1:13 Joseph’s primary motivation
to seek God in prayer in this account is to resolve his confusion over which
denomination to join. In the 1832 history (JS1832) the emphasis is on Joseph
seeking forgiveness for his sins. These motives are not mutually exclusive.
Besides the obvious fact that one of the main reasons people join a particular
religious denomination over another is precisely to achieve a sense of
salvation and an assurance of eternal security, historians have pointed out how
these two categories had conceptual overlap in conversion accounts (especially
Methodist accounts) contemporary with the Prophet. Both motivations could be
true at the same time: confused and dismayed over the religious divisions of
his day (and even in his own family, which was religiously split), Joseph felt
insecure and unsure about his eternal standing before God and so sought wisdom
about which church to join to find some assurance that he would achieve
salvation. (The Pearl of Great Price: A Study Edition for Latter-day Saints,
ed. Stephen O. Smoot [rev ed.; Lehi, Utah: Scripture Central; Orem, Utah: The
Interpreter Foundation, 2025], 115-16)
