Birth of Mormon, death of a prophet

[joe sz]

an early "channeling" cult with resources enough to become a major American religion

Paul C. Gutjahr: Birth of Mormon, death of a prophetSpecial to National Post

Mar 3, 2012

In a new book, excerpted below, Paul C. Gutjahr explains how Joseph Smith created Mormonism in the early 19th century:

While controversy surrounded the Book of Mormon from its inception, the fact remained that perhaps the book’s greatest attraction was how it provided the ever-growing number of Mormon converts a tangible testimony that God was once again speaking to humanity. Absolutely central to any understanding of the religious power and influence of the book is the prophetic figure who ushered it into the world.

Joseph embraced his divinely anointed prophetic appointment when he moved to Kirtland, Ohio, in 1831, going so far as to introduce himself to others as “Joseph the prophet.” The book showed him to be a man set apart by God for a special purpose, and he continued to show just how special he was by continuing to receive new messages directly from God.

In Kirtland, God spoke to him on a wide range of topics, including how to administer the sacraments properly (using water instead of wine for communion), guidelines for missionary activity and where the Church should establish its next outposts. Eventually, Joseph received so many revelations that it was considered prudent to gather them all in one place. In 1833, the Church published the Book of Commandments, a compendium of 65 revelations Joseph had received up through September 1831.

Other revelatory works would follow, including a revised and expanded edition of the Book of Commandments entitled Doctrine and Covenants (1835) and The Pearl of Great Price (1851). Joseph’s gifts of translation and prophecy also manifested themselves in his continued work on revising various sections of the Bible. For the most part, Joseph only made subtle changes to the biblical text, adjusting it to align more readily with his own theology on such issues as predestination and baptism, but he did add some longer sections to the Bible as well, including additions to the Gospel of Matthew that helped explain in greater detail the critical events of Christ’s Second Coming and the Final Judgment.

Even though Joseph’s revised Bible was not published during his lifetime, many of his longer additions to the biblical text did circulate and eventually came to be included in The Pearl of Great Price. For most Mormons, Joseph’s published revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price attained a status by the end of the 19th century that placed these two works alongside the Bible and the Book of Mormon as the canonical, sacred texts of Mormonism.

In the years following the founding of the Church, Joseph embraced other revelatory work of an even more startling nature. He returned to the Book of Mormon twice to revise its text. In Joseph’s hands, the Book of Mormon was no static entity. A living prophet made it a living book, capable of change. His oracular status made him fully comfortable in correcting what he told his followers was “the most correct of any book on Earth.”

He first revised the book in 1837. This second edition proved important because it included more than 3,000 alterations from the 1830 edition, clearly signaling that the Prophet was not afraid to change his work. For the most part, these changes were matters of adjustments in grammar. Examples include “which” being changed to “who” over 700 times, and “saith” being altered to “said” over 200 times. Joseph had, however, made theological adjustments to the text as well, hoping to rid the book of inconsistencies and harmonize its content with his more recent teachings found in “Lectures on the Faith” and the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. A third edition of the Book of Mormon appeared in 1840. It was the last edition of the book to include new revisions by Joseph himself.

As Joseph continued to receive revelations, his Church slowly spread deeper into America’s western frontier. Joseph himself relocated in the spring of 1838 to Caldwell County, Missouri. Because of persecution by neighbouring non-Mormons, he moved again within months to Commerce, Illinois, a town he renamed “nauvoo” from the Hebrew meaning “beauty or repose.” By 1845, with some 11,000 residents, nauvoo had grown to rival Chicago as one of the state’s two largest cities. Joseph carefully planned every aspect of nauvoo, including the building of a grand three-story hotel called the nauvoo House. When this building’s cornerstone was laid on April 6, 1841 (11 years to the day after the Church’s founding ), Joseph ran home to get the handwritten manuscript used to produce the Book of Mormon. He returned with the large stack of papers and placed them inside the building’s cornerstone, reportedly saying, “I have had trouble enough with this thing.” The manuscript would be recovered years later, badly damaged by water that had seeped into the stone compartment.

As Joseph established their new Zion in Illinois, his neighbours once again grew uneasy with his political power. His creation of a formidable militia called the nauvoo Legion did not allay their fears. Matters were further complicated by his increasingly unorthodox revelations.

Some scholars have noted that had Mormonism adhered to the teachings found in the Book of Mormon, it would have differed little on central doctrinal issues from the country’s other Protestant denominations. The Book of Mormon is Trinitarian in nature and a strong proponent of monogamy; it contains none of the more aggressive revelations about the plurality of gods and marrying more than one woman that came to mark Mormonism in the later part of Joseph’s life. Without these doctrines, non-Mormons might have had less cause to attack the religion and its adherents.

Perhaps no new revelation announced by Joseph was more contentious than his teaching on polygamy, something known within the Church as “plural marriage.” Joseph may have toyed with the idea of plural marriage as early as 1831, but he did not officially credential the practice as a sacrament until he was “sealed” to an additional wife, Louisa Beaman, in April 1841.

Even with his marriage to Beaman, Joseph continued to keep the practice a closely guarded secret, revealing it only to his closest confidants. Although the Church recorded a revelation touching on the issue of plural marriage in 1843, Joseph never publicly advocated polygamy, and the practice of plural marriages did not become public until 1852, after the Saints had safely established themselves in Utah. This secrecy, however, did not stop Joseph from marrying more than 30 women. Other top Church leaders followed Joseph’s example. By the time Brigham Young, Joseph’s successor, led the Saints on their momentous trek to Utah in 1847, he had 12 wives and at least nine children.

Although polygamy may have been the most socially unsettling of Joseph’s revelations, it was not his only distinct teaching. New doctrinal revelations abounded. Joseph instituted a sacramental ritual for baptizing the dead, and at the funeral of a man named King Follet around the time of the Church’s 1844 Annual Conference, he preached what became known as his “King Follett Discourse,” in which he made the startling proclamation that there existed a vast plurality of gods, all of whom had once been human. Joseph then encouraged his listeners to strive for their own eventual godhood. By the early 1840s, Joseph had set off in a significantly new direction from orthodox Christian teaching.

Many of his followers began to question these doctrinal innovations and the prophet from whom they came. Dissident Mormons decided to begin publishing a periodical, the Nauvoo Expositor, to shine a spotlight on Joseph’s heterodox teachings and attack the reputations and practices of prominent Mormon leaders. Only one issue was ever published, as Joseph quickly suppressed the newspaper and destroyed the printing press that had produced it. The action was ill-considered, however, as it further inflamed non-Mormon opposition in the area. The neighbouring town of Carthage mobilized its militia and arrested Joseph for disturbing the peace, a charge that eventually transformed into one of treason. Then disaster struck. A vigilante band attacked the Carthage jail where Joseph and his brother Hyrum were imprisoned. The band killed both men. In the blink of an eye, the Church lost its founder and its most direct link to God.

An unprecedented crisis now confronted the Latter-day Saints. The only leader their Church had ever known was dead. As the shock of Joseph’s death reverberated throughout nauvoo, mourning soon gave way to a titanic struggle for control of the Church. The Church splintered as various aspirants attempted to claim the Prophet’s mantle of leadership.

In the months and years to come, Brighamites, Josephites, Rigdonites, Bickertonites, Strangites, Reorganites and numerous others vied to become the most legitimate branch of the post-Joseph Mormon Church. Since Joseph’s death in 1844, there have arisen some 70 different Mormon sects, nearly 50 of which still exist today (most are quite small). Inevitably, each of these sects developed its own special relationship to the Book of Mormon.

Before his death, Joseph had left no clear instructions about who his successor might be. Matters were complicated by the fact that arguably the highest-ranking official after Joseph was Sidney Rigdon, a man whom Joseph had attempted to remove from his position as a member of the Church’s highest level of leadership, the First Presidency; but Rigdon’s popular support allowed him to retain his post. Rigdon, however, had not followed Joseph to nauvoo. Instead he had moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and while he made a number of extended visits to nauvoo, he never called the city his home. Upon hearing of Joseph’s death, however, Rigdon hastily made his way to Illinois. He entered nauvoo with every intention of taking Joseph’s leadership mantle upon himself. The Church leaders in nauvoo had different plans.

On a hot August morning, just weeks after Joseph’s death, the Church leaders called the Saints together in a huge field to determine who their next leader would be. Both Rigdon and Brigham Young, the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (the highest ruling body after the Church’s president and his counselors), were slated to address the crowd. By every account, Rigdon gave a disappointing, wandering and uninspiring speech, but when Young took his place atop the bed of an open wagon, he transfixed the crowd. Legend has it that a miraculous event occurred when he addressed the Saints. As he spoke, his listeners marveled that “not only was it the voice of Joseph which was heard, but … it was the very person of Joseph which stood before them.”

The crowd quickly and overwhelmingly rallied to Young, who, although he did not claim the role of prophet (a position he said only God could bestow), assured those present that Joseph had indeed given the Quorum of the Twelve, which Young led, “the keys of the kingdom of God in all the world” to “manage the affairs of the church and direct all things aright.” In the ensuing vote, the Saints overwhelmingly affirmed Brigham young and the Quorum of the Twelve as the new leaders of the Church.

Excerpted from The Book Of Mormon: A Biography by Paul C. Gutjahr. © 2012 by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission.

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/201 ... a-prophet/

[Sad Grandfather]

Sounds a lot like Judy Knight, except she hasn't led her followers anywhere. She cons them into coming to her. She probably wouldn't do well in the nomadic life.

[ex]

someone needs a lighter view on this theme?:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-ep ... ut-mormons

it is for shure an important isue. one of the republican presidential candidates is a mormon.
m. romney