Portions Removed From The Lds Edition
In 1876, section 101 from the 1835 edition was removed. Section 101 was a “Statement on Marriage” as adopted by an 1835 conference of the church, and contained the following text:
Inasmuch as this Church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication and polygamy, we declare that we believe that one man should have one wife, and one woman but one husband, except in the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again.
This section was removed because it had been superseded by section 132 of the modern LDS edition, recorded in 1843, which contains a revelation received by Joseph Smith on eternal marriage and plural marriage, the origin of the principles of which the LDS Church traces to as early as 1831.
In 1921, the LDS Church removed the “Lectures on Faith” portion of the book, with an explanation that the lectures “were never presented to nor accepted by the Church as being otherwise than theological lectures or lessons”. The lectures contain theology concerning the Godhead and emphasize the importance of faith and works.
Until 1981, editions of the book used code names for certain people and places in those sections that dealt with the United Order. The 1981 LDS edition replaced these with the real names, relegating the code names to footnotes. The Community of Christ edition still uses the code names.
Sections Added To The Community Of Christ Edition
The 167 sections of the Community of Christ’s Doctrine and Covenants break down as follows:
- Sections 1â113 : From the presidency of Joseph Smith
- Sections 114â131: From the presidency of Joseph Smith III
- Sections 132â138: From the presidency of Frederick M. Smith
- Sections 139â144: From the presidency of Israel A. Smith
- Sections 145â152 : From the presidency of W. Wallace Smith
- Sections 153â160: From the presidency of Wallace B. Smith
- Sections 161â162: From the presidency of W. Grant McMurray
- Sections 163â165: From the presidency of Stephen M. Veazey
The following sections are not revelations, but letters, reports, statements, and other similar documents: 99, 108A, 109â113, and 123.
Based on the above, the number of revelations presented by each Community of Christ president, are as follows:
- Joseph Smith: 107
- Stephen M. Veazey: 3
Chapel And Temple Services
Weekly worship services, including sacrament meetings, are held on Sundays, in meeting houses, also referred to as “chapels” or “stake centers.” All people, regardless of belief or standing in the church are welcome to attend. The Sacrament, similar to Communion or the Eucharist in other churchesconsecrated bread and water in remembrance of the body and blood of Christis offered weekly.
The primary Sunday service is sacrament meeting and attended by the combined congregation. The foremost purpose of sacrament meeting is the blessing and passing of the Sacrament to members of the church. After the Sacrament, the service usually consists of two or three “talks” prepared and delivered by members of the congregation. Once a month however, usually on the first Sunday, instead of prepared talks, members are invited to bear their testimonies about gospel principles. Hymns are sung throughout the service.
During the other two segments, the congregation divides into smaller groups based on age and/or gender. The church publishes manuals for each type of class, usually including a teacher’s manual as well as a student booklet for youth and adult classes.
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Overview Of International Lds Growth
46It did not take long for Joseph Smith, the first LDS prophet, to send some of the early converts to preach the merits of the new church to citizens in surrounding areas. In June 1830, about two months after the Church was organized, Samuel H. Smith began a missionary journey which signaled the beginning of the diffusion of the Church .
47The first international missionary endeavors occurred in Upper Canada starting in 1832, and in England beginning in 1837. Work in Canada spread to what is now Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. In England, the missionaries spread their labors from their initial efforts near Preston to other areas in the country as well as in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland .In the early 1840s, Joseph Smith sent missionaries to Palestine, Australia, India, Germany, Jamaica, and the Society Islands with mixed results. By the end of 1847 LDS Church membership in foreign countries approximated 10,000 in England, 1,900 in Wales, 2,000 in Scotland, 40 in Ireland, 2,000 in the Society Islands, and an additional 4,160 scattered worldwide . By 1850 there were over 30,000 members in Great Britain compared with 27,000 in all of the United States and Canada .
Table 2 : Middle America Early Mormon Diffusion
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MIDDLE AMERICA |
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Church Monitors Members’ Critical Publications
Richard Abanes and the Ostlings criticize the LDS Church for maintaining a group called the Strengthening Church Members Committee, led by two church apostles. According to the Ostlings, the purpose of this committee is to collect and file “letters to the editor, other writings, quotes in the media, and public activities” of church members that may be publishing views contrary to those of the church leadership. The committee has also recruited students to spy on professors at Brigham Young University who are suspected of violating the church’s dictates.
The Tanners state that throughout the 20th century the church denied scholars access to many key church documents, and in 1979 said that it had refused to publish Joseph Smith’s diary. Apologists point out that The Joseph Smith Papers project provides access to Smith’s journals.
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Why Is Family Life So Central To Latter
- about genealogy and the Mormon archives.
Mormons believe that the family is an eternal unit and central to God’s plan. In fact, eternal progression toward Godhood is limited to those who marry for time and eternity in a ceremony conducted by a properly ordained member of the LDS priesthood in a Mormon temple. Church President Hinckley has also stressed the importance of the family during mortal life, saying, “If you want to reform a nation, you begin with families, with parents who teach their children principles and values that are positive and affirmative and will lead them to worthwhile endeavors. That is the basic failure that has taken place in America. And we are making a tremendous effort to bring about greater solidarity in families. Parents have no greater responsibility in this world than the bringing up of their children in the right way, and they will have no greater satisfaction as the years pass than to see those children grow in integrity and honesty and make something of their lives, adding to society because they are a part of it.” To strengthen families, many Mormons observe “family home evening.” This is one night a week — generally Monday — that a family spends together praying, learning about scripture, sharing things from their lives, and playing games or engaging in other fun at-home activities.
Why Is Mormonism Sometimes Described As A Secretive Religion
The most common and visible target for charges of suspicious secrecy in the Mormon religion are the temples. After dedication, these buildings are closed to the public and church members do not talk openly about the rituals that take place within. The church holds that the temple and its rituals are sacred and therefore private, not secret. They maintain that early Christianity featured similar special practices and bodies of knowledge that were kept quiet to preserve their sacred nature.
Church finances are also kept confidential, provoking criticism that there is no way for church members or outsiders to know where money from tithing and other revenue goes. And the church has also been questioned about the secrecy surrounding their defense of doctrine. Latter-day Saints can face excommunication if, after being warned, they continue to publicly discuss problematic or provocative elements of Mormon theology that the church chooses not to draw attention to. Because disciplinary councils that can lead to excommunication are always private, the process of gathering information and the closed meetings that consider the fate of a disciplined member add to the perception of Mormon secrecy.
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Beliefs And Practices Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter
Mormon Doctrine Joseph Smith, Jr.God the FatherJesus
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints focuses its doctrine and teaching on Jesus Christ that he was the Son of God, born of , lived a perfect life, performed miracles, bled from every pore in the Garden of Gethsemane, died on the cross, rose on the third day, appeared again to his disciples, and now resides, authoritatively, on the right hand side of God. In brief, some beliefs are in common with Catholics, Orthodox and Protestant traditions. However, teachings of the LDS Church differ significantly in other ways and encompass a broad set of doctrines, so that the above-mentioned denominations usually place the LDS Church outside the bounds of orthodox Christian teaching as summarized in the Nicene Creed.
The church’s core beliefs, circa 1842, are summarized in the “Articles of Faith“, and its four primary principles are faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sin, and the laying on of hands for the Gift of the Holy Ghost.
Portions Removed From The Community Of Christ Edition
The Community of Christ removed the “Lectures on Faith” in 1897. The 1970 World Conference concluded that several sections that had been added between the 1835 and 1844 editionsâmainly dealing with the subjects of temple worship and baptism for the deadâhad been published without proper approval of a church conference. As a result, the World Conference removed sections 107, 109, 110, 113, and 123 to a historical appendix, which also includes documents that were never published as sections. Of these, only section 107 was a revelation. The World Conference of 1990 subsequently removed the entire appendix from the Doctrine and Covenants. Section 108A contained the minutes of a business meeting, which, because of its historical nature, was moved to the Introduction in the 1970s. After 1990, the Introduction was updated, and what was section 108A was removed entirely.
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How The Church Of Jesus Christ Is Organized
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What Is The Book Of Mormon
In addition to the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, named after one of its ancient prophets, is another testament of Jesus Christ. It contains the writings of prophets, giving an account of Gods dealings with the peoples who lived anciently on the American continent. For Latter-day Saints it stands alongside the Old and New Testaments of the Bible as holy scripture.
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Historical Authenticity Of The Book Of Mormon
Discussion regarding the historicity of the Book of Mormon often focuses on archaeological issues, some of which relate to the large size and the long time span of the civilizations mentioned in the book. Joseph Smith founded the movement in upstate New York in the 1820s. The faith drew its first converts while Smith was dictating the text of the Book of Mormon from golden plates which had reformed Egyptian writing on them which he said he found buried after being directed to their location by the Angel Moroni. The book described itself as a chronicle of early indigenous peoples of the Americas, known as the Nephites, portraying them as believing Israelites who had a belief in Christ many hundred years before his birth. According to the book, the Nephites are one of four groups which settled in the ancient Americas. The Nephites are described as a group of people that descended from or were associated with Nephi, the son of the prophet Lehi, who left Jerusalem at the urging of God c. 600 BC and traveled with his family to the Western Hemisphere, arriving in the Americas c. 589 BC. After the translation was complete, Smith said he returned the golden plates to the Angel Moroni.
Editions Used By Other Denominations
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints uses the 1846 edition that was published in Nauvoo, Illinois this version is virtually identical to the 1844 edition. Most recently a facsimile reprint was produced for the church at Voree, Wisconsin by Richard Drew in 1993.
The Church of Christ contends that the thousands of changes made to the original revelations as published in the Book of Commandments are not doctrinal and result from Joseph Smith’s fall from his original calling. As a result, the Church of Christ prefers to use reprints of the Book of Commandments text.
The Church of Jesus Christ accepts the 1844 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, including the Lectures on Faith, which it insists are as much inspired as the revelations themselves.
The Restoration Branches generally use the older RLDS Church Doctrine and Covenants, typically sections 1â144.
The Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints uses the older RLDS Church version of the Doctrine and Covenants up to section 144, and also 19 new revelations from their previous president, Frederick Niels Larsen.
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Criticism Of Response To Internal Dissent
The Ostlings say that the LDS Church retaliates against members that publish information that undermines church policies, citing excommunications of scientist Simon Southerton and biographer Fawn M. Brodie. They further state that the church suppresses intellectual freedom, citing the 1993 excommunication of the “”, including gay LDS historian D. Michael Quinn, and author Lavina Fielding Anderson. The Ostlings write that Anderson was the first to reveal the LDS Church keeps files on Mormon scholars, documenting questionable activities, and the Ostlings state that “No other sizable religion in America monitors its followers in this way”.
The American Association of University Professors, since 1998, has put LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University along with twenty-six other universities on its censured list of universities that do not allow tenured professors sufficient freedom in teaching and research.
Richard Abanes lists the following as church members excommunicated or censured for views unacceptable to the church hierarchy:
- Anthropologist David Knowlton
Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the “LDS Church” or the “Mormon Church,” is the largest and most well-known denomination within the Latter Day Saint’s movement. Founded in the United States by Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1830, the Latter-day Saints regard Christ as the head of their church and count themselves as Christians, but do not consider themselves part of the Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant traditions.
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Tithing And Other Donations
Church members are expected to donate one-tenth of their income to support the operations of the church, including construction of temples, meetinghouses, and other buildings, and other church uses. Members are also encouraged to abstain from food and drink on the first Sunday of each month for at least two consecutive meals. They donate at least the cost of the two skipped meals as a fast offering, which the church uses to assist the poor and needy and expand its humanitarian efforts.
All able LDS young men are expected to serve a two-year, full-time proselytizing mission. Missionaries do not choose where they serve or the language in which they will proselytize, and are expected to fund their missions themselves or with the aid of their families. Prospective male missionaries must be at least 18 years old and no older than 25, not yet married, have completed secondary school, and meet certain criteria for physical fitness and spiritual worthiness. Missionary service is not compulsory, nor is it required for young men to retain their church membership.
Unmarried women 19 years and older may also serve as missionaries, generally for a term of 18 months. However, the LDS Church emphasizes that women are not under the same expectation to serve as male members are, and may serve solely as a personal decision. There is no maximum age for missionary service for women.
Traditional Christianity And The Latter
- Copied to Clipboard
The following is an essay by Robert L. Millet, professor of religion and emeritus dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University.
Christus Statue
The issue of whether Latter-day Saints are Christian is not a new one, but the current media climate has caused the question to be revisited in both private and public conversations. No matter the circumstances, the underlying question is an important one and a matter whose implications reach well beyond the momentary news cycle.
Backgrounds
In the early decades of the 19th century, upstate New York came to be known as the Burnt Over District during the second Great Awakening in American history. Many in that day were spiritual searchers, seekers who sought in earnest for the ancient order of things. This movement, known as Christian Primitivism or Restorationism, was made up of men and women who yearned for the simple Christianity of first century Galilean peasants, not what they saw as the sterile, creedalized and institutionalized religion the Christian church had become through the centuries. The two most successful products of this time were the Disciples of Christ, founded by Alexander Campbell, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, founded by Joseph Smith.
Questions and Answers
1. Why do Mormons insist they are Christian?
2. Do Latter-day Saints want to be included within traditional Christianity?
4. Do Mormons worship Joseph Smith?
5. How would Mormons define a Christian?
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