 reported that Martin Harris had said in an interview that Joseph saw “the spirit of the Almighty” three times “in a dream” (E[arly]M[ormon]D[ocuments] 2:221, 272). Consistent with this report, Episcopal minister John A. Clark sated in 1840 that Martin had told him in late 1827 or in 1828 that Joseph, “while he lay upon his bed, had a remarkable dream” in which he saw “an angel of God” (EMD 2:264). The Painesville Telegraph in December 1830 reprinted a newspaper article from the previous month that reported that Parley P. Pratt and other Mormons preaching in Ohio were stating that Joseph aw “an Angel of Light, appearing in a dream” (“Beware of Imposters,” Painesville Telegraph, Dec. 14, 1830; online, sidneyrigdon.com. The paper was published by E.D. Howe, who later became a noted critic of Mormonism). (Robert M. Bowman Jr., Jesus’ Resurrection and Joseph’s Visions: Examining the Foundations of Christianity and Mormonism [Tampa, Fla.: DeWard Publishing Company, 2020], 200)

It is unfortunate that the author relies largely on secondary and hearsay sources. Furthermore, the claim that Joseph initially presented his angelic visitations as dreams was soundly refuted by Matthew B. Brown. In his paper Historical or Hysterical: Anti-Mormons and Documentary Sources, we read the following (see esp. note 64 that discusses those sources Bowman references):

There is a group of nineteenth century non-Mormon documents that say Joseph Smith learned about the existence of the golden plates in a dream instead of in a vision.64 Critics point to these documents and proclaim that the Prophet didn’t have a real-world experience with a heavenly beingóit all just happened in the recesses of his subconscious mind. But on this slide you will see that the ‘dream’ notion was formally refuted in the Church’s official newspaper in July 1835. Oliver Cowdery, who spoke with Joseph Smith on this subject sometime before committing his words to paper, referred to the experience as an “open vision.” He noted that Joseph was definitely “awake” because he was praying at the time. This experience, said Oliver, was “not a dream.”65 The Prophet confirmed these points just a few months later when he recorded in his diary that he had “not been asleep” before this manifestation took place, and classified the experience as a “vision.”66



Anti-Mormons, of course, will not be convinced by these statements. They will point out that Oliver Cowdery’s refutation was printed six years after the first ‘dream’ document appeared in print. But, as can be seen by the information on this timeline, the Prophet had been teaching members of his family and his close associates since 1823 that he had been visited “in person” by a heavenly messenger, and he classified this experience as a “vision.”67 It is also important to see on this slide that before the first ‘dream’ document showed up in the newspapers in 1829 Daniel Hendrix (in Palmyra)68 and Thurlow Weed (in Rochester)69 were both told by Joseph Smith himself that he had had a “vision,” not a dream. And David Whitmer heard the angelic experience characterized as a “vision” when he spoke with the townspeople of Palmyra in early 1828.70 The information located on the lower right-hand corner of this slide is of special interest. Here we find reference to the first ‘dream’ document in late August 1829. But notice that the person who produced this document Jonathan A. Hadley admitted years later that during this same time period (Summer 1829) Martin Harris told him that Joseph Smith was sure that his experience was not a dream. Now look at the upper right-hand corner of this slide. Here we see that in 1831 (two years after the first ‘dream’ document appeared) non-Mormon newspaper editor Orsamus Turner was not sure whether he should describe Joseph’s experience as “a dream, or vision.”71 When the ‘dream’ documents are seen in their proper historical context they become much less impressive than the anti-Mormons make them out to be.

Notes for the Above

64 Researchers should notice that a substantial number of the non-Mormon ‘dream’ documents are actually copying from each other–they are not independent confirmations of the same idea. The Niagara Courier, 27 August 1829 and the Rochester Daily Advertiser and Telegraph, 31 August 1829 both copy their stories straight from a Palmyra Freeman article that was published sometime in late August 1829. Since several ‘dream’ documents mention prominent Latter-day Saints some modern anti-Mormons have tried to use them to make it look like these individuals were teaching that the initial revelation about the golden plates came to Joseph Smith in a dream. An article printed in the Gem of Literature and Science, 5 September 1829, for instance, twice mentions Martin Harris by name. But a careful examination of this document reveals that Harris is not really being quoted at all. Rather, the editor announces that he will relate “something like” what Harris said and then he proceeds to relay content from the Palmyra Freeman article. Likewise, a ‘dream’ document found in the Ohio Star, 9 December 1830 mentions the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon by name. But they are only mentioned after a paragraph that can be clearly traced back to the text of the Palmyra Freeman. Thus, there is no real connection between the Three Witnesses and the idea of Joseph Smith having an unconscious revelatory experience. Another ‘dream’ document that mentions prominent Church members is a letter written on 26 November 1830 in Amherst, Ohio. It was first published in the Milan Free Press (date unknown) and then republished in the Painesville Telegraph, 14 December 1830. The author of this letter claims that a group of Mormon missionaries–consisting of Oliver Cowdery, Parley P. Pratt, Peter Whitmer, Jr. and Ziba Peterson–told him, and a group of about twelve other people, that the Book of Mormon was “discovered by an Angel of light appearing in a dream to a man by the name of Smith.” The accuracy of this second-hand source is seriously called into question because only about two and a half months later Pratt and Cowdery taught a tribe of American Indians about the origin of the Book of Mormon and Pratt directly quotes Cowdery as saying to them that “the Great Spirit sent an angel to [Joseph Smith], and told him where this book was hid and commanded him to go and get it… [Later] the angel told him and showed him, and gave him knowledge of the language, and how to interpret the book.” There is no intimation whatsoever in the words of Oliver Cowdery that might suggest that a dream was involved in the revelation of the Nephite record (see Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985], 43).
65 Messenger and Advocate, vol. 1, no. 10, July 1835, 156-157.
66 Joseph Smith Diary, 9 November 1835.
67 Zion’s Ensign, vol. 3, no. 35, 27 August 1892.
68 Buffalo Courier, 6 August 1899.
69 Scribner’s Monthly, vol. 20, no. 4, August 1880, 614.
70 Kansas City Journal, 5 June 1881.
71 Lockport Balance, 31 May 1831.
Brown's article has been online for 15+ years as of writing. If Bowman wanted his book to be taken seriously by informed Latter-day Saints, he could at least have interacted with Brown's paper and/or similar responses to this "argument." Again, this is further proof that, notwithstanding the veneer of scholarship, the book is nothing more than "boundary control" so gullible Evangelicals who know next to nothing about "Mormonism" will accept such claims, hook, line, and sinker. Informed Latter-day Saints, however, will not be persuaded by the fallacious reasonings contained therein.

This is also tied into the author's bogus claim about the implausibility of Moroni appearing to Joseph Smith in his bedroom without waking up his brothers in the same room. For a refutation, see: