“Voices of the Restoration: Testimonies of ‘the Vision’,” Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: Doctrine and Covenants 2025 (2025)
“Testimonies of ‘the Vision’,” Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: 2025
Voices of the Restoration: Testimonies of “the Vision”
Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff joined the Church in December 1833, nearly two years after Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon received the vision recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 76. He was living in New York at the time and learned about “the Vision” from missionaries serving in the area. Years later, he spoke of his impressions of this revelation:
“I was taught from my childhood that there was one Heaven and one Hell, and was told that the wicked all had one punishment and the righteous one glory. …
“… When I read the vision … , it enlightened my mind and gave me great joy, it appeared to me that the God who revealed that principle unto man was wise, just and true, possessed both the best of attributes and good sense and knowledge, I felt He was consistent with both love, mercy, justice and judgment, and I felt to love the Lord more than ever before in my life.”1
“The ‘Vision’ [is] a revelation which gives more light, more truth and more principle than any revelation contained in any other book we ever read. It makes plain to our understanding our present condition, where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going to. Any man may know through that revelation what his part and condition will be.”2
“Before I saw Joseph I said I did not care how old he was, or how young he was; I did not care how he looked—whether his hair was long or short; the man that advanced that revelation [the vision recorded in section 76] was a prophet of God. I knew it for myself.”3
Phebe Crosby Peck
When Phebe Peck heard Joseph and Sidney teach of “the Vision,” she was living in Missouri and raising five children as a single mother. The vision so impressed and inspired her that she wrote the following to share what she had learned with her extended family:
“The Lord is revealing the mysteries of the heavenly Kingdom unto his Children. … Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon made us a visit last spring, and we had many joyful meetings while they were here, and we had many mysteries unfolded to our view, which gave me great consolation. We could view the condescension of God in preparing mansions of peace for his children. And whoso will not receive the fullness of the gospel and stand as valiant soldiers in the cause of Christ cannot dwell in the presence of the Father and the Son. But there is a place prepared for all who do not receive, but it is a place of much lesser glory than to dwell in the Celestial kingdom. I shall not attempt to say any farther concerning these things as they are now in print and are going forth to the world. And you perhaps will have an opportunity of reading for yourself, and if you do, I hope you will read with a careful and a prayerful heart, for these things are worthy of notice. And I desire that you may search into them, for it is that which lends to our happiness in this world and in the world to come.”4