Book by David J Ridges, 100 Signs of the times, 2019 (Springville, UT: Cedar Fort)

Already fulfilled – 12

Being fulfilled – 67

Yet to be fulfilled – 21

I will list only those already fulfilled and those yet to be fulfilled. The number for each item is the same as in the book 100 Signs of the Times

Already fulfilled – 12

• 2. The discovery of America and the Establishment of the United States of America
• 3. A Prophet named “Joseph” to be raised up in the last days
• 4. The coming forth of the Book of Mormon
• 5. The Restoration of the Priesthood and the Priesthood Keys
• 6. The Restoration of the True Church of Jesus Christ
• 8. The Church will be established in the tops of the mountains
• 10. The Civil War starts in South Carolina
• 29. The Jews will return to Jerusalem (also being fulfilled)
• 31. The prophet Elijah will come to restore the keys of sealing
• 33. Christ will come to his temple (also being fulfilled)
• 48. Additional scriptures will be published (also yet to be fulfilled)
• 56. Jerusalem will be a “cup of trembling” to those who attempt to fight against it (also being fulfilled)

Being fulfilled – 67 (not listed)

Yet to be fulfilled – 21

• 12. A full end of all nations
• 18. Mother Earth will rejoice to finally be free of wickedness
• 19. The Lost Ten Tribes will return
• 30. The Jews accept the true gospel
• 44. The righteous wise will have extra oil for their lamps (also being fulfilled)
• 48. Additional scriptures will be published (also already fulfilled)
• 71. Some will fear that Christ’s coming is being delayed too long
• 74. New Jerusalem will be built
• 76. A temple will be built in (old) Jerusalem
• 77. The gospel will flourish in Egypt and a temple will be built there
• 90. A great hailstorm will destroy the crops of the earth
• 91. There will be a great earthquake such as never before
• 92. Waters will flow from the Temple in Jerusalem and heal the Dead Sea
• 93. The Battle of Armageddon
• 94. The meeting at Adam-Ondi-Ahman
• 95. Two prophets will be killed in Jerusalem
• 96. The Mount of Olives will split in two
• 97. The sign of the coming of the Son of Man
• 98. The righteous will be taken up to meet the coming of the Lord
• 99. The wicked will be burned
• 100. Everyone will see Christ when he comes

========== Details on each of the 21 prophecies yet to be fulfilled ============

Table of contents:

Sign 12. A full end of all nations

          D&C 87:6 “the full end of all nations” means as the millennium begins and the Savior takes over to rule, all governments will cease to exist.

Sign 18. Mother Earth will rejoice to finally be free of wickedness

          When shall I [the earth] rest? (Moses 7:47-9). When the Son of Man cometh in the flesh (2nd coming), shall the earth rest (Moses 7:54-58). It’s interesting that the earth is not inanimate as many suppose. It shall die and be quickened again – D&C 88:25-6. Also referred to by John’s vision of heaven where he saw resurrected beasts, creeping things and fowls (animals) – D&C 77:2-3 and “every tree … became a living soul” (Moses 3:9)

Sign 19. The Lost Ten Tribes will return

          In addition to current members who are members of various of the 10 tribes, there is also a large group known as the lost 10 tribes. Elder Talmadge explained that they are not “lost” unto the Lord – James E Talmadge, Conference Report, Oct 1916, p 76)

          The Ten tribes formed the northern kingdom at Shechem in Samaria (Bible Dictionary). The northern kingdom was comprised of all tribes except Judah and Benjamin (and some members of Levi) who were known as the southern kingdom, Judah.  The Northern Kingdom (10 tribes) were led away by the Assyrians in 721 BC (2 Kings 17:6). Some were assimilated by the Assyrians but a distinctive group was led to the north, intact. Christ visited them (3 Nephi 17:4) and the gospel preached among them (3 Nephi 21:26). This group will return before the second coming. Elder Talmadge said the Lord has hidden them (Articles of Faith, p 308). D&C 133:26-33 describes them as in the north countries, having prophets, that a highway will be cast up, they will bring rich treasures, they will bring their “words.” (2 Nephi 29:13); their “scriptures” (James E Talmadge, Conference Report, Apr 1916, p 130). They will go to Zion (the New Jerusalem – Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 18:68) to receive their blessings from Ephraim. This return is expected to be more spectacular than when the children of Israel were originally led out of Egypt by Moses in 1500 BC.

          Moses’ appearance in the Kirtland temple in 1836 committed the keys of leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north. (D&C 110:11). “This great gathering will take place under the direction of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for he holds the keys.” (Bruce R McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p 458). Eventually they will receive their land inheritance when they go to Jerusalem (Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 18:68)

Sign 30. The Jews accept the true gospel

          The Jews shall begin to believe in Christ (2 Nephi 30:7) and the Lord will defend Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:7-10). Although some faithful Jewish members have already joined the church, this will not be fulfilled until large numbers of Jews accept the Savior and are baptized into the church. This will take place at the conclusion of the Battle of Armageddon where Christ will save his holy city. Those remaining will ask “What are these wounds in thy hands?” (Zechariah 13:6). Elder Penrose described the scene “Then will unbelief depart from their souls, and the blindness in part which has happened unto Israel be removed.” (“The Second Advent,” Charles W Penrose, Millennial Star, Vol. 21, Sep 10, 1859, 582-3

“Eve faced a choice between selfish ease and unselfishly facing tribulation and death… This they did with open eyes and minds as to the consequences … the gospel had been taught to them during their sojourn in the Garden of Eden” (John A Widtsoe, JAW-1)

• Some may regret that Adam and Eve sinned. This is nonsense – Brigham Young (BY-1)
• Ordained to do what they did – Wilford Woodruff (WW-1)
• Eve did the thing the Lord intended her to do – Joseph Fielding Smith (JFieldS-1)
• Fall for the good of all mankind – Bruce R McConkie (BRM-1)
• Conversant with God – Brigham Young (BY-2)
• Wonderful intelligence – Joseph Fielding Smith (JFieldS-6)
• Full knowledge of the plan of salvation – Jeffrey R Holland (JRH-1)
• Adam and Eve willingly made a choice, choosing the path toward growth – Jeffrey R Holland (JRH-1)
• God came to him [Adam] and talked to him and told him [and Eve] what course to pursue – John Taylor (JT-1)
• In Eden, there was no veil of forgetfulness – Joseph Smith (JS-1), Orson Pratt (OP-1), Parley P Pratt (PPP-1)
• Intelligence in Garden of Eden surpasses any living human being – Joseph Fielding Smith (JFieldS-2)
• Not forbidden – but a choice – don’t eat and stay, or eat and leave – Joseph Fielding Smith (JFieldS-3, 5)
• Sin versus transgression, a planned offense – Dallin H Oaks (DHO-1)
• We celebrate Eve’s actions – Dallin H Oaks (DHO-2)
•  Eve was a great and noble woman – Marion G Romney (MGR-1)

• Some garden events not historical or literal such as Eve from Adam’s rib, Christ to crush serpant’s head, leave father and mother and become one flesh, Adam-where art thou? (as if Go didn’t know), Adam & Eve as “little” children (not infants, but humble and teachable)
• Adam and Eve are “symbolically representations of all men and women” – Gordon B Hinckley (GBH-1); Act “as if you were Adam and Eve,” Temple Ceremony
• A perfect God couldn’t make imperfect mortals with sickness and death – Orson Pratt (OP-2)
• Woman are partners, work side-by-side with man – Russell M Nelson (RMN-1)
• No blood in Adams body in the Garden of Eden – Joseph Fielding Smith (JFS-4)
• The partaking of the fruit brought blood into their bodies – Joseph Fielding Smith (JFS-5)

References with fuller quotes

BRM -1 — Bruce R McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p 221 (Deseret Book: Salt Lake City, Ut, 1978); bold added for emphasis.

            … Be fruitful, and multiply. “Provide bodies for my spirit progeny.” Thus saith thy God. Eternity hangs in the balance. The plans of Deity are at the crossroads. There is only one course to follow: the course of conformity and obedience. Adam, … our father, and Eve, our mother, must obey. They must fall. They must become mortal. Death must enter the world. There is no other way. They must fall that man may be. Such is the reality. Such is the rationale. Such is the divine will. Fall thou must, O mighty Michael. Fall? Yes, plunge down from thy immortal state of peace, perfection, and glory to a lower existence; leave the presence of thy God in the garden and enter the lone and dreary world …. Yes, Adam, fall; fall for thine own good; fall for the good of all mankind; fall that man may be; bring death into the world; do that which will cause an atonement to be made, with all the infinite and eternal blessings which flow therefrom. And so Adam fell as fall he must.

BY-1 — Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 10:312; bold added for emphasis.

            … Some may regret that our first parents sinned. This is nonsense. If I we had been there, and they had not sinned, we should have sinned. I will not blame Adam or Eve, why? Because it was necessary that sin should enter into the world; no man could ever understand the principle of exaltation without its opposite; no one could ever receive an exaltation without being acquainted with its opposite. How did Adam and Eve sin? Did they come out in direct opposition to God and to His government? No. But they transgressed a command of the Lord, and through that transgression sin came into the world. The Lord knew they would do this, and He had designed that they should.

BY-2 — Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 9:149; bold added for emphasis

            … Adam was as conversant with his Father who placed him upon this earth as we are conversant with our earthly parents.

DHO-1 — Dallin H Oaks, “The Great Plan of Happiness.” In Ensign, Nov 1993, pp 72-5. bold added for emphasis

            This transition, or “fall,” could not happen without a transgression-an exercise of moral agency amounting to a willful breaking of a law (see Moses 6:59). This would be a planned offense, a formality to serve an eternal purpose …. It was Eve who first transgressed the limits of Eden in order to initiate the conditions of mortality. Her act . . . was formally a transgression but eternally a glorious necessity to open the doorway toward eternal life. Adam showed his wisdom by doing the same. And thus Eve and ”Adam fell that men might be” (2 Nephi 2:25). This suggested contrast between a sin and a transgression reminds us of the careful wording in the second article of faith: “We believe that men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam’s transgression” (emphasis added). It also echoes a familiar distinction in the law. Some acts, like murder, are crimes because they are inherently wrong. Other acts, like operating without a license, are crimes only because they are legally prohibited. Under these distinctions, the act that produced the Fall was not a sin- – inherently wrong — but a transgression — wrong because it was formally prohibited.

DHO-2 — Dallin H Oaks, “The Great Plan of Happiness.” In Ensign, Nov 1993, pp 73. bold added for emphasis

            … Some Christians condemn Eve for her act, concluding that she and her daughters are somehow flawed by it. Not the Latter-day Saints! Informed by revelation, we celebrate Eve’s act and honor her wisdom and courage in the great episode called the Fall.

GBH-1 — Gordon B Hinckley, Teachings of Gordon B Hinckley, [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book], 636. bold added for emphasis

… we have sketched before (the temple ceremony) us the odyssey of man’s eternal journey from premortal existence through this life to the life beyond. “

JAW-1 — John A Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations, pp 193-4; bold added for emphasis

            … Eve faced a choice between selfish ease and unselfishly facing tribulation and death… This they did with open eyes and minds as to the consequences … the gospel had been taught to them during their sojourn in the Garden of Eden.

JFieldS-1 — Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions 4:80; (5 vol, 1957-1966) Deseret Book: Salt Lake City, Ut); bold added for emphasis.

            … The simple fact is, as explained in the Book of Mormon and the revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the fall was a very essential part of the divine plan. Adam and Eve therefore did the very thing that the Lord intended them to do. If we had the original record, we would see the purpose of the fall clearly stated and its necessity explained.

JFieldS-2 — Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:59 (Bookcraft: Salt Lake City, UT, 1998), bold added for emphasis

            ADAM SPOKE CELESTIAL LANGUAGE.

            The first man placed upon this earth was an intelligent being, created in the image of God, possessed of wisdom and knowledge, with power to communicate his thoughts in a language, both oral and written, which was superior to anything to be found on the earth today. This may sound very sweeping and dogmatic to those who hold to the other view, but it is not any more so than their statements to the contrary. Moreover, I do not say it of myself, but merely repeat what the Lord has said; and surely the Creator, above all others, ought to know!

JFieldS-3 — Joseph Fielding Smith, “Fall-Atonement-Resurrection-Sacrament,” in Charge to Religious Educators, 1982, p. 124); bold added for emphasis.

            … What did Adam do? The very thing the Lord wanted him to do; and I hate to hear anybody call it a sin, for it wasn’t a sin. Now this is the way I interpret that: The Lord said to Adam, here is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you want to stay here, then you cannot eat of that fruit. If you want to stay here, then I forbid you to eat it. But you may act for yourself, and you may eat of it if you want to. And if you eat it, you will die.

            … Mortality was created through the eating of the forbidden fruit, if you want to call it forbidden, but I think the Lord has made it clear that it was not forbidden. He merely said to Adam, if you want to stay here [in the garden] this is the situation. If so, don’t eat it.

JFieldS-4 — Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:76–77; bold added for emphasis.

            …Adam had a spiritual body until mortality came upon him through the violation of the law under which he was living, but he also had a physical body of flesh and bones.

            … Now what is a spiritual body? It is one that is quickened by spirit and not by blood. …

            … When Adam was in the Garden of Eden, he was not subject to death. There was no blood in his body and he could have remained there forever. This is true of all the other creations.

JFieldS-5 — Joseph Fielding Smith, The Atonement of Jesus Christ, Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year [25 Jan. 1955], 2); bold added for emphasis.

            … Adam and Eve were chosen to come here as the primal parents of humanity. And they were placed in the Garden of Eden where there was no death and we read in the scriptures that they could have lived in that Garden forever, but not under the most favorable circumstances. For there, although they were in the presence of God, they were deprived of certain knowledge and understanding in a condition where they could not understand clearly things that were necessary for them to know. Therefore, it became essential to their salvation and to ours that their nature should be changed. The only way it could be changed was by the violation of the law under which they were at that time. Mortality could not come without violation of that law and mortality was essential, a step towards our exaltation. Therefore, Adam partook of the forbidden fruit, forbidden in a rather peculiar manner for it is the only place in all the history where we read that the Lord forbade something and yet said, ‘Nevertheless thou mayest choose for thyself.’ He never said that of any sin. I do not look upon Adam’s fall as a sin, although it was a transgression of the law. It had to be. And Adam came under a different law. The temporal law. And he became subject to death. The partaking of that fruit created blood in his body and that blood became the life-giving influence of mortality.

JFieldS-6 — Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:59; bold added for emphasis.

            ADAM NOT END PRODUCT OF EVOLUTION. Adam was placed here, not a wild, half- civilized savage, but a perfectly-developed man, with wonderful intelligence, for he helped to create this earth. He was chosen in pre-existence to be the first man upon the earth and the father of the human race, and he will preside over his posterity forever.

            Now, the Lord did not choose a being that had just developed from the lower forms of life, to be a prince, an archangel, to preside over the human race forever! Adam, as Michael, was one of the greatest intelligences in the spirit world and he stands next to Jesus Christ. When he came upon the earth, the Lord gave him a perfect form of government.

JRH-1 — Jeffrey R Holland, Christ and the new Covenant, pp 202-3; Deseret Book: Salt Lake City, Ut, 1997; bold added for emphasis.

            These terrible risks of sorrow and death were facts Adam and Eve were willing to face in order that “men might be.” But they — like us — were able and willing to venture these only with the knowledge that there would be safety at the end of the day for those who wanted it and lived for it. They were willing to transgress knowingly and consciously (the only way they could “fall” into the consequences of mortality, inasmuch as Elohim certainly could not force innocent parties out of the garden and …, be a just God) only because they had a full knowledge of the Plan of salvation, which would provide for them a way back from their struggle with death and hell. As Adam would later say, “Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and in the flesh I shall see God.” (Moses 5:10)

            On that same occasion Eve said even more poignantly, “Were it not for our transgression we never should have … known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.” (Moses 5:11)

            So Adam and Eve willingly made a choice, choosing the path toward growth and godhood inherent in the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil over the potentially meaningless (at least at that point in their development) tree of life.

JS-1 — Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith, 2:12; bold added for emphasis.

            … [Adam was] lord or governor of all things on earth, and at the same time enjoying communion and intercourse with his Maker, without a veil to separate between.”

JT-1 — John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, sel. G. Homer Durham (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1987), p. 91; bold added for emphasis.

            … How did Adam get his information of the things of God? He got it through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and through this same Priesthood of which we have been speaking. God came to him in the garden and talked with him. We are told that no man can see the face of God and live. How was it that he obtained his knowledge of God? Through the Gospel; and he was the first man upon this earth that had the Gospel and the holy Priesthood; and if he had it not, he could not have known anything about God or his revelations. But God revealed himself to him and told him what he might do and what he might not do, what course he was to pursue and what course not to pursue

MGR-1 — Marion G Romney, “Mother Eve, a Worthy Exemplar” Relief Society Magazine 55 (February) 84-89; bold added for emphasis

            … calling your attention to the five great character traits of Mother Eve, as they ae revealed in the scriptures.

            … she was a great and noble woman who set an example in righteous living worthy of emulation not only by members of Relief Society but by all other women.

            The virtues I speak of are these:

1. She labored with her husband.

2. She fulfilled her mission to multiply and replenish the earth.

3. She prayed with her husband.

4. She learned, understood, and appreciated the gospel.

5. With her husband, she taught the gospel to her children.

OP-1– Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 21:203-4; bold added for emphasis.

            … Adam and Eve were placed upon it, and they were immortal, just like all the beasts and just like the fishes of the sea; death had not yet come upon any of them; all things were immortal so far as this creation was concerned. The first pairs, the beginning of his temporal work, were not subject to death. And another thing, they were not to be shut out from the presence of the Almighty. They could behold his countenance, they could hear his voice. Those who then existed—could converse with him freely. There was no veil between them and the Lord.

OP-2 — Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 21:289; bold added for emphasis.

            “God did not make a mortal being. It would be contrary to his great goodness to make a man mortal, subject to pain, subject to sickness, subject to death …. If he had made them mortal, and subject to pain, there would have been some cause, among intelligent beings, to say that the Lord subjected man, without a cause, to afflictions, sorrows, death and mortality. But he could not do this; it was contrary to the nature of his attributes, contrary to the nature of that infinite goodness which dwells in the bosom of the Father and the Son, to make a being subject to any kind of pain.” Pratt, in journal of Discourses, 21:289. See also Pratt (2000), 81-82.

PPP-1 — Parley P Pratt, Voice of Warning, pp 110-122; bold added for emphasis.

            … And to crown the whole, we behold man created in the image of God, and exalted in dignity and power, having dominion over all the vast creation of animated beings, which swarmed through the earth, while, at the same time, he inhabits a beautiful and well-watered garden, in the midst of which stood the tree of life, to which he had free access; while he stood in the presence of his Maker, conversed with him face to face, and gazed upon his glory, without a dimming veil between. O reader, contemplate, for a moment, this beautiful creation, clothed with peace and plenty; the earth teeming, with harmless animals, rejoicing over all the plain; the air swarming with delightful birds, whose never ceasing notes filled the air with varied melody; and all in subjection to their rightful sovereign who rejoiced over them; while, in a delightful garden—the capitol of creation,—man was seated on the throne of his vast empire, swaying his sceptre over all the earth, with undisputed right; while legions of angels encamped round about him, and joined their glad voices, in grateful songs of praise, and shouts of joy; neither a sigh nor groan was heard, throughout the vast expanse; neither was there sorrow, tears, pain, weeping, sickness, nor death; neither contentions, wars, nor bloodshed; but peace crowned the seasons as they rolled, and life, joy, and love, reigned over all his works

            … First, man fell from his standing before God, by giving heed to temptation; and this fall affected the whole creation, as well as man, and caused various changes to take place; he was banished from the presence of his Creator, and a veil was drawn between them, and he was driven from the garden of Eden, to till the earth, which was then cursed for man’s sake, and should begin to bring forth thorns and thistles: and with the sweat of his face he should earn his bread, and in sorrow eat of it, all the days of his life, and finally return to dust.

RMN-1 — Russell M Nelson, “Lessons from Eve.” Ensign, Nov. 1987, pp 86-89; bold added for emphasis.

            From the rib of Adam, Eve was formed (see Genesis 2:22; Moses 3:22; Abraham 5:16). Interesting to me is the fact that animals fashioned by our Creator, such as dogs and cats, have thirteen pairs of ribs, but the human being has one less with only twelve. I presume another bone could have been used, but the rib, coming as it does from the side, seems to denote partnership. The rib signifies neither dominion nor subservience, but a lateral relationship as partners, to work and to live, side by side.

WW-1 — Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, 23:126. bold added for emphasis.

            Adam and Eve came to this world to perform exactly the part that they acted in the garden of Eden; and I will say, they were ordained of God to do what they did, and it was therefore expected that they would eat of the forbidden fruit in order that man might know both good and evil by passing through this school of experience that this life affords us

Gaze into Heaven, Near-Death Experiences in Early Church History by Marlene Bateman Sullivan (Cedar Fort Inc: Springville, UT, 2013, 255 pages)

Common Elements in LDS Near-Death Experiences with a list of Corresponding Accounts (pages 225-248)

The number after the subtopic indicates the number of out-of-body experiences in which the item occur

What Happens First During a Near-Death Experience

• See Lifeless Mortal Body (25)
• Pain is Gone (8)
• Met by a Spiritual Guide (26)

Arrival in The Spirit World

• Life Continues, Feeling Natural and Real (13)
• Same person as Before Death (4)
• Feel Joy, Peace, Love, and Happiness (16)
• Review of Life (3)

Meet with Loved Ones (27)

See Jesus, Joseph Smith, or Other Prophets and Leaders (13)

Light in the Spirit World (9)

Light around Spiritual Personages (8)

Attributes of the Spirit Body

• Vision is increased (7)
• Able to Move Quickly and Effortlessly (13)
• Resurrected Personages (2)

Mental Characteristics of the Spirit Body

• Mental Faculties are Quickened (2)
• Able to Read Thoughts (4)
• Memory is Restored (2)

General Appearance of the Spirit World

• Beauty (14)
• Trees, Flowers, Rivers, and Lakes (14)
• Animals, Fish, and Birds (4)

Cities in the Spirit World (7)

Buildings (14)

Other Aspects of the Spirit world

• Time is different (4)
• Music (7)
• Clothing (14)

People in the Spirit world are Active and Busy (13)

• “Earthly” Activities in the Spirit World — pruning, eating, reading, hold meetings (9)

The Restoration of the Gospel (2)

The Gospel is Taught in the Spirit World (8)

• Some Mortals are Called to the Spirit World to Teach (1)

Agency and Repentance (3)

There are Different Spheres in the Spirit

• black gulf, lowest sphere, prison (10)

• Children are Saved in the Celestial Kingdom (6)

The Spirit world is Organized and Is Governed by the Priesthood (7)

• Requests Made to Priesthood Authorities (6)

The Importance of Ordinance Work (6)

• Ancestors Are Anxious to Have Ordinance Work Done (3)

Those in Spirit World Ask What People on Earth are Doing (6)

See Someone They Didn’t Know was Dead (5)

• Discovers that a Mortal Is going to Die Soon (3)

Message is Given (22)

• Tell Loved Ones to Stop Grieving (4)

Given Choice to Stay or Return to Mortality (11)

• Told They Must Return (20)

Coming Back to Mortality

• Return Occurs Because of Prayer or a Priesthood Blessing (12)
• Physical Sensations upon Re-entering Physical Body (8)
• Don’t Want to Return — Body Appears Loathsome (14)

He is not an absentee God but is highly involved in his children’s activities on the earth. His purpose is to bring both immortality and eternal life (God’s type of life) to man. The godhead consists of three individuals, all of whom are unique. God the Father, Elohim, is the God to whom we pray, and to whom all of our allegiances belong. He has an exalted, resurrected body of flesh and bones which is celestialized and in him is all knowledge, power and wisdom in the universe. God begat each of us as individual spirit children prior to our coming to earth. He trained and tutored us for a millennia of time. We, as his spirit children, realized that we could not become like our heavenly parents unless we left that habitation and came to earth to gain a physical body and prove out allegiances to him by having a veil of forgetfulness placed over our memories. This opportunity was provided to us in the creation of the earth. Elohim walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Since their expulsion from the Garden, his only visitations to the earth have been to introduce his son, Jesus Christ. His Son, Jesus Christ, is the firstborn spirit of Elohim in our pre-earth existence. He is Jehovah of the Old Testament and Christ of the New Testament.Jesus Christ, created the heavens and the earth with authority delegated him from Elohim. Christ is subservient to and worships the Father; however, in his role of Savior, he is adored and worshiped by mankind. He has an exalted, resurrected body of flesh and bones which is celestialized. On more than 100 occasions Christ has appeared to mankind. In addition to that, numerous revelations and insights have been given to mankind from his knowledge and understandings. He is the Savior of mankind, our advocate and mediator with his Father, and the sole source of exaltation to a celestial life both in this life on earth and in the afterlife. The Third member of the godhead is the Holy Ghost who is a spirit being whose influence is felt throughout the universe. All things He does are under the direction of the Father and the Son. All three members of the godhead have the same purpose, that is to exalt mankind. Their individual actions are always a reflection of the will and purposes of the other membrers of the Godhead. The purpose of this paper is to enumerate visitations of the Father, Elohim and the Son, Jesus Christ to mankind.

Grand aim to entertain angels

… and now, son and daughter … the grand aim of all that I, the Lord, have revealed is to instruct you to live so that I can come and visit you, or send my angels, that they can enter into your habitations, walk and converse with you, and they not be disgraced.  By so doing you shall be made partakers of all knowledge and wisdom, power and glory that the sanctified or glorified beings enjoy.  And this is, first of all, what the Lord wishes of the people.  Ref:  Brigham Young, J.D. Vol. 6:284-5)

Spoken of with restraint

– Sometimes individuals are instructed to not tell of a heavenly manifestation until a later time (Mount of Transfiguration – tell the vision to no man until after the resurrection- Matt 17:9)

  – Speak about sacred things with restraint (that which cometh from above is sacred, and must be spoken with care, and by constraint of the Spirit; D&C 63:64)

 –  And they (the three Nephites who were translated and promised they could remain on the earth until the Savior comes a Second time) did not minister of the things which they had heard and seen (in heaven), because of the commandment which was given them in heaven.  (3 Nephi 28:14)

God the Father (speaking, personal visits)

The Father In the presence of spirits in the pre-earth existence

The noble and great ones in the premortal life (and he stood in the midst of them; Abraham 3:23)

— Man in the premortal world (man was in the beginning with God; D&C 93:29); a third part of the hosts of Heaven (were thrust down; D&C 29:37)

— Jeremiah – Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5)

The Father Speaking to individuals on the earth

— Baptism of Christ

My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Luke 3:22)

And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Mark 1:11)

 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17)

— Jesus at Jerusalem during Holy Week.

Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. (John 12:28)

— The transfiguration

…behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. (Matthew 17:5)

— Introduction of Christ to the Nephites

            Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him. (3 Nehpi 11:7)

The Father appearing to individuals on the earth

— Adam and Eve – Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8-10; Moses 4:14-31 & chapters 5 & 6)

— The Transfiguration (traditionally Mt Hermon)– This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.  (Matthew 17:1-8)

— Joseph Smith saw the Father and the Son in the sacred grove (Palmyra, New York- Joseph Smith History 1:17-20)

— Stephen – Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. (Acts 7:56)

Jesus Christ

– Jesus has been upon the earth a great many more times than you are aware of.  (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, p. 142, May 22, 1859)

Christ appearances as a pre-mortal spirit (Jehovah)

— Adam – during his lifetime (with whom, God, himself, conversed; Moses 6:22, 51)

— Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalallel, Jared, Enoch, Methusalah, the residue of Adam’s posterity who were righteous – in the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman at the close of his life (and the Lord appeared unto them; D&C 107:54)

— Cain –  In the field (and the Lord said unto Cain, Moses 5:34)

— Seth – Place not given (and God revealed himself unto Seth, Moses 6:4)

— Enoch – Mount Simeon (walked with God, Moses 6:39; saw the Lord, he stood before my face and talked with me, Moses 7:3-4; walked with God three hundred sixty-five years- D&C 107:49)

— The people in the city of Enoch (The Lord came and dwelt with his people, Moses 7:16)

— Noah – Place not given (and the Lord ordained Noah, Moses 8:19; walked with God, Moses 8:27)

— Shem, Ham, Japheth – Place not given (walked with God, Moses 8:27)

— Brother of Jared – and the Lord showed himself unto him (Ether 3:13)

— Emer (Descendant of the Brother of Jared) – Saw the Son of Righteousness (Ether 9:22)

— Abraham – place not given  (and the Lord appeared unto me; Abraham 2:6-11, 19; talked with the Lord face to face, Abraham 3:11)

— Moses – on a exceeding high mountain (and he saw God, and talked with him, face to face (Moses 1:1-2)

— Moses 40 days and nights – on Mount Sinai (and he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; Exodus 34:28)

— Moses – in the tabernacle (and the Lord spake unto Moses face to face; Exodus 33:11)

— Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu  and 70 of the Elders of Israel – up, into a high mount (and they saw the God of Israel; Exodus 24:10)

— David- I forsaw the Lord, always before my face, for he is on my right hand (Acts 2:25)

— Solomon (dedicated the temple at Jerusalem)- .. the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time and told him “I have hallowed this house” (1 Kings 9:2-3)

— Isaiah – Abt 740 BC, a vision probably in the temple at Jerusalem (I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.. and filled the [heavenly] temple; Isaiah 6:1-3, 2 Nephi 11:2-3)

— Nebuchadnezzar (voice)- While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.  (Daniel 4:31)

— Nephi and his brother Jacob – Place not given, (he [Isaiah] saw my redeemer, even as I [Nephi] have seen him, and my brother, Jacob, has also seen him; 2 Nephi 11:2-3) — Lamoni – … I have seen my redeemer (Alma 19:13)

Christ on the earth with his earthly body

People in Holy Land during the life of Christ –

-4,000 (men besides women and children, up unto a mount, nigh unto the Sea of Galilee; Matthew 15:29-38);

-5,000 (men besides women and children, in a desert place; Matthew 14:15-21),

-many other tens of thousands during his mortal ministry.

Christ visiting the earth with his resurrected body immediately after his resurrection and to specific apostles later

— People in Holy Land after the resurrection of Christ —  (Mary Magdalene (at the Garden Tomb; John 20:15-17), The ten apostles (in the evening, on the first day of the week; John 20:19-20), The two men on the road to Emmaus, one was Cleopas (Mark 16:12 & Luke 24:13-32), The eleven apostles, including Thomas (eight days after the Resurrection, in the upper room; John 20:26-28), The eleven apostles in Galilee in a high mountain (Matthew 28:16-17) Seven Apostles/disciples at the Sea of Tiberius (John 21:1-2)

— 2,500 people in New World after the resurrection of Christ at the land Bountiful by the temple (3 Nephi 11:1) , Jesus healed the sick, blessed the little ones (3 Nephi 17: 5-13.  Noised abroad during the night, the next day an exceeding great number, Nephi and the eleven disciples, Jesus prays and teaches the people)

— The lost ten tribes – Place not given, (and I go to show myself unto them; 3 Nephi 16:3)

— Stephen at his stoning in Jerusalem- … the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God (Acts 7:55-6)

— The resurrected Christ showed himself, not to all people, but to witnesses whom God choose (Acts 10:39-41)

— Paul the Apostle – … he had seen the Lord (Acts 9:27)

— John the Apostle when on the Isle of Patmos:  I saw him, I fell at his feet (Rev 1:9, 17-19)

— Mormon –  … is visited of the Lord (Mormon 1:15)

— Moroni –  ..I have seen Jesus and talked with him face to face (Ether 12:39)

Christ visiting the earth with his resurrected body in modern times (Jesus Christ)

— Joseph Smith saw the Father and the Son in the sacred grove. (Palmyra, New York- Joseph Smith History 1:17-20)

— Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon (1832) … (Jesus Christ) whom we saw, and with whom we conversed… for we saw him (Jesus Christ), even on the right hand of God – (D&C 76:14,23)

— Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery (1836; in the Kirtland Temple) – … saw the Lord, standing on the breastwork of the pulpit, … eyes like a flame of fire.. (D&C 110:2-3)

— Saints at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple – .. I will manifest myself to my people… I will appear unto my servants (D&C 110:7-8)

— Lorenzo Snow in the Salt Lake Temple: When we had finished (the Quorum of the Twelve, recommending to reorganize the First Presidency), then and not until then did Brother Snow tell us that he was instructed of the Lord in the Temple the night after President Woodruff died, to organize the Presidency of the Church at once.  President Anthon H. Lund and myself are the only men now living who were present at that meeting.  Ref:  Heber J. Grant, The Deseret News, Saturday, April 2, 1938; Temples of the Most High by N.B. Lundwall, pp. 140-2; Bookcraft, 1968)

— Melvin J Ballard:  … that I should have the privilege of entering into one of those rooms, to meet a glorious personage, and as I entered the door, I saw, seated on a raised platform, the most glorious Being my eyes have ever beheld, or that I ever conceived existed in all the eternal worlds. As I approached to be introduced, he arose and stepped towards me with extended arms, and he smiled as he softly spoke my name. If I shall live to be a million years old, I shall never forget that smile. He took me into his arms and kissed me, pressed me to His bosom, and blessed me, until the marrow of my bones seemed to melt! (Melvin J Ballard, MJB10)

The Kirtland Era

> Joseph saw more than forty-seven angels, but some of them made repeated visits. For example, the angel Moroni instructed Joseph Smith at least twenty-two times. (TSKp58). See “I did call upon [Joseph Smith] by mine angels, my ministering servants.” (D&C 136:37) (TSKp54). See John Taylor naming various individuals – Mormon, Moroni, Nephi, Peter, John, others, (Taylor, JD 17:374-5)9TSKp54)

> The Savior Taught Joseph through Countless Visions.  One historical researcher found evidence of seventy-six visions the Lord gave Joseph Smith during his lifetime.

(Alexander L. Baugh, “Parting the Veil: Joseph Smith’s Seventy-Six Documented Visionary Experiences,” in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820-1844, ed. John W. Welch and Erick B. Carlson (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2005), 265.) (TSKp60)

> [Joseph and Oliver”] …supplemented by hundreds of others who have beheld … glorious personages.” (George Q Cannon, TSKp140); see “I will appear unto my servants, and speak unto them with mine own voice.” (D&C110:8) (TSKp4)

A. Individuals who saw/heard the Father/Son: when, where, quote

Zebedee Coltrin

“I saw Him [Christ]. [and the Father]” (1833)

– Ref: At the Whitney Store for the School of Prophets on March 18, 1833 and at the Kirtland Temple on Jan 28, 1836; Coltrin, Minute book 54, (TSKp 136). On Oct 11, 1883, Wilford Woodruff recorded in his journal the Coltrin account of seeing both the Father and the Son. (TSKp178)

ALSO – On March 18, 1833, Zebedee saw the Savior in the School of the Prophets in the Whitney store and testified: “At one of these meetings after the organization of the school … when we were all together, Joseph having given instructions, and while engaged in silent prayer, kneeling, … each one praying in silence, no one whispered above his breath, [I saw] a personage … Joseph asked if we saw him. I saw him and supposed the others did, and Joseph answered that is Jesus, the Son of God, our elder brother.” (Ref: Coltrin, Minute book 54)

ALSO Then, speaking of seeing a vision of God the Father, Zebedee continued: “Afterward Joseph told us to resume our former position in prayer, which we did. Another person came … He was surrounded as with a flame of fire. I experienced a sensation that it might destroy the tabernacle as it was of consuming fire of great brightness. The Prophet Joseph said this was the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ref: Coltrin, Minute book 54) (TSK182)

ALSO President John Taylor, who knew Zebedee in Kirtland, invited him in 1883 to share his experiences with the School of the Prophets in Salt Lake City. Concluding his testimony to the General Authorities gathered in the school, Zebedee testified, “I saw Him.” The brethren asked Zebedee about the clothing the Father wore. Brother Coltrin said: I did not discover His clothing for He was surrounded as with a flame of fire, which was so brilliant that I could not discover anything else but His person. I saw His hands, His legs, His feet, His eyes, nose, mouth, head and body in the shape and form of a perfect man …. This appearance was so grand and overwhelming that it seemed I should melt down in His presence, and the sensation was so powerful that it thrilled through my whole system and I felt it in the marrow of my bones. (Ref: Coltrin, in Minute Book, 54) TSK182).

ALSO – Joseph Smith told them [School of the Prophets, Oct 1833], “Brethren, now you are prepared to be the apostles of Jesus Christ, for you have seen both the Father and the Son and know that They exist and that They are two separate personages.” (Ref – Coltrin, in Minute Book, 54-SS.) (TSKp183)

Oliver Cowdery (6 times)

On a sudden, as from the midst of eternity, the voice of the Redeemer spake peace to us [Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery], while the veil was parted and the angel of God [John the Baptist] came down clothed with glory … the certainty that we heard the voice of Jesus, and the truth unsullied as it flowed from a pure personage…” (1829)

— Ref: Appearance of John the Baptist in 1829, Oliver Cowdery, Messenger and Advocate, vol. 1 (October 1834), pp. 14–16.

>“…we [The Three Witnesses] also know that they have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us;” and “the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it.”(1829)

            —  Ref1: Voice of the Lord to Three Witnesses Testimony published in the Book of Mormon in 1829 (TSKp157); Ref2 TSKp167

— “[the] Lord appeared unto a young man by the name of Oliver Cowd[e]ry and shewed unto him the plates in a vision and also the truth of the work and what the Lord was about to do through me [Joseph Smith].” (1829)

– Ref: as reported by Joseph Smith in Kirtland several years later; ref: Karen Lynn Davidson, David J. Whittaker, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds., Histories, 1832-1844, vol. l of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Sale Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 1:15.

> “We [Oliver and Joseph] saw the Lord … [and heard] the voice of Jehovah.” (1836) – Ref: at the Kirtland Temple, April 3, 1836; D&C 110:2-3 (TSKp136)

Martin Harris

> “I heard the voice of God.” And “the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it.” (1829)

– Ref1 Three Witnesses Testimony published in the Book of Mormon in 1829 (TSKp157); reaffirmed the witness of the Book of Mormon, Improvement Era_____; Ref 2 TSKp167)

—  “the Lord appeared unto him in a vision and shewed unto him his marvilous work which he was about to do.” (abt 1829)

— Ref: As reported by Joseph Smith in Kirtland 8 years after the event; ref: Karen Lynn Davidson, David J. Whittaker, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds., Histories, 1832-1844, vol. l of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Sale Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 1:15.

—“the Lord appeared unto him [Martin]” (1832)

– Ref: in New York, 1832 (TSKp136)

Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner

> “I am the only living witness who was at the first meeting that the Prophet [Joseph Smith] held in Kirtland [after his arrival, 1831]….

. . . Joseph and Martin Harris came in. Joseph looked around very solemnly. It was the first time some of them had ever seen him.

Said he, “There are enough here to hold a little meeting.”

They got a board and put it across two chairs to make seats. Martin Harris sat on a little box at Joseph’s feet. They sang and prayed. Joseph got up and began to speak to us. As he began to speak very solemnly and very earnestly, all at once his countenance changed and he stood mute.

He looked over the congregation as if to pierce every heart. He said, “Do you know who has been in your midst this night?” One of the Smith family said, “An angel of the Lord.” … Martin Harris … said, “I know, it was our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.” Joseph put his hand on Martin’s head and answered, “Martin, God revealed that to you. Yes, Brothers and Sisters, the Saviour has been in your midst. I want you to remember it. He cast a veil over your eyes for you could not endure to look upon Him.” (1831)

— Ref: Mary Elizabeth Lightner, typescript, April 14, 1905, I, BYU Special Collections. AND Carter, “Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner,” 5:306.

John Murdock

> “The Spirit rested upon me as it never did before and others said they saw the Lord, and had visions.” (1831)

            — Ref: At the confirmation John by the Chagin River in Kirtland in 1831; John Murdock, “A Brief Synopsis of the Life of John Murdock: Taken from an Abridged Record of His Journal,” 11, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; hereafter cited as BYU Special Collections.

> “I beheld the face of the Lord.” (1833)

– Ref: at the Whitney Store at the School of the Prophets on March 18, 1833; John Murdock Journal ______ (TSK p 135); ALSO “We had a number of prayer meetings, in the Prophet’s Chamber, in which we obtained great blessings. In one of those Meetings [School of the Prophets] the Prophet told us, if we could humble ourselves before God, and exercise strong faith, we should see the face of the Lord. And about midday, the visions of my mind were opened, and the eyes of my understanding were enlightened, and I saw the form majestic form [of Christ] of a man, most lovely! The visage of his face was sound and fair as the sun. His hair, a bright silver grey, curled in most majestic form, His eyes, a keen penetrating blue, and the skin of his neck a most beautiful white, and He was covered from the neck to the feet with a loose garment, pure white, whiter than any garment I have ever before seen. His countenance was most penetrating, and yet most lovely! And while I was endeavoring to comprehend the whole personage, from head to feet, it slipped from me, and the Vision was closed up. But it left on my mind the impression of love, for months, that I never before felt, to that degree!” (Ref: Murdock, “Brief Synopsis,” 13-14.) (TSKp179).  ALSO “”I … was with Bro. Joseph a part of the winter receiving instruction … and beheld the face of the Lord according to the promise and prayer of the Prophet.” (Ref: Murdock, “John Murdock Journal,” 163-64.) (TSKp180)

Orson Pratt

“God was there… the visions of the Almighty were opened to the minds of the servants of the living God [the living apostles]; … they saw the heavens opened; they beheld the angels of God; they heard the voice of the Lord…

— Ref: JD 18:132, (TSKp142)

Sidney Rigdon

> “We [Sidney and Joseph] saw [Christ} and … we conversed [with Christ]. [and the Father]” (1832)

— Ref: The Johnson Farm on Feb 16, 1832; D&C 76:14; (TSK p 135)

Joseph Smith (saw Christ 10 times in Kirtland; 7 included the Father)

(Seeing The Father and the Son)

“I saw the Lord.” [Jesus Christ and the Father] (1820)

– Ref: at Palmyra, NY in 1820 (reported by Joseph Smith in Kirtland, OH; from Karen Lynn Davidson, David J. Whittaker, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds., Histories, 1832-1844, vol. l of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Sale Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 1:12-13. (TSK p 159). 

Additional testimonies of Joseph Smith recounting the first vision of Jesus [and the Father]: by Lorenzo Snow (1831) (TSK160); by Joseph Smith (1832) (TSK160); by Reverend Taggart (1832) (TSK161); by Edward Stevenson on three separate occasions(1834) (TSK161-2); by Joseph Curtis (TSK162);  by Matthias a Jewish minister (1835) (TSK163); by Parley P Pratt (1836) (TSK164); by John Alger (TSK164); by Orson Pratt (TSK164); by John Taylor (1837) (TSK164)

> … Of whom we [Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon] bear record; and the record which we bear is the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the Son, whom we saw [and the Father] and with whom [Jesus] we conversed in the heavenly vision. …And we heard the voice, saying: Write the vision, for lo, this is the end of the vision of the sufferings of the ungodly. (D&C 76:14, 49) (Feb 1832)

            — Ref: “The Vision” (D&C 76) given on Feb 16, 1832 in an upper room at a rural Ohio farmhouse at Hiram, Ohio

(Seeing The son)

> “On a sudden, as from the midst of eternity, the voice of the Redeemer spake peace to us (Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery), while the veil was parted and the angel of God [John the Baptist] came down clothed with glory … the certainty that we heard the voice of Jesus, and the truth unsullied as it flowed from a pure personage…” (1829)

— Ref: Oliver Cowdery, Messenger and Advocate, vol. 1 (October 1834), pp. 14–16.

> ‘I now see God, and Jesus Christ at his right hand, let them [enemies] kill me, I should not feel death as I am now.”‘ (1831)

— Ref: Joseph Smith at the first Kirtland Church Conference in June, 1831, as reported by Levi Hancock, Autobiography, copied by Clara E. H. Lloyd, typescript, 33, BYU Special Collections.

> “We [Joseph and Sidney] saw [Christ] and … we conversed [with Christ]. (1832)

—  Ref: at Hiram, Ohio on Feb 16, 1832; D&C 76:14

> Joseph Smith saw the Savior [along with John Murdock and Zebedee Coltrin] (Mar 1833)

            — Ref: On Mar 18, 1833 at the Whitney Store for the School of the Prophets where Joseph ordained Sidney Rigdon and Frederick William as counselors in the first Presidency. The derailed account of the First Presidency organizational meeting is found in Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 7 vols., 2d ed. rev. (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1932-51), 1:334-35. ALSO “for many present had the eyes of their understanding opened by the Spirit of God, so as to behold many things …. Many of the brethren saw a heavenly vision of the Savior, and concourses of angels, and many other things, of which each one has a record of what he saw. (Ref: History of the Church, 1:334-35; TSKp179)

> “Thus spake the Seer, and these are the words which fell from his lips, while the visions of the Almighty were open to his view,” (Dec 1833)

Ref: Joseph Smith, reported by Joseph Fielding Smith, Church History and Modern Revelation, 2 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1953], 1:473) (TSK184)

Background: Joseph had a vision of Christ as Jehovah appeared to Adam and his posterity at Adam-ondi-Ahman. The vision took place on Dec 18, 1833 at the John Johnson Inn in Kirtland where he gave his father, Joseph Smith Sr his patriarchal blessing.

ALSO referred to in D&C 107:53-55 and The Words of Joseph Smith, comp. and ed. Andrew F. Ehar and Lyndon W. Cook (Provo, Utah:Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 1980), 9.

> “We [Joseph and Oliver) saw the Lord … [and heard] the voice of Jehovah.” (1836)

– Ref: Kirtland Temple, April 3, 1836; D&C 110:2-3 (TSKp136)

 > “I saw …. Jesus.” 

—  Ref: History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2:381; (TSK p 134)   ??? when and where

> “The Lord opened the heavens upon me and I saw the Lord and he spake unto me

… behold I am the Lord of glory I was crucified for the world.”

— Ref: Joseph Smith-History 1:17; Personal Writings o/Joseph Smith, comp. and ed. Dean C. Jessee, rev. ed. (Sale Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002), 13-14. ??? where and when

Warren S Snow

> “I heard the voice of God.” (1836)

– Ref: at the Kirtland Temple 1836, reported in Millennial Star____, TSKp137)

Harvey Whitlock

> “[Harvey] testified … he saw the heavens open, and Jesus on the right hand of the Father]” (1831)

– Ref: at The Morley Farm on Jun 3-6, 1831; reported by Zebedee Coltrain (TSK p 135), Zebedee Coltrin, address at a meeting of high priests in Spanish Fork, Utah, February 5, 1878, in They Knew the Prophet, ed. Hyrum L. Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus (Sale Lake City: Deseret Book, 1999), 30. (TSK175)

David Whitmer

> “…we [The Three Witnesses] also know that they have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us;” and “the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it.”(1829)

— Ref1: 1829; reported in Ohio, by Ezra Booth ___, TSKp137); same event – Testimony in Kirtland as a Book of Mormon witness; Ref2 TSKp167)

Newel K Whitney

> We [Newel and his wife] were wrapped in the cloud. A solemn awe pervaded us. We saw the cloud and felt the Spirit of the Lord. Then we heard a voice out of the cloud saying, “Prepare to receive the word of the Lord, for it is coming.” At this we marveled greatly, but from that moment we knew that the word of the Lord was coming to Kirtland. (1831)

Ref: Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Company, 1901-36; repr., Salt Lake City: Western Epics, 1971), 1:223.

> “… heard [the Lord’s] voice from heaven.” (1831)

– Ref: about Dec 1831, reported by Orson F Whitney, Conference Report Jun 1, 1919. ANOTHER ACCOUNT: “In the silence of night and the solitude of his chamber he heard a voice from heaven: “Thy strength is in me.” The words were few and simple, but they had a world of meaning. His doubts were dispelled like the dew before the dawn. He straightway sought the Prophet, told him he was satisfied, and was willing to accept the office [of bishop] to which he had been called.” Ref– Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Company, 1901-36; repr., Salt Lake City: Western Epics, 1971), 1:224.

Lyman Wright

>  “… [Lyman] saw the face of the Savior [and the Father].” (1831)

– Ref: at The Morely Farm on Jun 3-6, 1831; reported by George A Smith, JD 11:4; (TSK p 135) The same event reported by John Whitmer, “”The Spirit … fell upon Lyman, and he … saw the he[a]vens opened, and the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the Father. Making intercession for his brethren, the Saints.” (Ref: From Historian to Dissident: The Book of John Whitmer, ed. Bruce N. Westergren (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995) 69.

B. Groups who saw the savior, when and where

“Others said they saw the Lord.” (1830) — Nov & Dec 1830 at the Kirtland Temple baptismal site, reported by John Murdock – ???? need source

> “ Many of the brethren saw a heavenly vision of the Savior.” (1833) – at the Whitney Store on Mar 18, 1833 – History of the church 1:335 (TSKp139)

> “The visions of heaven were opened … Some of them saw the face of the Savior, and others were ministered unto by holy angels.” (1836) – at the Kirtland Temple on Jan 21, 1836 – History of the church 2:382 (TSKp139)

> “The Savior made His appearance to some.” (1836)

– Ref: at the Kirtland Temple on Mar 30, 1836 – History of the church 2:432 (TSKp140)

–[Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery’s Kirtland Temple vision is] “supplemented by hundreds of others who have beheld … glorious personages.”

– Ref: reported by George Q Cannon — ??? need ref (TSKp140)

–“Jesus was seen of them.” (1836)

– Ref: David W Patten, presumably said of the twelve apostles, Jan 1836 (TSKp142)

Beings who communicated with Joseph

— [Joseph Smith] was taught for years by visions and revelations, and by holy angels sent from God out of heaven to teach and instruct him and prepare him to lay the foundation of this Church.

            Ref: Wilford Woodruff:  Woodruff, in journal of Discourses, 16:265

— in communication with the Lord, and … with the ancient apostles and prophets; such men, for instance, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, Adam, Seth, Enoch, and Jesus and the Father, and the apostles that lived on this continent as well as those who lived on the Asiastic continent. He seemed to be as familiar with these people as we are with one another.

            Ref: John Taylor: Taylor, in journal of Discourses, 21:94

–During Joseph’s life, he saw or communicated with more than forty-seven angels: Elias (Gabriel, Noah), Raphael, Moses, Enoch, Isaac, Enos, Twelve ancient Apostles, Seth, Mahalaleel, Alvin Smith, Adam (Michael), Eve, Elijah, Jacob, Methusaleh, Twelve Nephite Apostles, Jared, Cainan, John the Baptist, Paul, Abraham, Zelph the Lamanite, Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni.

            (John Taylor, in journal o/Discourses, 17:374; 21:94; Extracts from William Clayton’s Private Book, January 5, 1841 (Tuesday), in The Words of Joseph Smith, comp. and ed. Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 1980), 59: Zebedee Coltrin in Salt Lake School of the Prophets Minute Book, 1883 (Salt Lake City: Pioneer Press, 1992), 64; Wilford Woodruff, Wilford Woodruff’s journal, 1833-1898, ed. Scott G. Kenney, typescript, 9 vols. (Midvale, Utah: Signature Books, 1983-85), 1:10; Doctrine & Covenants 13; 107:53; 110; 128: 19-2 l; 137:5. Oliver Cowdery recorded in the Patriarchal Blessing Book that Joseph “pronounced a blessing upon his father.” That blessing was given “by vision and the spirit of prophecy” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Church History and Modern Revelation, 2 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1953], 1:472, 473). In the blessing he related part of his vision, naming “Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, and Methuselah” (see D&C 107:53). (TSKp55)

Joseph communing with groups of angels

–In addition, Joseph Smith saw and on occasion communed with large groups of angels. For example, Joseph recorded the following encounters in the Kirtland Temple:

–“We all communed with the h[e]avenly host’s [of holy angels] .”  

Ref: Dean C. Jessee, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds., Journals, 1832-1839, vol. 1 of the Journals series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2008), 1:170. (TSKp56)

–“Angels ministered unto them [many of my brethren], as well as my self.”

            Ref: Jessee, Ashurst-McGee, and Jensen, Journals, 1:170. (TSKp56)          

— “Angels mingled … their voices with ours …. their presence was in our midst, and unseasing prases swelled our bosoms for the space of half an hour.”

Ref: Jessee, Ashurst-McGee, and Jensen, Journals, 1:172. (TSKp56)

— “I beheld the Temple was filled with angels, which fact I declared to the congregation.”

Ref: History of the Church, 2:428. (TSKp56)

Joseph’s descriptions of specific angels like Paul, etc:

–Paul the Apostle”:

“[Paul] is about 5 foot high; very dark hair; dark complexion; dark skin; large Roman nose; sharp face; small black eyes, penetrating as eternity; round shoulders; a whining voice, except when elevated and then it almost resembles the roaring of a Lion. He was a good orator.”

            (Ehat and Cook, Words of Joseph Smith, 59) (TSK57)

–Peter, the chief Apostle:

“He was a very tall personage, black eyes, white hair, arid stoop shouldered; his garment was whole, extending to near his ankles; on his feet he had sandals.”

(Heber C. Kimball, in Orson F. Whitney, Lift of Heber C. Kimball (Sale Lake City: Bookcraft, 1945). 91. Although Heber C. Kimball describes Peter as he appeared in the Kirtland Temple, Joseph Smith was present and identified Peter in the meeting where Peter was seen (Lyndon W. Cook, “The Apostle Peter and the Kircland Temple,” BYU Studies 15, no. 4 (Summer 1975): 551) (TSK57)

–Adam and Seth, the oldest prophets:

“My brother Alvin … was a very handsome man, surpassed by none but Adam and Seth, and of great strength.”

(History of the Church, 5:247; Andrew H. Hedges, Alex D. Smith, and Richard Lloyd Anderson, eds. Journals, December 1841-April 1843, vol. 2 of the Journals series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Sale Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2011), 2:242) (TSK57)

–Moroni, the last Book of Mormon prophet:

“The stature of [Moroni] was a little above the common size of men in this age; his garment was perfectly white, and had the appearance of being without seam,

(Messenger and Advocate l, no. 5 (February 1835): 79) (TSK57)

–Adam and Eve, our first parents:

“Their heads were white as snow, and their faces shone with immortal youth. They were the two most beautiful and perfect specimens of mankind I ever saw …. Adam was a large broad shouldered man, and Eve, as a woman, was as large in proportion.”

            (Zebedee Coltrin, address at a meeting of high priests in Spanish Fork, Utah, February 5, 1878, in They Knew the Prophet, comp. Hyrum L. Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1974), 28; paragraphing altered. This account comes from a vision in New Portage, Ohio (now Barberton), that was seen by Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery and Zebedee Coltrin.)

–Nephite prophet, possibly Moroni:

“When I was returning to Fayette, with Joseph and Oliver … a very pleasant, nice-looking old man suddenly appeared by the side of our wagon and saluted us with, ‘good morning, it is very warm,’ at the same time wiping his face or forehead with his hand . . . . I invited him to ride …. But he said very pleasantly, ‘No, I am going to Cumorah.’ … We all gazed at him and at each other, and … the old man instantly disappeared ….

” … He was, I should think, about 5 feet 8 or 9 inches tall and heavy set, about such a man as James Vancleave there, but heavier; his face was as large, he was dressed in a suit of brown woolen clothes, his hair and beard were white, like Brother Pratt’s, but his beard was not so heavy. I also remember that he had on his back a sort of knapsack with something in [it], shaped like a book. It was the messenger who had the plates, who had taken them from Joseph just prior to our starting from Harmony,”

(Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith, interview with David Whitmer, in Millennial Star 40 (December 9, 1878): 772)

Kirtland Visions and Presence of Deity as Reported by Joseph Smith

(Ref: Compiled by Karl Ricks Anderson, TSK p 128)

— “The Savior has been in your midst this night.” Joseph Smith

• May 1831 (Approx); at the Smith Family Home, for the First Church meeting with Smith family in Kirtland
• Present: approx 15 including the Smith and Lightner family members

— “I now see God and Jesus Christ at his right hand …. I should not feel death as l am now.” Joseph Smith

• June 3-6, 1831; at the Morley Farm, for the Ordination of first high priests
• Present approx 25 Church leaders including Joseph Smith, Harvey Whitlock, Lyman Wight
• Note: Lyman Wight and Harvey Whitlock also saw the Father and the Son on this occasion.

— “He lives for we saw him, even on the right hand of God.”  Joseph Smith

• Sidney Rigdon February 16, 1832; at the Johnson Farm, for the Vision of the eternal worlds (D&C76)
• Present: approx 14 Brethren including Joseph Smith & Sidney Rigdon

— “Many of the brethren saw a heavenly vision of the savior.” Joseph Smith

• March 18, 1833; at the Whitney Store, for the Ordination of First Presidency councilors
• Present: approx 20 Priesthood leaders including Joseph Smich, John Murdock and Zebedee Coltrin
• Note: John Murdock saw the Savior, and Zebedee Coltrin and Joseph Smith saw the Father also on this occasion.

— “I saw Adam … and [his children]. The Lord appeared in their midst, & bless[ed] them all.” Joseph Smith

• December 18, 1833; at the Johnson Inn, for the Bestowing of first patriarchal blessings
• Present were the First Presidency of the Church & unnamed others

— “I beheld the … throne of God, whereon was seared the father and the son.” Joseph Smith

• January 21. 1836; at the Kirtland Temple, for the First temple ordinances bestowed on key leaders
• Present: 16 Church leaders 

— “I saw the Twelve … and Jesus standing in their midst. … The Savior looked upon them and wept.” Joseph Smith

• January 21, 1836; at the Kirtland Temple, for the First temple ordinances bestowed on key leaders
• Present: 16 Church leaders

— “The Savior embraced … crowned and kissed each one [of the Twelve].” Joseph Smith

• January 21, 1836; at the Kirtland Temple, for the First temple ordinances bestowed on key leaders
• Present: 16 Church leaders

— “The Visions of Heaven were opened to them …. Some of them saw the face of the Savior.” Joseph Smith

• January 21, 1836; at the Kirtland Temple, for the First temple ordinances bestowed on key leaders
• Present: 40 Church leaders

— “Zebedee Coltrin … saw the savior.” Joseph Smith

• January 28, 1836; at the Kirtland Temple, for the First temple ordinances bestowed on key leaders
• Present: approx 100 high priests, seventies, and elders

— “I see the Son of God sitting at the right hand of the Father.” Joseph Smith

• January 28, 1836; at the Kirtland Temple, for the First temple ordinances bestowed on key leaders
• Present: approx 100 high priests, seventies, and elders

— “The Savior made his appearance to some while angels ministered to others.” Joseph Smith

• March 30, 1836; at the Kirtland Temple, for the First temple ordinances bestowed on key leaders
• Present: approx 300 Leaders and Kirtland Stake members 

— “We saw the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit.” Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery

• April 3, 1836; at the Kirtland Temple, for Christ accepting Kirtland Temple dedication

Present: Joseph Smith & Oliver Cowdery

The visions of the Almighty by Oliver Cowdery

— “Mr. Oliver Cowdry [Cowdery] has his commission directly from the God of Heaven …. He has personally conversed [with Jesus Christ] – Ref: a newspaper article in an Ohio newspaper (Dec 1830), “The Book of Mormon,” Painesville [Ohio} Telegraph, December 7, 1830. TSK Note: The newspaper reporter could have confused Oliver’s accounts of the vision of Christ with accounts of when Oliver just heard His voice. The reference co “conversed” could pertain co Oliver’s hearing the Lord’s voice on two prior occasions. (TSK165)

–“The Lord … condescended to manifest to us his will. On a sudden, as from the midst of eternity, the voice of the Redeemer spake peace to us …. Our eyes beheld-our ears heard …. We were rapt in the vision of the Almighty! Where was room for doubt? No where: uncertainty had fled, doubt had sunk, no more to rise.” – Ref: Written in 1834, by Oliver Cowdery, The vision of the Almighty, a letter in Messenger and Advocate 1, no. 2 (November 1834): 15. (TSK165)

–“One word from the mouth of the Savior, from the bosom of eternity, strikes [ everything] into insignificance, and blots it forever from the mind! … The certainty that we heard the voice of Jesus, and the truth unsullied as it flowed from a pure personage, dictated by the will of God, is to me, past description, and I shall ever look upon this expression of the Savior’s goodness with wonder and thanksgiving while I am permitted to tarry, and in those mansions where perfection dwells and sin never comes, I hope to adore in that DAY which shall never cease!” — Ref: Cowdery, letter in Messenger and Advocate l, no. 2 (November 1834): 16. (TSK166)

The Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses

> “with uplifted hands, bore their [The Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses] solemn testimony to the truth of that book, as did also the Prophet Joseph.”

Ref: The Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses stood in front of possibly one hundred people and reaffirmed their written testimony at a conference in Orange, Ohio, in October 1831, near Kirtland; — “History of Luke Johnson: By Himself,” Millennial Star26 (December 31, 1864): 835.

> “You have probably read the testimony of the three witnesses …. These witnesses testify, that … the· voice of God declared it to be a Divine Record. To this they frequently testify, in the presence of large congregations.”

Ref: Ezra Booth, a former Methodist minister, wrote of their testimony. — Ezra Booth to Ira Eddy, October 24, 1831, “Mormonism-No. III,” [Ravenna] Ohio Star 2 (October 27, 1831): 3.

> Mr. Daton [Dayton] kindly offered to go with me to Brother David Whitmer and give me an introduction to him. As all of the higher officers were absent, I thought this would be my best way of learning what I wanted to know, and as Mr. Whitmer was one of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon, I thought I could learn something.

We walked to Mr. Whitmer’s. I got the necessary introduction and took dinner and spent the afternoon in hearing him relate things about the angel showing him the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated. I also asked him all the questions I had a wish to ask.

— Ref: Luman Shurtliff, an Ohio convert, wrote in his journal that he walked some distance to spend an afternoon with David Whitmer. — Luman Andros Shurtliff, Autobiography, typescript, 24, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

> “Do you [Martin Harris] still believe … that Joseph Smith was a prophet?” … A changed old man stood before me …. It was a man with a message, a man with a noble conviction in his heart, a man inspired of God and endowed with divine knowledge. Through the broken window of the Temple shone the winter sun, clear and radiant.

“Young man,” answered Martin Harris with impressiveness, “Do I believe it! Do you see the sun shining! Just as surely as the sun is shining on us and gives us light, and the [moon] and stars give us light by night, just as surely as the breath of life sustains us, so surely do I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God, chosen of God to open the last dispensation of the fulness of times; so surely do I know that the Book of Mormon was divinely translated. I saw the plates; I saw the Angel; I heard the voice of God …. I might as well doubt my own existence as to doubt … the divine calling of Joseph Smith.” … A halo seemed to encircle him. A divine fire glowed in his eyes. His voice throbbed with the sincerity and the conviction of his message.”

Ref: In 1869, William Homer, a missionary related to Martin through marriage, visited Kirtland and recorded Martin’s still-impressive testimony. This exchange occurred as Martin and Homer stood together in the Kirtland Temple — William Harrison Homer, “The Passing of Martin Harris,” Improvement Era 29 (March 1926): 469-70. (TSKp169)

The Vision of Eternities (D&C 76)

Joseph and Sidney saw and conversed with the Savior during the Vision of the Kingdoms (D&C 76:14). The Vision went on “for hours.” (TSK195). Joseph could have explained “100 fold more… were the people prepared to receive them.” (History of the church, 5:402)

Fifteen references to statements/conversations with the Savior:

“We conversed [with Jesus Christ] in the heavenly vision.”

“We heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father.”

“The Lord commanded us that we should write the vision.”

“Thus came the voice of the Lord unto us.”

“Thus saith the Lord concerning all those who … suffered themselves through the power of the devil to be overcome.”

“I say that it had been better for them never to have been born.”

“Concerning [the sons of perdition] I have said there is no forgiveness in this world nor in the world to come.”

“The voice out of the heavens bore record unto us.”

“I, the Lord, show it by vision unto many.”

“We heard the voice, saying: Write the vision.”

“We bear record – for we … heard.”

“The Lord commanded us to write [ the vision … of the terrestrial].”

“[We] heard the voice of the Lord saying: These all shall bow the knee.”

“We were commanded to write [the end of the vision].”

“He commanded us we should not write [the mysteries of his kingdom].”

            Ref: D&C 76:14-115; TSKp190

Joseph and Sidney

And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father-That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.

(Joseph Smith, Doctrine & Covenants 76:22-24)

Sidney testified in Apr 1844, the last conference before Joseph’s martyrdom

God had great things to say for the salvation of the world . . . . We were obliged to retire to our secret chambers, and commune ourselves with God …. There we sat in secret and beheld the glorious visions, and powers of the kingdom of heaven, pass and repass …. This was the period when God laid the foundation of the church, and he laid it firm’y, truly, and upon eternal truth. If any man says it is not the work of God, I know they lie …. I have the testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of prophecy; I have slept with it, I have walked with it; the idea has never been out of my heart for a moment, and I will reap the glory of it when I leave this world …. I know God, I have gazed upon the glory of God, the throne, visions and glories of God, and the visions of eternity in days gone by … when Jehovah looked on.”

Sidney Rigdon, Times and Seasons 5 (May 1, 1844): 523-24.

Sidney referring to the vision in D&C 76

            It is beauty it is heaven it is felicity to look on.

            (Sidney Rigdon, Times and Seasons 5 (May 1, 1844) (TSK194)

Elder Neal A Maxwell spoke of the splendor of Joseph and Sidney’s vision (D&C 76):

As we look at the universe, we do not see unexplained chaos or cosmic churn… It is like viewing a divinely choreographed, cosmic ballet – spectacular, subduing, and reassuring!”

            (Neal A Maxwell, “Our Creator’s Cosmos,” in By Study and by Faith: Selections from the Religious Educator, ed. Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Kent P Jackson [Provo Utah:Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 2009), 48).

The Resurrection:

Joseph Smith

Speaking to the Saints in Nauvoo in 1843,Joseph related even more details about the resurrection, which he said he had previously “seen in vision.”

38 38. History of the Church, 5:361. (TSK198)

Note: In July 1835 Joseph received the Egyptian papyrus scrolls, and translated them; The Vision of the Kingdoms (D&C 76) was received in 1832.

Joseph Smith

“I actually saw men, before they had ascended from the tomb, as though they were getting up slowly. They took each other by the hand… All your losses will be made up to you in the resurrection, provided you continue faithful. By the vision of the Almighty I have seen it.”

4040. History of the Church, 5:362. (TSK198)

(Quotes from A.D. 100-500: Early Christian(s)/Church Fathers, Apocryphal Works, Gnostics, Ecumenical
Councils.
(chrono)
The Wisdom of Solomon (Book of Wisdom) (circa 2 nd or 1 st century BCE)
Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE – A.D. 50)
The birth and death of Christ (6-4 BCE to A.D. 30-36)
Pope Clement I (A.D. 35-99)
The apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus (Acts of Pilate) (A.D. 1 st century)
The Prayer of Joseph (A.D. 1 st century)
Shepherd of Hermas (A.D. late 1 st or early 2 nd century)
The Odes of Solomon (circa A.D. 100)
St. Justin Martyr (A.D. 100-165)
St Iranaeus (A.D. 130-202)
The Marcionites (A.D. 140-400)
The Talmud (A.D. 2 nd century)
Theodotus the Gnostic (circa A.D. 2 nd century)
Jewish book of Jubilees (A.D. 2 nd century)
Clement of Alexandria (circa A.D. 150-215)
The Apocryphon of John [the apostle] (circa A.D. 150)
The Trimorphic Protennoia (circa A.D. mid 2 nd century)
Tertullian (circa A.D. 155-240)
The Epistle of the Apostles (circa A.D. 160)
St Hippolytus of Rome (A.D. 170-236)
The Apocalypse of Peter (A.D. 175-200)
Origen (A.D. 184-253)
Novatian of Rome (A.D. 200-258)
Lactantius (circa A.D. 260-330)
Pistis Sophia (circa A.D. 3 rd or 4 th centuries)
St Methodius (d. A.D. 311)
St Didymus the Blind (A.D. 313-398)
St Cyril of Jerusalem (circa A.D. 315-386)
Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis (circa A.D. 315-403)
Diodore, Bishop of Tarsus (A.D. 330-390)
St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (circa A.D. 333-397)

St John Chrysostom (A.D. circa 349-407)
Rufinus of Aquileia (circa A.D. 345-411)
St Jerome (A.D. 347-420)
St Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354-430)
Ambrosiaster (flourished circa A.D. 366-384)
The Apostles’ Creed (A.D. 390)
Synod of Hippo & Council of Carthage (A.D. 393, 397)
Ammonius (circa A.D. fifth century)
Severus, Bishop of Antioch (circa A.D. 465- 538)
The Second Council of Constantinople (A.D. 553)

Author’s note: The fact that Joseph Smith taught “new” doctrines (pre-mortal soul, vicarious
baptism for the dead) that were “unacceptable“ by his society, but were later proven to have
been taught 1500 years earlier by the Early Christian Fathers is a significant proof of his divine
call. He not only did this with a single doctrine, but with nine such basic doctrines. This would
be statistically impossible to duplicate without divine assistance. These teachings would have
been inaccessible to Joseph Smith.
Suppose you create a religion today, and set 9 doctrines as pillars of that religion that are
contrary to all of current religious thinking, and in 200 years those 9 doctrines will then have
been proven to have been taught by the founders of Christianity 1500 years earlier. – To any
rational mind, this would be absolutely impossible without divine assistance. 100% impossible!
Very helpful references for information on the Early Christian Fathers came from these
authors:

1. A marvelous book called “Do the Mormons have a Leg to Stand On,” by Scott R
   Peterson, published by Millennial Press, Inc. (Orem, UT) 2014, 392 pps.
2. Details for early writings to A.D. 325 —
   http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/index.html and
3. Fathers of the Second Century by Philip Scharff —
   http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/1819-
   1893,_Schaff._Philip,_1_Vol_02_Fathers_Of_The_Second_Century,_EN.pdf
4. A superb paper written by David L Paulsen and Brock M Mason entitled “Baptism for
   the Dead in Early Christianity” for the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship,
   Brigham Young University, Provo, UT; 29 pages; ISSN — 1948-7487 (print), 2167-7565
   (online). url — https://publications.mi.byu.edu/publications/jbms/19/2/S00004-
   5018489f69cae3BapDead.pdf
5. Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, “Baptisms for the
   Dead – Early Christianity”
   https://publications.mi.byu.edu/publications/jbms/19/2/S00004-
   5018489f69cae3BapDead.pdf

The Early Christians taught the pre-earth existence of the spirit

> There was … an invisible world before this visible one came into being. . . . In this world …
there were also souls …. These souls, for reasons known to God alone, enter into bodies at the
time of birth in this visible world: those souls … who in a former age had been inhabitants of
heaven, now dwell here, on this earth… (ECF-Ruf1, Rufinus of Aquileia)
> But when they had revolted from their former blessedness they were endowed with bodies in
consequence of the fall from their first estate which had taken place in them. (Origen, ECF
Orig18)
> [souls] descend upon the earth with a view to be bound up in mortal bodies. (Philo of
Alexandria, ECF-Phil1)
> The soul [spirit] is immortal, and … is self-governed: and though the devil can suggest, he has
not the power to compel against the will. (Cyril of Jerusalem, ECF-Cyr1)
> Individual souls were able to make choices [in that pre-mortal state]… [This is] the doctrine
of the entrance of souls into bodies. (Origen, ECF Orig4)
> I had a pleasant personality even as a child. I had been fortunate enough to receive a good
soul, or rather, I was given a sound body to live in because I was already good [before I was
born]. (The Wisdom of Solomon, ECF-SolW1)
> [Christ said] before they [man] had existed, I recognized them; and imprinted a seal on their
faces. I fashioned their members. …And he [God the Father] who created me [Christ] when yet
I was not knew what I would do when I came into being. (The Odes of Solomon, ECF-SolO1)
> Those whom he [God] foreknew, who were called according to his plan, i.e., who
demonstrated that they were worthy to be called by his plan and made conformable to Christ.
(Diodore, Bishop of Tarsus, ECF-Diod1)
> … that there were certain causes of prior existence, in consequence of which the souls, before
their birth in the body, contracted a certain amount of guilt …. For a soul is always in possession
of free-will as well when it is in the body as when it is without it; (Origen, ECF Orig11)
> … [our mortal bodies were] made according to the pre-existent form [of our spirits]. (Justin
Martyr, ECF-Mart1)

> … [in heaven] are stored the spirits and the souls which have still to be created (Chag. 12b),
i.e., the unborn souls which have yet to be united to bodies …. These souls await their time to
inhabit a human body. (The Talmud, ECF-Tal1)
> … [speaks of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as having a preexistence prior to when they]
descended to earth [to inhabit mortal] tabernacles [bodies]. (The Prayer of Joseph, ECF-Jos1)
> Every one [sic] … of those who descend to the earth is, according to his deserts, or agreeably
to the position which he occupied [in the premortal world] ordained to be born in this world, in
a different country, or among a different nation, on in a different mode of life, or surrounded by
infirmities of a different kind, or to be descended from religious parents, or parents who are not
religious. (Origen, ECF Orig5)
> Just as he said to Jeremiah, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,’ so, knowing what
Paul would be, God called him because he was able to serve. (Ambrosiaster, ECF-Ambr1)
> … on account of these merits [free will] or grounds they are, immediately on their birth, and
even before it, so to speak, assorted by Divine Providence for the endurance either [toward]
good or evil. (Origen, ECF Orig11)
> … [demonic forces at work here on the earth were] angels [who] sinned and revolted from
God [when they dwelled as spirits in the premortal]. (Justin Martyr, ECF-Mart2)
> [Moses looked] upon his abode in the body not only as a foreign land, as sojourners do, but
also as a land from which one ought to feel alienated, and never look upon it as one’s home.
(Philo of Alexandria, ECF-Phil2)
> … [there exists among the] heavenly [and] human [a] diversity of spiritual natures, [but it is]
absurd [to] ascribe [this diversity to God]. The cause of the diversity and variety among these
beings is due to their conduct [in the pre-mortal existence], which has been marked either with
greater earnestness or indifference, according to the goodness or badness of their nature, and not
to any partiality on the part of the Disposer [God]. (Origen, ECF Orig6)
> … can make to us, destined in the eye of God to faith before the foundation of the world …
(Clement of Alexandria, ECF-ClemA1)
> … [the] diversity of spiritual natures [that exists in the world has ben caused by the choices
made by beings prior to their birth, for] the soul of a man … was not formed along with his body
… but is proved to have been implanted strictly from without. (Origen, ECF Orig12)
> [on the] first day [of creation God produced] all of the spirits which minister before [Him,
including] all of the spirits of his creatures which are in heaven and on earth. (Jewish book of
Jubilees, ECF-Jub1)

> Whole nations of souls are stored away somewhere in a realm of their own, with an existence
comparable to our bodily life …. There the representations of evil and of virtue are set before
them; and so long as a soul continues to abide in the good it has no experience of union with a
body. [However, Origin warned] by some inclination towards evil these souls lose their wings
and come into bodies. (Origen, ECF Orig7)
> … the soul, before it came into this world, had committed no sin, but having come in sinless,
we now sin of our free will. (Cyril of Jerusalem, ECF-Cyr1)
> It is neither from want of discrimination, nor from any accidental cause, either that the
“principalities” hold their dominion, or the other orders of spirits have obtained their respective
offices; but that they have received the steps of their rank on account of their merits [in their
pre-earth existence]… the same view is to be entertained of those opposing influences which
have given themselves up to such places and offices, that they derive the property by which they
are made “principalities,” or “powers,” or rulers of the darkness of the world, or spirits of
wickedness, or malignant spirits, or unclean demons, not from their essential nature, nor from
their being so created, but have obtained these degrees in evil in proportion to their conduct [in
their pre-earth existence], and the progress which they made in wickedness. (Origen, ECF
Orig13)
> … [human souls] are begotten wholly apart, and not along with their respective [earthly]
bodies. (Justin Martyr, ECF-Mart3)
> [The soul of man, because of transgression, is] borne downwards to earth, until it can lay hold
of some stable resting-place. (Origen, ECF Orig8)
> [affirms] the pre-mortal existence of the soul. (Pope Clement I, ECF-ClemI1)
> The happiness or unhappiness of each one’s birth, or whatever be the condition that falls to his
lot [during mortality, cannot] be deemed accidental [but is due to the soul’s pre-earth actions].
(Origen, ECF Orig14)
> Only one word [in Ecclesiastes 12:7] that remains irreconcilable with the theory that each
soul is made in its own body, namely, the word “returneth,” in the expression “returneth to
God;” for in what sense can the soul return to Him with whom it has not formerly been?
(Augustine of Hippo, ECF-Aug2)
> [the preexistence] is a sphere of action before mortality that could account for the ordering of
the temporal sphere [in which so much inequality exists in consequence of choices made].
(Origen, ECF Orig9)
> … [souls] already exist somewhere and are sent by God into the bodies of those who are born
[and others holding that soul] sink into bodies by their own choice. (Augustine of Hippo, ECF-
Aug1)

> … [the souls whom God had] predestined to fill [the earth would have sufficient time to do
so]… (Pope Clement I, ECF-ClemI4)
> … let us inquire whether God, the creator and founder of all things, created certain of them
[the soul] holy and happy, so that they could admit no element at all of an opposite kind, and
certain others so that they were made capable both of virtue and vice; [Origen infers the answer
is “no” but due to each individual’s pre-existent spiritual actions] (Origen, ECF Orig1)
> I will prove to them that men have existed before they were born. (Ambrose, ECF-Ambe1)
> … If, then, when they were not yet born, and had not done any-thing either good or evil, in
order that God’s purpose according to election might stand … (Origen, ECF-Orig2)
> … [those] destined to be in Him… [as preexisting] before the foundation of the world. (Pope
Clement I, ECF-ClemI1)
> How could his soul and its images be formed along with his body, who, before he was created
in the womb, is said to be known to God, and was sanctified by Him before his birth? (Origen,
ECF-Orig3)
> … let them [the contrarians] show [explain how] that Jacob whilst yet hidden in the secret
chamber of his mother’s womb supplanted his brother, had not been appointed and ordained, ere
ever he was born; let them show that Jeremiah had not likewise been so, before his
birth…(Ambrose, ECF-Ambe1)
> … [speaks of man’s] internal species [spirit] [as being] older [than] all things [and that God]
had prepared all things [for man’s] sake [and] use. (Pope Clement I, ECF-ClemI2)
> … but although incorporeal [intangible, not physical], they were nevertheless created,
because all things were made by God through Christ…. (Origen, ECF-Orig3)
> As to the opinion that every man’s soul is made separately within him at the time of his
creation, it is supposed that, if this were the case, the soul should have been spoken of [in
Ecclesiastes 12:7] as returning, not to God who gave it, but to God who made it; for the word
“gave” seems to imply that that which could be given had already a separate existence. The
words “returneth to God” are further insisted upon by some, who say, How could it return to a
place where It had never been before? Accordingly they maintain that, if the soul is to be
believed to have never been with God before, the words should have been “it goes,” or “goes
on,” or “goes away,” rather than it “returns” to God. (Augustine of Hippo, ECF-Aug2)
> … [wrote that he] constantly [thought about questions such as] Did I exist before I was born?
(Pope Clement I, ECF-ClemI3)

> But since those rational creatures [spirits created before mortality] themselves … were
endowed with the power of free-will, this freedom of will incited each on either to progress by
imitation of God, or reduced him to failure through negligence. And this, as we have already
stated, is the cause of the diversity among rational creatures, deriving its origin not from the will
or judgment of the Creator, but from the freedom of the individual will. (Origen, ECF Orig10)

The Early Christians taught of the existence of a spirit world between death and the
resurrection

> For there is a place whither the souls of the just and the unjust are taken, conscious of the
anticipated dooms of future judgment. (Novatian of Rome, ECF-Nov1)
> … every soul is detained in safe keeping in Hades until the day of the Lord. (Tertullian, ECF-
Tert1)
> For by decree [humans] were held in the lower world. (Ambrosiaster, ECF-Amb2)
> … it is manifest that the souls of [Christ’s] disciples … shall go away into the invisible place
allotted to them by God, and there remain until the resurrection, awaiting that event. (Iranaeus,
ECF-Iran1)
> … [the unrighteous in mortality are] temporarily punished [and the righteous went to a]
locality full of light. (Hippolytus, ECF-Hipp1)
> [the righteous were in] the bosom of Abraham … [and the wicked] in Hades … [waiting] the
end of the world … [and] the resurrection. (Methodius, ECF-Meth1)
> For all are detained in one and a common place of confinement, until the arrival of the time in
which the great Judge shall make an investigation… (Lactantius, ECF-Lact1)
> … [some say it is only] the wicked souls that are banished in Hades… [however there are]
two regions [in the postmortal realm of spirits] the region of the good or of the bad. (Tertullian,
ECF-Tert2)
> The souls of the pious remain in a better place, while those of the unjust and wicked are in a
worse, waiting for the time of judgment. (Justin Martyr, ECF-Mart4)
> And again, from the sayings of the same Jeremiah these have been cut out: The Lord God
remembered His dead people of Israel who lay in the graves; and He descended to preach to
them His own salvation. (Justin Martyr, ECF-Mart5)

> [spoke of those who reject a postmortal world of spirits for the righteous and the wicked as]
inconsistent. (Iranaeus, ECF-Iran2)
> I think … that all the saints who depart from this life will remain in some place situated on the
earth, which holy Scripture calls paradise, as in some place of instruction, and, so to speak,
class-room or school of souls, in which they are to be instructed regarding all the things which
they had seen on earth, and are to receive also some information respecting things that are to
follow in the future. (Origen, ECF3-Orig15)
> … the soul undergoes punishment and consolation in Hades in the interval, while it awaits …
a certain anticipation either of gloom or of glory. ((Tertullian, ECF-Tert3)
> … [Of this] descent …that when He [Jesus Christ] became a soul [or spirit
without a body], without the covering of the body, He dwelt among those souls
which were without bodily covering [those who themselves were now only spirits,
having died physically], converting such of them as were willing to Himself.
(Origen, ECF3-Orig16)
> But now we must speak of Hades, in which the souls both of the righteous and the
unrighteous are detained. . . . This locality has been destined to be as it were a guard-house for
souls, at which the angels are station[ed] as guards, distributing according to each one’s deeds
the temporary punishments for different characters. (Hippolytus, ECF-Hipp2)
> [Jesus Christ set free] all the dead who had been bound … the angels of the Lord say: The
Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. And immediately with these words the
brazen gates were shattered, and the iron bars broken, and all the dead who had been bound
came out of the prisons …. And the King of glory came in in the form of a man, and all the dark
places … were lighted up. (Gospel of Nicodemus, ECF-Nic1)

The Early Christians taught about the preaching of the gospel in the spirit world

> It is evident that those, too, who were outside the Law, having lived rightly, in consequence
of the peculiar nature of the voice [of God to them], though they are in Hades and in (a prison]
ward, on hearing the voice of the Lord, whether that of His own person or that acting through
His apostles, with all speed turned and believed …. (Clement of Alexandria, ECF-ClemA2)
> [to those in hell who accepted Christ, he placed his] name upon their head(s) [and made them]
free. (The Odes of Solomon, ECF-SolO2)
> Forgiveness was not granted to everyone in hell, but only to those who believed and
acknowledged Christ… (Severus, Bishop of Antioch, ECF-Sev1)

> He [Jesus Christ] became a soul [or spirit without a body], [and] converting such of them as
were willing [in spirit prison] to Himself. (Origen, ECF Orig16)
> Lord Jesus Christ came bearing the baggage of captivity… preaching remission to those who
had been taken captive [in spirit prison] and release to those held in chains. (Jerome, ECF-Jer1)
> … [how Christ’s] apostles and teachers [after they died] preached the name of the Son of God
[to those who were dead]… For they slept in righteousness and in great purity, but only they had
not this seal of baptism. (Shepherd of Hermas, ECF-Shep1)
> … the Lord [after His death] preached the Gospel to those that perished in the flood. (Clement
of Alexandria, ECF-ClemA6)
> I have often heard people ask: What good does it do the departed spirit, whether the person
was good or bad in life, to be remembered in prayer? . . . Answer: By doing for them and for
ourselves what a loving God requires, we make available [through preaching] the atoning
sacrifice which Christ made for our sins. (Cyril of Jerusalem, ECF-Cyr2)
[Jesus] preached the way which leads to eternal salvation on earth, and to all who were in hell,
so that they might believe… (Ammonius , ECF-Amm1)
> And the Shepherd [of Hermas], speaking plainly of those who had fallen asleep [died],
recognizes certain righteous among Gentiles and Jews … [who] preached to those that had
fallen asleep before. (Clement of Alexandria, ECF-ClemA7)
> … the Lord descended to Hades … to preach the Gospel, … For it is not right that these
[deceased gentiles] should be condemned without trial, and that those alone who lived after the
advent should have the advantage of the divine righteousness. (Clement of Alexandria, ECF-
ClemA2)
> These are the apostles and teachers who proclaimed the name of the Son of God, who, having
fallen asleep in power and faith of the Son of God, even proclaimed to those who had
previously fallen asleep [died] and gave them the seal of the proclamation. They descended with
them into the water and came up again, except that these descended alive and came up alive.
Because of them, these others were enlivened and came to know the name of the Son of God.
(Shepherd of Hermas, ECF-Shep3)

> [These deceased leaders] preached to those that had fallen asleep before: [that through Christ’s
appointed] apostles and teachers [the deceased who (in mortality) knew not Christ could be]
made alive [through learning about and embracing] the name of the Son of God. (Clement of
Alexandria, ECF-ClemA5)

> … he descended … so that he might preach to the dead, that all who desired him might be set
free. (Ambrosiaster, ECF-Amb2)
> He [Christ] … is become the preacher of the Gospel to the dead, the redeemer, and the
resurrection of the buried. (Hippolytus, ECF-Hipp4)
> Do not the Scriptures show that the Lord preached the Gospel to those that perished in the
flood, or…. to those kept ‘in [a prison] ward and guard’? (Clement of Alexandria, ECF-
ClemA4)
> It is plain that, since God is no respecter of persons, the apostles also, as here, so there [spirit
world], preached the Gospel to those of the heathen who were ready for conversion … (Clement
of Alexandria, ECF-ClemA2)
> … and [Christ] preached unto the righteous and the prophets [in the place of Lazarus], that
they might come out of the rest which is below and come up into that which is above… (The
Epistle of the Apostles, ECF-EpistA1)
And those [in hell] who believed he [Christ] brought back with him, but those who did not
believe, he cast back again into their previous state. (Ammonius , ECF-Amm1)
> [John who served as Jesus’] forerunner [in mortality and also in the postmortal world of
spirits]. [John was the first to preach to those in Hades to] ransom the souls of the saints from
the hand of death. (Hippolytus, ECF-Hipp5)
> these [Christ’s] apostles and teachers who preached the name of the Son of God, having fallen
asleep [died] in the power and faith of the Son of God, preached also to those who had fallen
asleep before them… (Shepherd of Hermas, ECF-Shep2)
> … that the apostles, following the Lord, preached the Gospel to those in Hades … those
possessed of … righteousness, and whose life had been pre-eminent, on repenting of their
transgressions, though found in another [faith], … should be saved, each one according to his
individual knowledge. (Clement of Alexandria, ECF-ClemA2)

The Early Christians taught about Christ’s descent into the spirit world (between his
death on Friday and the resurrection on Sunday)
> The Lord descended into the regions beneath the earth, preaching His advent there also, and
declaring the remission of sins received by those who believe in Him. (Iranaeus, ECF-Iran4)
> Christ descended into hell in order to acquaint [its residents] with his redeeming mission.
(Tertullian, ECF-Tert5)

> Peter, in his general epistle, mentions Jesus’ descent into hell. (Origen, ECF Orig17)
> Until he [Christ] appeared in the lower regions everyone, including those who had been
educated in righteousness, was bound by the chains of death and was awaiting his arrival there,
for the way to paradise was closed to them …. Nevertheless, not everyone who was in the lower
regions responded to Christ when he went there, but only those who believed in him. (Severus,
Bishop of Antioch, ECF-Sev2)
> … he [Christ] descended to the heart of the world, so that he might preach to the dead …
(Ambrosiaster, ECF-Amb2)
> … the Lord descended to Hades for no other end but to preach the Gospel, (Clement of
Alexandria, ECF-ClemA2)
> The Lord God remembered His dead people of Israel who lay in the graves; and He
descended to preach to them His own salvation. (Justin Martyr, ECF-Mart5)
> He [Christ] who delivered from the lowest hell the man first made of earth, when lost and
bound by the chains of death; (Hippolytus, ECF-Hipp4)
> [Jesus] descended to the lower parts [so that he could] bring fulfillment to those who were in
those regions [if they were willing] to receive [Him]. (Jerome, ECF-Jer2)
> As Jeremiah declares, “The holy Lord remembered His dead Israel, who slept in the land of
sepulture: and He descended to them to make known to them His salvation, that they might be
saved.” (Iranaeus, ECF-Iran5)
> For to that end went I [Christ] down unto the place of Lazarus [spirit world]…
(The Epistle of the Apostles, ECF-EpistA1)
> [after Jesus death He went] preaching the Gospel to the souls [of the good people who had
died before Jesus’ mortal ministry]. (Hippolytus, ECF-Hipp3)
> [Christ] suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into
hell. On the third day he rose again. (The Apostles’ Creed, ECF-Apos1)
> If, then, He preached the Gospel to those in he flesh that they might not be condemned
unjustly, how is it conceivable that He did not for the same cause preach the Gospel to those
who had departed this life before His advent? (Clement of Alexandria, ECF-ClemA3)
> [Jesus] preached the way which leads to eternal salvation on earth, and to all who were in
hell, so that they might believe… (Ammonius , ECF-Amm1)

> I [Christ] entered the midst of darkness and the bowels of the underworld [Hades, spirit
world], turning to my task. … so they might not be destroyed… (The Apocryphon of John,
ECF-AJ1)
> For three days He [Christ] dwelt in the place where the dead were… to rescue and save them.
(Iranaeus, ECF-Iran6)
> [Jesus’s descended into hell] to save those who had not known him on earth. (The Apostles’
Creed, ECF-Apos2)
> The Lord descended to the parts under the earth, announcing to them also the good news of
his coming, there being remission of sins for such as believe on him. (Iranaeus, ECF-Iran3)
> [Christ descended] deep in the earth [means the abode of the dead.] (John Chrysostom, ECF-
Chry1)
> Now that he [Christ] ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the
lower parts of the earth? (Ephesians 4:9)

The Early Christians taught about vicarious baptism for the dead

> It seems that some people were at that time being baptized for the dead because they were
afraid that someone who was not baptized would either not rise at all or else rise merely in order
to be condemned. (Ambrosiaster, ECF-Amb3)
> … the dying are allowed baptism; (Epiphanius of Salamis, ECF-Epip2)
> They [in the spirit world] will all test that soul to find their signs in it, as well as their seals
and their baptisms and their anointing. And the virgin of the Light will seal that soul, and the
workers will baptize it and give it the spiritual anointing. (Pistis Sophia, ECF-Pist1)
> …it is certain that they [the Corinthian Christians] adopted this practice with such a
presumption as made them suppose that the vicarious baptism… would be beneficial to the
flesh of another in anticipation of the resurrection; (Tertullian, ECF-Tert4)
> They went down therefore with them into the water [baptism] and came up again, but the
latter went down alive and came up alive, while the former, who had fallen asleep before, went
down dead but came up alive. Through them, therefore, they were made alive, and received the
knowledge of the name of the Son of God. (Shepherd of Hermas, ECF-Shep2)
> After a catechumen (i.e., one prepared for baptism, but not actually baptised) was dead, they
[the Marcionites] hid a living man under the bed of the deceased; then coming to the bed of the
dead man they spake to him, and asked whether he would receive baptism, and he making no

answer, the other replied in his stead, and so they baptised the ‘living for the dead.’ (John
Chrysostom, ECF-Chry2)
>… and I [Christ] poured out upon them [in the spirit world] with my right hand the water
[baptism, Ethiopic text] of life and forgiveness and salvation from all evil, as I have done unto
you and unto them that believe on me. (The Epistle of the Apostles, ECF-EpistA1)
> … was aware of the practice [baptism for the dead], even in his day (i.e., early fifth century),
as widespread as Corinth, Asia, and Galatia. (Epiphanius of Salamis, ECF-Epip1)
> I [Christ in the spirit world] raised and sealed the person in luminous water [baptism] with
Five Seals that death might not prevail over the person… (The Apocryphon of John, ECF-AJ1)
> They had to rise through water [baptism] . . . in order to be made alive. …. So too, those who
had fallen asleep [died] received the seal bearing the name of [the Son of] God . . . a person is
dead. But upon receiving the seal, the person puts aside deadliness and takes on life. So the seal
is the water. Into the water they go down dead and come up alive. (Shepherd of Hermas, ECF-
Shep3)
> And, they say, those who are baptized for the dead, these are the Angels who are baptized for
us, so that, as we also possess the NAME, we are not bound by the Limit and the Cross, and
prevented from entering Pleroma (fulness, light above this world). (Theodotus The Gnostic,
ECF-Theo1)
> Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are
they then baptized for the dead? (1 Corinthians 15:29)
> … when any of them had died without baptism they used to baptize others in their name.
(Epiphanius of Salamis, ECF-Epip3)
> The Marcionites baptized the living on behalf of dead unbelievers… (Didymus the Blind,
ECF-Did1)
> Now never mind that practice, whatever it may have been . . . do not suppose that the apostle
here indicates some new god as the author and advocate of this [baptism for the dead. His only
aim in alluding to it was] that he might all the more firmly insist upon the resurrection of the
body… (Tertullian, ECF-Tert5)
> [I, Christ, gave to him] from the Water [of Life, which strips] him of the Chaos [that is in the]
uttermost [darkness] … and they [covered] him with a robe from the robes of the Light; and I
delivered him to the Baptists and they baptized him-… and they immersed him in the spring of
the [Water] of Life. . . . and they glorified him with the glory of the Fatherhood. (The
Trimorphic Protennoia, ECF-TP1)

> I will g<ive> to my called [damned souls in the spirit world] and my elect … a beautiful
baptism in salvation from the Acherousian Lake [Hades] .., a share in righteousness with my
saints. (The Apocalypse of Peter, ECF-ApocP1)
> … when any Catechumen [one unbaptized} departs [dies] among them, having concealed the
living man under the couch of the dead, they approach the corpse and talk with him, and ask
him if he wishes to receive baptism; then when he makes no answer, he that is concealed
underneath saith in his stead that of course he should wish to be baptized; and so they baptize
him instead of the departed… (John Chrysostom, ECF-Chry3)
> … if a good man has fulfilled all the mysteries, and he has a relative, in a word, he has a man
and that man is an impious one who has committed all the sins which are worthy of the outer
darkness… And may they place it (the baptism) upon that soul, and seal it with the sign of the
Kingdom of the Ineffable, and may they take it to the ranks of the light. . . . Truly, I say to you:
the soul for which you shall pray, if indeed it is in the dragon of the outer darkness, it will
withdraw its tail out of its mouth, and release that soul. (Pistis Sophia, ECF-Pist2)
> when some of their people died too soon, without baptism, others would be
baptized for them in their names, so that they would not be punished for rising unbaptized at the
resurrection… (Epiphanius of Salamis, ECF-Epip4)
> [quoted 1 Corinthians 15:29] Now it is certain that they [the Corinthians] adopted this
(practice) with such a presumption as made them suppose that the vicarious baptism (in
question) would be beneficial to the flesh of another in anticipation of the resurrection.
(Tertullian, ECF-Tert7)
> The sect [Marcionites who practice baptism for the dead] is still to be found even now
[Epiphanius, A.D. 315-403], in Rome and Italy, Egypt and Palestine, Arabia and Syria, Cyprus
and the Thebaid — in Persia too moreover, and in other places. (Epiphanius of Salamis, ECF-
Epip5)
> There was an uncertain tradition handed down [baptism for the dead among the Cerinthian]
that it was also to be found among some heretics in Asia, especially in Galatia, in the times of
the Apostles. (Epiphanius of Salamis, ECF-Epip6)

Ecumenical Councils forbidding baptism for the dead and declaring the pre-existence of
the spirit anathema (offensive and cursed)
> Anathema I: IF anyone asserts the fabulous [fabled] pre-existence of souls, and shall assert
the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema [cursed]. (The Fifth
Ecumenical Councils A.D. 553, ECF-EC1)

> The Eucharist shall not be given to dead bodies, nor baptism conferred upon them. (The
Fourth Canon of the Synod of Hippo A.D. 393, ECF-EC2)
> … Nor let the ignorance of the presbyters baptize those who are dead. …The Eucharist is not
to be given to the body of one dead for it neither eats nor drinks. The ignorance of a presbyter
shall not baptize a dead man. (The Council of Carthage, A.D. 397, ECF-EC3)

================================================

Sources for non-apostolic quotes
A. ECF – The Early Christian Fathers, Apocryphal Works, Councils – about the pre-earth
spirit, spirit world after death, Christ’s descent to the spirit world, baptism for the dead
-ECF-Ambe1 – Ambrose –
Of the Christian Faith,” Book 4, Chapter 9, Verse 113, in Schaff and Wace (2004),
10:277.
-ECF-Ambr1 – Ambrosiaster –
“Epistle to the Galatians,” 1.16.2, in Mark J. Edwards, editor, Ancient Christian
Commentary on Scripture: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians (Downders Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 1999), 11.
-ECF-Ambr2 – Ambrosiaster – “Epistles to the Ephesians,” 4.9, in Mark J. Edwards,
editor, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians
(Downders Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 164.
-ECF-Ambr3 – Ambrosiaster – “Commentary on Paul’s Epistles,” cited in Gerald Bray,
editor, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture-1-2 Corinthians (Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 166.
-ECF-Amm1 – Ammonius –
“Catena,” quoted in Gerald Bray, editor, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture-1-
2 Corinthians (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), p 108.
-ECF-ApocP1 – The Apocalypse of Peter –
p.14, translation from the Greek Rainer Fragment, by Dennis D. Buchholz, Your Eyes
Will Be Opened: A Study of the Greek (Ethiopic) Apocalypse of Peter (Atlanta:
Scholars, 1988), 344-45.
-ECF-AJ1 – The Apocryphon of John –
Selections from Apocryphon of John-Hymn of the Savior 30, 11-31, 25, in Meyer, Nag
Hammadi Scriptures, 131-32.
-ECF-Apos1 – The Apostles’ Creed –
Synod in Milan, AD 390 (Wikipedia) – United States Catholic Catechism for Adults
(2006), 46.
-ECF-Apos2 – The Apostles’ Creed – Gardiner M. Day, An Interpretation for Today
(New York: Scribner’s Sons, 1963), 81.

-ECF-Aug1 – Augustine of Hippo –
“On Free Choice of Will,” p 21, in On Free Choice of the Will, Thomas Williams,
translator, pub by Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 1993
-ECF-Aug2 – Augustine of Hippo – “Letters of Augustine,” Letter 143, in Philip Schaff,
editor, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers-First Series, fourteen volumes (Peabody, MA:
Hendrickson Publishers, 2004), 1:493.
-ECF-Chry1 – John Chrysostom –
“Homily on Ephesians,” II.4.9.10, cited in Edwards (1999), 164.
-ECF-Chry2 – John Chrysostom – Homily XL, referring to I Cor. 15:29.
-ECF-Chry2 – John Chrysostom – Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians
40, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, 12:244.
-ECF-ClemI1 – Pope Clement I –
Terry L Givens, When Souls Had Wings – Pre-mortal Existence in Western Thought.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2010, p 82.
-ECF-ClemI2 – Pope Clement I – “Recognitions of Clement,” Book 1, Chapter 28, in
Roberts and Donaldson (1994), 8:85.
-ECF-ClemI3 – Pope Clement I – “Recognitions of Clement,” Book 1, Chapter 1, in
Roberts and Donaldson (1994), 8:77.
-ECF-ClemI4 – Pope Clement I – “Recognitions of Clement,” Book 3, Chapter 26, in
Roberts and Donaldson (1994), 8:121.
-ECF-ClemA1 – Clement of Alexandria –
“The Instructor,” Book 1, Chapter 7, in Roberts and Donaldson (1994), 2:224.
-ECF-ClemA2 – Clement of Alexandria – “The Stromata,” Book 6, Chapter 6, in
Roberts and Donaldson (1994), 2:490-491.
-ECF-ClemA3 – Clement of Alexandria – “The Stromata,” Book 6, Chapter 6, in
Roberts and Donaldson (1994), 2:492.
-ECF-ClemA4 – Clement of Alexandria – “The Stromata,” Book 6, Chapter 6, in
Roberts and Donaldson (1994), 2:490.
-ECF-ClemA5 – Clement of Alexandria – “The Stromata,” Book 2, Chapter 9, in
Roberts and Donaldson (1994), 2:357.
-ECF-ClemA6 – Clement of Alexandria – “The Stromata,” Book 6, Chapter 6, in
Roberts and Donaldson (1994), 2:490.
-ECF-ClemA7 – Clement of Alexandria – The Stromata,” Book 2, Chapter 9, in
Roberts and Donaldson (1994), 2:357.
-ECF-Cyr1 – Cyril of Jerusalem –
“Catechetical Lectures,” Lecture 4, Verse 19, in Schaff and Wace (2004), 7:23.
-ECF-Cyr2 – Cyril of Jerusalem – Vs. 10. Cited in Hugh Nibley, The Message of the
Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book
Company, 1975), 282.
-ECF-Did1 – Didymus the Blind –
Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church; see Bray, Ancient Christian Commentary
on Scripture: 1 and 2 Corinthians, 166.
-ECF-Diod1 – Diodore, Bishop of Tarsus –

“Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church,” in Gerald Bray, editor, Ancient
Christian Commentary on Scripture-Romans (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,
1998), 235.
-ECF-EC1 – Ecumenical Councils –
The Fifth Ecumenical Council (The Second Council of Constantinople, A. D. 553, The
Anathemas Against Origen.
-ECF-EC2 – Ecumenical Councils – The fourth canon of the Synod of Hippo, held in
A.D. 393.
-ECF-EC3 – Ecumenical Councils – Greek Cannon xx of the Council of Carthage, 28
aug 397.
-ECF-Epip1 – Epiphanius of Salamis –
in Williams (1987 & 1994), 1: 110, S.v., Book 1, Section 2, Chapter 6, Verses 4-5.
-ECF-Epip2 – Epiphanius of Salamis – in Williams (1987 & 1994), 1:110, S.v., Book 1,
Section 2, Chapter 6, Verse 5.
-ECF-Epip3 – Epiphanius of Salamis – Heresies, 8:7
-ECF-Epip4 – Epiphanius of Salamis – Epiphanius, Panarion: Against Cerinthians 6,4-
5, in Williams, Panarion of Epiphanius, 120 n. 137.
-ECF-Epip5 – Epiphanius of Salamis – Epiphanius, Panarion: Against Marcionites 22,
in Frank Williams, trans., The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamais; Leiden: Brill, 2009;
p 294.
-ECF-Epip6 – Epiphanius of Salamis – Against Marcion, Book V, Chap. X.
-ECF-EpistA1 – The Epistle of the Apostles –
Verse 27. Cited from Montague Rhodes James, The Apocryphal New
Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955), 494.
-ECF-Hipp1 – Hippolytus –
“Against Plato, on the Cause of the Universe,” Verses 1, 2, in Alexander Roberts and
James Donaldson, editors, Ante-Nicene Fathers, ten volumes (Peabody, MA:
Hendrickson, 1994), 5:221-222.
-ECF-Hipp2 – Hippolytus – ”Against Plato, On the Cause of the Universe,” Verse 1, in
Roberts and Donaldson (1994), 5:221.
-ECF-Hipp3 – Hippolytus – “Treatise on Christ and AntiChrist,” Verse 26, in Roberts
and Donaldson (1994), 5:209.
-ECF-Hipp4 – Hippolytus – “Fragments from Commentaries — On Psalm 119 or 110,”
in Roberts and Donaldson (1994), 5:170
-ECF-Hipp5 – Hippolytus – “Treatise on Christ and AntiChrist,” Verse 45, in Roberts
and Donaldson (1994), 5:213.
-ECF-Iran1- Irenaeus –
Against Heresies 5:31; The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 1:560-561, Buffalo: The Christian
Literature Publishing Company, 1885-1896.
-ECF-Iran2- Irenaeus – “Against Heresies,” Book 2, Chapter 29, in Roberts and
Donaldson (1994), 1:403.

• ECF-Iran3- Irenaeus – Against Heresies 4.27.1, cited in J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic
  Fathers (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1962), pp. 277-78.

-ECF-Iran4- Irenaeus – ”Against Heresies,” book 4, chapter 27, verse 2, in Roberts
and Donaldson (1994), 1:499.
-ECF-Iran5- Irenaeus – ”Against Heresies,” Book 4, Chapter 22, Verse 1, in Roberts
and Donaldson (1994), 1:493-494.
-ECF-Iran6- Irenaeus – “Against Heresies,” Book 5, Chapter 31, Verse 1, in Roberts
and Donaldson (1994), 1:560.
-ECF-Jer1 – Jerome –
“Epistle to the Ephesians,” 2.4.8., cited in Mark J. Edwards, editor, Ancient Christian
Commentary on Scripture-Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians (Downers Grove, IL:
lnterVarsity Press, 1999), 163.
-ECF-Jer2 – Jerome – “Epistle to the Ephesians,” 2.4.10, Mark J. Edwards, editor,
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture-Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians
(Downers Grove, IL: lnterVarsity Press, 1999), 165.
-ECF-Jos1 – The Prayer of Joseph –
Fragment A, Verses 1-5, in Charlesworth (1983 & 1985), 2:713.
-ECF-Jub1 – Jewish book of Jubilees –
in Charlesworth (1983 & 1985), 2:55.
-ECF-Lact1 – Lactantius –
“Divine Institutes,” Book 7, Chapter 21, in Roberts and Donaldson (1994), 7:217.
-ECF-Mar1 – Info about The Marcionites –
Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never
Knew (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 109 – AND — Epiphanius, Panarion:
Against Marcionites 22, in Frank Williams, trans., The Panarion of Epiphanius of
Salamais; Leiden: Brill, 2009; p 294.
-ECF-Mart1 – Justin Martyr –
“Justin’s Hortatory Address to the Greeks,” Chapter 30, in Roberts and Donaldson
(1994), 1:286.
-ECF-Mart2 – Justin Martyr – “Dialogue with Trypho,” Chapter 79, in Roberts and
Donaldson (1994), 1:238.
-ECF-Mart3 – Justin Martyr – Terry L Givens, When Souls Had Wings – Pre-mortal
Existence in Western Thought. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010, p 83.
-ECF-Mart4 – Justin Martyr – Dialogue with Trypho 5 & 71-72; The Ante-Nicene
Fathers, 1:197 & 234-235, Buffalo: The Christian Literature Publishing Company,
1885-1896; cf. Davies, The Early Christian Church, 100.
-ECF-Mart5 – Justin Martyr – “Dialogue with Trypho,” chapter 72, in Roberts and
Donaldson (1994), 1:235.
-ECF-Meth1 – Methodius –
“From the Discourse on the Resurrection,” Chapter 19, in Roberts and Donaldson
(1994), 6:377.
-ECF-Nic1 – The Gospel of Nicodemus –
The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 8:438, Buffalo: The Christian Literature Publishing
Company, 1885-1896.
-ECF-Nov1 – Novatian of Rome –
“Treatise Concerning the Trinity,” Chapter 1, in Roberts and Donaldson (1994), 5:612.

-ECF-Orig1 – Origen –
De Principiis 1:3.
-ECF-Orig2 – Origen – De Principiis 2:25.
-ECF-Orig3 – Origen – De Principiis 1:7:1, 3-4.
-ECF-Orig4 – Origen – Kent S Brown, “Souls, Preexistence Of.” In the Anchor Bible
dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman, 6:161. 6 vol. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
-ECF-Orig5 – Origen – De Principiis 4:372-373.
-ECF-Orig6 – Origen – De Principiis 4:265.
-ECF-Orig7 – Origen – De Principiis, Book 1, Chapter 8, as quoted in Origen on the
First Principles, Being Koetschaus Text of the De Princippiis, trans. G. W Butterworth
(New York: Harper & Row, 1966), 72-73.
-ECF-Orig8 – Origen – “Against Celsus,” Book 4, Chapter 40, in Roberts and
Donaldson (1994), 4:516.
-ECF-Orig9 – Origen – Terry L Givens, When Souls Had Wings – Pre-mortal Existence
in Western Thought. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010, 94.
-ECF-Orig10 – Origen – De Principiis 4:292.
-ECF-Orig11 – Origen – De Principiis 4:337.
-ECF-Orig12 – Origen – De Principiis 4:263-265.
-ECF-Orig13 – Origen – De Principiis 4:266.
-ECF-Orig14 – Origen – De Principiis 4:292.
-ECF-Orig15 – Origen – De Principiis 2:11:6 & Against Celsus 2:43.
-ECF-Orig16 – Origen – Against Celsus 4:448.
-ECF-Orig17 – Origen – “Origen’s Commentary on the Gospel of John,” quoted in
Gerald Bray, editor, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture- James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3
John, Jude (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), p 107.
-ECF-Orig18 – Origen – “First Principles,” Book 1, Chapter 8, as quoted in Origen on
the First Principles, Being Koetschau’s Text of the De Princippiis, trans. G. W
Butterworth (1936), 67.
-ECF-Phil1 – Philo of Alexandria –
“On Dreams,” Book 1, Chapter 22, Number 138 in C. D. Yonge, translator, The Works
of Philo, new updated version, complete and unabridged (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson
Publishers, 1997), 377.
-ECF-Phil2 – Philo of Alexandria – “On the Confusion of Tongues,” Chapter 17,
Number 82, in Yonge (1997), 241.
-ECF-Pist1 – Pistis Sophia –
Pistis Sophia: 18 Lines 291-292, cited in Nibley, The Message of the Joseph Smith
Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment, 175.
-ECF-Pist2 – Pistis Sophia – Pistis Sophia: Carl Schmidt, ed., Violet Macdermot,
trans., Pistis Sophia – Book III, 128 (Leiden: Brill, 1978), 322-24.
-ECF-Ruf1 – Rufinus of Aquileia –
”Apology-Book l,” Verse 27, in Schaff and Wace (2004), 3:449.
-ECF-Sev1 – Severus, Bishop of Antioch –

“Catena,” quoted in Gerald Bray, editor, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture-
James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), p
108.
-ECF-Shep1 – Shepherd of Hermas –
“The Shepherd of Hermas,” Book 3, Similitude Nine, Chapter 16, in Roberts and
Donaldson (1994), 2:49.
-ECF-Shep2 – Shepherd of Hermas – Similitude 9.16.2-4 (Loeb Classical Library,
Kirsopp Lake trans.); cited in Anderson, Understanding Paul, pp. 407-8.
-ECF-Shep3 – Shepherd of Hermas – Similitude 9:16, 2-4, 5-7, in Carolyn Osiek,
Shepherd of Hermas: A Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999), 232-233, brackets
in original.
-ECF-SolO1 – The Odes of Solomon –
8:13-14 & 7:9, in James H. Charlesworth, editor, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha,
two volumes (New York: Doubleday, 1983 & 1985), 2:742 & 740.
-ECF-SolO2 – The Odes of Solomon – Odes of Solomon 42:20; see further Paulsen,
Cook, and Christensen, “Harrowing of Hell,” 62-65.
-ECF-SolW1 – The Wisdom of Solomon –
Good News Bible, Wisdom of Solomon 8:19-20.
-ECF-Tal1 – The Talmud –
Abraham Cohen, Everyman’s Talmud (New York: Schocken Books, 1995), 78.
-ECF-Theo1 – Theodotus The Gnostic –
as quoted by Clement of Alexandria: Authors’ translation based on Franois Sagnard,
trans., Clément D’Alexandrie: Extraits de Théodote (Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 1970),
103.
-ECF-Tert1 – Tertullian –
“A Treatise on the Soul,” Chapter 55, in Roberts and Donaldson (1994), 3:231.
-ECF-Tert2 – Tertullian – ”A Treatise on the Soul,” Chapter 56, in Roberts and
Donaldson (1994), 3:233.
-ECF-Tert3 – Tertullian – “A Treatise on the Soul,” Chapter 58, in Roberts and
Donaldson (1994), 3:234.
-ECF-Tert4 – Tertullian – “On the Resurrection of the Flesh,” Chapter 48, in Roberts
and Donaldson (1994), 3:581-582.
-ECF-Tert5 – Tertullian – “On the Soul,” quoted in Gerald Bray, editor, Ancient
Christian Commentary on Scripture- James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), p 107.
-ECF-Tert6 – Tertullian – Against Marcion, Book V, Chap. X.
-ECF-Tert7 – Tertullian – “On the Resurrection of the Flesh,” Chapter 48, in Ante-
Nicene Fathers, 3:581
-ECF-TP1 – The Trimorphic Protennoia –
Charles W. Hedrick, ed., Trimorphic Protennoia 48, 5-35, in Nag Hammadi Codices XI,
XII, XIII (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 429.