Walters argues that church membership records, ministerial appointments, and contemporary reports place the multi-denominational Palmyra revival described in Smith’s later history in 1824–25 rather than 1820. He proposes that the later founding narrative combined and redated earlier material, and argues that because the 1838 account ties the vision to this revival, the misdating undermines that account’s reliability as history.
- Wesley P. Walters, “New Light on Mormon Origins from the Palmyra Revival,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 4, no. 1 (1969): 60–81.
We also show that in 1820 there was no revival in any of the churches in Palmyra and its vicinity.