Mormons, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), have a unique faith in Christendom. Where most Churches hold scripture in high regard, they have other sacred sources that inform their faith and practice. They are a late development on the Christian spectrum and have not developed from another denomination. Rather, Joseph Smith, founder and prophet of Mormonism claimed direct divine inspiration for the views and beliefs this denomination holds dear. Though it developed in America, the Latter-day Saints have become a worldwide Church in the last 200 years.
Origins of Mormonism
According to the Mormon church, in 1820, aged 14, Joseph Smith entered a grove close to his home and prayed to God asking which church was the true church. He had visited several but found no satisfaction with what he was searching for. God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Smith as a light. They informed Smith that all existing churches were apostates, and he was to establish the true church to prepare people for the Second Coming. This event is known as the first vision.
Smith kept his vision a secret for a couple of years until the angel Moroni appeared to him in 1823. Moroni told Smith the Second Coming was imminent and the subsequent Millennium was about to begin. He informed Smith about a book with golden plates that was buried close by his house. It was the work of Israelites who came to America around 600 BCE. Smith heard that the tools to translate the book were buried with it. Smith was to do the translation when he was a little older.
At the age of 21, Smith retrieved the stack of plates and tools and started the work of translating it. Smith would look at the plates, engraved in Egyptian writing, and it would appear as English to him. Only he was allowed to see the plates and he dictated its content to a scribe who was seated on the other side of a curtain. At other times, Smith would place a seers’ stone in a hat and bury his head in the hat. The stone would light up and reveal the content of the plates to him.
In about 90 days, 588 pages of text were generated using these methods. Smith returned the plates to the angel Moroni, had the English manuscript published, and the result became the Book of Mormon.
The Book of Mormon details, among other things, how the Israelites received instruction around 600 BCE to flee Jerusalem, which they did. They later set sail and arrived in the Americas. After splitting into four tribes, one tribe, the Lamanites, became the ancestors of the Native Americans. Shortly after Jesus’s death and resurrection in Jerusalem, he appeared to the Indians in America, bringing them the gospel message.
In 1830, Smith started gaining a following, claiming to receive almost daily revelations from God. Smith’s followers met in a little house in Fayette, New York, and they started a church. After being arrested for being a disorderly person, Smith and his followers decided to move West, to Ohio. His influence and number of followers grew, in part due to his charisma and his vision for a utopian society.
In Ohio, locals and government officials were uncomfortable with the large numbers of Mormons moving into the state. Smith was eventually dragged from his house in protest and was tarred and feathered, and instructed to leave the state, which he did.
Smith shared how God wanted the Mormons, as members referred to themselves, to establish Zion on the border of where the Lamanites lived. A missionary and former scribe of Smith’s identified Jackson County in Missouri as the ideal location to build Zion. The land was supposedly on the border of where Eden used to be.
Mormons bought significant portions of land in Independence, Missouri but the influx of Mormons into this area was concerning to locals because growing numbers meant increased political power. Opposition to the Mormons soon turned violent and led to the Mormon War of 1838. Again, the Mormons were driven out.
Smith and his followers received a special charter for their lifestyle in Nauvoo, Illinois. The Zion vision gained many followers by 1844, but descent in Mormon ranks soon led to internal turmoil. Smith was arrested and after two days, he was attacked and shot at. He leaped from a second-story window and fell to his death on June 27th, 1844.
Far from an end to the Mormon movement, Smith’s death served as fuel for establishing Zion. Brigham Young took over the leadership of Mormonism. By then, Mormon ranks had swelled to 26,000 members. Mormons looked beyond the borders of the States, eyeing up Mexican territory. They settled next to a salt lake in what is now Utah and established other towns in neighboring areas.
When the government spread its territory to the Pacific Ocean, the Mormons were again on a path to conflict. They attempted to establish a state called Deseret and were unsuccessful but eventually Utah, with much less territory, was established. Partly due to their polygamous lifestyle, the conflict escalated to the “Utah War” between the Nauvoo Legion (the Mormon militia) and the Government army though it never was a full-blown battle between the two. They reached a negotiated settlement that saw fewer Mormons in government in Utah. Laws were passed in Washington DC declaring polygamy illegal. Thousands of Mormons were arrested and jailed and church property was seized.
Wilford Woodruff, the new leader of the Mormons, discouraged polygamy declaring that he was shown in a vision that the church would cease to exist if the practice was not abandoned. Later, polygamists were threatened with excommunication. Utah became a state, and offshoot groups like the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-day Saints, still practice polygamy.
There are more than 17 million Mormons worldwide. It is an organization that has more than $265 billion worth of assets and investments and a global presence. They are headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
General Beliefs
Mormons believe in salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Spirit.
Distinct Beliefs
Mormons believe God the Father has a physical body and a wife. They believe God was initially a man and became God through a process of progression through obedience. God was therefore not always God. Man can then become God through a similar process and become the gods of other planets. This belief implies God was not the creator of everything.
Mormons believe Christ is a created being, the brother of Satan, and has a wife like the Father. He can, therefore, not have been the creator John 1 presents. They also believe in three levels of heaven. The first is the Celestial Kingdom reserved for faithful Latter-day Saints who did not return to the sins they committed and were forgiven for. It is where the Father and Christ reside.
A lower level of heaven is the Terrestrial Kingdom where honorable people who have lived good lives but did not fully accept the gospel of Jesus Christ go. Members who did not live up to the requirements of their faith, or those who received the gospel in the afterlife reside here.
The third and lowest level of heaven is the Telestial Kingdom. Those who rejected the gospel and lived sinful lives go to this kingdom. Hell is reserved for Satan and his followers as well as Mormons who have rejected the faith.
They have two sources that they regard as authoritative: the Bible, and the Book of Mormon, the latter being considered a second witness of Jesus Christ. They believe the Bible contains errors due to translation and transcription issues. The other sacred texts in Mormonism are the Doctrines and Covenants, a selection of revelations given to Joseph Smith and others, and the Pearl of Great Price, containing additional revelations and writings.
Mormons practice baptisms for the dead in which a person can be baptized on behalf of another deceased individual. These baptisms and marriages, called sealings, occur in temples that only Mormons in good standing may enter. Some verses from the Book of Mormon suggest that they believe that there is merit in the works that people do that contribute toward salvation.
Though polygamy was widely practiced in the church’s history, it was denounced in 1890 and remains as such to this day. The Mormon faith is strictly patriarchal, and women are encouraged to be stay-at-home mothers. However, men and women are considered equal partners in the home. Women cannot participate in the blessing of their babies.
Latter-day Saints are expected to confess their sins to the local bishop and the church has strict guidelines on acceptable dress. They also adhere to strict health codes that restrict the consumption of certain foods and drinks.
Structure
At the top of the structure of the Church of Christ of the Latter-day Saints is the president, who is a prophet, seer, and revelator, along with his two councilors. The most senior of the twelve apostles of the Church becomes the president when the previous leader passes away. Under the twelve apostles is the quorum of 70 where the presiding bishoprics manage the affairs of the church. The next level down are regions, known as Stakes, with more than 3,500 being in existence today. Stakes are broken up into wards, with bishops presiding over each.
