"In 1820, as He had done throughout history, Father in Heaven again chose a prophet to restore the gospel and the priesthood to the earth. He called a young man named Joseph Smith, and through him, the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth."see mormon.org

The story goes from here that Joseph was in turmoil as to which of all of the churches he should join.

And to make a long story short, he went to pray about whichchurch he should join. He did this after reading the scripture in James 1:5 that says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."

Then this is where this hub will focus on these next events.

For the official version of the First Vision of Joseph Smith visit this page at LDS.org. And to access the different versions of Joseph Smith's First Vision, see Joseph Smith's History wherein these accounts are told. Also, a lot of the controversy came about when some of William Smith's details were different. William Smith was the brother of the prophet, he was 9 at the time of Joseph Smith's First Vision.

Craig Ray gives an excellent breakdown of the First Vision and the historical facts surrounding this event.

There have been accusations that because Joseph Smith gave differing accounts of the First Vision that it must be fraudulent. Let's take a little closer look at that.

Do the various accounts of the first vision contradict each other?

Now, I am not a scriptorian, or even an intelligent one, but here's my simple reasoning and point of view.

First, let me start by saying, I think there are 9 different accounts of the first vision.

Next, in my simple brain, some of the accounts can be explained like this....Think of yourself sitting outside your house on the porch when all of a sudden a car accident happens right in front of your house. The cops come, take your statement, because you are a witness. Then when everything settles down, you call to tell your spouse what happened. Then the next day you tell your friend what happened. Then a month later you tell your co-worker what happened. Now, think about this...Do you tell all those people the exact same thing each time you tell the story about what happened? No way! And neither did Joseph Smith. If I was telling the cops what happened in the car accident, I probably would be more exacting in certain details and less emotional. However, when I told my spouse, I would probably be highly emotional, leaving some details out. Then a month later when I told my co-worker, it would probably be a lot different than when I told people the day after.

However, just because the story is told differently doesn't mean the car accident didn't happen. Just because there are different versions of the first vision doesn't mean it didn't happen.

From Jeff Lindsay, we read, "Do reliable documents written or approved by Joseph contradict each other?

No (a possible exception: in one place the wrong town may have been mentioned), but the accounts focus on different aspects of a significant and overwhelming experience. This is not real evidence of fraud, any more than Paul's varying accounts of his first vision in the New Testament make Paul a deceiver. Hundreds of details are associated with any major event in history or in one's life, and which ones are included and given focus is a function of the mindset, purposes, and maturity of the writer. The 1832 version was a private writing as Joseph began working on a history of the Church. It focused on what may have been most important to young Joseph at the time: being told by Christ that he had been forgiven of his sins. The 1832 does not speak of seeing God and Christ, but mentions seeing "the Lord." The 1838 account speaks of seeing two Beings, the Father and the Son, and notes that the Father introduced the Son to Joseph, saying "Hear Him!" From then on, the message was presented by the Son, who has directed the restoration of His Church from the beginning. Critics cry foul, but the two documents are compatible. Leaving something unsaid is not the same as a contradiction. Later versions of the account were intended to let others know of the apostasy and the call to restore the Church of Christ, and did not discuss the personal aspect of Joseph's sins being forgiven."

In fact Jeff Lindsay does a great job on his site discussing the controversy further and you can take a look at it here.