Very few times in the scriptures or histories do we hear of people or Prophets seeing both Our Father in Heaven and/or Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is rare and what a blessing that would be. I can’t imagine the joy of Joseph Smith as these two perfect beings appeared to this 14 year old. It is a sure witness to me that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God: Many have also heard the voice of God or our Savior. The manifestations below will inspire you to seek His counsel in all that you do.
John Taylor said, “Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!” D&C 135:3. I love Joseph and Hyrum.
President Hinckley said, “I feel today the presence of the Father and the Son.” The Many Visits of the Father and the Son in This Dispensation By Scot Facer Proctor.
The Life of Levi Hancock, p. 33
And we beheld the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father, and received of his fulness; And saw the holy angels, and them who are sanctified before his throne, worshipping God, and the Lamb, who worship him forever and ever.” See D&C 76:15-21
Philo Dibble, in Juvenile Instructor, May 1892, pp. 303–4
Author Karl Ricks Anderson
“God the Father and His son Jesus Christ both appeared in Kirtland 5 times. The Lord appeared to Joseph Smith 11 times in Kirtland. There are 23 people I have found, where the Savior Jesus Christ appeared to each of them.” Karl Anderson (Podcast with Rod Meldrum 2024)
Church history is filled with amazing stories of courage and divine inspiration, but often we skip over the profound events that happened to the Saints in Kirtland, Ohio. In this volume, author Karl Ricks Anderson brings to light unparalleled events and divine manifestations that were given during those early years of the Restoration. In Kirtland the Savior personally directed His Church and taught His Saints by appearing to at least twenty-three Church leaders or by speaking to them. Brother Anderson points out that more first-person words of the Lord have gone out to the world from Kirtland than from any other location in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
It was in Kirtland that Jesus Christ taught the world about His mission of the Atonement, the premortal and the postmortal worlds, and the structure of the Church. It was there He commanded that the first latter-day temple be built. And it was in the Kirtland Temple that the Lord began to restore sacred ordinances for the salvation of His children.
The Savior’s visits to Kirtland fulfilled millennia of promises from the Old and New Testaments as well as from the Book of Mormon. The story of Kirtland is a story of Christ — the two can never be separated.
The Father and the Son appear to members of The School of the Prophets
Kirtland, Ohio 1833
Zebedee Coltrin, a member of the School of the Prophets records: “At one of these meetings after the organization of the school, (the school being organized on the 23rd of January, 1833, when we were all together, Joseph having given instructions, and while engaged in silent prayer, kneeling, with our hands uplifted each one praying in silence, no one whispered above his breath, a personage walked through the room from east to west, and Joseph asked if we saw him. I saw him and suppose the others did and Joseph answered that is Jesus, the Son of God, our elder brother. Afterward Joseph told us to resume our former position in prayer, which we did. Another person came through; he was surrounded as with a flame of fire. He (Brother Coltrin) 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. I saw Him.
When asked about the kind of clothing the Father had on, 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. He sat in a chair as a man would sit in a chair, but 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. The Prophet Joseph said: 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.
This appearance occurred about two or three weeks after the opening of the school. After the Father had passed through, Joseph told us to again take our positions in prayer. We did so, and in a very short time he drew our attention and said to us that Brother Reynolds Cahoon was about to leave us, and told us to look at him. He (Brother Cahoon) was on his knees and his arms were extended, his hands and wrists, head, face and neck down to his shoulders were as a piece of amber, clear and transparent, his blood having apparently left his veins. Upon the attention of the brethren being thus called to Brother Cahoon, the change seemed to pass away and Joseph said that in a few minutes more, Brother Cahoon would have left us, but he came to himself again. The school room was in the upper room of [Newel K.] Whitney’s store. . . .” Source: Minutes, Salt Lake City School of the Prophets, October 11, 1883. REMARKS OF ZEBEDEE COLTRIN on KIRTLAND, OHIO HISTORY OF THE CHURCH Source: Minutes, Salt Lake City School of the Prophets, October 3, 1883.
Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and Zebedee Coltrin behold Adam and Eve
Vision of Adam and Eve
Once after returning from a mission, he [Zebedee Coltrin] met Brother Joseph in Kirtland, who asked him if he did not wish to go with him to a conference at New Portage. The party consisted of Presidents Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Oliver Cowdery and myself [Zebedee Coltrin]. Next morning at New Portage, he noticed that Joseph seemed to have a far off look in his eyes, or was looking at a distance and presently he, Joseph, stepped between Brothers Cowdery and Coltrin and taking them by the arm, said, “Let’s take a walk.” They went to a place where there was some beautiful grass and grapevines and swamp beech interlaced. President Joseph Smith then said, “Let us pray.” They all three prayed in turn—Joseph, Oliver, and Zebedee. Brother Joseph then said, “Now brethren, we will see some visions.” Joseph lay down on the ground on his back and stretched out his arms and the two brethren lay on them. The heavens gradually opened, and they saw a golden throne, on a circular foundation, something like a light house, and on the throne were two aged personages, having white hair, and clothed in white garments. They were the two most beautiful and perfect specimens of mankind he ever saw. Joseph said, “They are our first parents, Adam and Eve.” Adam was a large, broad-shouldered man, and Eve as a woman, was large in proportion.
Notes
Graffam, ed., Salt Lake School of the Prophets Minute Book: 1883, 64. In a first person recital of this vision on pages 102-103 of this same source, Coltrin adds, “Their heads were white as snow, and their faces shone with youth.” (see also “The Papers of Zebedee Coltrin,” in E. Cecil McGavin, The Record of the Spanish Fork Branch [29 April 1866 to 1 December 1898], LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah, 251.
The Father and the Son appear to members of The School of the Prophets
Brigham Young sustained from heaven
In the month of February, 1848, the Twelve Apostles met at Hyde Park, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, where a small branch of the Church was established. .. We were in prayer and council, communing together; and what took place on that occasion? The voice of God came from on high and spake to the Council. Every latent feeling was aroused, and every heart melted. What did it say to us? ‘Let my servant Brigham step forth and receive the full power of the presiding Priesthood in my Church and Kingdom.’ This was the voice of the Almighty unto us at Council Bluffs. . . .
We said nothing about the matter in those times, but kept it still. . . . Men, women, and children came running together where we were, and asked us what was the matter. They said their houses shook, and the ground trembled, and they did not know but that there was an earthquake. We told them that there was nothing the matter—not to be alarmed; the Lord was only whispering to us a little, and that he was probably not very far off. We felt no shaking of the earth or of the house, but were filled with the exceeding power and goodness of God. Source:
Orson Hyde 1805-1878
Elder Hyde related this incident, in public, on 7 October 1860. On the same day Brigham Young verified the content of the story. “Brother Hyde, in his remarks, spoke about the voice of God at a certain time. I could tell many incidents relating to that circumstance, which he did not take time to relate. We were in his house, which was some ten or twelve feet square. The houses in the neighborhood shook, or, if they did not, the people thought they did, for they ran together and enquired whether there had been an earthquake. We told them that the voice of God had reached the earth- that they need not be afraid; it was the power of God.” 2
On 21 October 1860, Elder Hyde related this story once again. He “boldly declared that the Lord manifested himself to them, the (12) in council assembled at Hyde’s Park, Pottowatomie Nation, on their return from the valley and said with a voice of thunder that made the earth tremble, “This is my servant Brigham in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him, for he shall be the leader of my people and shall hold the keys of the kingdom as did my servant Joseph Smith.” Source
Notes
Journal of Discourses, 8: 234. It is worth noting that Myrtle Hyde puts the date of the revelation in Orson Hyde’s modest home to December 5, 1847. She writes, “Sunday, December 5, 1847, the eight men arrived in Hyde Park, breath of men and horses forming clouds in the frosty air… At dusk, five o’clock, the meeting began. The fire received Orson’s regular attention, warmth emanating from the blazing wood in front of the large backlog in the fireplace. The nearness of the cabin walls enhanced the feelings of unity in the small room. Brigham Young, president of the Quorum of the Twelve, disclosed that the need for a Presidency of the Church “lies with weight upon my mind,” adding, “I have been stirred up to do this by the Spirit of the Lord.” He asked the other apostles to tell their feelings upon the subject. In turn, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, Willard Richards, Wilford Woodruff, George A. Smith, Amasa Lyman, and Ezra T. Benson manifested sincere opinions. They conversed more, and they prayed, a sublime outpouring of the Holy Spirit assuring the nine companions of Heaven’s acceptance of their efforts. Absorbed with the enveloping peace in the room, Orson looked upward in sudden astonishment when he heard a rich encompassing voice. The sound originated somewhere beyond and above the circle of the brethren. Quickened to the center of his soul, Orson knew the source: “The voice of God came from on high, and spake to the Council.” The words were brief, the message direct: “Let my servant Brigham step forth and receive the full power of the presiding Priesthood in my Church and kingdom.” (Myrtle Hyde, Orson Hyde: The Olive Branch of Israel, p. 221). Journal of Discourses 8:196. Robert G. Cleland and Juanita Brooks, eds., A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee 1848-1876 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1983), 1:278; cf. Matthew 3:17; John 12:29; Revelation 14:2; 2 Samuel 22:14; Job 37:5.