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Defender of the First Vision

Milton V. Backman, Jr.

Orson Pratt, c. 1849, a Frederick Piercy lithograph. Courtesy LDS Church Archives.

One of the most able and ardent defenders of the divine calling of Joseph Smith was Orson Pratt. After he had devoted more than fifty years in proclaiming and defending the everlasting gospel, one of his missionary companions, Elder Wilford Woodruff, paid a spontaneous tribute to this capable leader. "We are not in the habit of flattering any man," he said to Latter-day Saints who had gathered in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in September 1880,

but I want to say a few words concerning Brother Pratt…. If there is any man that has travelled more miles in preaching the Gospel of Christ, in bearing testimony of the kingdom of God on the earth, I do not know who he is…. He has lifted up his voice long and loud, according to the commandment of God to him, in bearing record of this Gospel.

Elder Pratt was probably responsible for the conversion of more people to the restoration movement than any other early leader; and during his long life of missionary service, he was in several respects the most vigorous defender of Joseph Smith's initial theopany near Palmyra.

Before his conversion to Mormonism, Orson Pratt was involved in a conscientious quest for religious truth. He attended various religious gatherings, including services conducted by Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists. "Hour after hour," while resting from his farming labors, he prayed in secluded fields and groves, seeking direction from the Lord regarding which church he should join. Something whispered to him, however, that he should not unite with any of the religious communities he was then investigating.

One reason Orson Pratt did not join any church before 1830 was his rejection of the concept of Deity described in the popular creeds of Christendom. For example, Pratt pondering the Methodist Articles of Religion, questioned the doctrine that God was "entirely spiritual," that he was a divine being without body, parts, and passions-and that God was three persons of one essence. He confessed that as a youth he could not comprehend this trinitarian concept. As he studied science, he learned that everything that existed was composed of parts; and as he reflected on his early rejection of a popular belief he reasoned, how could one of the three persons be crucified if he had no body, and how was it possible for him to lay down a body which he did not possess? Before learning about the reality of a restoration, he decided that the concept of God popularized by communities he investigated was not only incomprehensible but incorrect.