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Deep Dive

The Latter Day Saints

Author

Michael Pleasant
October 02, 2024

Almost all information taught today comes from prior research I have done on the LDS and the textbook The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions by Ron Rhodes.[1]

JOSEPH SMITH

  • Joseph Smith was born of December 23, 1805, in the heart of the Second Great Awakening to a semi-religious family.[2]

  • The Second Great Awakening popularized many of the denominations such as Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists. The outburst diversity among Christian beliefs came with many that disagreed and strayed off the path of modern Protestant Christianity.

  • 15-year-old Joseph Smith was confused by all these denominations and thought, “With so many denominations, beliefs, how could one know which one was true?”

    • After reading James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you,” Smith asked the Lord to reveal the one true denomination and was met by several visions.

  • In this first vision, “the Son” (and the “Father” in other accounts) appeared to Joseph and told him that all denominations were fraudulent and of “the Great Apostacy”. So, Joseph did not join a church. 

THE GREAT APOSTACY

  • According to the Pearl of Great Price, the Lord told Smith that the present-day believers “draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”

  • It was revealed to Smith that the early church fathers modified the original writings of the Bible around their personal preference.

  • People such as Martin Luther and John Calvin tried to restore the Gospel but were unable.

    •  “Behold, the days come … that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: “And [people] shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.” (Amos 8:11-12)

JOSEPH SMITH CONTINUED

  • Three years later, on September 21st,1823 the angel “Moroni” told Joseph that the writings of an ancient civilization with the true Gospel were written on gold plates and buried in the ground along with a translation device called the seer stone.

  • Joseph would not be allowed to access the stones for the next four years as Moroni visited him each year to tell him he was not spiritually mature enough.

  • In 1827, Joseph was finally allowed to dig up the gold plates and translate the “reformed Egyptian” written on them. After they were translated Moroni took the plates which is why we do not have them today.

    • Joseph would translate the plates by taking the seer stone (a rock) and putting it into a hat. He would look into the hat, and it would show him the English translation. He would speak the words he saw aloud, and a man name Oliver Cowdry would write them down as Joseph’s scribe.

WHAT WAS THE BOOK ABOUT?

  • According to the Book of Mormon, one group of descendants from Noah and another group of Israelites during the reign of Zedekiah around 600 BC were called to America by God.

  • These groups over some time would form the Nephites and would settle in and around the New York area.

  • Since they were descendants of the Israelites, Jesus had to deliver his Gospel to his chosen people.

    • According to 3 Nephi 11, Jesus appeared to the Nephites after his resurrection.

  • This story along with the “full gospel” was written down on the golden tablets by the Prophets Mormon and Moroniand eventually hidden in the ground as the Nephites turned against God. 

SACRED BOOKS

The Book of Mormon: Historical Account of the Nephites and Jesus’ appearances/teachings.

  • Serves as the “Restored Gospel”

The Pearl of Great Price: Joseph Smith’s account for the events that led up to the Church of Latter-Day Saints.

  • Also includes supposed lost writings such as the “Book of Abraham” and “The Book of Moses.”

Doctrine and Covenants: 103 Revelations that consists of laws and practices to live out the Mormon faith.

Joseph Smith “Inspired Version” of the Bible: Unfinished translation that Smith heavily modified.  

  • In his version, he changed verses to exclude doctrine on the Trinity as well as adding prophecy of himself in Genesis. Smith claimed it was what was originally written before the apostasy.

THE BIRTH OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS

  • After the Book of Mormon was finished John the Baptist appeared to Smith and Cowdery giving them the “Aaronic Priesthood.” Shortly after, Peter, James, and John appeared and gave them the “authority of the apostles” and the “Melchizedek Priesthood.”

  • The priesthood being restored allowed for the beginning of The Church of Latter-Day Saints in 1830.

    •  The church at this time included only six people.

  • Due in part to the 2nd Great Awakening, there was not much tolerance for Joseph Smith’s new beliefs.

    •  Joseph, along with the many new members of the church, began to head west to avoid persecution.

    •  Eventually they would settle in the city of Nauvoo, Illinois.

  • After a temple was built, the native people would eventually plan an attack on the colony.

  • Smith and his brother Hyrum were both shot and killed by a mob on June 27, 1844. 

AFTER JOSEPH SMITH

  • Succeeding Smith, Brigham Young moved the colony further out west eventually into Utah.

    • They would settle in 1874 and are there to this day, making up a 62% of Utah’s population.

  • Today the church is still led by a main leader who is given the role of prophet, in which God has given him authority to make clarification on doctrine.

  • Today 350 temples, 31,000 churches and around 17,000,000 followers make up the Latter-Day Saints in and out of the United States. Just two years ago they had 265 temples and around 16,000,000 followers.

CREATION NARRATIVE

  • Mormons believe that (although it is not directly stated) in the “preexistence” (the time before we were sent down to Earth) we existed with God and Earth was yet to be made.

  • At some point instead of God speaking matter into existence, he instead took preexisting matter and formed Earth with it.[3] This contradicts Christianity’s Ex Nihilo doctrine.

  • According to Doctrines and Covenants, God would have his first two children being Jesus and Satan. Eventually, he would have all of Earth’s civilization, including our own selves.

    • There we lived as spirit children, until God the Father devised a plan to further elevate his children’s ability to become like him through a plan of salvation.

  • The plan was made for Jesus to be the chosen sacrifice to be lifted and glorified to which Satan became jealous of and started a war.

    • Now the doctrine of the outcome of this war has been modified and changed in teaching from what was originally taught.

  • In the original telling, there would be three groups of spirits in the heavenly war: One group would side with Satanand would be cast down to Earth as demons and monsters. The group that sided with Jesus would be sent as white believers. And the group that did not pick a side would be cursed with black skin.

  • This takes place in The Book of Mormon when Nephi 5:21 states, “And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.[4]”

    • This interpretation has been argued to be more of a mark rather than a race, regardless it still reeks of the racial complications of the time of the writing.

  • Continuing, to achieve a true salvation to where people make the choice to believe in God, we in the preexistence agreed to have our memories wiped to make proof of a true faith in God.

  • As we are now, we are searching for God, and he provides his way through the work of Jesus and prophets like Joseph Smith. Eventually, if we live a life dedicated to the Mormon faith, we can rejoin God the Father in the Celestial Kingdom, where we will be elevated to an equal status with God[5].

HEAVEN AND HELL

  • There are three levels of afterlife celestial kingdom, terrestrial kingdom, and the telestial kingdom.

    •  The celestial kingdom is for faithful Mormons who have kept God’s “true” commandments. It is where Jesus and the Father reside.

    • The terrestrial kingdom is for those who lived morally good lives but did not pursue the “true” gospel.

    • The telestial kingdom is a place for those who lived carnal lives. It is a temporary place of punishment. After punishment for sins has been met for the individual, they are transported to the terrestrial kingdom.

    • Hell is for Satan and his companions.

  • Those who go to the celestial kingdom have the ability to become like God if we work hard enough “As God once was, we are now. As God is now, we can become.” (Lorenzo Snow Couplet).

  • LDS also believe in the waiting place for the dead (Sheol). However, they believe those in the realm of the dead can come to Christ post death and even make it to the Celestial kingdom.

  • The foundation for the majority of these beliefs comes from misinterpretations of 1 Corinthians 15.

There is so much more to talk about, but we do not have the time to finish today. We will study the LDS further at the next Deep Dive.

[1] Rhodes, Ron. The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions: The Essential Guide to Their History, Their Doctrine, and Our Response, HarperCollins Christian Publishing, 2001.

[2] Smith, Joseph, Jr. The pearl of great price: being a choice selection from the revelations, translations, and narrations of Joseph Smith, first prophet, seer, and revelator to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints. Liverpool, F. D. Richards, 1851.

[3] Smith, Joseph, Jr. Doctrine and covenants of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints. Kirtland, Ohio: Printed by F.G. Williams & Co. for the Proprietors, 1835. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/unk82003210/.

[4] Translated by Joseph Smith, Jr. The Book of Mormon: an Account Written by the Hand of Mormon, upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi. New York:Pub. for the Deseret University by Russell Brothers, 1869.

[5] Terry, Roger. "The Source of God's Authority: One Argument for an Unambiguous Doctrine of Preexistence." Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 49, no. 3