The First Vision and Becoming Born Again
Stan Spencer, 23 Feb 2020
President Nelson, in last year’s April General Conference, said this:
If you are not sure you even believe in God, start there. Understand that in the absence of experiences with God, one can doubt the existence of God. So, put yourself in a position to begin having experiences with Him. Humble yourself. Pray to have eyes to see God’s hand in your life and in the world around you. Ask Him to tell you if He is really there—if He knows you. Ask Him how He feels about you. And then listen.
When we come to experience God in our lives, it changes our lives, it gives us perspective, it gives us hope, it gives us strength, it gives us joy, we feel his love for us.
I want to start with looking at how Joseph Smith came to find God. We all know the story, right? He wanted to know what church to join, he studied the bible, he went to the woods and prayed, and had a vision in which he saw God. That is an amazing story. But there is more to it than that, something even more important than the knowledge Joseph gained. At churchofjesuschrist.org, you can find various versions of joseph smiths first vision that he recorded over the years. The earliest of these he wrote in 1832 but never published. This version contains some very personal details that are only hinted at in the later published versions. I’m not going to read the whole thing. Just some snippets that show these extra details. He says…
my mind became seriously imprest with regard to the all important concerns for the welfare of my immortal Soul which led me to Searching the Scriptures believing as I was taught, that they contained the word of God… I pondered many things in my heart concerning the sittuation of the world of mankind the contentions and divi[si]ons…my mind become excedingly distressed for I become convicted of my sins…and I felt to mourn for my own sins and for the sins of the world … therefore I cried unto the Lord for mercy for there was none else to whom I could go and obtain mercy and the Lord heard my cry in the wilderness and while in attitude of calling upon the Lord a pillar of light above the brightness of the Sun at noon day came down from above and rested upon me and I was filled with the Spirit of God and the [Lord] …Spake unto me Saying Joseph thy Sins are forgiven thee. go thy [way] walk in my Statutes and keep my commandments behold I am the Lord of glory I was crucified for the world that all those who believe on my name may have Eternal life…[And then Joseph records how he felt.]…and my soul was filled with love and for many days I could rejoice with great joy and the Lord was with me.
Joseph had experienced God, as president Nelson said. In this experience he was forgiven of his sins, and as a result of his experience with God and the personal salvation he found in it, he was filled with joy, and love.
With his Christian upbringing, JS would have recognized this as being born again. And that is what the BoM calls this kind of experience also.
Alma talks about being born again:
all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters;
Alma knew what it meant to be born of God because of his own experience, which was, in many ways, like that of Joseph Smith, although it started differently. We know the story; he goes about trying to destroy the church. An angel interrupts him. He can’t move or speak for 3 days. He describes his experience during these three days of helplessness.
16 And now, for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.
17 And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.
18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.
19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.
20 And oh, what joy , and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!
21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy .
22 Yea, methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there.
23 But behold, my limbs did receive their strength again, and I stood upon my feet, and did manifest unto the people that I had been born of God.
24 Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
Notice the similarities to Joseph Smith’s experience. He feels anguish for his sins, he prays for mercy, he sees God and receives forgiveness, and he feels great joy.
What does it mean to be born again, to be born of God, or to be spiritually reborn?
Spiritual rebirth is what we experience when we repent of our sins, come to Christ with faith in him, ask him to redeem us, and are cleansed of sin by his blood; this cleansing from sin is like a spiritual birth, we become once again clean and innocent like a new baby, and experience the joy of our redemption. Because it is through Christ the we are born to this new spiritual live, we become, like Alma said, his daughters and his sons.
Sometimes this process of being spiritually reborn and coming to know our Savior is gradual, sometimes it is sudden.
Just because we are baptized into the church, it does not mean that we have been born again, or that we are done being born again. Alma said this to the members of the church:
14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts? 15 Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you?
And if we have been born again, that doesn’t mean we are done. We all slip back into sin. Alma said to his fellow believers:
26 And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?
Joseph Smith is a good example of falling back into sin. After telling of his experience of finding salvation in Christ, he says this:
but could find none that would believe the hevnly vision nevertheless I pondered these things in my heart but after many days I fell into transgressions and sinned in many things which brought a wound upon my soul and there were many things which transpired that cannot be writen ||| and my Fathers family have suffered many persicutions and afflictions and it came to pass when I was seventeen years of age I called again upon the Lord and he shewed unto me a heavenly vision for behold an angel of the Lord came and stood before me and it was by night and he called me by name and he said the Lord had forgiven me my sins.
That angel was the angel Moroni appearing to him in his bedroom.
Because we are imperfect, we must repent, come to Christ, and experience this cleansing and rebirth again and again to various degrees, throughout our lives.
[Could add experiences of Lamoni, his wife, and father.]
Enos’s born again experience was a little less dramatic than the experience of Alma and the Lamanites but is also similar in ways to joseph Smith’s.
2 And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God, before I received a remission of my sins.
3 Behold, I went to hunt beasts in the forests; and the words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into my heart.
4 And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.
5 And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.
6 And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away.
Although experiencing Gods love in our redemption it is always a very personal and individual experience, we do not necessarily have to be alone to experience it. In King Benjamin’s time, thousands were born again at once. These were people listening to King Benjamin give a sermon. The Book of Mormon describes their born again experience in Mosiah 5:
1 And now, it came to pass that when king Benjamin had thus spoken to his people, he sent among them, desiring to know of his people if they believed the words which he had spoken unto them.
2 And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually…
4 And it is the faith which we have had on the things which our king has spoken unto us that has brought us to this great knowledge, whereby we do rejoice with such exceedingly great joy .
5 And we are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will, and to be obedient to his commandments in all things that he shall command us…
6 And now, …king Benjamin…said..
7 And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.
8 … There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives.
Like Joseph Smith and Alma, these people exercised faith in Jesus Christ and were born again, and because of their redemption through Christ they experienced great joy. Yet, they weren’t visited by an angel like Alma. They weren’t kneeling in the woods in prayer like Joseph Smith or Enos. They were listening to their teacher speak of salvation through Jesus Christ. And because of their faith in what he told them, their hearts were changed. They repented and covenanted to keep his commandments. They received forgiveness and were born again in Jesus Christ, and became his son’s and his daughters, and in doing so took upon themselves the name of Jesus Christ.
I did not realize until I was preparing this talk, that the covenant these people made, to keep God’s commandments, is the same covenant we have the opportunity to make each week as we partake of the sacrament in remembrance of the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ! And the blessings of spiritual cleansing and rebirth they received, of having his spirit to be with them, are the same that the sacrament affords us. As we, like them, and like Joseph Smith and Alma and Enos, remember what Jesus Christ has done for us, and are willing to keep his commandments and take his name upon us, our hearts can be changed, and we can be reborn as the sons and daughters of Christ and experience the joy of our redemption.
It is my prayer that we will all be born again, for the first time, or again and again.