THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

Mormonism

FOUNDER OF MORMONISM: JOSEPH SMITH

Joseph Smith, Jr. (December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader who founded the Latter Day Saint movement, a restorationist movement giving rise to Mormonism. Smith's followers declared him to be the first latter-day prophet, whose mission was to restore the original Christian church, said to have been lost after the death of Christ because of an apostasy. This restoration included the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the translation of the Book of Mormon and other new scriptures in addition to the Bible. As a leader of his religion, he was also a political and military leader in the American West.

Joseph Smith, Jr. was born on December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont. After his birth, the family moved to western New York, where they continued farming just outside the border of the town of Palmyra. Palmyra was in a region of intense revivalism and religious diversity during the Second Great Awakening. Smith experienced limited involvement with organized religion during his youth. In autobiographical accounts of his life, Smith said that during his adolescence he had a number of visions, including a theophany in his early teens, referred to by Latter Day Saints as the First Vision.

Smith said that from about 1823 to 1827, he had been visited by an angel named Moroni. Smith stated that the angel indicated that Joseph had a work to accomplish. He was to find and publish a long-buried book of gold plates protected by the angel, that told of the ancient inhabitants of the western continents. The book, along with other artifacts, was buried in a hill near his home. On September 22, 1827, Smith said the angel had finally allowed him to take the plates and other artifacts, although by this time he began having difficulties with local treasure-hunters who were trying to discover where the plates were hidden on the Smith farm.

Smith and his wife Emma moved to Harmony, Pennsylvania, with the monetary and moral support of a wealthy Palmyra neighbor named Martin Harris. In Harmony, Smith translated what he said was Reformed Egyptian from the Golden plates. Harris took the translation to a few well-known scholars including Charles Anthon who confirmed that the writings were, in fact, Reformed Egyptian. Harris returned with a conviction that he should assist with the translation. Harris then acted as scribe while Smith dictated what he said was the translation.

At the beginning of June 1829, Smith with his disciple Oliver Cowdery moved to Fayette, New York for the remainder of the translation, where the plates' title page indicated the book was to be entitled the Book of Mormon: An account written by the hand of Mormon, upon plates taken from the Plates of Nephi (Smith 1830b, title page). Translation was completed around July 1, 1829, and the Book of Mormon was published in Palmyra on March 26, 1830 with the financial assistance of Martin Harris.

By the time the Book of Mormon was published, Smith and Cowdery had baptized several followers who called themselves the Church of Christ, a new sect based on the book's substantial religious teachings. On April 6, 1830, this church was formally organized, and small branches were soon set up in Palmyra, Fayette, and Colesville, New York. There was local opposition to these branches, however, and Smith soon dictated a revelation that the church would establish a "city of Zion" in Native American lands near Missouri. In preparation, Smith dispatched missionaries led by Oliver Cowdery to the area of this new "Zion". On their way, the missionaries converted a group of Disciples of Christ adherents in Kirtland, Ohio led by Sidney Rigdon. At the end of 1830, Smith dictated a revelation that the three New York branches should gather in Ohio pending the results of Oliver Cowdery's mission to Missouri.

Because of conflict in New York and Pennsylvania, Smith moved with his family to Kirtland, Ohio joining with the converts that joined with Rigdon. The church's headquarters were soon established there and Smith urged the rest of the membership to gather there or to a second outpost of the church in Missouri. However, due to the controversy which followed him, he was not to escape persecution for long.

In early 1832, opposition took a physically violent turn. On Saturday, March 24, Joseph was dragged from his bedroom in the dead of night. His attackers strangled him until he blacked out, tore off his shirt and drawers, beat and scratched him, and jammed a vial of poison against his teeth until it broke. After tarring and feathering his body, they left him for dead. Joseph limped back to the Johnsons' house and cried out for a blanket. Through the night, his friends scraped off the tar until his flesh was raw.

Under Smith's leadership & direction, the church's first temple was constructed in Kirtland. The work of building the Kirtland Temple was begun in 1833, and was completed by 1836. Around the time of its completion, many extraordinary events were reported: appearances by Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Elias, and numerous angels, speaking and singing in tongues, prophesying, and other spiritual experiences.

By mid to late 1837, many Latter Day Saints, including many prominent leaders, became disaffected in the wake of the Kirtland Safety Society banking debacle, in which Smith and some of his associates were accused of illegal or unethical banking actions when the bank collapsed after one month of operation and three months prior to a nation-wide banking crisis.

Opposition and harassment continued to grow against Smith and those who supported him. On January 12, 1838 Smith and Rigdon left Kirtland for Far West in Caldwell County, Missouri, in Smith's words, "to escape mob violence, which was about to burst upon us under the color of legal process to cover the hellish designs of our enemies." At the time, historian Brodie reports there were at least $6100 in civil suits outstanding against him in Chardon, Ohio courts, and an arrest warrant had been issued for Smith on a charge of bank fraud.[5] Those who continued to support Smith left Kirtland for Missouri shortly thereafter.

Local leaders and residents saw the Latter Day Saint community as a threat to their property and their political control. The tension was further fueled by the Mormon belief that Jackson County, Missouri, and the surrounding lands were promised to the Church by God.

The rest of Joseph Smith's life was one of suspicion and persecution. He with many of his followers settle in Commerce, Illinois, which he renamed Nauvoo. A few disaffected Mormons in Nauvoo joined together to publish a newspaper, the Nauvoo Expositor. Its first and only issue was published 7 June 1844. The paper was highly antagonistic towards Smith, expounding many beliefs critical of him, and outlining several grievances against him.

The publication inflamed many of Nauvoo's citizens, and the city council, headed by Joseph Smith as a mayor, responded by passing an ordinance declaring the newspaper a public nuisance designed to promote violence against Smith and his followers. Under the council's new ordinance, Nauvoo's mayor, Smith, in conjunction with the city council, ordered the city marshal to destroy the paper and the press on June 10, 1844.

This action was seen by many non-Mormons as illegal and Smith was accused of violating the freedom of the press. Violent threats were made against Smith and the Mormon community. Charges were brought against Smith and he submitted to incarceration in Carthage, the Hancock County seat. Smith's brother, Hyrum, and eight of his associates including John Taylor and Willard Richards, accompanied him to the jail. The Governor of the state, Thomas Ford, had promised protection and a fair trial. All of Smith's associates left the jail, except Richards and Taylor. Those in jail were not held in the 1st floor jail cell because the jailer felt that that was unsafe, instead, they were held in the jailer's room on the 2nd floor.

Shortly after 5:00 p.m. on 27 June 1844, a mob of about 200 men stormed the jail, and went to where Smith and his associates were imprisoned. Although they attempted to hold the doorway against the mob, the mob opened fire through the still-closed door. However, before the mob even entered the room Joseph Smith was given a gun and managed to fire three shots at the mob. His brother Hyrum Smith died immediately from a shot in the face. Taylor was shot several times, but survived. One of the bullets hit his pocket watch, saving his life. Richards was unharmed. Smith ran to the open window, where he was shot multiple times simultaneously, and fell from the window, dead. Upon falling to the ground, he was shot several more times. Mormons view his death as martyrdom.

MAJOR TENETS OF MORMONISM

God

Joseph Smith taught that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are all three separate personages, with Heavenly Father and Jesus having physical bodies of "flesh and bone", while the Holy Ghost has only a spiritual body. God is the Heavenly Father of all mankind and that mankind is made in His express image (simply put, that humans look like Heavenly Father). Smith taught that Jesus, God's only begotten son in the flesh, is our example to follow. God loves us and wants mankind to progress to become like him.

Mormonism then believes at least in the existence of THREE gods, thereby denying monotheism, the basis of Judaism and Christianity. God is a physical being in Mormonism, denying the spiritual essence of God. In the King Follett Discourse Smith actually claims that God was not a God at first but evolved into being God and that all the other Gods became Gods in the same way.

Salvation

According to Smith, all of mankind lived with Heavenly Father in the spirit before they were born, and that men continue to live in the spirit after their physical bodies die. He taught that the reason that mankind is on earth is to progress, and that this life is but a single step in our eternal progression to become gods.

In one of his final sermons (King Follett Discourse) Joseph Smith claimed that people were not created at all but that they had always existed. This totally flies in the face of the Bible which teaches that man is a created being.

Smith taught that all mankind, good and bad alike, will be resurrected and become immortal, receiving back their bodies whole. It is a gift from God provided by Jesus' Atonement. He taught that after the resurrection, "all men will come from the grave as they lie down; whether old or young, there will not be added unto their stature one cubit, neither taken from it."

However, those who repent and are worthy will receive greater blessings, the greatest of which is Eternal Life, which is to live with God in the Celestial Kingdom. Those who were not as valiant, or did not receive ordinances necessary for entrance into the Celestial Kingdom, would enter the Terrestrial Kingdom. Those who were disobedient and unrepentant would enter the Telestial Kingdom.

Many of those who enter the Celestial Kingdom may be worthy for DEIFICATION (Exaltation), where mankind, as children of God, can eventually become co-inheritors with Christ and inherit all that the Father has — in simple terms, to become like God.

The key word for the Mormon view of salvation is deification. The goal of salvation is that we become gods. Moreover, this deification is based upon our works, not upon God's grace.

The Temples

In 1832, Smith claimed to receive a revelation to build a building that could serve as a "house of God" - namely, a temple. He taught that within LDS temples, ordinances would be performed necessary for the exaltation of mankind. Further, performing these ordinances by proxy for every person that has ever lived ensures that exaltation will be obtainable to everyone. For those who are living, it is highly important to receive these ordinances, which facilitate entering the Celestial Kingdom. Ordinances are be performed for both the living and the dead, for example, baptism for the dead.

Although there is one passage in the Bible which speaks of the baptism for the dead (1 Cor. 15:29), it is so obscure that we have no idea what this practice refers to.

Book of Mormon

Smith taught that that "the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion Mormonism, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." According to the title page of the Book of Mormon, it has a purpose, "Which is to show unto the remnant of the House of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever— And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that JESUS is the CHRIST, the ETERNAL GOD, manifesting himself unto all nations."

The Book of Mormon claims to be a record of former inhabitants of the American continent. It said that these people had a knowledge of Jesus Christ, that they had prophets that recorded their own scriptures that testified of Jesus Christ, that they built temples on the American continent similar to the temple in Jerusalem, that they practiced ordinances such as baptism, sacrament, and the laying on of hands for the conferring of the gift of the Holy Ghost (confirmation).

Again, as with Islam, the problem with the Book of Mormon is the way Joseph Smith received it. Like Islam, Mormonism is based upon a special revelation given to only one man who can present no proof that the events in it really happened. For example, there is no historical proof for the existence of the people of God in the Book of Mormon. The Bible on the other hand is an historical document, written around the time the events in it occurred and which could be verified or denied by others. Any person using the techniques of either Islam or Mormonism could produce his own religion and claim it to be true.