THE ANGEL NEPHI OR MORONI APPEARS TO JOSEPH SMITH
After three years go by with Joseph smith committing many sins and transgressions in his own handwriting (circa summer 1832) “…when I was seventeen years of age (according to Oliver Cowdery he was now 19 or 20 years of age) I called again upon the Lord”. No explanation is given why he waited three years after seeing Jesus Christ to once again “call upon” him. “…and he shewed (sp) unto me a heavenly vision for behold an angel of the Lord came and stood before me and it was by night and he called me by name and he said the Lord had forgiven me my sins and he revealed unto me that in the Town of Manchester Ontario County N.Y. there was plates of gold upon which there was engravings which was
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Nobody else in his household remarked of any such manifestation occurring in the house that night. I wonder what he means by “consuming” and “unquenchable” fire? And how could he tell?
An observation comes to mind. At no time has the Lord or this angel told Joseph Smith he was to start a church or that he was to continue asking for more revelations from God. In fact Joseph Smith did not ask for any other revelations after his first vision until three years later when he felt he had to pray to God once more for the forgiveness of his sins. God is not coming to him, but rather he is going to the Lord, at his own leisure it would seem when sufficiently feeling the need to be forgiven for his sins and transgressions.
But wait! Oliver Cowdery comes to the rescue here and tells us that Christ tells Joseph Smith not to join any of the churches as they are all wrong and are an “abomination” and that he (Joseph Smith) will be used to show him the way. So did Joseph Smith forget this part of his first vision (or had writers cramp?) so Oliver Cowdery had to fill in what really