See also: Joseph Smith (homonymy)

Joseph Smith , born the December 23rd 1805 and dead the June 27th 1844, is the founder and the first president of the Église of Jesus-Christ of the Saints of the Last Days. For this Church, Joseph Smith is a prophet caused by God among the men.

He was born in the town of Sharon in the Vermont. He was candidate with the presidency of the United States in 1843. Joseph Smith affirms to have received the visit of God the Father and his Son Jesus-Christ at the time of his First Vision in the Bosquet crowned in spring 1820. This event marked the beginning of the Rétablissement and the Dispensation of the plenitude of times.

He died assassinated by a crowd of rioters whereas he was held in the prison of Carthage (Illinois).

Biography

At the beginning of his adolescence, Joseph Smith tested the desire of knowing with which Church it was to join. Noting that even after having passed their life to study the Bible, the pastors of the various Churches contradicted themselves on many points, principles and biblical verses, it was impressed very strongly by a passage of the epistle of Jacques who teaches that if somebody misses wisdom, it can ask it God who gives to all simply and without reproach. Joseph Smith affirms that in 1820 (it was then 14 years old), God the Father and his Son Jesus-Christ appeared to him and said to him that none the Churches existing at the time divinement was divinement recognized but that if there remained faithful, he would be, in the future, an instrument of the re-establishment of the true Church of Jesus-Christ.

Translation of the Book of Mormon

Joseph Smith affirms that on September 21st, 1823 it accepted the visit of a messenger who presented himself as being Moroni, prophet having lived on the American continent with the beginning of the year 400 after Jesus-Christ. Moroni would have spoken to him about an old book, written on metal plates, containing the lesson and testimonys of many prophets having lived formerly on the American continent. He added that this book would be translated by the capacity of God and is spread in the whole world. He says to him that the plates were hidden under a large stone, on the Colline of Cumorah.

Four years later, on September 22nd, 1827, Joseph accepted from this messenger the permission to take the plates and the mission them of translating, which it made thanks to the urim and with the thummim which were with the plates.

The ancient annals thus translated into English were published for the first time in 1830 pennies the title: The Book off Mormon ( the Book of Mormon ), of the name of one of the old prophets who took part in his drafting.

Birth of the Church

Joseph Smith affirms that in 1829, it accepted the authority of the priesthood (or sacerdotal authority) of the hands of Jean-Baptiste and of Pierre, Jacques and Jean. April 6th, 1830, on divine command, Joseph and several others organized the restored Church of Jesus-Christ. Under the direction of Joseph, the Church grows in Canada, in England and in the East of the United States, particularly in Ohio, in Missouri and in Illinois.

He also affirms to have received many revelations formulating the fundamental lesson and the organization of the Church. These revelations were compiled to constitute what today bears the name of Doctrine and Alliances. It made also appear the Perle of Grand Prix, which contains a translation inspired of certain writings of Moïse, of Abraham and Matthieu, extracts of its history and its personal testimony, and the Articlees of faith (thirteen declarations of doctrines and faith maintained by the Church).

Plural marriage

See also: plural Marriage (mormonism)

Like some of the first Mormons, Joseph Smith applied the law of the plural marriage. Among its 33 wives, several were married with him after its death (see celestial Mariage and Salut for deaths). The Mormons gave up the practice of the plural marriage in 1890, under the presidency of Wilford Woodruff, third successor of Joseph Smith.

Contained Book of Mormon

See also: Book of Mormon

Jointly with the Bible, the Book of Mormon is one of the books considered as Holy Scriptures and is one of the sources of teaching in the Church of Jesus-Christ of the Saints of the Last Days, whose members are popularly called Mormon S, in reference to this book.

The Book of Mormon reports the history of people of old America, which would come from one of the tribes of Israel and which would have been guided by God towards this promised land, a few years before the destruction of Jerusalem by Nabuchodonosor II, towards 597 before J. - C. These people would have then separated in two rival people, the Néphite S which were guided by prophets who followed the word of God and the Lamanite S which rejected it. During nearly 1000 years these two people were made the war.

The Book of Mormon prophesies the divine mission of Jesus-Christ well before her birth, reports its visit on the American continent after its crucifixion and brings back its lesson to the Amerindian people, lesson comparable with those which it gave to Jerusalem. The Book of Mormon is presented in the form of a second witness of Jesus-Christ, with the Bible. He tells the fine tragedy of Néphites which was exterminated by Lamanites towards 420 after J. - C., after being himself isolated ways of God.

The account was engraved on gold plates that Moroni buried into 421 after J. - C. to reveal them fourteen centuries later with Joseph Smith who affirmed to have translated them by the divine inspiration.

See too

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