Latter-Day Saints Family
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was founded in 1830 by
Joseph Smith. He had been strongly influenced in his youth by revival-oriented
evangelists and wanted to join a religious group professing the truth about
God. His quest ended in frustration.
He reportedly then experienced a series of visions, first of God the Father
and Jesus, then John the Baptist, and then various angels. In 1827 he claimed
to have received plates of gold upon which was engraved the Book of Mormon,
written in a form of Egyptian. He also claimed to have received two stones
called the "Urim and Thummim" used to translate the tablets. One
source compared them to crystal balls.
The Book of Mormon told the story of the Jeredistes, who came to America
after the attempt to build the Tower of Babel, and the Israelites, who came
after the destruction of Jerusalem in the sixth century BC. Both groups
eventually disappeared, with American Indians as the remnant. The last of the
prophets of the Israelite group wrote a history which was buried in what came
to be New York.
In 1830, the Book of Mormon was published and the Church organized. The
Mormons quickly became outcasts.
Smith also presented his followers with the Book of Moses, the Book of
Abraham, and an inspired translation of the Bible. Also, new revelations were
given about specific issues and gathered into the Book of Commandments, later
called the Doctrine and Covenants (D.C.).
The pattern of receiving authoritative revelations created problems before
and after Smith's death, with splinter groups forming around the revelations
and prophecies of leaders. The Saints migrated due to internal and external
turmoil from Kirkland, Ohio, to Independence, Missouri, to Nauvoo, Illinois,
and finally, after Joseph Smith's murder, to Salt Lake City, Utah. There were
not only schisms and excommunications but violence against and by Smith's group.
Smith died in 1844, killed along with his brother and two followers by a mob
that broke into the jail where they were being held. With no clear successor,
the Saints split into four groups that gave rise over the years to 50 more
groups.
Sidney Rigdon was among the first to claim to be Smith's successor, and a
few followed him back to Pennsylvania. James Jesse Strang also claimed to be
Smith's successor and some followed him to Wisconsin and eventually to Beaver
Island, Michigan. The largest group took their guidance from Brigham Young and
migrated to Utah. This group survives today as the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
In the decade after Smith's death, attempts were made to reorganize groups
that had earlier scattered throughout the Midwest, under the leadership of
Joseph Smith III, Joseph Smith's son. In 1860 the new group became known as the
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
It drew some of its early strength from the followers of Strang who defected
after his death in 1856. Still others who did not make the trek to Utah quietly
moved back to Independence, Missouri, and bought the tract of land which had
been cited in the Doctrine and Covenants as the site of the temple in the
coming kingdom of Zion predicted by Smith.
BELIEFS
The key idea in Smith's theology was restorationism, the restoring of the
apostolic Church which had been lost. Restorationism had been a major concept
of the Disciples of Christ (Campbellite) from which Smith's early confidant,
Sidney Rigdon, came. Smith believed that the true church died with the first
generation of apostles and was restored only with his reported ordination at
the hands of John the Baptist on May 15, 1829. He reported that he and Oliver
Cowdery were at that time given the Priesthood of Aaron. Later he reported
receiving the Priesthood of Melchizedek on April 6, 1830, and that marked the
founding of the new Church.
The Articles of Faith, written shortly before Joseph Smith's death, are
still used by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and most of the
groups which have derived from it. The statement uses usual Christian language
and terms, but with very different meanings. For example, the first article in
the statement states a belief in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus
Christ, and in the Holy Spirit. Rather than being a statement about the
Trinity, it is an affirmation of three separate gods, a kind of polytheism.
The articles deny original sin, stating that humans are not punished for Adam's sin, just their own. Christ's atonement establishes a condition by which individuals may be saved if they are obedient to the laws and ordinances of God. There are four ordinances: faith, repentance, Baptism by immersion, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Smith reported that the proper organization for the Church was also revealed
to him, and included specialized roles such as apostles, prophets, pastors,
teachers, evangelists, and others.
The church presents both the Bible and the Book of Mormon to be the Word of
God. Not mentioned in the Articles of Faith are other writings to which
authority is given, the Pearl of Great Price, which contains the Book of Moses
and the Book of Abraham, and the Doctrine and Covenants. Smith also began work
on an inspired translation of the Bible. That translation is not used by the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but is used by the Reorganized
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Revelation is believed to be open,
and new revelations are added to the Doctrine and Covenants as they are
received.
The statement also affirms that the future kingdom of Zion will be built,
not at Jerusalem in the Holy Land, but on the American continent. According to
the Doctrine of Covenants, Zion will be centered on present-day Independence,
Missouri. Others believe it will be centered on Salt Lake City. Prior to the
establishment of Zion, there will be a "gathering" of the Saints in
the immediate area.
ORGANIZATION
The church structure to be used is considered to have been revealed. There
are two orders of priesthood. The Aaronic Priesthood is the lesser order. All
adult males are members, and from it are drawn deacons, teachers, and priests.
The Melchizedek Priesthood is the higher order, and from it come the church's
highest leaders.
The church is ruled by a series of councils. Leading the church is the First
Presidency, composed of three people: the President and two other high priests
elected by the 12 Apostles. Unanimous decisions by the council of Apostles have
authority equal to the decisions of the First Presidency.
The presiding quorum of 70 and the presiding bishopric comprise the other two ruling councils. The presiding bishopric holds jurisdiction over the duties of other bishops in the church and over the organization of the Aaronic Priesthood.
Most Mormons may be divided into Utah Mormons and Missouri Mormons, names
that refer to their history more than to their current headquarters. The groups
considered Utah Mormons either have their headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah,
or were established by a former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. The groups considered Missouri Mormons rejected the
direction of Brigham Young, who led the Saints to Salt Lake City. The Missouri
Mormons instead place a strong emphasis on the prophecy that the temple was to
be built in Independence, Missouri.
POLYGAMY
No turmoil has so affected the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
as the controversy over its practice of polygamy in the post-Civil War era.
Twenty years of practice had made polygamy an essential part of the Mormon
social system and theology, and it was only after a lengthy battle that the church
gave in to pressure from the larger society. This capitulation was in the form
of a manifesto in 1890 by President Wilford Woodruff abolishing the practice of
plural marriage.
Groups continuing the practice of polygamy have existed up until the present
time.
Most of the groups of polygamy-practicing Mormons accept a common history
which dates to 1886, four years prior to the manifesto. On September 26, 1886,
at a meeting of church leaders to consider a document on the polygamy question,
President John Taylor is supposed to have spent a night in conversation with
Joseph Smith and the Lord. The next morning President Taylor denounced the
document and asked each member to pledge himself to the principle of plural
marriage. After the meeting, supposedly, five copies were made of the
revelation of the Lord on plural marriage; and five menóSamuel Bateman, Charles H.
Wilkins, George Q. Cannon, John W. Woolley, and Lorin C. Woolleyówere
given authority to administer the covenant (i.e., plural marriage) and to see
that no year passed without some children being born in the covenant. Taylor
also prophesied that during the time of the seventh president (Heber J. Grant),
the church was to go into spiritual and temporal bondage, and that one strong
and mighty would appear. The Latter-day Saints Church claims this meeting never
occurred and was a later fiction of Lorin Woolley.
Among the polygamists are Mormons called fundamentalists. They are
distinguished from other polygamy-practicing groups in that they claim only to
possess the presidency of the high priesthood, while other groups claim it as
well as the presidency of the church.
In 1929 Joseph White Musser, the leader and most prolific writer among the
fundamentalists, claimed he had received authority from Taylor's five
disciples. He claimed further that after the manifesto was issued, the office
of the president of the church and the president of the high priesthood were
separated and the latter given to the fundamentalists. Hence the priesthood has
authority apart from the church leadership. Musser felt that the movement away
from polygamy was but one of several changes and departures from the faith made
by the Church. The fundamentalists believe in the Adam-God theory (taught by
Brigham Young) that "Adam is Our Father and Our God and is the literal
Father of Jesus." Almost all fundamentalists claim authority through
Musser.
The polygamists are living outside the laws of both the Latter-day Saints Church and the United States, and most have retreated into the desert and mountainous regions to escape legal and social pressure.
Page was last updated on 08/14/00
