Early visits by
angels, Urim and Thummim, and the Book of Mormon
Joseph also described many other
visions involving angels. Some of his earliest
visitations involved a
Native American prophet-warrior, who called himself Moroni. Smith said this angel appeared to him many
times, the first in 1823, and showed him where to find a set of buried
Golden Plates containing ancient writings that the
prophet-warrior had sealed in a stone box before his
death, together with other artifacts. The writings
on the Golden Plates, according to Smith, contained
an account of the various nations that inhabited
ancient America, and described how they were led to
the New World by Jesus, but eventually lost their
Christian faith through a series of wars and
corruption.
After he said he received the
Golden Plates 1827, Smith began to dictate what he said
was their translation to his wife Emma Hale Smith
and various of his associates, most notably Martin
Harris and, for most of the later translation,
Oliver Cowdery. Smith said he translated the text
through the gift and power of God and through the
aid of the Urim and Thummim. Smith described the
Urim and Thummim "two transparent stones set in the
rim of a silver bow fastened to a breast plate"
(History of the Church 4:537). Harris and others at
times referred to Smith translating the plates using
a seer stone.
Initially, during the book's
translation, Smith did not allow others to see the
Golden Plates. Eventually, however, Three Witnesses
wrote that they were shown the plates in June 1829
by an angel. (See
Book of Mormon, preface) Another
Eight Witnesses wrote that Joseph Smith, Jr. showed them the plates himself
(Id.) The resulting writings were published
in March 1830 as the Book of Mormon.
The Book of Mormon
was much more ambitious than being just a purported
history of Native Americans. Mormons quickly adopted
the book as a work of scripture of similar
importance to the Bible. The book's title page described it as
an attempt to show Native Americans "what great
things the Lord has done for their fathers", and to
convince "Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ,
the Eternal God." (Book
of Mormon, title page.) The book contained
doctrinal discussions on numerous themes, including
how the pride of the wealthy leads to the downfall
of civilization, the dangers of "secret
combinations" of people who meet secretly and
use secret signs and oaths, God's mercy and
protection over his followers, and the meaning of
the death and resurrection of
Jesus.
Shared experiences by
Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and restoration of
the priesthood
Some of the early movement's most
important charismatic experiences were shared with
Oliver Cowdery, who joined the movement during
the translation of the
Book of Mormon. Not only was he one of theThree Witnesses of the
Golden Plates, he had also attempted to translate
part of those plates, presumably using Smith's Urim
and Thummim. However, his attempt to translate was unsuccessful. (LDS
D&C 9:1).
During the translation of the
Golden Plates, Smith and Cowdery determined that
they needed to obtain the Priesthood, which they
believed had been lost from the earth during the
Great Apostasy. Therefore, according to an account
by Cowdery in 1834, they went together into the
woods near Harmony, Pennsylvania on May 15, 1829,
were visited by an angel who gave them the "Holy
Priesthood". (Messenger and Advocate, 1(1), Oct. 1,
1834.) In 1835, Smith and Cowdery would clarify that
the angel was John the Baptist, and that the "Holy
Priestood" was actually, specifically, the
Priesthood of Aaron".
According to revisions in previous
revelations added by Smith and Cowdery for the 1835
publication of the Doctrine and Covenants, the two men were
also visited by
Peter, James, and John, who restored to them the "keys of your
ministry" and the "keys of the kingdom". Neither
Smith nor Cowdery ever gave a date for this
purported visitation. While official denomination
histories favor an early date in 1829, many
commentators think it might have been much later.
Organization of the
Church of Christ
There is no known record of an
early
Mormon concept of the Lord's church prior
to Smith's translation of the
Book of Mormon from April to June of 1829. During the course of
this translation, the outlines gradually became
apparent for a community of believers, with
authority from God, ordinances such as baptism, and
ordained clergy. Some time in April 1829, Smith
dictated a story of Alma the Elder, the former
priest of a wicked king, who baptized himself and
his followers by immersion, "having authority from
the Almighty God", and called his community of
believers the "church of God, or the church of
Christ". (Mosiah
18:13-17). The book described the clergy in
Alma's church as consisting of
priests, who were unpaid and were to "preach
nothing save it were repentance and faith in the
Lord". (Mosiah
18:20). Alma later established many churches,
which were considered "one church" because "there
was nothing preached in all the churches except it
were repentance and faith in God." (Mosiah
25:22). In addition to
priests, the book mentions that the clergy of
these churches also included
teachers. (Mosiah
25:21). Later, the book mentioned that the
churches had
elders. (Alma
4:7).
Nevertheless, in May 1829, a
revelation by Smith described the "church" in
informal terms: "Behold, this is my doctrine:
whosoever repenteth and cometh unto me, the same is
my church: whosoever declareth more or less than
this, the same is not of me, but is against me:
therefore, he is not of my church." (Book
of Commandments 9:16). Smith's further dictation
of the
Book of Mormon also stated that Nephi saw a
vision of the Gentile nations and was told "there
are save two churches only; the one is the church of
the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the
devil", the "mother of abominations" which "had
dominion over all the earth, among all nations,
kindreds, tongues, and people." (1
Nephi 14:100).
As a response to the book's ideas
about baptism and the organization of churches,
Joseph Smith, Jr. Oliver Cowdery baptized each other
by immersion in May 1829 after purportedly receiving
the authority to do so from an angel, John the
Baptist. (See D & C 13). They also began baptizing
dozens of people, as early as June 1829. (History of
the Church 1:6, p. 59). These converts, however, did
not belong to an actual formal church organization.
Nevertheless, this community of believers referred
to themselves as "the Church of Christ", and
included converts in three New York towns: Fayette,
Manchester, and Colesville.
Some time between June and
December of 1829,Joseph Smith David Whitmer and
Oliver Cowdery said they received a revelation about
"how he should build up his church & the manner
thereof". This revelation was called the "Articles
of the Church of Christ", and it indicated that the
church should ordain priests and teachers "according
to the gifts & callings of God unto men". The church
was to meet regularly to partake of bread and wine.
Cowdery was described as "an Apostle of Jesus
Christ". According to David Whitmer, by April 1830,
this informal "Church of Christ" had about six
elders and 70 members. (Whitmer, Address to All
Believers, 1887, p. 33).
On
April 6, 1830, Joseph Smith, Jr. Oliver Cowdery, and
a group of approximately 30 believers met to
formally organize the Church of Christ into a legal
institution. Traditionally, this is said to have
occurred at the home of Peter Whitmer, Sr. in
Fayette, New York, but early accounts place it in
Manchester. Soon after this formal organization,
small branches were formally established in Fayette,
Manchester, and Colesville.
By later accounts, the
April 6 organizational meeting was a charismatic
event, in which members of the congregation had
visions, prophesied, spoke in tongues, ecstatically
shouted praises to the Lord, and fainted. (Joseph
Smith History, 1839 draft). Also, the church
formally ordained a lay ministry, with the
priesthood offices of deacon, teacher, priest, and
elder. Smith and Cowdery, according to their 1831
account, were each ordained as "an apostle of Jesus
Christ, an elder of the church". ("Articles and
Covenants of the Church of Christ", Painesville
Telegraph, April 19, 1831). This account was edited
in 1835 to state that Smith was ordained the "First
Elder", and Oliver Cowdery was ordained the "Second
Elder." (LDS D&CC 20:2-3).
The Movement in Ohio
The movement more than doubled in
size with the conversion of
Sidney Rigdon, a former Campbellite minister. Rigdon
led several congregations of Restorationists in
Ohio's Western Reserve area, and hundreds of his
adherents followed him into Mormonism. A fiery
orator, Rigdon was called to be Smith's spokesman
and immediately became one of the movement's
leaders. By 1831, the church's headquarters were
established in Kirtland, Ohio and Smith urged the membership to
gather there or to a second outpost of the church in
Missouri (see below).
While based in Kirtland, the
church changed its name to the "Church of the Latter
Day Saints", and added a number of new doctrines and
leadership offices. An attempt to establish a
communitarian economy known as the "Law of
Consecration" was established and abandoned in favor
of a lesser law, soon after they proved themselves
unready for greater laws. The Latter Day Saint
understanding of the priesthood was elaborated by
the separation of the higher or Melchizedek
Priesthood offices from the lesser or Aaronic
Priesthood offices and by the restoration of the
Patriarchal Priesthood. Also established were the
First Presidency, the High Council — later
elaborated as the High Council of Zion, the
Travelling High Council (or Quorum of the Twelvee)
and Stake high councils — Seventies, patriarchs,
high priests, and bishops.
Kirtland also was the site of the
construction of the movement's first
temple. Latter Day Saints reported a great
outpouring of spiritual experiences in connection
with the Kirtland Temple's dedication. The temple
was associated with the Kirtland-era "endowment",
and with the ordinances of "foot washing", and
"speaking in tongues." The movement also established
the "School of the Prophets" which met in the
temple. At Kirtland, Smith reported many revelations
including the "Word of Wisdom" — advocating
temperance and dietary restrictions. He acquired
Egyptian papyrus scrolls which he said contained the
writings of the Biblical patriarchs Abraham and
Joseph. By many reports, it was in Kirtland that
Smith first began to practice the doctrine of plural
marriage.
In 1837, the movement in Kirtland
began to unravel because of
apostasy within its ranks. Smith and Rigdon founded
an "anti-bank" called the Kirtland Safety Society.
When it failed because of speculative practices of
some of the members combined with general bank
failures in Ohio and elsewhere during the years
1837-1838, some 300 of the Kirtland membership
became disillusioned, including a third of the
church leadershipHeber C. Kimball recalled that "not
twenty persons on earth" remained faithful to Smith.
The result was the movement's first major schism. A
new organization led by Smith's former secretary,
Warren Parish, along with Martin Harris and others, vied for control of
the church in Kirtland. Re-establishing the original
"Church of Christ" name, these "reformed Latter Day
Saints" took possession of the temple and
excommunicated Smith and Rigdon. Smith and Rigdon
relocated to Missouri and were followed there by
hundreds of loyalists in a trek known as the
"Kirtland Camp."
Organization of the
Church of Christ