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#2 The Facts On The Mormon Church
2. How did Mormonism originate, and how
important are supernatural revelations to the founding and sustaining the Mormon
Church?
Like most other religions, Mormonism claims divine inspiration
as its source. Mormons argue that their religion was divinely instituted in 1820
when God the Father and Jesus Christ allegedly appeared to Joseph Smith in a
dramatic vision. "Jesus" told Smith that Christianity was in complete apostasy
and that he (Smith) would be guided into the truth, for the reestablishment of
true Christian faith.
This crucial "first vision" of Joseph Smith is the official account of Mormon
beginnings. Although it allegedly established the Church's divine origin, there
are at least six contradictory versions of the key event. The Church's current
official and least likely versions follows:
Joseph Smith claimed that in his fifteen year, while
living in Manchester, New York, a religious revival of significant proportions
took place "and great multitudes united themselves to the different religious
parties." Smith claimed that the strife among these parties was so great as to
confuse a person as to which one was correct in its teachings-Presbyterians,
Baptists, Methodist, or some other denomination. Because of this alleged
strife, Smith determined to privately seek God's counsel as to which of the
various denominations he should join.
One day while reading James 1:5 (which refers to asking God for wisdom),
Smith was greatly moved. In Smith's own words:
Never did any passage of scripture come home
with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to
mine...{Smith then retired to a secluded place in the woods to seek God's
counsel}...I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to
God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon some power
which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as
to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thickness gathered around me, and
it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.
But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power
of this enemy which had seized upon me...Just at this moment great alarm, I
saw a pillar of light exactly over my head above the brightness of the sun,
which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared when I
found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound.
When the light rested upon me, I saw two Personages who brightness and
glory defy all description standing above me in the air. One of them spake
unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other-"This is My
Beloved Son. Hear Him!"
My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the
{religious} sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner,
therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I
asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects
was right-and which I should join.
I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong, and
the Personage who addressed me {presumably Jesus Christ} said that all their
creeds were an abomination in his sight: that those professors were all
corrupt; that: "they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far
from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of
godliness, but they deny the power thereof." He again forbade me to join with
any of them: and many other things did he say...
Although Smith's claims were considered
impossible by the Christian community, Joseph remained true to his vision. His
"mind" {was satisfied} so far as the sectarian {Christian} world was
concerned...It was not my duty to join with any of them, but to continue as I
was until further directed.
Unfortunately, if Joseph Smith had truly believed in the authority of the
Bible and had really studied it, he could have determined for himself that the
various Christian denominations were not "all corrupt" and that the
vision was therefore, a false one. Nor, apparently, was he aware of the
characteristic methods of spiritistic imposture."
But smith was convinced that he had been called of God and, although in the
next three years he confesses he "frequently fell into many foolish errors" (cf.
James 1:20-22,26), he waited patiently for the next revelation.
On September 21, 1823, an "angel" appeared to Smith telling him of the
location of certain "gold plates." It was from the writings on these gold plates
that eventually the Mormon scripture known as the Book of Mormon was allegedly
"translated." These plates supposedly contained the historical records of a
tribe of Judah people known as the "Nephits" concerning their supposed early
migration to the Americas.
Smith had many more claimed angelic revelations. Just as the LDS Church
ostensibly began through supernatural revelation, it was also sustained by this
process. For example, from 1831 to 1844, Smith allegedly "received 135 direct
revelations from God," helping the new movement to grow and solidify itself.
Smith believed that he received revelations from God, Jesus, and many spirits of
the dead, such as Peter, James, John the Baptist, and others.
Taken from The Facts On The Mormon Church, by
John Ankerberg and John Weldon, published by Harvest House Publishers.
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