User:Trevdna/Joseph Smith, Jr.:just the facts

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Joseph Smith, Jr.

Born, 1805, to Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith in upstate New York. During his early life, he lived in the so-called Burned-Over District during the Second Great Awakening, where he was exposed to intense revivalism and religious zeal.

Claims to have experienced a theophany at the age of 14, called the First Vision, where he claims to have seen God The Father and Jesus Christ. Critics, of course, dismiss it as either a fraud, or delusion.

In 1823, claims to have been instructed by the Angel Moroni to retrieve a set Golden Plates buried in a hill near his home. They were said to contain a record of prior inhabitants of the American continent.

Although Smith claimed to have been visited in 1823, he did not claim to retrieve the plates until 1827. In the intervening period, he met, courted, and eventually married Emma Hale, against the wishes of her parents, who believed he was a fraud.

After Smith claims to have recieved the plates, he began a process which he referred to as "translating" them. Through the purported use of either a seerstone or a Urim and Thummim, he dictated - to various scribes, chiefly Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery - what came to be known as the Book of Mormon. It's first edition was published in 1829 by E.B. Grandin's publishing firm.

In 1830, he organized a Church based on his teachings and personal leadership, originally named the Church of Christ. This name was later changed in 1838 to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

(Following a succession crisis after Smith's death, the dominant sect of this church subtly changed its name to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in order to delineate itself from the other sects claiming to be Smith's rightful successor church.)

Smith's early Church had few followers, numbering a couple hundred in the first year.

Smith's followers believed him to be a prophet and seer, capable of recieving instruction and commandments from God.

Smith sent out missionaries to travel across the country to Western, Indian Territory, preaching Smith's version of the Gospel across the nation as they travelled.

This group of missionaries met Sidney Rigdon, a Campbellite minister preaching in Ohio's Western Reserve area, who believed in the message and joined Smith's church. A large group of his followers joined this Church as a result.

In 1831, Smith recieved a purported revelation wherein he claimed that God had commanded that all of Smith's followers gather to Kirtland, Ohio, directly in Rigdon's sphere of influence. Smith and his New York converts did so, and so joined with Rigdon's converts.

Zion's Camp

Kirtland Temple

Kirtland Safety Society

Migration to Missouri