History and Diversity

The origins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (hereafter abbreviated as "LDS") lie ultimately in Joseph Smith's vision of God and Jesus in 1820. Smith reported that during the vision he had been told by Jesus that all the Christian churches had departed from proper teaching. It was followed a few years later by a second vision, this time of an angel named Moroni who revealed to Smith the location of some golden plates along with two "seer-stones" that would enable him to translate what had been inscribed on the tablets. Smith reported that he found the tablets buried near Palmyra, New York, and published his translation in 1830 as The Book of Mormon (see the discussion of LDS scriptures below).

Smith and others who believed that The Book of Mormon was a revealed scripture that stood equal to the Christian bible (in its customary Protestant form; since the discussion of "Protestant Scriptures") began what they initially called simply the Church of Christ. The earliest opposition to the group by others centered on this claim to a new revelation contained in The Book of Mormon and their abolitionist position with regard to slavery. After Smith added a doctrine of plural marriage following another vision in 1843, the polygamist practices of some Latter-Day Saints also became a lightning rod attracting sometimes violent opposition. The LDS community was forced by local opposition to relocate several times, first to Ohio, later to Missouri, and eventually to Illinois where they established their own city, Nauvoo. In 1844 Smith was arrested (on charges of having destroyed an opposition printing press) and subsequently killed by a mob that attacked the jail where he was being held.

Following Smith's death, the church splintered behind several leaders (some of whom rejected the recent polygamist teachings). Most of the LDS members, however, followed Brigham Young who led them to the Salt Lake region of Utah where they established new settlements. A vision to Young in 1852 reestablished polygamy as official church doctrine, and it remained so until overturned in a revelation granted to Wilford Woodruff in 1890 (president of the church at that time) that all LDS members were not to enter into "any marriage forbidden by the law of the land" (this followed the enactment of anti-polygamist laws by Congress in 1887 that were upheld by the Supreme Court in 1890). One area of diversity remaining to this day among LDS groups regards this issue of polygamy, with the main LDS church following Woodruff's position and more "fundamentalist" groups continuing to support plural marriage.

Latter-Day Saints' Scriptures

The originating text of the LDS is The Book of Mormon. This book, subtitled since 1982 as "Another Testament of Jesus Christ," recounts a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus Christ in the Americas to two lost tribes of Israel, the Jaredites and the Lamanites. Eventually the Jaredites disappeared, and the majority of the Lamanites turned against the faithful Nephites among them. Of the Nephites, only Mormon and his son Moroni survived, and it was Mormon who wrote this history in 438 CE on the tablets that were then buried near Palmyra, New York. The Book of Mormon has been controversial since its first publication in 1830, with critics pointing to grammatical errors, strong similarities between portions of its text with the King James Version of the Bible, and resemblances to unpublished novel. No such doubts are held by LDS members, however, for whom it is a direct revelation from God.

Along with The Book of Mormon, the LDS accepts books of the Protestant canon as scripture as God's word, but only "as far as it is translated correctly." Other works have also been canonized as scripture within the LDS, namely Doctrines and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price (a collection of various texts translated or written by Joseph Smith, including an account of this personal history and a statement of "Articles of Faith"). They also follow The Word of Wisdom which was revealed in 1833 to provide guidelines for physical and spiritual health and wholeness, and forbids use of tobacco, alcohol, tea and coffee.

Distinctives of Latter-Day Saints' Beliefs and Practices among Christian Groups

Like all religious movements, there have been both significant and minor changes over time in the teachings, practices and emphases among the LDS. A balanced and well-researched review of these developments, with particular regard to the place of Jesus Christ within LDS teaching and practice, is provided in Stephen Prothero, American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon, chapter 5, "Mormon Elder Brother" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), pp. 161-199. Prothero, chair of the Department of Religion at Boston University, traces three major phases in LDS practice that he termed textual Mormonism (focused on The Book of Mormon), temple Mormonism (focused on the ritual practices in LDS temples, as distinct from local churches), and twentieth-century Mormonism (which Prothero argues has been more assimilationist to American culture and Protestant Christianity while maintaining "[c]ertain practices and propositions [that] were not negotiable" within the LDS [p. 186]). Some of these "practices and propositions," as identified by members of the LDS themselves, are as follows:

Although God is omniscient ("all-knowing") as espoused in broader Christianity, the LDS alone teaches that God has a material body as opposed to being immaterial spirit (in LDS teaching, the spirit is corporeal and only the material is eternal). In a central statement of LDS belief, Joseph Smith taught, "As man is, God once was: as God is, man may be" (James E. Talmage, A Study of the Articles of Faith [Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1952], p. 430). God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Ghost are united in purpose, but distinct and separate in their being.

The process of divine revelation did not end with the last of the books of the New Testament, but has continued through a sequence of prophets until today. Among the prophets are not only Joseph Smith and Brigham Young but also current presidents of the LDS.

Through a process involving "proxies," those who have died may also be baptized and thereby receive an "endowment" into the LDS. These rites are administered only in LDS temples (distinct from the local church meeting houses or "wards" where LDS members gather for weekly meetings and worship), and only faithful members of the LDS presenting a "temple recommend" are permitted to enter the temples. Other ritual practices, such as "celestial marriages for time and eternity" (formally known within the LDS as a "Sealing") are also performed only in the temples. Through these restricted temple rites, individuals "may obtain exaltation and even reach the status of godhead."

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Last modified: 10/10/05