There are a few things that those who are opposed to the Restored Gospel love to use to try and disprove the Restoration. One of those things are the multiple accounts of Joseph Smith's First Vision. Well today on the podcast we dive headlong into that subject. Driving the conversation on this episode is Ken Peterson. For those who haven't heard Ken on the podcast before, Ken always comes loaded with facts and insights that help people make sense of complicated issues facing followers of the Restored Gospel and he doesn't disappoint in this episode either. During the course of our conversation, we tackle the alleged "issues" from those attacking the account of the First Vision, what the other accounts really say, the significance of the First Vision from a historical and doctrinal framework, then move on to some interesting things found in the Apocrypha that seems to lend a lot of credibility to Joseph Smith's claims of the First Vision.

The Restored Version of the Scriptures

www.restoredscriptures.com

1830 Mercantile

www.1830mercantile.org

Before we get started, this is one of those episodes where watching this episode could be helpful. Last week I had Michael Ness on and we had a conversation about the Documentary Hypothesis where he spoke about what it is and how it could be used to understand the scriptures. On this episode Joshua Erickson comes on the podcast to give a critique Documentary Hypothesis. We start off by refreshing our memories of what it is, the history of the Hypothesis and its originators. From there we move into some of the more obvious issues for Mormons concerning the Hypothesis, then Joshua moves into addressing some of the arguments used by scholars and biblical historians. We finally wrap it all up by talking about some of the possible negative consequences of the Documentary Hypothesis fully for believing Mormons who choose to view scripture through that “filter”.

1830mercantile.org

mormonlegacy.org

Much of how we view our religion comes from the filters through which we read the scriptures. So, it goes without saying that those filters are important and it requires us to be knowledgeable about the filters we wish to incorporate. One that has been becoming more popular as of late is the Documentary Hypothesis. So with that in mind I wanted to explore this concept more to gain a better understanding of what it is, how it would inform our understanding of scriptures, what we could learn by applying this filter and some of the big take aways we could gain or lose by viewing scripture through this lens. Now this week Michael Ness joins me as we present an analysis of this hypothesis. We talk about what it is, who came up with it, and how it could change our understanding of the scriptures. Now next week I will have on another guest who will give a critique of the Documentary Hypothesis in hopes that you will have both sides of the argument and you can make an informed decision on the topic.