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The Restoration |
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During the many
public and private debates residents repeatedly held on the frontier
of Western New York about which denomination they should attend in
their newly formed communities, a lad named Joseph Smith took the
advice contained in the book of James to heart. It said, “If any
of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men
liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James
1:5). He sought the Lord in prayer for the express purpose of
asking which church he should join. He beheld the Father and Son in
vision and was told to join none of them.
Three years later, an angel appeared to him and revealed the
presence of a record written by ancient Americans whom God had led
to Central America. That record was chronicled on golden plates and
contained their history and spiritual experiences. The angel showed
Joseph where the record was buried. After four years of visits to
the site and instruction by the angel, Joseph received the plates
and the Interpreters with the divine commission to translate them.
During the translation that was accomplished through the gift
and power of God, Joseph and his scribe developed several questions.
They took those questions to the Lord and received miraculous
instruction that taught them various doctrines. Many people mocked
Joseph, some persecuted him, but others believed his testimony.
Joseph received a revelation directing the organization of the
Church of Jesus Christ as it was in the day that Jesus built it on
earth and the apostles governed it. These miraculous events
resulted in the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1829 and the
restoration of the church of Christ, the goal of the Pilgrims and
Puritans, on April 6, 1830.
The restored church quickly grew. Missionaries went west
preaching the Savior’s gospel along the way until their reached
their destination, Indian Territory, where they told the Indians
about the Book of Mormon. Significant converts were made in
Kirtland, Ohio and Joseph Smith moved to that community in 1831.
Branches of the church were being formed almost weekly. Later that
year, Joseph received revelation that the church should
build a righteous city in Jackson County, Missouri. Members began
moving there and buying land directly from the Federal
Government. Plans were made to build a temple on a consecrated
tract west of the Independence Court House. Unfortunately, the
successful mission to the Indians the year before caused friction
among the saints and the local residents. The Indians had requested
that only missionaries from the restored church be allowed into
their territory. Idle missionaries from other denominations vented
their frustration, which was caused by their inability to cross the border, at
church members. The added fact that church members were generally
Northerners who disapproved of slavery and abstained from things
like liquor and revelry among a population that was principally from
the Southern state of Virginia added to the tension. In November
1831, a mob of Jackson Countians forcibly drove the saints from
their homes on a cold November night and expelled them from the
county.
Although persecutions prevailed in Jackson County, the church
at Kirtland prospered. Church organization was fully revealed and a
temple was constructed in which the members there were endowed with
marvelous manifestations and spiritual power. Apostles were
commissioned and sent abroad, beginning a very successful mission to
the British Isles. Thousands of converts joined the church.
The Missouri legislature finally created a special county in
Missouri for the saints. Many new converts moved to the new county
seat of Far West. Once the county was filled, members started
settling in nearby counties, threatening the political environment
there. Hostilities erupted when some church members were denied
their right to vote in Davies County. Assaults and retaliation
erupted. In time, the Mormon War broke out. Joseph Smith, who only
recently had settled at Far West, along with some other church
leaders were arrested and charged with treason. Governor Boggs, who
had been a part of the mob that drove the saints from Jackson
County, issued an executive order declaring that the saints must be
expelled from the state or exterminated.
The expelled church members found a home immediately across the
Mississippi River and built the city of Nauvoo, the largest in the
state at that time. Meanwhile, the arrested church leaders were
gradually let go by the Missourians, sometimes under the accusation
that they escaped. With the rapid expansion of the city and the
limited supervision by Joseph, spurious teachings began to be taught
in Nauvoo. One letter from a resident written in March 1844
described a recent visit by some elders who taught them the doctrine
of spiritual wifery. When they were about to leave, the elders
warned, “Breathe not a word of this abroad, for as yet Brother
Joseph is not with us.”
In June 1844, Joseph Smith told William Marks, who was
president of the Nauvoo Stake High Council, a body charged in part
with judicial proceeding in church matters, to go help put down the
doctrine of polygamy. According to Marks, Joseph said, “I want
you to go into the high council, and I will have charges preferred
against all who practice this doctrine; and I want you to try them
by the laws of the Church, and cut them off, it they will not
repent, and cease the practice of this doctrine. . . I will go into
the stand and preach against it with all my might, and in this way,
we may rid the Church of this damnable heresy.” Three days
later Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum Smith were murdered at the
Carthage Jail.
Joseph’s untimely death left the church, which numbered between
150,000 and 200,000 members, devoid of leadership. Although Joseph
Smith had blessed his eldest son, also named Joseph, on two separate
occasions as his successor and at least once publically introduced
him as the next prophet of the church, a number of claimants vied
for control. The church divided into over 20 factions. The
majority of the leadership at Nauvoo followed Brigham Young, who
three years later took about 20,000 members west to the Great Salt
Lake basin where they continued and enlarged the spurious doctrines
that began to weave their way into the church at Nauvoo.
A decade before, God had admonished the church: “There are
hypocrites among you, and have deceived some, which has given the
adversary power, but, behold, such shall be reclaimed; but the
hypocrites shall be detected and shall be cut off” (D&C
50:3a-b). A little later He added, “There were among you
adulterers and adulteresses; some of whom have turned away from you,
and others remain with you, that hereafter shall be revealed. Let
such beware and repent speedily, lest judgment shall come upon them
as a snare, and their folly shall be made manifest, and their works
shall follow them in the eyes of the people” (D&C 63:4b-c). The
failure of adulterers and adulteresses to repent led to the practice
of polygamy among the faction under Brigham Young, as well as
several other groups, while its infamous practice in the Utah Church
made their sin manifest in the eyes of all the people.
In 1841, the Lord told the church to build the Nauvoo Temple.
If they failed, God warned, “If you do not these things at the
end of the appointment, ye shall be rejected as a church with your
dead, saith the Lord your God” (D&C 107:11a). While members
completed the Masonic Temple by the spring of 1843, the roof was not
yet constructed on the Nauvoo Temple by the time that Joseph rode
toward his martyrdom at Carthage. Even when the leadership
evacuated the city as they began their westward trek, Brigham left
workers behind to complete the structure. Shortly thereafter they
reported that they had finished it, but no remaining resident of
area including church members agreed. The failure of the church to
complete the Nauvoo Temple testifies that the church there was
rejected by the Lord, including its dead. The only faction of the
original church to continue to practice the rite of baptism for the
dead is the Utah Church, providing additional evidence that it
remains the rejected church.
Only 10% - 13% of the church’s members went west. Many
participated in other factions. Joseph Smith’s wife and their
children went nowhere, but remained in Nauvoo. In time, the
anointed successor, Joseph III, grew to adulthood. His decision to
succeed his father and steady the restored church on the Savior’s
gospel is the history of the
Reorganization.
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