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History of the Mormons
There are about 14 million members of the religion around the world. The church or religion is now found in many nations around the world (and has approximately 30, 000 congregations around the world).The religion has also been given many other names including Latter-Day Saints, LDS Church, LDS, Mormonism, but was formerly officially known as “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (Mormon). Today, members emanate from more than one culture, nation, and race, and have members outside the United States, although it was believed that it was a church for the America. This paper discusses the history and formation of the church/religion, as well as the beliefs and practices.
Mormon religion was established in the 1844 at Nauvoo by Smith Joseph. People have sought to understand the church in various contexts. The announcements revealed that he had revelations to restore the primitive apostolic church and to open the “Kingdom of God on earth” (Brooke, 3). The 24 year old was said to have come up with a new church as well as a new dispensation. It would finally become the universal true religion by sweeping other religions, according to the young man’s vision. The restoration comprised of its own prophet, testament and sacred tabernacles. The prophet of the religion claimed to take a position to open “a channel of divine power between the visible and invisible worlds” and he would act as a “vehicle of the continuing revelation of the Word” (Brooke, 3). The prophet claimed authority of the prophets in the bible who went to heaven with their bodies through divine power (namely Enoch and Elijah). The “miraculous writing of the Book of Mormon” was used to inaugurate the restoration, and the translation for this book was done by “divine power from golden plates buried by the last survivor of an ancient people” (Brooke, 3). Sacred temples would be built in various places, namely Utah, Illinois and Ohio, to realize such dispensation. It was argued that divine privileges would be given to Mormons in the divine presence of the Lord who would “come into his tabernacle” (Brooke, 3). The leader prophesied of the “granting of keys and unfolding mysteries to come” and promised the Marmon faithful that they would be gods if they remained true to the church ordinances and church commandments. He is said to have not only defied the ideals of the “evangelical church of the Second Great Awakening” and also the “most ardent contemporary advocates of the imminence of the millennium” by declarations regarding promising godhood, “assuming the revelatory” prophetic powers, “announcing a new dispensation” as well as “blurring the lines between spirit and matter” (Brooke, 4). His followers were placed beyond the “radical fridge of the Christian tradition” through his claim for dispensational authority (Brooke, 4). Brooke has argued that Mormon cosmology was founded in hermeticism which is a broad term for human perfection philosophy and metallic transmutation philosophy. Hermeticism has been awarded by the author as the root for Freemasonry and treasure-divining by the author, who argues that the Smith was a “money-digger” and “treasure-diviner” (Brooke, 4). He has argued that “alchemy”, “counterfeiting”, “conjuring” and “witchcraft”, formed the magical practice culture that guided his discovery of the “Golden Plates of the Book of Mormon” (Brooke, 4). The time he announced the promise for divinity is when he had a “renewed interest in freemasonry” (Brooke, 4). During the same time, there was interest in the Freemasonry, which came as a result of stigma “imposed by the Antimasonic furor over the murder of William Morgan” (Brooke, 4).
Beliefs and Practices of Mormons
It is argued that the religion begun as a quest for truth by Joseph Smith, when some have regarded it as a “search for knowledge, values, and structures” (Magocsi, 983). Mormons refer to it as the “gaining a testimony” and they regard testimonies as crucial to commitment to their beliefs and willingness for community involvement. They hold the idea of being a “covenant people” as established in the Bible and the Book of Mormon. The converts have a focus for their faith through the commemoration of ordinances and ceremonies to keep commandments of God. They have made commitment to obey God’s commandments and live righteously, and these covenants are made and renewed. They reflect the practices found in the bible because they believe in the restoration of the primitive Christian church.
For a child, a ritual is performed in which it is offered an impromptu blessing by its father or a priest. The child is also recorded as a church member in this ritual, and named during this ritual. The blessing is offered with a proclamation that the one passing the blessing is doing it in the name of Jesus.
Mormons offer baptism to recruit their members (into full membership now) from people who have attained eighteen years of age. This baptism is through immersion. In addition, members will thereafter receive a laying of hands ritual and “conferral of the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Magocsi, 983). It is allowed for members to request the assistance of the priesthood at any time including a time for illness as well as asking for “direction for one’s life course from a patriarch” (Magocsi, 983). They belong to a “modern Israel within a Christian framework” through their belief and ritual (Magocsi, 983). The culture of the Mormons, their priesthood organization, temple characteristics depicts the blend for the modern Israel and Christianity (Judeo-Christian blend). Mormons are to connect pasts, present and future of the generations in the temples (as the purpose of the temples) and there are temple ordinances specifically dedicated to their ancestors. Identification of the ancestors is a practice carried by the Mormons. Mormons’ present and future generations get directions at the temples, as well as are instilled in them hope that they can enjoy greatest happiness as individuals and families by progressing “towards a closer union with divinity” (Magocsi, 983). Temple ceremonies that “scale” parents and children also exist to confirm the “external nature of marriage and the family” (Magocsi, 983). Family is the greatest channel of blessing, although both the family and the person are units of salvation.
The religion is not resemblance or deviates from the traditional Christian definitions as well as, and sought to produce “coparticipants in divinity” and “play a direct role in the supernatural cosmos of the invisible world” (Brooke, XIV). The author identifies two problems relating to the study of mormon religion; namely the specification of the role of “hermeticism in relation to” the Christian elements in this religion; and secondly, the conveyance of this hermeticism “from late-sixteen-century Europe to the New York countryside in the early nineteen century” (Brooke, XIV)
This religion has been argued that it arose as a need to handle the “social stress experienced by poor families in the north-estern countryside” as well as being “frontier in the wake of the American Revolution” (Brooke, XIV). This view has been propagated by the functionalists. The author has argued that a serious examination of content regarding this religion was discouraged following the unification of the historical examination of their origins (as held by both the Mormon historians and the functionalists (non-Mormon historians)-who sought to study American religions in relation to the social-scientific interactions happening in America in 1960s.
Mormon was earlier on discussed by theological explorations in terms of “millennial beliefs current in evangelical Protestantism” (Brooke, XIV).The exploration by the functionalists since 1960s has helped in the further understanding of the Mormon origins, although it has a deletion effect on the religion, because it influences the diversion from the understanding of religion in divine and other terms by injecting the social-scientific approaches. The Mormon message has been interpreted in revelation to the restoration concept. The Mormon prophet had his religious authority on the “announcement that his visions and revelations were the divine interventions” that were needed for restoration of a true church, but it was not rested on the prediction of the end time. This restoration would be a “third dispensation that inaugurated the Kingdom of God on earth and superseded all previous dispensations as corrupted” (Brooke, XIV). The author is of the opinion that it is not possible for the functionalist theory to explain the “theological distinct message of the Mormon church” or provide a sufficient explanation of the social origins of the converts, although it is possible for this theory to “explain the potential for the emergence of a radical restorationist movement, and the potential for a response to such a message” (Brooke, XIV). Brooke is of the opinion that it is important to look at cosmology in the understanding of Mormon. The “diffuse and divergent trails of cultural continuity” that prepared Joseph and certain people to build religious tradition with “most radical doctrines of early modern Europe’s religious crucible” need to be explored, and not to just rely upon the “milieu to memory” or the explanation of the functionalist (XIV).
In addition to believing in the Biblical verses, the Mormons also believe in the Book of Mormon, also as the word of God. In fact, the believers use the King James Version for their study. The book is claimed to contain the “fullness of the everlasting gospel” and that it records how God deals “with the inhabitants of the Americas” (Mormon). It has been argued that the finding of the book was inspirational, that an angel appeared to Smith-the founder, and directed him where it would be found (on the gold plates). The angel also told him that “he was to bring forth the record known as the Book of Mormon” (Mormon). He was allowed to retrieve and translate the book in 1827 and translated it arguably with the power of God, first into English. The first 5000 copies of the book were published in 1830 and it has seen the selling of approximately 130 million copies. Again, it has been distributed in many languages around the world. There are some controversies that have been noted regarding the religion, when compared to the Christian doctrine they seem to copy from. These include the belief and teaching that there is more than one god, although they believe in the biblical teachings and in Jesus Christ as central. The teaching that human beings are capable of becoming god has been faulted. Those achieving godhood are taught that they would have “spirit children” to worship them as Christians do the God (IRG). Other controversies include the argument that Jesus’ atonement sought to bring “resurrection and immortality to all people regardless whether they receive Christ by faith” (IRG). The Mormon also contends that there has been corruption of the bible with a claim that it misses many parts that are precious.
Conclusion
The paper analyzes the Mormon religion, with an examination of the origin, criticism and their beliefs. The religion has no doubt been existence for many years. In addition, they coincide with the Christian beliefs in some aspects but differ in others. The coincidence includes the belief in Jesus Christ, some practices such as baptism; believe in the bible and its teachings. The differences include the existence of Critics doubt the inspirations on the religion foundation, with an arguments that they were inspired by the existing conditions existing in the Nauvoo, and that they are based on occultism; “counterfeiting”, “conjuring” and “witchcraft” (Brooke, 4). The religion has been understood through exploration on different perspectives including social-cultural/economic perspective, religious and historical perspective.
Works Cited
Brooke, John. The refiner’s fire: The making of Mormon cosmology, 1644-1844. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
IRG. Mormons in transition. IRG. 2010.
Magocsi, Paul., Ed. Encyclopedia of Canada’s peoples. London: University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 1999.
Mormon Religion. Facts. Mormon Religion. n.d.a. 2010.
Mormon Religion. Book of Mormon. Mormon Religion. n.d.b. 2010.
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