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Joseph Smith is described as "an authentic religious genius", having founded the only documented religion totally formed by man. What Smith created was The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or simply Mormonism. Through a series of encounters God revealed himself to Joseph, telling him that all religions since the death of Christ's disciples had strayed from the True Church of Christ. It was set upon Joseph to restore the True Church.
Joseph Smith was born in 1805 in Sharon, Vermont. While he was still a baby, his family moved to Palmyra, New York, an area where Protestant revivals were frequent. Here he spent most of his childhood with his other brothers and sisters. The revivals he witnessed made him question which religion was right, but he never wondered if they were all wrong.
Joseph's first encounter with the Father and Son (implied as God and Jesus, though not directly stated) was in a grove near his family's Vermont farm at age fourteen. He was told that all the churches were wrong and that he was to join none of them. Joseph was also told that an angel would visit him and teach him the fullness of the gospel.
Three years later, a angel appeared to him and gave him the location of a sacred record, written on plates of gold. After he found the plates, he was instructed to translate and record what they said. Using two stones he found with the plates, he was able to decipher the 'reformed Egyptian' they were written in. The plates told the history of Jewish families that migrated to America, becoming the ancestors of American Indians. According to the plates, Jesus himself had visited America before his ascension.
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Joseph claimed he didn't have to look at the tablets to decipher them. He simply had to look into two stones he buried with the tablets. He couldn't read them in the light, he said, so he placed them in a hat and put the hat over his face. He read aloud what he saw to his wife Emma, who he had married several years before. The tablets lay on the table in front of Joseph, "in a box underneath cloth". Emma sat behind a curtain, patiently recording every word he spoke. When Emma's father demanded to see the tablets, Joseph explained that anybody else who saw them would die instantly. However, since many people doubted him, Joseph called in several trusted witnesses and instructed them to pray for hours. Once they did so, they were shown the plates and signed a document saying they were real.
After three years, the plates were fully translated. Joseph explained that he gave them back to the angel who showed them to him, who cared them off into eternity. These translation were published in 180, ten years after his first meeting with God and Jesus Christ. The published became the Book of Mormon, one of the sacred scriptures for Mormons today.
Though most of the leaders of established churches were shocked or angry at the Book of Mormon, the people of Western New York were fascinated with it. The book was written in the style of the King James version of the Bible and Judeo-Christian and American traditions were included in it. Although it is not known how much Joseph knew of Kabbalah (Jewish esoteric tradition) and other ancient paths of religion (including Hinduism), the Book of Mormon has many connections with them (such as multiple heavens and Gods).
Several days after the publication of the Book of Mormon in 180, Joseph organized his first congregation for the Mormon church. A handful of people were baptized in Lake Seneca that day, including his brothers and parents. Encouraged by the faithful members he had obtained already, Joseph and Emma traveled to the Susquehanna Valley, where he spread the Book of Mormon and gained more followers. Emma's parents were not convinced and refused to join. Pressed by the Presbyterian minister not to convert, they left soon after. It would be the last time Emma saw her parents.
Through 180, many people converted. Joseph didn't preach fire and brimstone like most religious figures of the time. Instead of scaring people into joining, he offered visions of kingdoms in heaven they could live in, even if they led imperfect lives. Regular sinners, such as blasphemers and adulterers, would not live in the same luxurious heaven as the saints (what Mormons refer to themselves as) but they would be comfortable enough in a lower heaven. He taught that God himself was once man (God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted Man, and sits enthroned in yonder heaven"), followers of Mormonism could eventually become God-like, and when they died they would become master or mistress of their own star.
While Joseph collected more and more followers, his own wife hadn't converted. She did not say why she but refused to join the church for six months. Under considerable pressure from her husband, she became Mormon. Shortly after in 181, a preacher converted his entire congregation. The city in which the congregation lived, Kirtland, Ohio, quickly became the biggest Mormon community. Joseph moved there and took over power. The city quickly changed from being communistic to free enterprise and every member paid one-tenth of their income as a tithe. This practice is still present in the church today.
Meanwhile, the non-Mormon community (referred to by Mormons as gentiles) thought the Mormons strange and distant. Smith was tarred and feathered when rumors flew that he made advances on a seventeen year old girl, and decided to move his city away from the gentiles. Only then could they maintain an ideal society, called Zion. Wherever the settlement tried to move, they were driven out. Eventually, they were forced to cross the Mississippi into Illinois. There, in the city of Nauvoo, they were able to live peacefully. He announced he was running for President in 1844.
All was not as perfect as it seemed. Joseph and Emma grew apart, though she continued to bear him children. Joseph began seeking other women. Emma denied the affairs until the day she found him embracing one of her close friends, where she lost control and attacked the mistress with a broom stick. There is evidence that Joseph thought that plural marriages should be moral as early as 181, a year after founding the Church. However, since he knew the practice would not be accepted, especially by the gentiles, he postponed the announcement.
Polygamy was unannounced to the church, but Joseph became poygamous. He proposed 'celestial' marriage (higher plane then earthly marriage, lasting forever) to a number of women, some already married. When Joseph brought up his revelation about plural marriages (Only multiple wives were allowed, as a womans worthiness to enter heaven was based on her husband's worthiness, not her own) to Emma, she told Joseph he may have God's permission to sleep with other women, but not her own. She begged him to renounce the new doctrine. He refused. By the time of his death, he had married as many as 84 women, some thought to be 15 or younger.
When news of Joseph proposing celestial marriage to wives of several leaders of the church got out, the husbands challenged Joseph's status as prophet and issued a newspaper attacking Joseph's policies. Joseph had these papers destroyed and was arrested for violating the First Amendment of the constitution. He was jailed in Carthage, Illinois. Before he could be charged, a mob broke into his jail cell, shooting both him and his brother. He died at age 8.
After the death of Joseph Smith, most Saints followed Brigham Young (president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) who claimed to be Smiths rightful successor. Under his leadership, they moved to Utah. Many rejected Young's leadership, some of these people eventually formed the Reorganized Latter-day Saints. This religion has always been against polygamy and claims to be the true church to this day.
Ironically, the practice that made Joseph lose his life is still practiced by Mormons today. Today, Mormons view Joseph Smith as a prophet. Some skeptics doubt whether Joseph really found the golden tablets, or just made it up, just as there are skeptics doubt whether Jesus is/was the son of God. The Book of Mormon that Joseph translated and published is the equivalent of the Christian's Bible, making Joseph Smith one of the most influential figures in Mormon belief. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints went from 6 members in 180 to over 11 million today, living in 160 countries, making it one of the fastest spreading religions in the world. To think a fourteen year old farm boy created the entire thing is facinating.
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