There are 5 different written accounts of the First Vision given by Joseph Smith. Although they do not contradict each other, they do vary in detail and content. The earliest written account of the First Vision was dictated to Frederick G Williams in about 1832 and has the Lord speaking to Joseph in the first person.

“I cried unto the Lord for mercy for there was none else to whom I could go and to obtain mercy and the Lord heard my cry in the wilderness and while in the attitude of calling upon the Lord in the 16th year of my age a pillar of fire light above the brightness of the sun at noon day come down from above and rested upon me and I was filled with the spirit of God and the Lord opened the heavens upon me and I saw the Lord and he spake unto me saying Joseph my son 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 crucifyed for the world that all those who believe on my name may have Eternal life behold the world lieth in sin and at this time and none doeth good no not one they have turned asside from the Gospel and keep not my commandments they draw near to me with their lips while their hearts are far from me and mine anger is kindling against the inhabitants of the earth to visit them according to this ungodliness and to bring to pass that which hath been spoken by the mouth of the prophets and Apostles behold and lo I come quickly as it written of me in the cloud clothed in the glory of my Father and my soul was filled with love and for many days I could rejoice with great joy and the Lord was with me but could find none that would believe the hevenly vision. . . .”

The Prophet later said that he could reveal "a hundred fold more" of what he learned in this vision, which included seeing both the Father and the Son, but for two reasons: he was not permitted, and the saints were not prepared.

In 1844 Parley P. Pratt published a little story in the New York Herald entitled “Joe Smith and the Devil.” In this story the devil happens upon Joseph, and they have a pleasant conversation. The devil is insisting to the Prophet that he, the devil, is happy to support “all creeds, systems, and forms of Christianity, of whatever name or nature; so long as they leave out that abominable doctrine, which caused me so much trouble in former times, and which, after slumbering for ages, you have again revived; I mean the doctrine of . . direct communion with God, by new revelation. ” New York Herald 25 August 1844

“The Great Man was always as lightning out of Heaven; the rest of men waited for him like fuel, and then they too would flame.” (Thomas Carlyle) Joseph Smith ignited something in thousands of men and women that connects them to God and to each other in powerful ways. The god of Joseph Smith was not a threat to human potential but a being who gloried in that potential and whose work was to bring it to fruition. That was why Joseph’s message resonated and caught hold like a burning fire.

But his message also flamed forth because millions of men and women have freely chosen to believe. They assayed the opinions of doubters, and they gave a hearing to the critics. Like Brigham Young, they knew Joseph was human and subject to err, but they sampled his words and agreed they tasted like honey. They weighed the beauty of a god and of human origins and a human future unlike anything before imagined. They found reason to doubt, and they found reason to believe. They chose to believe. Terryl Givens

There are some things that a cynical person will never ever know. There are some things that a sceptical person will never ever know To come to know the things of God there needs to be a suspension of disbelief – You need to ask yourself ”I wonder if this might just be true”. Robert Millet

"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties." Sir Francis Bacon