307
See also: Jesus’s message to the world 204–207 ■ Jesus’s divine identity 208 ■ A divine trinity 212–19
■ God reveals his word and his will 254–61 ■ Awaiting the Day of Judgment 312–13
MODERN RELIGIONS
and Jesus Christ came to tell him
that he had been chosen to restore
the true Church. How the Church of
Christ would differ from the other
restorationist groups was explained
when Smith said an angel had
guided him to find and translate
a text, the Book of Mormon, which
described how God had led his
followers to the New World. He was
told of the Great Apostasy that
followed the ascension of Christ
and the martyrdom of the Apostles,
when the original Christian Church
became corrupted and diluted. God
conferred on Smith the authority to
reestablish the Christian Church.Modern-day prophets
Smith, and his successors, are
considered by their followers to be
modern-day prophets, seers, and
revelators, who received guidance
from God in the form of revelations
from Jesus Christ. Church members
believe that, rather than following
the doctrine of any existing Church,
they are living as Christ has taught
them, as “latter-day saints”—a
term adopted by Smith when he
established the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, although
the movement is more commonly
called Mormonism. In addition to
taking their lead from revelations,
Latter-day Saints believe they should
follow Jesus’s example. The most
important consideration for them
is, “What would Jesus do?”
After Joseph Smith’s death,
the movement divided into several
branches, with the majority following
Brigham Young (1801–1877), who setJoseph Smith, Jr. The son of tenant farmers, Joseph
Smith, Jr. was born in 1805 in
Vermont, but in 1820 moved with
his family to western New York, a
center of the Protestant revival
movement known as the Second
Great Awakening. Confused as
to which of the numerous
denominations he should follow,
he prayed for guidance and had a
vision in which God the Father
and Jesus appeared to tell him all
the Churches had “turned aside
from the gospel.” He later said he
had been visited by the angel
Moroni, who told him of scriptures
inscribed on golden plates, writtenby ancient inhabitants of
America. With divine guidance,
Smith supposedly located and
translated the scriptures, the
Book of Mormon, and published
it in 1830, the year that he also
founded his Church.
Persecuted for his heretical
beliefs, he moved around
frequently, establishing Latter-
day Saint communities in Ohio
and Missouri before finally
settling in Nauvoo, Illinois. He
was arrested for inciting a riot
in Carthage, Illinois, in 1844,
but was killed by an angry mob
before he could stand trial.A Mormon family prays together
in their living room during their family
home evening. These evenings are
a Mormon tradition intended to
reinforce and solidify family ties.up a Mormon community in Utah.
They hold to a strict moral code,
The Word of Wisdom, avoiding
alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea, and
extramarital sexual activity.
Marriage is among the rituals they
believe necessary for salvation,
as are baptism and confirmation.
Early Mormons practiced polygamy,
but this was renounced by the
mainstream movement in 1890. ■Mormonism is the pure
doctrine of Jesus Christ,
of which I myself
am not ashamed.
Joseph Smith