Editor's note: to answer questions raised by an investigator of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the following has been offered by Alan Neves. The post in which the question was raised can be found on Steadfast Faith in Christ: A Missionary Journal, "Witness of the Holy Ghost," June 25,2008 by Elder Paul Freeman.
June 26, 2008
Elder Freeman,
I thoroughly enjoyed your
letter that your mom shared. The guy you are teaching that is searching in the wrong places for info, sounds like an honest-in-heart kind of person. The Internet can certainly be a place where many untruths and half-truths are outlined about Mormonism, but there is good too. In a recent talk, Elder Ballard said some remarkable things about how we as members can use the Internet to counter said opposition, and not let others define us falsely. It's pretty good if you are able to access this talk, "Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet".Further, FARMS and FAIR have some excellent resources on the First Vision accounts, as well as numerous other topics that we sometimes get hard hitting questions to. Not things that Missionaries usually or should delve into much, but some investigators might find helpful, especially after being given or looking at anti Mormon web sites or literature.
Here's the site for the First Vision articles, and the directory has many many more topics.
Glad to hear you are doing so well. Keep up this most important work!
Love ya!,
Uncle Alan
P.S. If you look at the link, most of them are Ensign articles.
Here are the relevant ones.
"Joseph Smith's Testimony," Ensign, January 1972, 79.
Richard Lloyd Anderson, "Joseph Smith's Testimony of the First Vision," Ensign, April 1996, 10. The Prophet's accounts of his first vision offer us a picture that is rich in testimony and supported by history. Discusses the revivals in the Palmyra area in 1820.
Milton V. Backman Jr., "Confirming Witnesses of the First Vision," Ensign, January 1986, 32.
Milton V. Backman Jr., "Did Brigham Young confirm or expound on Joseph Smith's first vision?," Ensign, April 1992, 59.
Milton V. Backman Jr., "Joseph Smith's Recitals of the First Vision," Ensign, January 1985, 8.
Hoyt W. Brewster, Jr., "What was there in the creeds of men that the Lord found abominable, as he stated in the First Vision?," Ensign, July 1987, 65.
