Zebedee Coltrin was one of the early converts to the Church of Christ which was afterward renamed The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served as a missionary in Missouri, as a general authority (one of the early presidents of the Seventy) and was one of the original members of the School of the Prophets. After this school was reinstituted in the Salt Lake Valley, John Taylor invited the aging Coltrin to give his testimony of an experience he had in the early days of the school in kirtland above the Whitney store. Brother Coltrin relates:
“At one of these meetings after the organization of the school, (the school being organized on the 23rd of January, 1833), when we were all together, Joseph having given instructions, and while engaged in silent prayer, kneeling, with our hands uplifted each one praying in silence, no one whispered above his breath, a personage walked through the room from east to west, and Joseph asked if we saw him. I saw him and suppose the others did and Joseph answered that is Jesus, the Son of God, our elder brother. Afterward Joseph told us to resume our former position in prayer, which we did. Another person came through; he was surrounded as with a flame of fire. The Prophet Joseph said this was the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I saw Him. “When asked about the kind of clothing the Father had on, Brother Coltrin said: I did not discover his clothing for he was surrounded as with a flame of fire, which was so brilliant that I could not discover anything else but his person. I saw his hands, his legs, his feet, his eyes, nose, mouth, head and body in the shape and form of a perfect man. He sat in a chair as a man would sit in a chair, but this appearance was so grand and overwhelming that it seemed I should melt down in his presence, and the sensation was so powerful that it thrilled through my whole system and I felt it in the marrow of my bones.”
Brother Coltrin concluded his testimony by repeating the initial charge that Joseph Smith gave in 1833 to those at the original Kirtland School of the Prophets. Joseph told them:
“Brethren, now you are prepared to be the apostles of Jesus Christ, for you have seen both the Father and the Son and know that They exist and that They are two separate personages.” (Minutes, Salt Lake City School of the Prophets, October 3, 1883)