In the mid 19th-century, under the direction of the prophet Joseph Smith and other prominent leaders such as Brigham Young, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) taught that a world government would exist upon the earth during the end times. [1] The world government would be known as the Kingdom of God on earth. It was taught that this Kingdom would rule over all the people of the earth, and would allow each individual to live under true freedom and liberty.
On March 11, 1844, Smith organized an arm of the organization—the Council of Fifty—which was to work under the direction of the priesthood authority of the church. The Council of Fifty was organized "for the maintenance, promulgation and protection of civil and religious liberty." The council was intended to act in a legislative capacity as a theodemocracy. The council's decisions could be vetoed by the church's priesthood authority. [2] [ failed verification ] Another body, the Council of Friends, would also be formed. [3] The Council of Friends was to be a three-member body which would function as the political Kingdom of God prior to the Second Coming of Jesus. The Second Coming would usher in the Millennium, a 1000-year period in which world political power would reside with this world government. [4]
The political and spiritual kingdoms of God were to be distinct entities, with "a constitutional separation of powers between Zion New Jerusalem and the political government (Jerusalem of old)." [4] The third leg of the government, the Council of Friends, would act as advisors to both the Council of Fifty, and the priesthood body of the church. All three bodies were to be composed of righteous men.
The Melchizedek priesthood authority would yield veto power over the Council of Fifty, with ultimate power held by a single anointed individual. Smith was ordained "King" on April 11, 1844, and was thereby set to preside over the political kingdom of God. Smith was killed just over two months later, on June 27, 1844. [5]
Smith taught that New Jerusalem would be a seat of the Kingdom of God on the earth. The founding of this millennial Zion was so important for early church members that thousands of converts from many different countries sacrificed all they had to aid in the realization Smith's vision. [6] Smith taught that the New Jerusalem would be located in Jackson County, Missouri.
In the LDS Church today, there is little knowledge of these principles and they are not emphasized. However, Mormon fundamentalist groups still actively pursue and promote these principles.
Brigham Young was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877. He also served as the first governor of the Utah Territory from 1851 until his resignation in 1858.
The history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has three main periods, described generally as:
The Adam–God doctrine was a theological idea taught in mid-19th century Mormonism by Brigham Young, a president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although the doctrine is rejected by the LDS Church today, it is still an accepted part of the modern theology of some Mormon fundamentalists.
The King Follett discourse, or King Follett sermon, was an address delivered in Nauvoo, Illinois, by Joseph Smith, president and founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, on April 7, 1844, less than three months before he was killed by a mob. The discourse was presented to a congregation of about twenty thousand Latter Day Saints at a general conference held shortly after the funeral service of Elder King Follett, who had died on March 9, 1844, of accidental injuries. The sermon is notable for its assertion that God was once a mortal man, and that mortal men and women can become gods through salvation and exaltation. These topics were, and are, controversial, and have received varying opinions and interpretations of what Smith meant. Literary critic Harold Bloom called the sermon "one of the truly remarkable sermons ever preached in America."
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is one of the governing bodies in the church hierarchy. Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are apostles, with the calling to be prophets, seers, and revelators, evangelical ambassadors, and special witnesses of Jesus Christ.
During the history of the Latter Day Saint movement, the relationship between Black people and Mormonism has included enslavement, exclusion and inclusion, and official and unofficial discrimination. Black people have been involved with the Latter Day Saint movement since its inception in the 1830s. Their experiences have varied widely, depending on the denomination within Mormonism and the time of their involvement. From the mid-1800s to 1978, Mormonism's largest denomination – the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – barred Black women and men from participating in the ordinances of its temples necessary for the highest level of salvation, and excluded most men of Black African descent from ordination in the church's lay, all-male priesthood. During that time the LDS Church also opposed interracial marriage, supported racial segregation in its communities and church schools, and taught that righteous Black people would be made white after death. The temple and priesthood racial restrictions were lifted by church leaders in 1978. In 2013, the LDS Church disavowed its previous teachings on race for the first time.
"The Council of Fifty" was a Latter Day Saint organization established by Joseph Smith in 1844 to symbolize and represent a future theocratic or theodemocratic "Kingdom of God" on the earth. Smith prophetically claimed that this Kingdom would be established in preparation for the Millennium and the Second Coming of Jesus.
The succession crisis in the Latter Day Saint movement occurred after the killing of the movement's founder, Joseph Smith, on June 27, 1844.
Within the Latter Day Saint movement, Zion is often used to connote an association of the righteous. This association would practice a form of communitarian economics, called the United Order, which were meant to ensure that all members maintained an acceptable quality of life, class distinctions were minimized, and group unity achieved.
William H. Clayton was a clerk, scribe, and friend to the religious leader Joseph Smith. Clayton, born in England, was also an American pioneer journalist, inventor, lyricist, and musician. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1837 and served as the second counselor to the British mission president Joseph Fielding while proselyting in Manchester. He led a group of British converts in emigrating to the United States in 1840 and eventually settled in Nauvoo, Illinois, where he befriended Joseph Smith and became his clerk and scribe. He was a member of the Council of Fifty and Smith's private prayer circle.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that Adam and Eve were the first man and the first woman to live on the earth and that their fall was an essential step in the plan of salvation. Adam in particular is a central figure in Mormon cosmology.
Mormon cosmology is the description of the history, evolution, and destiny of the physical and metaphysical universe according to Mormonism, which includes the doctrines taught by leaders and theologians of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormon fundamentalism, and other denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement. Mormon cosmology draws from Biblical cosmology, but has many unique elements provided by movement founder Joseph Smith. These views are not generally shared by adherents of other Latter Day Saint movement denominations who do not self-identify as "Mormons", such as the Community of Christ.
Theodemocracy is a theocratic political system proposed by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. According to Smith, a theodemocracy is a fusion of traditional republican democratic principles under the US Constitution with theocratic rule.
In the theology of the Latter Day Saint movement, an endowment refers to a gift of "power from on high", typically associated with the ordinances performed in Latter Day Saint temples. The purpose and meaning of the endowment varied during the life of movement founder Joseph Smith. The term has referred to many such gifts of heavenly power, including the confirmation ritual, the institution of the High Priesthood in 1831, events and rituals occurring in the Kirtland Temple in the mid-1830s, and an elaborate ritual performed in the Nauvoo Temple in the 1840s.
The Council of Friends was an organization described by Joseph Smith in early 19th-century Mormon theology. He viewed the organisation as being part of a world government which would guide and direct the Kingdom of God (Zion) on earth during the end times as a theodemocracy.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and a topical guide to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Exaltation is a belief in Mormonism that after death some people will reach the highest level of salvation in the celestial kingdom and eternally live in God's presence, continue as families, become gods, create worlds, and make spirit children over whom they will govern. In the largest Mormon denomination, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, top leaders have taught that God wants exaltation for all humankind and that humans are "gods in embryo". A verse in the LDS Church's canonized scripture states that those who are exalted will become gods, and a 1925 statement from the church's highest governing body said that "All men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother ... [and are] capable, by experience through ages and aeons, of evolving into a God."
In the past, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints including Brigham Young have consistently opposed marriages between members of different ethnicities, though interracial marriage is no longer considered a sin. In 1977, apostle Boyd K. Packer publicly stated that "[w]e've always counseled in the Church for our Mexican members to marry Mexicans, our Japanese members to marry Japanese, our Caucasians to marry Caucasians, our Polynesian members to marry Polynesians. ... The counsel has been wise." Nearly every decade for over a century—beginning with the church's formation in the 1830s until the 1970s—has seen some denunciations of interracial marriages (miscegenation), with most statements focusing on Black–White marriages. Church president Brigham Young taught on multiple occasions that Black–White marriage merited death for the couple and their children.
