1.
Continuous revelation
–
Continuous revelation or continuing revelation is a theological belief or position that God continues to reveal divine principles or commandments to humanity. Continuous revelation also forms part of the rituals of gatherings in various chapters of Taoism, in the Bahai Faith, Progressive revelation is an important concept that is similar to continuous revelation. Conservative Judaism teaches Gods revelation at Mount Sinai and Gods continuing revelation through study of Jewish texts, vatican II states “no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Protestants generally teach that the age is not a period of continuing revelation. In the Religious Society of Friends, continuing revelation comes from the Inner light or the light within and this light has traditionally been identified as the Spirit of Christ or Christ within, although not all Friends associate the Inner Light with Christ. It is understood as the presence of God which provides illumination and guidance to the individual, some Friends consider the Bible the ultimate authority, but others consider the Inner Light to be above the Bible. Both groups believe that the Inner Light speaks to people directly, because Friends believe that revelation is ongoing, they have no set creed or dogmas. However, as early Friends listened to the Inner light and endeavored to live accordingly, a set of beliefs gradually emerged. The Testimonies are not formal static documents, but rather a collection or view of how Quakers relate to God. They cannot be one at a time, but are interrelated. As a philosophical system, they are coherent, even outside of Christianity, the list of testimonies that Quakers follow is also not static. They also believe that individuals are able to transmit revelations from God in the form of prophecy, words of knowledge. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, continuing revelation is the principle that God or his divine agents still continue to communicate to mankind. This communication can be manifest in ways, influences of the Holy Ghost, vision, visitation of divine beings. By such means God guides his followers to salvation and without such His followers will eventually form their beliefs or practices after a god of their own making, the LDS Church believes in continuing revelation, not continuous revelation, and differentiates between the two. Mormonism makes a distinction between revelation and revelation directed to all members of the church. They believe that revelation can come to any individual with a righteous desire. In contrast, revelation for the church only comes to those who have been called by God as prophets, which in the LDS Church includes the First Presidency
Continuous revelation
–
General topics
2.
Scripture
–
Religious texts are texts which religious traditions consider to be central to their religious practice or set of beliefs. It is not possible to create an exhaustive list of religious texts, one of the oldest known religious texts is the Kesh Temple Hymn of Ancient Sumer, a set of inscribed clay tablets which scholars typically date around 2600 BCE. For example, the content of a Protestant Bible may differ from the content of a Catholic Bible, the word canon comes from the Sumerian word meaning standard. Hierographology is the study of sacred texts, the following is an in-exhaustive list of links to specific religious texts which may be used for further, more in-depth study. The writings of Franklin Albert Jones a. k. a, some denominations also include the Apocrypha. For Protestantism, this is the 66-book canon - the Jewish Tanakh of 24 books divided differently, some denominations also include the 15 books of the Apocrypha between the Old Testament and the New Testament, for a total of 81 books. For Catholicism, this includes seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament for a total of 73 books, called the Canon of Trent. For the Eastern Orthodox Church, this includes the anagignoskomena, which consist of the Catholic deuterocanon, plus 3 Maccabees, Psalm 151, the Prayer of Manasseh,4 Maccabees is considered to be canonical by the Georgian Orthodox Church. Some Syriac churches accept the Letter of Baruch as scripture, christian Scientists The Bible Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. This textbook, along with the Bible, serves as the permanent impersonal pastor of the church, the Community of Christ uses the Joseph Smith Translation, which it calls the Inspired Version, as well as updated modern translations. Seventh-day Adventists The Bible The writings of Ellen White are held to a status, though not equal with the Bible. Also known as the Gospel of Mani and The Living Gospel the Treasure of Life the Pragmateia the Book of Mysteries The Book of Giants the Epistles the Psalms, the Shabuhragan The Arzhang The Kephalaia, Discourses, found in Coptic translation. Odù Ifá Jaap Verduijns Odu Ifa Collection Primary religious texts, that is, the Avesta collection, The Yasna, the Visperad, a collection of supplements to the Yasna. The Yashts, hymns in honor of the divinities, the Vendidad, describes the various forms of evil spirits and ways to confound them. Shorter texts and prayers, the Yashts the five Nyaishes, the Sirozeh, there are some 60 secondary religious texts, none of which are considered scripture. The Khordeh Avesta, Zoroastrian prayer book for lay people from the Avesta, religious full text online library Ancient texts library Internet Sacred Text Archive
Scripture
–
Ancient style of scripture used for the
Pāli Canon
Scripture
–
The Chinese
Diamond Sutra, the oldest known dated
printed book in the world, printed in the 9th year of Xiantong Era of the
Tang Dynasty, or 868 CE.
British Library.
Scripture
–
Christian
Bible, 1407 handwritten copy
Scripture
–
The Bible (left) and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (right) serve as the pastor of the
Christian Science church.
3.
Biblical canon
–
A biblical canon or canon of scripture is a list of texts which a particular religious community regards as authoritative scripture. The word canon comes from the Greek κανών, meaning rule or measuring stick, Christians became the first to use the term in reference to scripture, but Eugene Ulrich regards the idea as Jewish. In contrast, a canon, which permits the addition of books through the process of continuous revelation. These canons have developed through debate and agreement by the authorities of their respective faiths. Believers consider canonical books as inspired by God or as expressive of the history of the relationship between God and his people. Differences exist between the Jewish Tanakh and Christian biblical canons, and between the canons of different Christian denominations, the differing criteria and processes of canonization dictate what the various communities regard as inspired scripture. In some cases where varying strata of scriptural inspiration have accumulated, Rabbinic Judaism recognizes the twenty-four books of the Masoretic Text, commonly called the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. According to Marc Zvi Brettler, the Jewish scriptures outside the Torah, the book of Deuteronomy includes a prohibition against adding or subtracting which might apply to the book itself or to the instruction received by Moses on Mt. Sinai. The Book of Nehemiah suggests that the priest-scribe Ezra brought the Torah back from Babylon to Jerusalem, both I and II Maccabees suggest that Judas Maccabeus likewise collected sacred books, indeed some scholars argue that the Jewish canon was fixed by the Hasmonean dynasty. However, these sources do not suggest that the canon was at that time closed, moreover. They lived in a period of two centuries ending c.70 AD. In addition to the Tanakh, mainstream Rabbinic Judaism considers the Talmud to be another central and it takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs, and history. There are numerous citations of Sirach within the Talmud, even though the book was not ultimately accepted into the Hebrew canon, the Talmud is the basis for all codes of rabbinic law and is often quoted in other rabbinic literature. Certain groups of Jews, such as the Karaites, do not accept the oral Law as it is codified in the Talmud, Ethiopian Jews—also known as Beta Israel —possess a canon of scripture that is distinct from Rabbinic Judaism. Mäṣḥafä Kedus is the name for the literature of these Jews. Their holiest book, the Orit, consists of the Pentateuch, as well as Joshua, Judges, the rest of the Ethiopian Jewish canon is considered to be of secondary importance. It consists of the remainder of the Hebrew canon—with the possible exception of the Book of Lamentations—and various deuterocanonical books. These include Sirach, Judith, Tobit,1 and 2 Esdras,1 and 4 Baruch, the three books of Meqabyan, Jubilees, Enoch, the Testament of Abraham, the Testament of Isaac, the latter three patriarchal testaments are distinct to this scriptural tradition
Biblical canon
–
A
scroll of the
Book of Esther; one of the
five megillot of the
Tanakh.
Biblical canon
–
The Abisha Scroll, the oldest scroll among the Samaritans in Nablus.
4.
List of sects in the Latter Day Saint movement
–
The denominations in the Latter Day Saint movement are sometimes collectively referred to as Mormonism. Denominations opposed to the use of the term consider it to be connected to the polygamy practiced by the Utah church. It was renamed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1838, the largest denomination within the contemporary movement is the LDS Church with 15 million members. It is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and uses the term Latter-day Saints to describe itself, the second-largest denomination is the Community of Christ, a Missouri-based,250, 000-member denomination. Other denominations within the movement either formed around various would-be successors to Smith and these, together with the two denominations listed above, are detailed in the table of denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement, below. Though a few small factions broke with Smiths organization during his lifetime, following Smiths death, the movement experienced a leadership crisis which led to a schism within the church. The largest group, which would become the LDS Church, followed Brigham Young, settling in what would become the Utah Territory, the second-largest faction, the RLDS Church, coalesced around Joseph Smith III, eldest son of Joseph Smith. Other would-be leaders included the surviving member of the First Presidency, Sidney Rigdon, the newly baptized James Strang from Wisconsin. Each of these men still retains a following as of 2014—however tiny it may be in some cases—and all of their organizations have experienced further schisms, other claimants, such as Granville Hedrick, William Bickerton and Charles B. Thompson, later emerged to start still other factions, some of which have further subdivided, given the large number of Latter Day Saint churches and their differing backgrounds, categorizing them can be difficult. Another method uses provenance, for instance, all denominations that ultimately trace their history back to the LDS Church in Utah are organized as one factional group, Divergent Paths of the Restoration—a reference work on this subject—follows this approach. Those denominations within each group share a common ancestry and basic beliefs that are different from groups sharing other provenances, Joseph Smiths original church, and those bodies which broke with him during his lifetime. The original organization, founded by Joseph Smith in 1830, later called the Church of the Latter Day Saints, other small churches formed on the basis of disagreements with Smith prior to his murder in 1844, all of which are now defunct. Sometimes called Rocky Mountain Saints, Brighamites, or Mormons, tracing their leadership or influence through Brigham Young, by far the largest and best known Latter Day Saint church, which is colloquially, but imprecisely, referred to as the Mormon Church. The defunct Godbeites and a few small churches that broke with the LDS Church to pursue a more liberal, inclusive. These adherents are referred to, collectively, as Prairie Saints. The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and related churches tracing their leadership through Joseph Smith III, the Church of Christ and related churches tracing their leadership through Granville Hedrick. Churches tracing their leadership through Sidney Rigdon or William Bickerton, the Church of Jesus Christ and related churches tracing their leadership through Alpheus Cutler
List of sects in the Latter Day Saint movement
–
An 1842 portrait of
Joseph Smith, founder of the
Latter Day Saint movement
List of sects in the Latter Day Saint movement
–
An 1851 tinted lithograph depicting the death of Joseph Smith in 1844
List of sects in the Latter Day Saint movement
–
Alleged daguerreotype of
Joseph Smith, founder of the
Latter Day Saint movement
List of sects in the Latter Day Saint movement
–
George J. Adams, founder of the
Church of the Messiah (George J. Adams)
5.
Latter Day Saint movement
–
The Latter Day Saint movement is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 15 million members, the vast majority of adherents belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with their predominant theology being Mormonism. The LDS Church self-identifies as Christian, based on the teachings of this book and other revelations, Smith founded a Christian primitivist church, called the Church of Christ. The Book of Mormon attracted hundreds of followers, who later became known as Mormons, Latter Day Saints. In 1831, Smith moved the headquarters to Kirtland, Ohio. After the church in Ohio collapsed due to dissensions, in 1838, Smith and the body of the moved to Missouri. After Smiths death in 1844, a crisis led to the organization splitting into several groups. The largest of these, the LDS Church, migrated under the leadership of Brigham Young to the Great Basin, the LDS Church officially renounced this practice in 1890, and gradually discontinued it, resulting in the Utah Territory becoming a U. S. state. This change resulted in the formation of a number of small sects who sought to maintain polygamy and other 19th-century Mormon doctrines and practices, other groups originating within the Latter Day Saint movement followed different paths in Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. For the most part these groups rejected plural marriage and some of Smiths later teachings, the largest of these, the Community of Christ, was formed in Illinois in 1860 by several groups uniting around Smiths son, Joseph Smith III. Most existing denominations that adhere to the teachings of Smith have some relationship with the movement. The driving force behind and founder of the Latter Day Saint movement was Joseph Smith, Smith and Cowdery also explained that the angels John the Baptist, Peter, James, and John visited them in 1829 and gave them priesthood authority to reestablish the Church of Christ. The first Latter Day Saint church was formed on April 6,1830, consisting of a community of believers in the western New York towns of Fayette, Manchester, the church was formally organized under the name of the Church of Christ. In 1844, William Law and several other Latter Day Saints in church leadership positions publicly denounced Smiths secret practice of polygamy in the Nauvoo Expositor, the city council of Nauvoo, Illinois, led by Smith, subsequently had the printing press of the Expositor destroyed. In spite of Smiths later offer to pay damages for destroyed property, critics of Smith, some called for the Latter Day Saints to be either expelled or destroyed. These various claims resulted in a succession crisis, many supported Brigham Young, the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, others Sidney Rigdon, the senior surviving member of the First Presidency. These various groups are referred to under two geographical headings, Prairie Saints and Rocky Mountain Saints. Today, the vast majority of Latter Day Saints belong to the Utah-based The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the second-largest denomination is the Missouri-based Community of Christ which reports over 250,000 members
Latter Day Saint movement
–
The
Book of Mormon.
6.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
–
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Christian restorationist church that is considered by its members to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has established congregations, according to the church, it has over 70,000 missionaries and a membership of over 15 million. It is ranked by the National Council of Churches as the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States and it is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening. Adherents, often referred to as Latter-day Saints, or, less formally, Mormons, view faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement as fundamental principles of their religion. The church has a canon which includes four scriptural texts, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants. The current president is Thomas S. Monson, individual members of the church believe that they can also receive personal revelation from God in conducting their lives. The president heads a hierarchical structure with various levels reaching down to local congregations, Bishops, drawn from the laity, lead local congregations. Male members, after reaching age 12, may be ordained to the priesthood, Women do not hold positions within the priesthood, but do occupy leadership roles in some church auxiliary organizations. Both men and women may serve as missionaries, and the church maintains a large missionary program which proselytizes, faithful members adhere to church laws of sexual purity, health, fasting, and Sabbath observance, and contribute ten percent of their income to the church in tithing. The LDS Church was formally organized by Joseph Smith on April 6,1830, Smith intended to establish the New Jerusalem in North America, called Zion. In 1831, the moved to Kirtland, Ohio, and began establishing an outpost in Jackson County, Missouri. However, in 1833, Missouri settlers brutally expelled the Latter Day Saints from Jackson County, the Kirtland era ended in 1838, after a financial scandal rocked the church and caused widespread defections. Smith regrouped with the church in Far West, Missouri. Believing the Saints to be in insurrection, the Missouri governor ordered that the Saints be exterminated or driven from the State, in 1839, the Saints converted a swampland on the banks of the Mississippi River into Nauvoo, Illinois, which became the churchs new headquarters. Nauvoo grew rapidly as missionaries sent to Europe and elsewhere gained new converts who then flooded into Nauvoo, meanwhile, Smith introduced polygamy to his closest associates. He also established ceremonies, which he stated the Lord had revealed to him, to allow people to become gods in the afterlife. He also introduced the church to an accounting of his First Vision. This vision would come to be regarded by the LDS Church as the most important event in history since the resurrection of Jesus
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
–
Church members believe that
Joseph Smith was called to be a modern-day prophet through, among other events, a
visitation from
God the Father and
Jesus Christ.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
–
Brigham Young led the LDS Church from 1844 until his death in 1877.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
–
The
Salt Lake Temple, which took 40 years to build, is one of the most iconic images of the church.
7.
Community of Christ
–
Community of Christ is an American-based international church with roots in the Latter Day Saint movement. The church reports approximately over 250,000 members in 60 nations, the church traces its origins to Joseph Smiths establishment of the Church of Christ on April 6,1830, with the church formally reorganizing on April 6,1860, following the death of Smith in 1844. The Community of Christ is rooted in Restorationist traditions, although in some respects it is congruent with mainline Protestant Christian attitudes, it is in many ways theologically distinct, continuing such features as prophetic revelation. It is the second-largest denomination within the Latter Day Saint movement, Community of Christ follows a largely non-liturgical tradition based loosely on the Revised Common Lectionary. From its headquarters in Independence, Missouri, the church offers a focus on evangelism, peace and justice ministries, spirituality and wholeness, youth ministries. Church teachings emphasize that all are called as persons of worth to share the peace of Christ, the church was legally organized on April 6,1830, in Fayette, New York. The formal reorganization occurred on April 6,1860, in Amboy, Illinois, as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, adding the word Reorganized to the church name in 1872. The Community of Christ today considers the period from 1830 to 1844 to be a part of its history and from 1844. Since 1844, the doctrines and practices of the Community of Christ have evolved separately from the denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. Since the 1960s, the churchs proselytizing outside North America forced a re-assessment, howard estimated that 25,000 members had left to join such groups. Between the mid-1960s and the late 1990s, there was a decline in new baptisms in the United States along with a 50 percent drop in contributions in the decade before 1998. The church owns two temples, the Kirtland Temple, dedicated in 1836 in Kirtland, Ohio, and the relatively new Independence Temple and these structures are open to the public and are also used for education and gatherings. The church also owns and operates some Latter Day Saint historic sites in Lamoni, Iowa, the Auditorium in Independence houses the Childrens Peace Pavilion and is the site of the major legislative assembly of the Community of Christ, which convenes during the World Conference. The church sponsors Graceland University, with a campus in Lamoni and another in Independence, where the School of Nursing, in its mission statement, the church declares that e proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love and peace. The vision statement states that We will become a church dedicated to the pursuit of peace, reconciliation. The Community of Christ states that it recognizes that perception of truth is qualified by human nature and experience. Nevertheless, the Community of Christ offers a number of the commonly held beliefs of its members and leaders as the generally accepted beliefs of the church. As Stephen M. Veazey, current president of the church states, the Community of Christ generally accepts the doctrine of the Trinity and other commonly held Christian beliefs
Community of Christ
–
The Community of Christ Temple in Independence, Missouri, USA. Dedicated in 1994.
Community of Christ
–
Community of Christ
Community of Christ
–
Church seal on a set of doors to the Independence Temple
8.
Joseph Smith
–
Joseph Smith Jr. was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was twenty-four, Smith published the Book of Mormon, by the time of his death fourteen years later, he had attracted tens of thousands of followers and founded a religious culture that continues to the present. In 1830, Smith published what he said was an English translation of these plates, the same year he organized the Church of Christ, calling it a restoration of the early Christian church. Members of the church were later called Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, in 1831, Smith and his followers moved west, planning to build a communalistic American Zion. They first gathered in Kirtland, Ohio, and established an outpost in Independence, Missouri, during the 1830s, Smith sent out missionaries, published revelations, and supervised construction of the expensive Kirtland Temple. In 1844, Smith and the Nauvoo city council angered non-Mormons by destroying a newspaper that had criticized Smiths power, after Smith was imprisoned in Carthage, Illinois, he was killed when a mob stormed the jailhouse. Smith published many revelations and other texts that his followers regard as scripture and his teachings include unique views about the nature of God, cosmology, family structures, political organization, and religious collectivism. Joseph Smith Jr. was born on December 23,1805, in Sharon, Vermont, to Lucy Mack Smith and her husband Joseph Sr. a merchant, after suffering a crippling bone infection when he was seven, the younger Smith used crutches for three years. During the Second Great Awakening, the region was a hotbed of religious enthusiasm, although Smiths parents disagreed about religion, the family was caught up in this excitement. Smith later said he became interested in religion at about the age of twelve, he participated in church classes, as a teenager, he may have been sympathetic to Methodism. With other family members, Smith also engaged in folk magic. Both his parents and his grandfather reportedly had visions or dreams that they believed communicated messages from God. Smith said that although he had become concerned about the welfare of his soul, years later Smith said that in 1820 he had received a vision that resolved his religious confusion. While praying in an area near his home, he said that God, in a vision, had told him his sins were forgiven. Smith said he told the experience to a preacher, who dismissed the story with contempt, but the experience was largely unknown, even to most Mormons, until the 1840s. Although Smith may have understood the event as a conversion, this First Vision later grew in importance among Mormons. Smith said he attempted to remove the plates the next morning but was unsuccessful because the angel prevented him, Smith reported that during the next four years, he made annual visits to the hill but each time returned without the plates. Meanwhile, the Smith family faced financial hardship due in part to the November 1823 death of Smiths oldest brother Alvin, Family members supplemented their meager farm income by hiring out for odd jobs and working as treasure seekers, a type of magical supernaturalism common during the period
Joseph Smith
–
Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith
–
Smith said he received golden plates from the
angel Moroni at the
Hill Cumorah.
Joseph Smith
–
Cover page of the
Book of Mormon, original 1830 edition
Joseph Smith
–
A mob
tarred and feathered Smith in 1832.
9.
Book of Commandments
–
The Book of Commandments is the earliest published volume said to contain the revelations of Joseph Smith Jr. Text published in the Book of Commandments is now considered scripture by Latter-day Saints as part of the larger Doctrine, the Book of Commandments was planned as a compilation of Joseph Smith Jr. s early prophecies. Smith, leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, gathered several of his revelations for a High Priests council in November 1831, the ten-man council voted to print 10,000 copies, but the actual number of prints was reduced to between three and five thousand. W. W. Phelps publisher of the book, ran a press in Independence, a faithful Mormon, Phelps also edited an historically important Mormon periodical, The Evening and Morning Star from September 1831 to July 1833. Most revelations in the Book of Commandments were previously published by Phelps in the Star, the title page of the book reads A Book of Commandments, for the government of the Church of Christ, organized according to law, on the 6th of April,1830. / ZION, published by W. W. Phelps & co. /1833, on July 20,1833 an anti-Mormon and pro-slavery mob destroyed the press. The mob, purportedly frightened of Mormon political power, was incensed by an editorial in Phelpss Evening and Morning Star perceived to be abolitionist, breaking down the door, they razed Phelpss home and business in less than an hour. At that point,65 revelations of the Book of Commandments, totaling 160 pages, most of the uncut and unbound sheets were destroyed in the ensuing fire. However, some neighbors including teenage sisters Caroline and Mary Elizabeth Rollins saved remnants of nearly 100 copies, fewer than 30 are known to exist today, including several incomplete versions. Further enhancing the books scarcity, several copies of the Book of Commandments are held in permanent collections, lee Library, and the New York Public Library each own a copy. When sold on the market, the book regularly fetches over $100,000. An incomplete copy changed hands for $200,000 in 2001, rare books dealer Ken Sanders claims a copy was sold privately in Utah for $500,000. Many of the revelations in the Book of Commandments were also printed in the church newspaper Evening and Morning Star. Apologetic scholars tend to minimize the significance of these changes, or to read the two editions of scripture in a way makes them roughly consistent. For example, an often cited by Mormon critics says. and he has a gift to translate the book and I have commanded him that he shall pretend to no other gift. — Book of Commandments,4,2 This passage refers to Joseph Smith in third person, however, the re-numbered Doctrine and Covenants reads. — Doctrine and Covenants,5,4 Secular Mormon scholars generally assert that Smith originally claimed only to be charged with translating the Book of Mormon. According to this view, he had to revise the passage to bring it into accord with his subsequent translation of the Bible, an apologist would reply that this misunderstanding of the original text is precisely why it had to be clarified
Book of Commandments
–
Title page of the 1903 reprint
10.
Revelation (Latter Day Saints)
–
Latter Day Saints teach that the Latter Day Saint movement began with a revelation from God. They also teach that revelation is the foundation of the established by Jesus Christ. Continuous revelation provides individual Latter Day Saints with a testimony, described by Richard Bushman as one of the most potent words in the Mormon lexicon. In response to an inquiry on the beliefs of the church, Joseph Smith wrote what came to be called the Wentworth Letter, the fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth articles state the essence of Latter Day Saint belief concerning revelation. 5 We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy,6 We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth. 7 We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth. 9 We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, the Latter Day Saint concept of revelation includes the belief that revelation from God is available to all those who earnestly seek it with the intent of doing good. It also teaches that everyone is entitled to personal revelation with respect to his or her stewardship, in the LDS Church, personal revelation is expected and encouraged, and many converts believe that personal revelation from God was instrumental in their conversion. Joseph F. Smith, the president and Prophet of LDS Church, summarized the churchs belief concerning revelation by saying. In the principle of revelation from God to man. Christ is the head of his Church and not man, it… is a living, vital principle to be enjoyed on certain conditions only, namely – through absolute faith in God and obedience to his laws and commandments. The moment this principle is cut off, that moment the Church is adrift, james E. to live as best it may according to the laws of a bygone age. Latter Day Saints believe that God answers prayers, surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. Some of it has operational and tactical. Much of it is not spectacular and these all had revelations for themselves. In our time God has revealed how to administer the Church with a membership of six million differently than when there were just six members of the Church. Hinckley further explained, A growing church, a church that is spreading across the earth in these times, needs constant revelation from the throne of heaven to guide it. With prayer and anxious seeking of the will of the Lord, we testify that direction is received, that comes
Revelation (Latter Day Saints)
–
General topics
11.
Oliver Cowdery
–
Oliver H. P. Cowdery was, with Joseph Smith, an important participant in the formative period of the Latter Day Saint movement between 1829 and 1836. He was the first baptized Latter Day Saint, one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormons golden plates, one of the first Latter Day Saint apostles, in 1838, Cowdery left and was excommunicated from the church founded by Smith and later became a Methodist. In 1848, he returned to the Latter Day Saint movement and was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Cowdery was born October 3,1806, in Wells, Vermont. His father, William, a farmer, moved the family to Poultney in Rutland County, in his youth, Cowdery hunted for buried treasure using a divining rod. At age 20, Cowdery left Vermont for upstate New York and he clerked at a store for just over two years and in 1829 became a school teacher in Manchester, New York. Cowdery met Joseph Smith on April 5, 1829—a year and a day before the founding of the church—and heard from him how he had received golden plates containing ancient Native American writings. Cowdery told Smith that he had seen the plates in a vision before the two ever met. From April 7 to June 1829, Cowdery acted as Smiths primary scribe for the translation of the plates into what would become the Book of Mormon. Cowdery also unsuccessfully attempted to translate part of the Book of Mormon by himself, before meeting Cowdery, Smith had virtually stopped translating after the first 116 pages had been lost by Martin Harris. But working with Cowdery, Smith completed the manuscript in a short period. Cowdery and Smith said that on May 15,1829, they received the Aaronic priesthood from the resurrected John the Baptist, one of the three announced that he was the Apostle Peter and said the others were the apostles James and John. Later that year, Cowdery reported sharing a vision, along with Smith and David Whitmer, Martin Harris said he saw a similar vision later that day. Cowdery, Whitmer and Harris signed a statement to that effect and their testimony has been published in nearly every edition of the Book of Mormon. When the church was organized on April 6,1830, Smith became First Elder, Cowdery held the position of Assistant President of the Church from 1834 until his resignation/excommunication in 1838. Cowdery was also a member of the first presiding high council of the church, organized in Kirtland, Ohio, in 1834. On December 18,1832, Cowdery married Elizabeth Ann Whitmer and they had five children, of whom only one daughter survived to maturity. Cowdery helped Smith publish a series of Smiths revelations first called the Book of Commandments and later, as revised and expanded, the Doctrine and Covenants. Cowdery was also the editor, or on the board, of several early church publications, including the Evening and Morning Star, the Messenger and Advocate
Oliver Cowdery
–
Daguerreotype of Oliver Cowdery found in the Library of Congress, taken in the 1840s by
James Presley Ball
Oliver Cowdery
12.
Missouri
–
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, achieving statehood in 1821. With over six million residents, it is the eighteenth most populous state, the largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia. The capitol is in Jefferson City on the Missouri River, the state is the twenty-first most extensive by area and is geographically diverse. The Northern Plains were once covered by glaciers, then tallgrass prairie, in the South are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals, and recreation. The Mississippi River forms the border of the state, eventually flowing into the swampy Missouri Bootheel. Humans have inhabited what we now call Missouri for at least 12,000 years, the Mississippian culture built cities and mounds, before declining in the 1300s. When European explorers arrived in the 1600s they encountered the Osage, the French established Louisiana, a part of New France, and founded Ste. Genevieve in 1735 and St. Louis in 1764, after a brief period of Spanish rule, the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Americans from the Upland South, including enslaved African Americans, rushed into the new Missouri Territory, many from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee settled in the Boonslick area of Mid-Missouri. Soon after, heavy German immigration formed the Missouri Rhineland, Missouri played a central role in the westward expansion of the United States, as memorialized by the Gateway Arch. The Pony Express, Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, as a border state, Missouris role in the American Civil War was complex and there were many conflicts within. After the war, both Greater St. Louis and the Kansas City metropolitan area became centers of industrialization and business, today, the state is divided into 114 counties and the independent city of St. Louis. Missouris culture blends elements from the Midwestern and Southern United States, the musical styles of ragtime, Kansas City jazz, and St. Louis Blues, developed in Missouri. The well-known Kansas City-style barbecue, and lesser known St. Louis-style barbecue can be found across the state, St. Louis is also a major center of beer brewing, Anheuser-Busch is the largest producer in the world. Missouri wine is produced in the nearby Missouri Rhineland and Ozarks, Missouris alcohol laws are among the most permissive in the United States. Outside of the large cities popular tourist destinations include the Lake of the Ozarks, U. S. President Harry S. Truman is from Missouri. Other well known Missourians include Mark Twain, Walt Disney, Chuck Berry, some of the largest companies based in the state include Express Scripts, Monsanto, Emerson Electric, Edward Jones, and OReilly Auto Parts. Missouri has been called the Mother of the West and the Cave State, however, Missouris most famous nickname is the Show Me State, the state is named for the Missouri River, which was named after the indigenous Missouri Indians, a Siouan-language tribe
Missouri
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A physiographic map of Missouri.
Missouri
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Flag
Missouri
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The
Bell Mountain Wilderness of southern Missouri's
Mark Twain National Forest
Missouri
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External video
13.
Frederick G. Williams
–
Frederick Granger Williams was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, serving in the First Presidency of the Church of the Latter Day Saints from 1833 to 1837. Williams was born at Suffield, Connecticut, to William Wheeler Williams and he married Rebecca Swain in December 1815. By 1828 he was living in Chardon, Ohio, and he moved to Kirtland in 1830, while in Ohio, he associated himself with Sidney Rigdon and the Disciples of Christ. When Oliver Cowdery and other early Latter Day Saints were traveling through Kirtland, they taught and baptized many in Rigdon’s congregation, on July 20,1832, Williams was appointed scribe to Joseph Smith and joined the church’s leading council the next year. G. Although there is no record of an excommunication, Williams was rebaptized in August 1838 and he was excommunicated in absentia in March 1839 while Joseph Smith was in Liberty Jail, but was restored to fellowship at a church conference presided over by Smith in April 1840. As Smiths scribe and counselor, Williams became a close friend, Joseph and Emma Smith named one of their sons Frederick Granger Williams Smith. The lineage of Williams continues in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, williamss great-great-grandson, and namesake, Frederick Granger Williams, served as president of the Recife Brazil Temple and is currently a professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah
Frederick G. Williams
–
Frederick G. Williams
14.
Kirtland, Ohio
–
For other places with the same name, see Kirtland Kirtland is a city in Lake County, Ohio, United States. The population was 6,866 at the 2010 census, Kirtland is famous for being the early headquarters of the Latter Day Saints movement from 1831–1837 and is the site of the first Mormon temple, the Kirtland Temple, completed in 1836. The city is also the location for many parks in the Lake Metroparks system, after the founding of the United States, northern Ohio was designated as the Western Reserve and was sold to the Connecticut Land Company. The area was first surveyed by Moses Cleaveland and his party in 1796, Kirtland is named for Turhand Kirtland, a principal of the Connecticut Land Company and judge in Trumbull County, the first political entity in Ohio that included Kirtland township. Kirtland, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, demonstrated both breadth of vision and integrity in his dealings with the local Native Americans. He was known for his bravery, resourcefulness, and passion for justice, dr. Jared Potter Kirtland was the son of the former, he helped to found a medical college in nearby Willoughby, Ohio, and he compiled the first ornithology of Ohio. The bird Kirtlands warbler is named for Jared Kirtland and this rare species has been documented in the city during migration, but it does not nest in Ohio. Being less well suited to agriculture, the forested, clay soiled, high, hilly, land of Kirtland was settled later than surrounding townships, Mentor in 1798. Kirtlands first European settlers were the John Moore family, soon followed by the Crary family who came to Kirtland in 1811, in 1893 Christopher Crary wrote a memoir of his Kirtland life, which provided a great deal of material for Anne B. From 1831 to 1838 Kirtland was the headquarters for the Latter Day Saint movement, Joseph Smith moved the church to Kirtland in 1831, shortly after its formal organization in April 1830 in Palmyra, New York. Latter Day Saints built their first temple there, a landmark that is now owned and operated by the Community of Christ. The temple was built with a degree of opulence, considering the nature of the area. Many attending the Kirtland Temple dedication in 1836 claimed to see multiple heavenly visions and appearances of heavenly beings, for this and other reasons, Kirtland remains a place of importance to those of all Latter Day Saint denominations. Many sections from the Doctrine and Covenants, considered modern revelations and canonical by most denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement, today, besides giving tours, the Community of Christ church allows others to use the temple for special meetings. After the majority of the Latter Day Saints departed Kirtland in 1837-38, Crary recalls the last rattlesnakes being killed on Gildersleeve Mountain in the 1830s. During this period most of the areas near Kirtland were cleared for agriculture, with corn. In the early 20th century, Kirtland School was built to consolidate 3 school houses, one of the old school houses can still be found at the corner of Baldwin and Booth Roads in Kirtland Hills. Kirtland saw few changes until after World War II when several subdivisions were built
Kirtland, Ohio
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Kirtland Temple
Kirtland, Ohio
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The N. K. Whitney Store
15.
Bible
–
The Bible is a collection of sacred texts or scriptures that Jews and Christians consider to be a product of divine inspiration and a record of the relationship between God and humans. Many different authors contributed to the Bible, what is regarded as canonical text differs depending on traditions and groups, a number of Bible canons have evolved, with overlapping and diverging contents. The Christian Old Testament overlaps with the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Septuagint, the New Testament is a collection of writings by early Christians, believed to be mostly Jewish disciples of Christ, written in first-century Koine Greek. These early Christian Greek writings consist of narratives, letters, among Christian denominations there is some disagreement about the contents of the canon, primarily the Apocrypha, a list of works that are regarded with varying levels of respect. Attitudes towards the Bible also differ amongst Christian groups and this concept arose during the Protestant Reformation, and many denominations today support the use of the Bible as the only source of Christian teaching. With estimated total sales of over 5 billion copies, the Bible is widely considered to be the book of all time. It has estimated sales of 100 million copies, and has been a major influence on literature and history, especially in the West. The English word Bible is from the Latin biblia, from the word in Medieval Latin and Late Latin. Medieval Latin biblia is short for biblia sacra holy book, while biblia in Greek and it gradually came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun in medieval Latin, and so the word was loaned as a singular into the vernaculars of Western Europe. Latin biblia sacra holy books translates Greek τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια ta biblia ta hagia, the word βιβλίον itself had the literal meaning of paper or scroll and came to be used as the ordinary word for book. It is the diminutive of βύβλος byblos, Egyptian papyrus, possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician sea port Byblos from whence Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece, the Greek ta biblia was an expression Hellenistic Jews used to describe their sacred books. Christian use of the term can be traced to c.223 CE, bruce notes that Chrysostom appears to be the first writer to use the Greek phrase ta biblia to describe both the Old and New Testaments together. The division of the Hebrew Bible into verses is based on the sof passuk cantillation mark used by the 10th-century Masoretes to record the verse divisions used in oral traditions. The oldest extant copy of a complete Bible is an early 4th-century parchment book preserved in the Vatican Library, the oldest copy of the Tanakh in Hebrew and Aramaic dates from the 10th century CE. The oldest copy of a complete Latin Bible is the Codex Amiatinus and he states that it is not a magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind. In Christian Bibles, the New Testament Gospels were derived from traditions in the second half of the first century CE. Riches says that, Scholars have attempted to reconstruct something of the history of the oral traditions behind the Gospels, the period of transmission is short, less than 40 years passed between the death of Jesus and the writing of Marks Gospel. This means that there was time for oral traditions to assume fixed form
Bible
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The
Gutenberg Bible, the first printed Bible
Bible
–
The Kennicott Bible, by
Benjamin Kennicott, with illustration, Jonah being swallowed by the fish, 1476
Bible
–
Tanakh
16.
Book of Mormon
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It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith as The Book of Mormon, An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi. According to Smiths account and the narrative, the Book of Mormon was originally written in otherwise unknown characters referred to as reformed Egyptian engraved on golden plates. Critics claim that it was fabricated by Smith, drawing on material, the pivotal event of the book is an appearance of Jesus Christ in the Americas shortly after his resurrection. The Book of Mormon is divided into books, titled after the individuals named as primary authors and, in most versions, divided into chapters. It is written in English very similar to the Early Modern English linguistic style of the King James Version of the Bible, as of 2011, more than 150 million copies of the Book of Mormon have been published. The writings were said to describe a people whom God had led from Jerusalem to the Western hemisphere 600 years before Jesus birth. According to the narrative, Moroni was the last prophet among these people and had buried the record, which God had promised to bring forth in the latter days. e. Smiths description of these events recounts that he was allowed to take the plates on September 22,1827, exactly four years from that date, accounts vary of the way in which Smith dictated the Book of Mormon. Smith himself implied that he read the plates directly using spectacles prepared for the purpose of translating, other accounts variously state that he used one or more seer stones placed in a top hat. Both the special spectacles and the stone were at times referred to as the Urim and Thummim. During the translating process itself, Smith sometimes separated himself from his scribe with a blanket between them, additionally, the plates were not always present during the translating process and, when present, they were always covered up. Smiths first published description of the said that the plates had the appearance of gold. They were described by Martin Harris, one of Smiths early scribes, Smith called the engraved writing on the plates reformed Egyptian. A portion of the text on the plates was also sealed according to his account, in addition to Smiths account regarding the plates, eleven others stated that they saw the golden plates and, in some cases, handled them. Their written testimonies are known as the Testimony of Three Witnesses and these statements have been published in most editions of the Book of Mormon. Smith enlisted his neighbor Martin Harris as a scribe during his work on the text. In 1828, Harris, prompted by his wife Lucy Harris, Smith reluctantly acceded to Harriss requests. Lucy Harris is thought to have stolen the first 116 pages, after the loss, Smith recorded that he had lost the ability to translate, and that Moroni had taken back the plates to be returned only after Smith repented
Book of Mormon
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A page from the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon, covering 1 Nephi 4:38 - 5:14
Book of Mormon
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A depiction of Joseph Smith dictating the Book of Mormon by peering at a seer stone in a hat.
Book of Mormon
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Books of the Book of Mormon
17.
Pearl of Great Price (Mormonism)
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The Pearl of Great Price is part of the canonical standard works of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and some other Latter Day Saint denominations. These items were produced by Joseph Smith and were published in the Church periodicals of his day, the name of the book is derived from the Parable of the Pearl told by Jesus in Matthew 13. The same material is published by the Community of Christ as parts of its Doctrine and Covenants, the Book of Abraham is an 1835 work produced by Joseph Smith that he said was based on Egyptian papyri purchased from a traveling mummy exhibition. According to Smith, the book was a translation of ancient records. Purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, the text that Smith produced describes a story of Abrahams early life, including a vision of the cosmos. The Book of Abraham was canonized in 1880 by the LDS Church as part of the Pearl of Great Price, thus, it forms a doctrinal foundation for the LDS Church and Mormon fundamentalist denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. It is not considered to be a text by the Community of Christ. Other sects in the Latter Day Saint movement have various opinions regarding the Book of Abraham, with some rejecting and some accepting the text as inspired scripture. The book contains several doctrines that are distinct to Mormonism, such as the concept of God organizing eternal, the Book of Abraham papyri were thought lost in the 1871 Great Chicago Fire. However, in 1966, several fragments of the papyri were found in the archives of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and they are now referred to as the Joseph Smith Papyri. As a result, the Book of Abraham has been the source of significant controversy, with criticism from Egyptologists, Joseph Smith–Matthew is an excerpt from Joseph Smiths retranslation of portions of the Gospel of Matthew. It was originally published in 1831 in Kirtland, Ohio, in an undated broadsheet as Extract from the New Translation of the Bible, Joseph Smith–Matthew includes Smiths retranslation of Matthew 23,39 and all of Matthew chapter 24. The text deals mainly with Jesus prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem. Joseph Smith–Matthew contains significant changes and additions to the biblical text. Joseph Smith–History is an excerpt from the record of some of the early events in Joseph Smiths life. Like many of Smiths publications, it was dictated to a scribe, the incidents described in Joseph Smith–History include the First Vision and the visitation of the angel Moroni. It is a listing of thirteen fundamental doctrines of Mormonism. Most Latter Day Saint denominations view the articles as a statement of basic theology
Pearl of Great Price (Mormonism)
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The Pearl of Great Price is one of the four books comprising the
Standard Works of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Pearl of Great Price (Mormonism)
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Facsimile Number 1 from the Book of Abraham: an alternate woodcut which was printed in the 1851 edition of the Pearl of Great Price.
Pearl of Great Price (Mormonism)
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A 19th century depiction of
John the Baptist conferring the
Aaronic priesthood to
Joseph Smith and
Oliver Cowdery. This event is also recorded in
Joseph Smith-History.
18.
Standard works
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The standard works of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are the four books that currently constitute its open scriptural canon. Under the LDS Churchs doctrine of continuing revelation, Latter-day Saints believe in the principle of revelation from God to his children, individual members are entitled to divine revelation for confirmation of truths, gaining knowledge or wisdom, meeting personal challenges, and so forth. Parents are entitled to revelation for raising their families, members are encouraged to ponder these revelations and pray to determine for themselves the truthfulness of doctrine. The Doctrine and Covenants teaches that all things must be done in order and this applies to adding new scripture. There are several instances of this happening in the LDS Church, April 6,1830, When the church was organized it is presumed that the Bible and Book of Mormon were unanimously accepted as scripture. June 9,1830, First conference of the Church, The Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ, if the Bible and Book of Mormon were not sustained on April 6th then they were by default when the Articles and Covenants were sustained. August 17,1835, Select revelations from Joseph Smith were unanimously accepted as scripture and these were later printed in the Doctrine and Covenants. October 10,1880, The Pearl of Great Price was unanimously accepted as scripture, october 6,1890, Official Declaration 1 was accepted unanimously as scripture. It later began to be published in the Doctrine and Covenants, April 3,1976, Two visions were accepted as scripture and added to the Pearl of Great Price. September 30,1978, Official Declaration 2 was accepted unanimously as scripture and it immediately was added to the Doctrine and Covenants. When a doctrine undergoes this procedure, the LDS Church treats it as the word of God, and it is used as a standard to compare other doctrines. Lee taught, It is not to be thought that every word spoken by the General Authorities is inspired, or that they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost in everything they speak, now you keep that in mind. And if he says something that contradicts what is found in the works, you may know by that same token that it is false. In 2010 this was written into the churchs Handbook, which directs official church policy, a Spanish version, with a similar format and using a slightly revised version of the 1909 Reina-Valera translation, was published in 2009. Latter-day Saints in other non-English speaking areas may use other versions of the Bible, though the Bible is part of the LDS canon and members believe it to be the word of God, they believe that omissions and mistranslations are present in even the earliest known manuscripts. They claim that the errors in the Bible have led to incorrect interpretations of certain passages, thus, as church founder Joseph Smith explained, the church believes the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. The church teaches that he most reliable way to measure the accuracy of any biblical passage is not by comparing different texts, however, it is still printed in every version of the King James Bible published by the church. Although the Apocrypha was part of the 1611 edition of the KJV, Joseph Smith taught that while the contemporary edition of the Apocrypha was not to be relied on for doctrine, it was potentially useful when read with a spirit of discernment
Standard works
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Quadruple Combination format of the Standard Works
Standard works
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Quadruple combination opened to the
Book of Isaiah (note the cross references between Biblical and Latter-day Saint scripture in the footnotes).
Standard works
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Cover page of The Book of Mormon from an original 1830 edition, by
Joseph Smith (Image from the U.S. Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division.)
19.
Official Declaration 1
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The 1890 Manifesto is a statement which officially advised against any future plural marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. S. Federal government, and imprisoned many prominent polygamist Mormons, upon its issuance, the LDS Church in conference accepted Woodruffs Manifesto as authoritative and binding. The Manifesto was a turning point in the history of the LDS Church. It advised against church members from entering into any marriage prohibited by the law of the land, though neither Manifesto dissolved existing plural marriages, plural marriage in the LDS Church gradually died by attrition during the early 1900s. Some Mormon fundamentalists dispute that Woodruff received any such revelation, the Manifesto was issued in response to the anti-polygamy policies of the federal government of the United States, and most especially the Edmunds–Tucker Act of 1887. This law disincorporated the LDS Church and authorized the government to seize all of the church’s assets. The U. S. Supreme Court upheld the provisions of the Edmunds–Tucker Act in Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. United States in May 1890. In April 1889, Woodruff, then president of the church and we have no thought of evading it or ignoring it. Because it had been Mormon practice for over 25 years to either evade or ignore anti-polygamy laws and that decision left the Mormons no further legal recourse to their current marriage practices and made it unlikely that without change Utah Territory would be granted statehood. Woodruff later said that on the night of September 23,1890, the following morning, he reported this to some of the general authorities and placed the hand-written draft on a table. Woodruff announced the Manifesto on September 25 by publishing it in the church-owned Deseret Weekly in Salt Lake City, on October 6,1890, it was formally accepted by the church membership, though many held reservations or abstained from voting. Utah applied for again in 1895, and it was granted on January 4,1896. One of the conditions for granting Utah and other western territories statehood was that a ban on polygamy be written into the state constitution, in consequence of this alleged occurrence the Endowment House was, by my instructions, taken down without delay. And I now publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land, wilford Woodruff President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Less than a month after the Manifesto was issued, the LDS Church used the procedure of common consent to make it binding upon church members, the conference proceedings recorded that the vote to sustain the foregoing motion was unanimous. However, a modern author reports that at least some voted against the Manifesto, the Manifesto was the end of official church authorization for the creation of new plural marriages that violated local laws. It had no effect on the status of already existing plural marriages, as Woodruff explained at the general conference where the Manifesto was accepted by the church, his Manifesto only refers to future marriages, and does not affect past conditions. I did not, I could not, and would not promise that you would desert your wives and this you cannot do in honor
Official Declaration 1
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A Mormon polygamist family in 1888.
20.
Wilford Woodruff
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Wilford Woodruff Sr. was an American religious leader who served as the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1889 until his death. Woodruff was known as a religious man, but was also enthusiastically involved in the social. He was an outdoorsman, enjoying fishing and hunting. Woodruff learned to fly fish in England, and his 1847 journal account of his fishing in the East Fork River is the earliest known account of fly fishing west of the Mississippi River. As an adult, Woodruff was a farmer, horticulturist and stockman by trade, Woodruff was one of nine children born to Bulah Thompson and Aphek Woodruff, a miller working in Farmington, Connecticut. Wilfords mother Bulah Thompson died of spotted fever in 1808 at the age of 26 and he was raised by his step-mother Azubah Hart. As a young man, Woodruff worked at a sawmill and a mill owned by his father. Woodruff joined the Latter Day Saint church on December 31,1833, at that time, the church numbered only a few thousand believers clustered around Kirtland, Ohio. On January 13,1835, Woodruff left Kirtland on his first full-time mission, preaching without purse or scrip in Arkansas, like many early Latter Day Saints, Woodruff practiced plural marriage. He was married to nine women, however, not all of these marriages were concurrent and his wives, Phoebe Whittemore Carter, m. April 13,1837 Mary Ann Jackson, m, aug 2,1846 Sarah Elinor Brown, m. Aug 2,1846 Mary Caroline Barton, m, aug 2,1846 Mary Meek Giles Webster m. March 28,1852 Emma Smith m, March 13,1853 Sarah Brown, m. March 13,1853 Sarah Delight Stocking m, July 31,1857 Eudora Young Dunford m. March 10,1877 Woodruffs wives bore him a total of 34 children, Woodruff met his first wife, Phoebe Carter, in Kirtland shortly after his return from his first mission through Southern Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky. Woodruff came to Kirtland on November 25,1836, along with Abraham O. Smoot and he was introduced to Phoebe by Milton Holmes on January 28,1837. She was a native of Maine and had become a Latter Day Saint in 1834, Woodruff and Phoebe were married on April 13,1837, with the ceremony performed by Frederick G. Williams. Their marriage was sealed in Nauvoo by Hyrum Smith
Wilford Woodruff
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Wilford Woodruff in 1889.
Wilford Woodruff
Wilford Woodruff
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Woodruff's funeral in the
Salt Lake Tabernacle
Wilford Woodruff
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Grave marker of Wilford Woodruff
21.
Joseph F. Smith
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Joseph Fielding Smith Sr. was an American religious leader who served as the sixth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was the last president of the LDS Church to have personally known Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Smith was the son of church patriarch Hyrum Smith and his wife, Mary Fielding. In addition to her two children, Mary also raised the six children born to Hyrum and Jerusha, Smith was born in Far West, Missouri, on November 13,1838. Just a few days before he was born, his father had taken prisoner under the auspices of the Missouri Executive Order 44. At point of bayonet, Hyrum was marched to his home in Far West and he was told that his doom was sealed and that he would never see her again. Hyrum was still in custody in Liberty Jail, Missouri, when Smith was born and he was named after his uncle, Joseph Smith, and his mothers brother, Joseph Fielding. Hyrum was later released from custody during a transfer from Liberty Jail and his mother was later able to exchange their property in Illinois for a wagon and team of oxen. Smith and his family, along many other Latter Day Saints. The seven-year-old Smith drove the team of oxen with his family to the Latter Day Saint encampment at Winter Quarters, while at Winter Quarters, Smith and another boy, Thomas Burdick, were out on horseback some distance from the settlement, watching the cattle graze. They saw a band of twenty or thirty American Indians ride into the valley on the side of the cattle. Burdick rode back to camp to get help while Smith rode toward the Indians, Smith was able to turn the herd back toward the settlement, and, coupled with the noise and arrival of the Indians, started a stampede which saved the herd from capture. He was still riding with the herd at full speed when two Indians picked him up off of his horse from either side and dropped him to the ground. A company of men from the encampment then arrived, chased away the fleeing Indians, and recovered the herd, Smith and his family remained at Winter Quarters until the spring of 1848 when Smith drove his mothers wagon across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley. After arriving in the Salt Lake Valley in 1848, Smiths mother worked to raise her own children as well as the children of her husbands first wife, Mary Fielding Smith died in 1852, apparently of pneumonia, leaving Smith an orphan at the age of 13. Smith reported that he was devastated by his mothers death, and relied upon the support and help of Brigham Young. Even with the support of his older half-brother John Smith, Smith assumed primary responsibility for his sister, Martha Ann. His leaving school was linked to his resistance of a teachers attempt to whip Martha
Joseph F. Smith
–
Joseph F. Smith
Joseph F. Smith
Joseph F. Smith
Joseph F. Smith
–
Joseph F. Smith in the
Sacred Grove, ca. 1905
22.
Spencer W. Kimball
–
Spencer Woolley Kimball was an American business, civic, and religious leader, and was the twelfth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The grandson of early Latter Day Saint apostle Heber C, Kimball and his wife, Kimball was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. He spent most of his life in Thatcher, Arizona. He served an LDS mission from 1914 to 1916, then worked for banks in Arizonas Gila Valley as a clerk. Kimball later co-founded a business selling bonds and insurance which, after weathering the Great Depression, Kimball served as a stake president in his hometown from 1938 until 1943, when he was called to serve as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Like most LDS Church apostles, Kimball traveled extensively to fulfill a variety of administrative. He initiated the Indian Placement Program, which helped many Native American students gain educations in the 1960s and 1970s while staying with LDS foster families, in late 1973, following the sudden death of church president Harold B. Lee, Kimball became the president of the LDS Church. Kimballs presidency was noted for the 1978 announcement ending the restriction on church members of black African descent being ordained to the priesthood or receiving temple ordinances, Kimballs presidency saw large growth in the LDS Church, both in terms of membership and the number of temples. Kimball was the first church president to state that the church expected all able-bodied male members to serve missions in young adulthood. Kimball, was one of the original Latter Day Saint apostles called when Joseph Smith first organized the Quorum of the Twelve in February 1835 and he later served as first counselor to Brigham Young in the churchs First Presidency from 1847 until his death in 1868. Kimballs maternal grandfather, Edwin D. Woolley, was a prominent LDS bishop in Salt Lake City for many years, through his aunt, Helen Mar Kimball, who was one of several plural wives of Joseph Smith, Spencer Kimball was a nephew of Smith. Spencer Woolley Kimball was born on March 28,1895, in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to Andrew Kimball and Olive Woolley, sister of Mormon pioneer and eventual Mormon fundamentalist John W. Woolley. In 1898, when Kimball was three years old, his father was called as president of the St. Joseph Arizona Stake, during his childhood, Kimball had a number of medical problems, including typhoid fever and facial paralysis. Four of his sisters died in childhood, and his mother died when he was eleven, though standing only 5 ft 6 in as an adult, Kimball was an avid basketball player, and was the star and leading scorer on most of his school and recreational teams. During summer holidays, he worked at a dairy in Globe, Arizona, milking cows, cleaning stalls. Kimball graduated from school in May 1914, and one week later was called to serve as a missionary in the Swiss–German Mission. Less than two months later, his call was halted by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the subsequent outbreak of World War I
Spencer W. Kimball
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Spencer W. Kimball
Spencer W. Kimball
Spencer W. Kimball
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Kimball with counselors
N. Eldon Tanner (left) and
Marion G. Romney (right).
23.
John Taylor (Mormon)
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John Taylor was an English religious leader who served as the third president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1880 to 1887. He is the president of the LDS Church to have been born outside of the United States. Taylor was born in Milnthorpe, Westmorland, England, the son of James and Agnes Taylor and he had formal schooling up to age fourteen, and then he served an initial apprenticeship to a cooper and later received training as a woodturner and cabinetmaker. He claimed that as a man, he had a vision of “an angel in the heavens, holding a trumpet to his mouth. He was christened in the Church of England, but joined the Methodist church at sixteen and he was appointed a lay preacher a year later, and felt a calling to preach in America. Taylors parents and siblings emigrated to Upper Canada in 1830, Taylor stayed in England to dispose of the family property and joined his family in Toronto in 1832. He met Leonora Cannon from the Isle of Man while attending a Toronto Methodist Church and, although she rejected his proposal. Between 1834 and 1836, John and Leonora Taylor participated in a study group in Toronto. The group discussed problems and concerns with their Methodist faith, other members included Joseph Fielding and his sisters Mary and Mercy, who later also became prominent in the Latter Day Saint movement. While in Toronto Taylor continued to work in his trade as a woodturner, Taylor and his wife first came in contact with the Church of the Latter Day Saints in 1836 after meeting Parley P. Pratt, an apostle in the church, in Toronto. Leonora was the first to join the church and she persuaded Taylor to continue his studies with Pratt, after the couples baptism into the church, they were active in preaching and the organization of the church in Upper Canada. They then moved to Far West, Missouri, where Taylor was ordained an apostle on December 19,1838 and he assisted other church members as they fled frequent conflicts to Commerce, Illinois. In 1839, Taylor and some of his fellow apostles served missions in Britain, while there, Taylor preached in Liverpool and was responsible for Mormon preaching in Ireland and the Isle of Man. Taylor returned to Nauvoo, Illinois to serve as a city councilman, a chaplain, a colonel, an editor. Taylor edited two newspapers in Nauvoo, Times and Seasons and the Nauvoo Neighbor, Taylor also edited the more politically concerned Nauvoo Neighbor and the Wasp, the predecessor of the Nauvoo Neighbor, for about a year. Taylor was thus the editor of Nauvoos two main papers from 1842 to 1846, in 1844, Taylor was with church founder Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum Smith, and fellow apostle Willard Richards in the Carthage, Illinois jail when the Smiths were killed by a mob. Taylor was severely wounded in the conflict and his life may have been spared when a musket ball directed towards his chest was stopped by a pocket watch which he was carrying at the time. However, recent analysis shows the watch may instead have been damaged when Taylor fell against the windowsill, in 1845 Taylor became the president of the Nauvoo Tradesmen Association
John Taylor (Mormon)
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John Taylor
John Taylor (Mormon)
John Taylor (Mormon)
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North view of John Taylor's Grave monument.
John Taylor (Mormon)
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Lower portion of west side of monument.
24.
Seventy (LDS Church)
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Seventy is a priesthood office in the Melchizedek priesthood of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Latter-day Saints teach that the office of seventy was anciently conferred upon the seventy disciples mentioned in the Gospel of Luke 10, multiple individuals holding the office of seventy are referred to collectively as seventies. In practical terms, the office of seventy is one which has varied widely over the course of history. These presidents, chosen from the first quorum, would appoint, as introduced by Joseph Smith, the apostles and the seventy had authority only outside the main body of Latter Day Saints in Zion, and in the outlying stakes. Members in Zion and the stakes were led by the High Council of Zion, historically, the First Quorum of the Seventy came into being in 1835 when seven men were set apart as the First Seven Presidents of the Seventy. In 1837, six of the seven presidents were released because it was discovered that they had previously been ordained high priests, five of these men were ultimately replaced by others. The other two—Levi W. Hancock and Joseph Young—remained members of the First Seven Presidents for the rest of their lives. In the LDS Church, the quorums of the seventy are directed and supervised hierarchically by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, as a body, the seventy in the LDS Church are considered to be equal in priesthood authority with the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. This presumably means that if the apostles were killed or incapacitated, however, in such circumstances, the seventy would be required to act unanimously. In the LDS Church, members of the First and the Second Quorums of the Seventy are general authorities of the church with responsibilities covering the church as a whole, Members of additional Quorums of the Seventy are called an area seventy. Members of these quorums are ordained to the office of seventy. Area seventies generally have authority only within a unit of the church called an area. By the time Joseph Smith was killed, he had organized four incomplete quorums of seventy. By 1845, there were ten quorums of seventy, the members of the first quorum were thus spread out across the church, making meetings of the first quorum rare. Elders were often ordained to the office of seventy immediately before left on a mission. Quorums were not restricted to geography, so individual quorums were scattered all over the world, in 1883, church president John Taylor localized the quorums of seventy. Each stake was given a quorum of seventy, and seventies in that stake would belong to that quorum. Taylor also prescribed that the president of the first 64 quorums could meet with the seven presidents of the first quorum
Seventy (LDS Church)
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Henry B. Eyring
Seventy (LDS Church)
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Amasa M. Lyman
Seventy (LDS Church)
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Kim B. Clark
Seventy (LDS Church)
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Zera Pulsipher
25.
Priesthood (Latter Day Saints)
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In the Latter Day Saint movement, priesthood is the power and authority of God given to man, including the authority to perform ordinances and to act as a leader in the church. A body of priesthood holders is referred to as a quorum, Priesthood denotes elements of both power and authority. The priesthood includes the power Jesus gave his apostles to perform such as the casting out of devils. As an authority, priesthood is the authority by which a bearer may perform ecclesiastical acts of service in the name of God. Latter Day Saints believe that acts performed by one with priesthood authority are recognized by God and are binding in heaven, on earth, in addition, Latter Day Saints believe that leadership positions within the church are legitimized by the priesthood authority. For most of the history of the Latter Day Saint movement, the first exception to this policy was within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a faction founded by James J. Strang that flourished between 1844 and 1856. In Strangs church, women were—and still are—permitted to hold the offices of priest, in 1984, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the second largest denomination of the movement, began ordaining women to all of its priesthood offices. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest church in the movement, still restricts its priesthood to men, Mormon feminist Kate Kelly was excommunicated for campaigning to allow womens ordination in the LDS Church. An apostle of the LDS Church has taught that en have no greater claim than women upon the blessings that issue from the Priesthood, Latter Day Saint theology has recognized at least three orders of priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood, the Melchizedek priesthood, and the Patriarchal priesthood. Although these are different orders, they are, in reality, all subsumed under the priesthood held by Jesus Christ, that is, the Aaronic priesthood, is considered to be a lesser priesthood tracing its roots to Aaron, the brother of Moses, through John the Baptist. In 1835, Smith and Cowdery clarified that this authority was the Aaronic, by early 1831, Latter Day Saint theology also recognized a higher order of priesthood, or the high priesthood. Rigdon believed the teachings of the early Mormon missionaries who taught him, in response to Rigdons concern, the churchs first high priests were ordained at a special conference held in June 1831. By 1835, Latter Day Saints began referring to high priesthood as the Melchizedek priesthood, or. This one of the 3 grand orders of priesthood, Smith said, was second in greatness between the lower Aaronic and the higher Melchizedek. The priesthood included, according to Smith, the keys to endowment—tokens, etc. the ability to walk with God, Smith taught that this order of priesthood was passed from father to son, and held by Abraham and the biblical patriarchs. However, Smith provided little information about this third order. Latter Day Saints believe that as a prerequisite to receiving the priesthood, when a person is called, it is the persons opportunity or destiny to hold the priesthood. In his Wentworth letter, Smith stated, We believe that a man must be called of God, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof
Priesthood (Latter Day Saints)
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1898 depiction of the Restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood.
26.
Plural marriage
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The Latter-day Saints practice of polygamy has been controversial, both within Western society and the LDS Church itself. America was both fascinated and horrified by the practice of polygamy, with the Republican platform at one time referencing the twin relics of barbarism—polygamy, the private practice of polygamy was instituted in the 1830s by founder Joseph Smith. In 1862, the United States Congress passed the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act, in spite of the law, Mormons continued to practice polygamy, believing that it was protected by the First Amendment. In 1890, church president Wilford Woodruff issued a Manifesto that officially terminated the practice of polygamy. Although this Manifesto did not dissolve existing plural marriages, relations with the United States markedly improved after 1890, on its web site, the church states that the standard doctrine of the church is monogamy and that polygamy was a temporary exception to the rule. Many early converts, including Brigham Young, Orson Pratt, and Lyman Johnson, Pratt reported that Smith told some early members in 1831 and 1832 that plural marriage was a true principle, but that the time to practise it had not yet come. Johnson also claimed to have heard the doctrine from Smith in 1831, mosiah Hancock reported that his father was taught about plural marriage in the spring of 1832. William Clayton, Smiths scribe, recorded polygamous marriages in 1843. Clayton relates, On the 1st day of May,1843, I officiated in the office of an Elder by marrying Lucy Walker to the Prophet Joseph Smith, during this period the Prophet Joseph took several other wives. Amongst the number I well remember Eliza Partridge, Emily Partridge, Sarah Ann Whitney, Helen Kimball and these all, he acknowledged to me, were his lawful, wedded wives, according to the celestial order. His wife Emma was cognizant of the fact of some, if not all, of these being his wives, the majority of what became the Quorum of the Twelve in 1835 attended Mormon conferences held in the center of the Cochranites in 1834 and 1835. Joseph Smith publicly condemned polygamy, denied his involvement in it, but church leaders nevertheless began practicing polygamy in the 1840s, particularly members of the Quorum of the Twelve. At the time, the practice was kept secret from non-members, throughout his life, Smith publicly denied having multiple wives. However, John C. Bennett was called to account by Joseph and Hyrum Smith, in April 1844, Joseph Smith referred to polygamy as John C. The practice was publicly announced in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, in 1852, some five years after the Mormons arrived in Utah, the doctrine authorizing plural marriage was published in the 1876 version of the LDS Churchs Doctrine and Covenants. The 1843 polygamy revelation, published posthumously, counseled Smiths wife Emma to accept all of Smiths plural wives, Emma Smith was publicly and privately opposed to the practice and Joseph may have married some women without Emma knowing beforehand. Emma Smith remained affiliated with the RLDS Church until her death at the age of 74, Emma Smith claimed that the very first time she ever became aware of the 1843 polygamy revelation was when she read about it in Orson Pratts publication The Seer in 1853. There is a difference between sealing, and marriage
Plural marriage
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A Mormon polygamist family in 1888.
Plural marriage
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Portrait of polygamists in prison, at the Utah Penitentiary, including
George Q. Cannon in 1889, arrested under the Edmunds–Tucker Act.
Plural marriage
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Teens from polygamous families along with over 200 supporters demonstrate at a pro-plural marriage rally in Salt Lake City in 2006
27.
Apostle (Latter Day Saints)
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‹See Tfd› In the Latter Day Saint movement, an apostle is a special witness of the name of Jesus Christ who is sent to teach the principles of salvation to others. In many Latter Day Saint churches, an apostle is an office of high authority within the church hierarchy. In many churches, apostles may be members of the Quorum of the Twelve, in most Latter Day Saint churches, modern-day apostles are considered to have the same status and authority as the Biblical apostles. In the Latter Day Saint tradition, apostles and prophets are believed to be the foundation of the church, joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were both designated apostles by 1830. Other church members with proselytizing responsibilities were also referred to as apostles, a June 1829 revelation appointed Cowdery and David Whitmer to designate twelve disciples. Subsequently, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was organized February 14,1835, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, apostle is the highest priesthood office of the Melchizedek priesthood. The President of the Church is always an apostle, as are the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in practice, counselors in the First Presidency are almost always apostles as well. There are usually at least twelve apostles in the LDS Church, some apostles have been ordained to that office without being included within the Quorum of the Twelve. Joseph Angell Young was ordained an apostle in 1864 but was never a member of either the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles or the First Presidency, joseph F. Smith, Brigham Young, Jr. and Sylvester Q. Cannon had each been ordained as apostles before eventually being called into the Quorum of the Twelve, the next most senior apostle becomes president of the Quorum of the Twelve. Following their calling to the apostleship, members of the Quorum are sustained in general conference as apostles and prophets, seers and this procedure also takes place at other meetings of church members such as ward and stake conferences. Each member of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve is sustained by name, usually, the president of the church ordains a new apostle, although any other apostle may ordain a person to the priesthood office. The calling of an apostle is to be a witness of the name of Jesus Christ in all the world, particularly of his divinity. Twelve men with this high calling constitute an administrative council in the work of the ministry, when a vacancy occurred with the death of Judas Iscariot, Matthias was divinely appointed to that special office as a member of the council. Today twelve men with this same divine calling and ordination constitute the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The title was applied to others who, though not of the number of the original twelve. Paul repeatedly spoke of himself as an apostle and he applied the titles to James, the Lords brother, and also to Barnabas. Jesus is referred to as an apostle in Heb,3, 1-2, a designation meaning that he is the personal and select representative of the Father
Apostle (Latter Day Saints)
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The
First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles in September 1898.
28.
James E. Talmage
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Talmage was born and raised in Hungerford, Berkshire, England. He was baptized into the LDS Church at age 10 on June 15,1873 and he moved with his family to Provo, Utah Territory, in 1877. In Provo, he studied the Normal Course at Brigham Young Academy, with Karl G. Maeser as one of his teachers, in 1881, Talmage received a collegiate diploma from BYAs Scientific Department, the first such diploma to be issued. His early predilection was for the sciences, and in 1882 and 1883 he took selected courses in chemistry and geology at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Talmage served on the Provo City Council in 1888 and 1889. Talmage married Merry May Booth on June 14,1888, Booth was a native of Alpine, Utah, and the daughter of immigrants from Lancashire. She started studies at the school connected with BYA in 1885. It was there she met Talmage, who was one of her instructors, while at BYA, Booth was secretary of the Polysophical Society. After completing her course of study, May took a job as a teacher in Kaysville. Among their children was John Talmage, who wrote a biography of his father, another of their children, Sterling B. Talmage, followed his fathers interests and became a geologist, Talmage studied chemistry and geology at Lehigh University and Johns Hopkins University. He received a B. S. degree from Lehigh University in 1891, though I very much dislike the idea of doing such a thing, for as yet I have never known what it is to be narcotized either by tobacco, alcohol, or any drug. Talmage taught science at BYA both before and after he went to study in the eastern United States and he was the president of Latter-day Saints University until 1894 and then was president of the University of Deseret from 1894 to 1897. From 1897 to 1907, Talmage was a professor of geology at the University of Utah, in 1909, Talmage was serving as the director of the Deseret Museum. He went to Detroit, Michigan, in November of that year to participate in diggings connected with the Scotford-Soper-Savage relics craze. Talmage would go on to denounce these findings as a forgery in the September 1911 edition of the Deseret Museum Bulletin in an article entitled, The Michigan Relics, A Story of Forgery and Deception. Talmage was the author of religious books, including The Articles of Faith, The Great Apostasy, The House of the Lord. These volumes remain in print and are widely read in the LDS Church. Other books include treatises on the origins of the Book of Mormon, a dictionary of the Book of Mormon, Talmage suggested that the First Presidency commission its own photographs of the temple
James E. Talmage
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ca. 1875–1890
James E. Talmage
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Grave marker of James E. Talmage.
James E. Talmage
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Headstone of James E. Talmage.
29.
Celestial marriage
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Celestial marriage is a doctrine of Mormonism, particularly The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and branches of Mormon fundamentalism. Within the LDS Church, celestial marriage is an associated with a covenant that usually takes place inside temples by those authorized to hold the sealing power. The only people allowed to enter the temple, be married there, obtaining a temple recommend requires one to abide by LDS Church doctrine and be interviewed and considered worthy by their bishop and stake president. A prerequisite to contracting a marriage, in addition to obtaining a temple recommend, involves undergoing the temple endowment. In the marriage ceremony a man and a woman make covenants to God and to other and are said to be sealed as husband and wife for time. In the 19th century, the celestial marriage usually referred to the practice of plural marriage. The term is used in this sense by Mormon fundamentalists not affiliated with the LDS Church. In the LDS Church today, both men and women may enter a marriage with only one living partner at a time. A man may be sealed to more than one woman, if his wife dies, he may enter another celestial marriage, and be sealed to both his living wife and deceased wife or wives. Many Mormons believe that all these marriages will be valid in the eternities, in 1998, the LDS Church changed the policy and now also allows women to be sealed to more than one man. A woman, however, may not be sealed to more than one man at a time while she is alive and she may only be sealed to subsequent partners after she has died. Proxy sealings, like proxy baptisms, are offered to the person in the afterlife. According to church teachings, the marriage covenant, as with other covenants. If only one remains righteous that person is promised a righteous eternal companion in eternity, Mormons do not interpret Jesus statement as meaning that marriages will not exist after the Resurrection, but that marriages will not be performed after the Resurrection. Thus, Mormons believe that only mortals can be the subject of an eternal marriage ordinance, celestial marriage is an instance of the LDS Church doctrine of sealing. Following a celestial marriage, not only are the couple sealed as husband and wife, Mormons believe that through this sealing, man, wife and children will live together forever, if obedient to Gods commandments. There is substantial doctrinal dispute between the LDS Church and its offshoots as to whether celestial marriage is plural or monogamous, sealings for time and eternity were being performed for monogamous couples long before 1890. Throughout all time periods of the LDS Churchs history, the majority of temple sealings were between one man and one wife
Celestial marriage
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A couple following their marriage in the
Manti Utah Temple
30.
Mormon fundamentalism
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Mormon fundamentalists seek to uphold tenets and practices no longer held by mainstream Mormons. The principle most often associated with Mormon fundamentalism is plural marriage, a form of polygyny first taught in the Latter Day Saint movement by Joseph Smith, a second and closely associated principle is that of the United Order, a form of egalitarian communalism. Mormon fundamentalists believe that these and other principles were abandoned or changed by the LDS Church in its efforts to become reconciled with mainstream American society. Today, the LDS Church excommunicates any of its members who practice plural marriage or who otherwise closely associate themselves with Mormon fundamentalist practices, There is no single authority accepted by all Mormon fundamentalists, viewpoints and practices of individual groups vary. Fundamentalists have formed numerous small sects, often within cohesive and isolated communities in the Western United States, Western Canada, and northern Mexico. At times, sources have claimed there are as many as 60,000 Mormon fundamentalists in the United States, however, others have suggested that there may be as few as 20,000 Mormon fundamentalists with only 8,000 to 15,000 practicing polygamy. The largest Mormon fundamentalist groups are the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the LDS Church began prohibiting the contracting of plural marriages within the United States in 1890 after a decree by the president of the church, Wilford Woodruff. However, the practice continued underground in the U. S. and openly in Mormon colonies in northern Mexico and southern Alberta. According to some sources, many men in the United States continued to live with their plural wives with the approval of church presidents Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow. They make their argument based upon evidence and the fact that the Manifesto is not worded in accordance with similar revelations in the LDS scriptures. The LDS Church prevents any of its members who sympathize with Mormon fundamentalist teachings from entering its temples, during the 1920s, a church dissenter named Lorin C. Woolley claimed a line of priesthood authority from the LDS Churchs hierarchy. Most of the Mormon polygamous groups can trace their roots to Woolleys legacy, for the most part, the Utah state government has left the Mormon fundamentalists to themselves unless their practices violate laws other than those prohibiting bigamy. For example, there have been recent prosecutions of men who belong to fundamentalist groups for marrying underage girls, in one highly publicized case, a man and one of his polygamist wives lost custody of all but one of their children until the wife separated herself from her husband. The largest government effort to crack down on the practices of fundamentalist Mormons was carried out in 1953 in what is today Colorado City, Arizona, most Mormon fundamentalists embrace the term Fundamentalist. Mormon fundamentalists share certain commonalities with other fundamentalist movements, but also possess some clear distinctions of their own, in this view, ordination lineage becomes all-important and an external organization such as a church may lose its theological authority while the priesthood may continue via an alternative lineage. Mormon fundamentalists frequently assert that priesthood is prior to the Church, Mormon fundamentalists dislike the term polygamy and view polygyny as a term used only by outsiders. They also refer to plural marriage generically as the Principle, celestial marriage, the practice of plural marriage usually differs little from the manner in which it was practiced in the nineteenth century
Mormon fundamentalism
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Teenagers from polygamous families demonstrate at a pro-plural marriage rally in Salt Lake City in 2006. Over 200 supporters attended the event.
Mormon fundamentalism
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A Mormon polygamist family in 1888.
Mormon fundamentalism
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Lorin C. Woolley (1882) Known as the father of Mormon fundamentalism amongst most fundamentalists sects
Mormon fundamentalism
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A view of the FLDS compound in
Eldorado, Texas
