heres a post that i typed up a year or two ago in response to a different "mormon" thread. not exactly on topic, but if youre interested, i didnt want to type it out again.
joseph smith was tried and convicted probably more times than any other historical figure i can think of off the top of my head... keep in mind, though, that the nature of the charges that he was tried for were completley falsified and scurrilous. satanic arts? not so sure about that one. never heard of it before. does anyone find it unusual that a kid, who was 14 years old at the start of it all was able to produce a book, over 500 pages in lenth, over the span of 10 or so years, being pursued by mobs who wanted to kill him, across 6 states, only to be murdered at the end of it all. the book of mormon introduced more proper nouns into the english language than did all of shakespeares works combined. is it odd that this could be accomplished by someone with a third grade education? teams of scholars couldnt match this work in terms of its corrospondance with the old and new testiment, not to mention the continuity of the work itself. the book of mormon is a compilation of writings that spans the years of roughly 600 bce to 435 ad or so. it includes writings by dozends of different authors, all of whom have distinct writing styles that are preceivable throughout the text. certain literaty forms that appear in the biblical texts that are exclusive to hebrew writing are found in the book of mormon. point being that there is NO WAY that this could have been writen by some random teenager/twentysomthing from upstate new york. anyone who has read it could tell you that.
the whole idea behind the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS/Mormons) is that it is a restoration of the chruch that was originaly established among the Isrealites in old testament times. beleive it or not, the bible supports the LDS church as much as anything. the old and new Testaments are every bit as important in the church as is the Book Of Mormon. They teach the same ideas, namely the teachings of Jesus.
after Christ lived and died, the church was left in the hands of the Apostles. (ie peter james john, matthias, etc) the apostles went abroad spreading the message of christianity. eventually they were always traveling, and communitcated with the fledgling church via letters, or epistles, which comprise much of the new testament. in time, every single apostle was martyred. the church became the subject of dipute, and a means of control and gain at the hands of men whos motives were less than christ like. this process was a falling away from the church that Christ set up. in ephesians paul talks about a church whos foundation was upon apostles and prophets, who were privy to inspiration from God. this clearly ended no more than three hundred years after the Death of Christ. practices such as the sale of indulgences and the false doctorine of supererogation began to infiltrate the church, and corrupt it from within. durring the dark ages direct revelation was clearly not in control of the Church. then, in the late upper renaissance, one of the most pivitol events in all of world history occured, namely the protestant reformation. The uninspired ways of the Catholic church led reformers such as Calvin, Wycliffe, and most famously Martin Luther, to cry out against the uninspired practices that were taking place. They could read the scriptures, and see that the existing church lacked inspired leadership. they saw that the lure of money corrupted clergymen. We all know about Luthers little list that he nailed to the door of his church.
as this reformation broke the strangle hold that the Catholics had had on the European people, politics, and everyday life, things began to change. The discovery of the New World, and the subsequent founding of America laid the next stones in the way to a complete restoration of Christs church. Now there was a land where Religious variation was tolerated. If Joseph Smith had live in Europe in the middle ages, no way would there be an LDS church today. America made it possible. In the early 1800's the time was at hand.
Joseph Smith was called as the first prophet of the restoration. Prophets have always had certain jobs to do. Moses had to deliver the Isrealites from Egypt. Noah was to preserve his family thought the flood, Isiah was to preach of Christ. Joseph Smith was to restore the entirety of the Gospel, as it had existed with the children of Isreal in the Siani wilderness, as it had existed with Elijah, Isiah, Christ, and Paul. the ordinances of Baptism and confirmation were reinstated, as well as temple rites that had existed in the time of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. A church structure was put together identicle to the one that Christ himself had set up in the maridian of time, based on 'apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers' (ephesians 4:11) no other church today even claims to be structured this way. this being the case, there are really only three churches that are worth looking at, as far as Christianity is concerned, if you want a church that has a legitimate claim to the entire truth. you have either the catholics, based on the fact that they have existed in one form or another since the time of Christ, you have the Orthodox Christians, who have also exisited since that time, and you have the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who claim to be a restoration of that original church that had been taken from the earth for a time. (this was foretold in the new testiment, in 2 thessolnians 2:3 '...for that day shall not come (the second coming of Christ) except there come a falling away first...' Paul foresaw an apostasy from the truth. it happened. its now over. that is the claim of the Mormons.
Now for the Book of Mormon itself. I have already said a little about its technical features.
the book is, as i said, a compilation of writings that starts with a guy named Lehi who lived in jeruselem approx 600 Bc, makeing him a contemporary of the biblical prophet Jeramiah. if youve read the writings of Jerimiah, you know that Jeruselm was in pretty bad shape, morally speaking at the time. Lehi was commanded by God to take his family and flee the city. They left with all their belongings, and with another family, treked through the arabian wilderness for 8 years or so, finally coming to the sea in what would likley be modern day Yemen, on the southern part of the penensula. there, they constructed a ship for the better part of a few years, and then set to sea. they eventually made it to what is generally agreed upon as panama, or perhaps around guatamala, from the provided descriptions. (its funny, as there is an in depth description of the isthmus, and both seas that match panama quite well, but you know, kids in upstate NY in 1820 knew all about panama, so its an obvious forgery) anyhow, the rest of the book chronicles the people that descended from those two families over the next 800-1000 years. the key point in the book, being a visitation by Christ, durring the space after the ressurection. It is stated in the book of John in the New Testament 'other sheep i have, which are not of this fold: them also i must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd' (John 10:16) this is commonly interpreted outside the church (by other christian groups) to be refering to the Gentile nations that christs apostles eventually went to preach to. It must be noted, however, that they gentiles never heard Christs voice, as he never preched to them personally. He did, however, preach personally to the People in the Americas, after his ascention into heaven, as chronicled in Acts Ch.2. Chist appears to the people, preaches much of the same doctorine that he had preached in Judea, and then ascends again into heaven. the Book of Mormon follows these people for another 400 years or so, until they are overrun by other indiginous peoples, and killed.
if any of you are familiar with the early american history, you have certainly heard the story of Hernan Cortez, the man who waltzed into town, and had his way wherever he pleased. This is attributed to the fact that the Aztecs people thought that he was Quetelcotal, or a great white priest that was to return, acording to legend. There are also pockets of Native peoples in Guatamala that are unusually fair skinned, in comparison to the other indiginous peoples there. there are ruins in central america that match cites described in the Book of Mormon, that were not discovered for years after the books publication.
for a more detailed look at this kind of thing check out
http://farms.byu.edu/
an yhow, the Book of Mormon, in my estimation could not be a fraudulent document. its a veritable impossibility, taking into account when it was produced, and by whom.
the real point of the Book, however, is that it teaches of Christ. The Old and New Testaments teach of Christ. That is what Mormons are all about. Jesus Christ. he is the center of it all. without him, there would be no church. We beleive, as many christian denomonations do, that he is our Savior, and sole means of salvation.
so to close breifly, Joseph Smith was killed, along with his brother in 1844 in Illonois. after that, Brigham Young became the succeeding prophet, and president of the church, and led the majority of the church faithfull across the plains to Utah, where they established SLC, this was, no doubt inspired, not becuase of the proximity to good farmland, or anything else, but because God is, undoubtedly a skier, and he knew that the biggest favor he could do for his people was to plant them at the mouth of Little Cottonwood canyon, so that generations in the future would be able to get burried in the greatest snow on earth.
anyways, that is my concises history of Mormonism. if anyone has anymore questions, post them, and i will try and answer them as well as i can.
Mercy's eyes are blue
When she places them in front of you
Nothing holds a roman candle to
The solemn warmth you feel inside
