One farm boy's movement has splintered into an estimated 400-plus denominations
Joseph Smith was about 14 when, confused by feuding churches in western New York, he prayed for guidance and later described a vision telling him to join none of them. The tradition he launched now includes a church claiming 16 million members and, by one estimate, more than 400 offshoots.
Smith's search took place in the 1820s amid the revivalist fervour called the Second Great Awakening. His First Vision, which he dated to spring 1820, was followed by what he described as angelic visits. He said an angel showed him golden plates buried in a hill in 1823, that he obtained them in 1827, and that he dictated a translation from April 1828 with help from Martin Harris and then Oliver Cowdery, finishing in June 1829. The Book of Mormon appeared in 1830, the same year he formally organised the Church of Christ.
The book presents itself as a chronicle of Israelites who left Jerusalem around 600 BC under a prophet named Lehi, sailed to the Americas, believed in Jesus centuries before his birth, received a visit from him after the resurrection, and eventually lost their faith through war and apostasy. Alongside the Bible, Mormons read further scripture such as the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants, and hold distinctive doctrines such as eternal marriage and baptism for the dead. It rejects the Nicene idea of one divine substance, treating Father, Son and Holy Ghost as three separate beings.
Hostility followed the young church. Members moved from Palmyra to Kirtland, Ohio, and Jackson County, Missouri, were expelled from Jackson County in 1833, and in 1838 were driven from Missouri altogether after the governor issued an extermination order. In Illinois they bought a town and renamed it Nauvoo, but in 1844 a mob killed Smith, triggering a succession crisis. Most followers went with Brigham Young to what became Utah Territory.
In Utah the church openly practised plural marriage, which provoked fierce opposition in Congress until president Wilford Woodruff's 1890 Manifesto ended it, prompting fundamentalist breakaways. Membership grew from about 1.7 million in 1960 to around 7.7 million in 1990 before slowing. Since 2018 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has itself pushed to move away from the Mormon label, while the Community of Christ, another branch, embraces the Trinity.
Source: Mormonism
