“For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it.” — Joseph Smith Jr.1
After the First Vision, Joseph decided to share the divine visitation with a Methodist preacher who first treated the experience with contempt and then anger. the preacher announced that the vision was "of the devil" and that all visions had ceased with the apostles.1
Joseph found that many people around him reacted this way—disbelief and disdain—and he experienced much persecution and ridicule because of it.2 Joesph noticed quickly that, while he had just been an obscure boy, men of high standing in different religious sects all united to persecute him.3 He noted that he "felt like Paul," who had been denounced as a liar and a madman when relaying his own vision.4
