QUICK FACTS

Brief explanation:

Mormonism is a modern day religion founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. Joseph had a vision and was given gold plates from which he wrote the Book of Mormons, another testament of Jesus Christ. Most Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), while a minority are members of Mormon fundamentalist or other independent churches. Many Mormons are also either independent or non-practicing. The headquarters of the Mormon Church is found in Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States.

Mormon believe:

• God as the Supreme Being of the universe.
• The Mormon Church is the one true church
• Joseph Smith was given, by the Angel Moroni, a set of gold plates which he translated by the power of God (Book of Mormon).
• Man is composed of a mortal body and an immortal spirit.
• The spirit of each individual is a distinct consciousness and existed before this life.
• Mormons believe salvation is achieved through faith in Jesus Christ.
• That all people who ever lived will have the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ.
• The Bible to be the word of God.
• In all the revelations of God, past, present, or future.
• In the Authority of the prophet, which means the presidents and prophets of the Mormon Church are thought to be the sole spokesmen and revelators of God.
• In the 13 Articles of Faith written by Joseph Smith.

Basic Mormon beliefs are expressed in the “Thirteen Articles of Faith,” which were listed by Joseph Smith when he was asked about the basic beliefs of the Church.  (mormon.org)

1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.
3. We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
4. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
5. We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
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.
8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
9. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.
11. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

Followers:
There are an estimated 14 million Mormons in the world.

Mormons worship by:

• Attending church every Sunday, they refer to this worship as sacramental meeting
• dressing modestly. Most men wear suits, sport coats and shirts and ties, and women wear dresses or skirts.
• attending other meetings on Sunday

Other Meetings on Sundays

• Sunday school classes (called Primary) for children ages 3 through 11.
• A nursery is available for children ages 18 months to 3 years.
• Sunday school classes for teens and adults.
• Young Women meetings for those 12 through 17 years of age.
• Relief Society for women ages 18 and older.
• Priesthood meetings for males 12 years and older.

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HISTORY

History gathered, collected and provided by the owner of Religion Facts.com
Our sincere thanks for their permission.

The Life of Joseph Smith
In 1806, Joseph Smith was born to a poor family in Sharon, Vermont. He received little formal education. After a failed investment in exporting ginseng to China, Joseph Smith Sr. moved the family to a farm in Palmyra, in western New York, where they did not do much better financially.

In Smith’s teenage years, most of his family converted from Seekers to Presbyterians. According to Mormon sources, it was around this time that young Smith began wondering which of the many Christian sects was the “true” Christian faith. Then, at the age of 14, God and Jesus appeared to him in a vision. They told him all Christian denominations had fallen away from the true faith, advised him not to join any of them, and promised to restore the true faith.

Also around this time, a traveling magician and diviner stopped in Palmyra. The diviner claimed he could locate water and buried treasure using magic stones for a fee of three dollars a day. Smith became very interested in the visitor, and spent as much time with him as he could, trying to learn his skills. But eventually, when no treasure had been found and no one was any longer willing to pay for his services, he moved on. Smith carried on the practice of divination in Palmyra, with some magic stones of his own. He is reported to have found some lost tools using the stones.

When Smith was 17, the angel Moroni appeared to him and told him the location of two golden plates, on which was written the history of two ancient Native American Christian tribes. Joseph went to the site and found golden plates written by Ether, Mormon, Lehi and Nephi (ancient Native American authors), and a brass plate consisting of Hebrew scripture quotations and genealogies written by Laban.

Also discovered at the site was a breastplate and the “Urim and Thummim,” a pair of stones that Smith said assisted him in his translation of the ancient plates. Unfortunately, he was not allowed to remove the artifacts from the site immediately. He was directed to return to the site at each Autumn Equinox for four years, until 1827.

Meanwhile, stories of Smith’s divining abilities interested a visitor from eastern New York, who believed the Spaniards had left buried treasure on his property. So in 1825, Smith and his father traveled east in order to assist in locating the buried treasure, at a fee of three dollars a day.

The two lived at a farm in Susquehanna Valley in Pennsylvania while a party of diggers, who all chipped in for Smith Jr.’s fee, searched for the Spanish treasure just over the border near Damascus, New York. Unfortunately, no treasure was ever found, and especially after Smith suggested that the treasure had sunk deeper due to “enchantment,” his employers lost their faith in Smith’s gifts and believed him to be a charlatan. His father then returned home to Palmyra, but Smith stayed behind. He had fallen in love with Emma Hale, a schoolteacher.

Ms. Hale was initially aloof to his advances, but Smith was persistent. While wooing her, Smith worked as a farmhand and went to school part-time. When Emma finally warmed to him, Smith encountered another obstacle – her father. He was one of the diggers who felt fooled by Smith and he refused to allow his daughter to marry him. In 1826, formal charges were filed against Joseph Smith due to the divination scandal, accusing him of being an imposter. Isaac Hale was among the witnesses who testified against him.

Despite such opposition, Emma remained interested in Smith, and the couple eloped in New York in 1827. The newlyweds went to live with Smith’s parents in Palmyra until they returned to Pennsylvania to pick up Emma’s belongings. Upon arrival, Smith tearfully pleaded her father for forgiveness and promised to be a better person and a good husband. Mr. Hale relented, and offered the Smith a small house on his property.

It was also in 1827 that Smith was finally able to remove the golden plates from their original site, at which point he undertook the translation of the plates. Sometimes seated behind a curtain, sometimes with his head buried in his hat, and always using the two special stones, Smith dictated the English translation to various scribes – among them his wife, Emma, Martin Harris, and Oliver Cowdery. Sometimes the tablets were not even present at the time they were being translated.

The Book of Lehi became a 116-page English manuscript, but the manuscript met a major obstacle in Martin Harris’ wife Lucy. When Martin brought Lehi home to show Lucy, she promptly “lost” it. It is generally speculated that Lucy was a skeptic and wished to expose Smith by demonstrating expected discrepancies between the original and a replacement translation.

Instead of re-translating the book, however, Smith reported that God had taken away the special stones as punishment for the loss of the manuscript. For his later translations, he apparently used a single seer stone. He later translated Nephi, which described the same events as Lehi. The tablets Smith translated tell the story of an appearance of Christ in America after his death and resurrection in Jerusalem.

John the Baptist appeared to Smith and Cowdery sometime later, ordaining the pair to the Aaronic Priesthood and teaching them water baptism. Shortly thereafter, the Apostles Peter, Paul and James appeared to the two, investing them in the Melchizadek Priesthood. This time, Smith and Cowdery were commissioned as the first two elders of a new church.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) was founded in 1830, and gained 1,000 followers within its first 12 months. The budding church faced persecution almost from the start, and began a gradual move west as a result.

LDS followers first moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where a prominent preacher, Sidney Rigdon, had embraced the new faith. At Kirtland and in Jackson county, Missouri (where some Mormons had migrated), Smith founded the communistic United Order of Enoch. But strife with non-Mormons led to killings and the burning of Mormon property in the communities. Yet the Mormons continued to make converts and their numbers increased.

In Missouri, tensions between the Mormons and local slave-owners, who viewed them as religious fanatics and possible abolitionists, escalated to armed violence. In 1839, 15,000 Mormons fled Missouri for Illinois. There Smith built a new city, Nauvoo, where the Mormons’ commercial success and growing political power soon provoked hostility.

Smith’s suppression of a reform newspaper published by Nauvoo Mormon dissenters in 1844 intensified anti-Mormon hostility and gave the state government grounds for his arrest. Smith was murdered by a mob while he was held in jail in Carthage, near Nauvoo, on June 27, 1844. His unexpected death led to a succession crisis and schisms within the movement.

The Succession Crisis of 1844

In the months following the murder of Joseph Smith, it was not immediately clear who would lead the church.

Smith’s brothers, Hyrum and Samuel, who had reportedly been designated to succeed Smith, were also dead. Smith’s eldest son, Joseph Smith III, was a boy of 11. Other men who (by some reports) were designated as successors, including Book of Mormon witnesses David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery, had been excommunicated from the church.

As a result, the principal claimants on the scene were:

Sidney Rigdon, the only remaining member of the First Presidency — the church’s highest executive council.
The (Presiding) High Council of Nauvoo — the church’s highest legislative and judicial council — led by William Marks.
The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — the council in charge of the church’s missionary program — led by Brigham Young.
Smith’s widow Emma wanted Marks to become church president, but Marks believed that Rigdon had the superior claim.

In a general meeting of the church at Nauvoo on August 8, 1844, Rigdon and Young presented their respective cases. As the only surviving member of the First Presidency, Rigdon argued that he should be made “guardian” of the church. Young argued that no one could succeed the fallen prophet. Instead, he proposed that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles be constituted as the new First Presidency of the Church. A vote of the congregation overwhelmingly supported Young’s proposal. Soon after, Rigdon left Nauvoo and established his own church organization in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Further Schisms and the “Mormon War in Illinois”

With Rigdon’s flight, Young and most of the Twelve Apostles assumed control of church headquarters in Nauvoo. A conflict with Joseph Smith’s last surviving brother, William, was a factor that led the remaining members of the Smith family to break with the Twelve. Meanwhile, in the branches of the church in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, and outstate Illinois, a serious challenge to the leadership of the Twelve arose in the person of James J. Strang. Declaring himself a prophet and Smith’s successor, Strang established a rival organization of the church in Voree, Wisconsin.

Meanwhile at Nauvoo, the conflict between Mormons and non-Mormons escalated into what is sometimes called the “Mormon War in Illinois.” Latter Day Saints in outlying areas were driven from their homes and gathered to Nauvoo for protection. The Illinois state legislature voted to revoke Nauvoo’s charter and the city began to operate extra-legally. By the end of 1845 it became clear that no peace was possible, and Young and the Twelve negotiated a truce so that the Latter Day Saints could prepare to abandon the city. The winter of 1845-46 saw the enormous preparations for the Mormon Exodus across the Great Plains.

The largest group of Latter Day Saints followed nine of the Twelve Apostles west, establishing a way station at Winter Quarters, Nebraska in 1846, and entering Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Having planted this initial colony in the Great Basin, Young returned to Winter Quarters and in December of 1847 reorganized his faction of the church, establishing himself as the head of a new First Presidency. This reorganization led to additional schisms, including the break with Alpheus Cutler and what became the Church of Christ (Cutlerite) as well as Lyman Wight’s group in Zodiac, Texas. Young’s organization today is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah and is known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (See History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)

The bulk of Sidney Rigdon’s church had dissolved by 1847, but some loyalists reconstituted a Rigdonite church organization under the leadership of William Bickerton in 1862. James J. Strang’s church in Voree suffered a significant schism in 1849, led by former follower Aaron Smith. After Strang’s 1856 assassination, much of the remaining membership fell away from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite), but a small following remained loyal. Other leaders, including David Whitmer, James Collin Brewster, James Emmett, Gladden Bishop, William Smith, and Charles B. Thompson also established church organizations that had limited followings.

Joseph Smith’s family — his widow Emma Hale Smith and her children — continued to live in Nauvoo after the departure of the majority of the Latter Day Saints. In 1860, the eldest of the Smith sons, Joseph Smith III, claimed to receive a revelation to take his place as Prophet/President of a “New Organization” of the Latter Day Saint church. Eventually this group gathered together many of the remnants of the various Midwestern Latter Day Saint groups into the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now called the “Community of Christ.”

Others remained unaffiliated, however, and in 1863 a group of Latter Day Saints from Illinois and Indiana united under the leadership of Granville Hedrick and reclaimed the name of the movement’s original organization, the ” Church of Christ.” This group was the first group of Latter Day Saints to return to Independence, Missouri, to “redeem Zion.” They are now headquartered on the original Temple Lot there and are known as the Church of Christ ( Temple Lot).

Mormonism Today

The Latter Day Saint movement has continued to grow and evolve. Today there are thousands of active organizations, as the various denominations have continued to give birth to new expressions of the movement. By far the largest denomination is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which reports some 12 million members worldwide. The Community of Christ reports 250,000 members, and the Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite) reports around 10,000 members. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — the largest polygamist Latter Day Saint group — may also have as many as 10,000 members.

In addition to Latter Day Saint adherents, there are a large number of “Cultural Mormons” — people raised in the Church or in the Mormon cultural zone, but who don’t not believe some (or all) of LDS doctrine, or who don’t follow some (or all) of LDS practices. Cultural Mormons can be so-called “Jack Mormons”, who do not practice their religion, but share cultural values and/or a common ancestry with practicing Latter Day Saints. Some Jack Mormons may even still believe many or all of the Church’s teachings, but for various reasons choose not to attend services or participate in church activities. Cultural Mormons also include Practicing Cultural Mormons, who do practice their religion but do not believe in the doctrines. This includes the sub-group of so-called “New Order Mormons”, who choose to hide their lack of belief to avoid conflict within their families.

As from the beginning of the movement, Anti-Mormons are still engaged in criticizing the church. Today, the principal groups of Anti-Mormons consist of ex-Mormons and Evangelical Christians. Although the criticisms remain largely the same, the medium of expression has shifted towards the internet. In addition, they tend to focus only on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Today, the most well-known apologetic groups are FAIR (Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research) and FARMS (Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (BYU)). They represent the LDS viewpoint and engage in debate with the Anti-Mormons.

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Holy Dates

Mormons celebrate the two main Christian holidays of Easter and Christmas, which mark the resurrection and birth of Christ, respectively. They also celebrate national and regional holidays, along with birthdays and anniversaries.

The main specifically Mormon holiday is Pioneer Day, celebrated on July 24 of each year. Pioneer Day celebrates the first entry of Mormons into Salt Lake Valley in 1847, after the long journey westward to escape religious persecution.

Mormons worldwide honor the pioneer heritage of the Church on this day, but it is especially popular in the western United States.

Other special days occur on April 6, the anniversary of the founding of the LDS church in New York in 1830, and May 15, on which some Mormons celebrate John the Baptist’s 1829 visit to Joseph Smith.

Important Holy dates, Holidays, or Seasons:

• Easter- resurrection of Jesus Christ
• Christmas- birth of Jesus Christ
• July 24th, Pioneer Day- the arrival of the Mormons into Salt Lake Valley in 1847
• April 6th- the anniversary of the founding of the LDS church in New York in 1830
• May 15-  John the Baptist’s 1829 visit to Joseph Smith

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Mormon Sects

Coming soon. For now check here: List of Sects

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CONNECTION TO OTHER RELIGIONS

Mormons desire the fellowship and association of other Christian churches. Mormons believe in freedom of religion and allow all to worship as they please. All Christian churches are based on faith in Jesus Christ but Mormons believe that God grants authority to administer the gospel. This is the priesthood. Without that authority, the ordinances of salvation cannot be performed. Although other Christian churches have faith in Jesus and live His teachings, they have not received baptism by the proper authority to be able to receive salvation. Mormons believe the priesthood authority of God is found only in the Mormon Church.
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BEYOND FACTS

Information coming soon.

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