“And when I considered upon these things my heart exclaimed, Well hath the wise man said it is a fool that saith in his heart there is no God [see Psalm 53:1]. My heart exclaimed, All these bear testimony and bespeak an omnipotent and omnipresent power, a Being who maketh laws and decreeth and bindeth all things in their bounds, who filleth eternity, who was and is and will be from all eternity to eternity. And when I considered all these things and that that Being seeketh such to worship him as worship him in spirit and in truth [see John 4:23], therefore I cried unto the Lord for mercy, for there was none else to whom I could go and obtain mercy.” - Joseph Smith

Joseph’s faithful prayer for mercy and wisdom was answered with the First Vision. That vision gave the young Prophet far greater knowledge about God than any of the churches of his day possessed, knowledge that had been lost to the world for centuries. In the First Vision, Joseph learned for himself that the Father and the Son are individual beings, that Their power is greater than the power of evil, and that man is indeed fashioned in God’s image—truths that are essential in understanding our actual relationship to our Father in Heaven.

The first step, in my mind, toward the absolute ease in contemplating an embodied God ... is our commitment ... to the reality of the resurrection. What is the big deal about Christianity if there's no resurrection? We've had other good teachers. There have been other good men and women. This case, this is the first time that anyone who was dead, under his own power and the power given to him by his Father, got up, took off his own burial garments and ascended into heaven, embodied. If it is no mystery that Christ is embodied -- and that's the entire significance, to me, of the resurrection -- then there is no challenge to me, intellectually or otherwise, in taking the next step to say God his Father can certainly be embodied. ... But I do agree that it does seem foreign, and it does seem quite revolutionary. ...

When Joseph Smith saw [God and Jesus], he saw embodied beings. He saw men the way you and I would see men, with all the biblical features, the way Moses said he saw them, with eyes and ears and hands and faces. And behind that is the great humanity of such men: hearts. ... So we are unequivocal in our declaration that Joseph Smith saw beings, glorified and beyond description, not looking like I look to you -- thank heavens -- but nevertheless embodied, with arms and fingers that touch, and the same finger that Moses saw write those tablets, yes.

We declare without equivocation that God the Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, appeared in person to the boy Joseph Smith. When I was interviewed by Mike Wallace on the 60 Minutes program, he asked me if I actually believed that. I replied, "Yes, sir. That's the miracle of it." That is the way I feel about it. Our whole strength rests on the validity of that vision. It either occurred or it did not occur. If it did not, then this work is a fraud. If it did, then it is the most important and wonderful work under the heavens.