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November 16, 1835

On November 14, 1835, the Prophet Joseph Smith received a visit from a man named Erastus Holmes.[1] Holmes traveled from Miami Township, Clermont County, Ohio, around 230 miles south of Kirtland, to learn more about the Church and its precepts.[2] Much more well-known to Latter-day Saints today than the revelation Joseph would ultimately give to Holmes was the conversation that preceded it.[3] Joseph’s journal notes how he “gave [Holmes] a brief relation of [his] experience while in [his] juvenile years,” including a remarkable experience as a young man when he “received the first visitation of angels,” which he noted was when he was “about 14 years old.” Joseph also told Holmes about “the visitations that [he] received afterward, concerning the Book of Mormon, and a short account of the rise and progress of the church.”[4]

After relating this, the Prophet reported that Holmes listened “very attentively and seemed highly gratified,” and that he expressed a desire to join the Church. Joseph’s recounting of his visionary experiences to Holmes was similar to a telling of these events that he gave to a certain Robert Matthews less than a week before.[5] Holmes remained in Kirtland for the next few days, attended meetings, viewed the recently acquired Egyptian antiquities, and dined with the Prophet. He informed Joseph that he was a member of the Methodist Church but had been excommunicated therefrom for receiving missionaries from the restored Church of Jesus Christ into his home.

Before returning home, Holmes requested to know the Lord’s will as to whether he should be baptized in Kirtland or upon his return to Miami Township. The following revelation answered his question, telling him he should not be baptized in Kirtland. The revelation also includes a warning for Holmes to avoid traveling by water and to beware of men seeking his destruction. The instruction to avoid water was likely influenced by a previous revelation warning of the danger of traveling by water (Doctrine and Covenants 61). When Holmes departed Kirtland, Joseph was confident that he would obey the commandment of the Lord. However, there is no evidence that Holmes ever joined the Church.[6]

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The same night I received the word of the Lord on Mr. Erastus Holmes’s case. He had desired that I would inquire at the hand of the Lord whether it was his duty to be baptized here or wait until he returned home. The word of the Lord came unto me, saying that Mr. Holmes had better not be baptized here and that he had better not return by water, also that there were three men that were seeking his destruction and to beware of his enemies.

Notes

[1] JSP, J1:100.

[2] JSP, D5:63.

[3] See Dean C. Jessee, “The Earliest Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” BYU Studies 9, no. 3 (Spring 1969): 286; Dean C. Jessee, “The Earliest Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844, ed. John W. Welch, 2nd ed. (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2017): 13; James B. Allen and John W. Welch, “Analysis of Joseph Smith’s Accounts of His First Vision,” in Opening the Heavens, 48–50.

[4] JSP, J1:100.

[5] JSP, D5:39–42. The Prophet may have omitted details of his story when talking to Holmes because of the negative reception that he received from Matthews a few days prior.

[6] JSP, J1:105.