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The Canon · No. 086

Latter-day Saints

Mormonism; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

1830 CE – present · Abrahamic · Living · US (Utah), Latin America, Philippines, West Africa, Pacific

VII. THE MODERN AGE — 1800 – 1945

How many

About 17 million on church rolls; active participation is estimated considerably lower. More members now live outside the United States than inside it.

Who began it

Joseph Smith Jr (1805–1844), a farm boy in upstate New York who reported a vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ in 1820, and later the delivery by an angel named Moroni of golden plates which he translated as the Book of Mormon.

What it is for

Restoration. The claim is not reform but that the true church, priesthood authority and ordinances were lost after the apostles and have now been restored directly.

What it worships

God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost — held to be three separate beings united in purpose, not one substance. The Father and the Son have glorified physical bodies. This is a rejection of the Nicene formula, and it is the principal reason other Christian churches do not accept LDS baptism.

What it holds

Continuing revelation through a living prophet. Pre-mortal existence — every person lived as a spirit before birth. Eternal progression: Lorenzo Snow's couplet, that as man now is God once was and as God now is man may become, is the tradition's most distinctive and most controversial teaching. The Plan of Salvation structures everything. Agency, free will, is central; there is no original sin, and children are innocent until eight. Vicarious ordinances — baptism performed by proxy for the dead, which is why the church operates the largest genealogical database on earth.

What it does

The Word of Wisdom: no alcohol, tobacco, coffee or tea. Tithing of ten percent, which funds an institution of very substantial wealth. Two-year missions, undertaken by a large share of young men and increasingly by young women. Weekly sacrament meeting in chapels, distinct from the temples, which are reserved for endowment and sealing ordinances and are not open to the public. Family home evening. Extensive lay ministry — there is no paid local clergy.

After death

Three degrees of glory rather than heaven and hell. Almost everyone is saved into one of them. The celestial kingdom is for those who accept the gospel and receive temple ordinances, and within it those sealed in marriage continue as families eternally and may progress toward godhood. The terrestrial and telestial kingdoms are lesser but still described as glorious. Outer darkness, the only true damnation, is reserved for a very small number who knowingly reject the truth. Between death and resurrection the spirit waits in spirit paradise or spirit prison, where the gospel is preached and can still be accepted — which is what proxy baptism is for. It is one of the most universalist afterlives in Christianity.

Its texts

The Bible (King James Version); the Book of Mormon; the Doctrine and Covenants; the Pearl of Great Price.

Its branches

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City, by far the largest); Community of Christ (formerly RLDS, which followed Smith's son and has moved in a liberal Protestant direction); FLDS and other polygamous fundamentalist groups.

Of note

The best-documented founding of any major religion — Smith lived in a literate society with newspapers, courts and hostile neighbours. That is a considerable evidential advantage and also a considerable evidential problem, and both sides of the argument have far more material to work with than for any ancient religion.

Its timeline

  1. 1820 CE Smith's First Vision.
  2. 1830 CE The Book of Mormon published; the church organised on 6 April.
  3. 1831–1838 CE Migration to Ohio and Missouri; violent conflict; Governor Boggs issues an extermination order against Mormons in Missouri in 1838, rescinded only in 1976.
  4. 1839–44 CE Nauvoo, Illinois, becomes one of the largest cities in the state.
  5. <strong>27 June 1844 CE</strong> Joseph Smith is murdered by a mob at Carthage jail. A succession crisis splits the movement.
  6. 1846–47 CE Brigham Young leads the migration to the Salt Lake Valley.
  7. 1852 CE Plural marriage publicly acknowledged; decades of federal conflict follow.
  8. <strong>1890 CE</strong> The Manifesto ends the sanctioning of new plural marriages; Utah achieves statehood in 1896. Fundamentalist splinter groups continue the practice and are excommunicated.
  9. <strong>1978 CE</strong> The priesthood ban on Black members is lifted by revelation. The church formally disavowed the theories used to justify it in 2013.
  10. 2012 CE Mitt Romney's presidential nomination; the so-called Mormon Moment.
  11. 2013–present The Gospel Topics essays address polygamy, the priesthood ban, the translation process and the Book of Abraham papyri directly, in a significant shift toward historical transparency.

Sources

Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.

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