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183-607: After Smith was murdered in 1844 with no clear successor, several claimants sought to take leadership of the church which Smith founded. Among them was Strang, who competed with other prominent members, notably Brigham Young and Sidney Rigdon . At its peak, the Strangite Church had about 12,000 members, making them noteworthy rivals to the larger faction led by Young. Strang was murdered in 1856, after which most of his followers joined Joseph Smith III and his Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now called

366-872: A marble statue in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the United States Capitol , donated by the State of Utah in 1950; and a statue atop the This is the Place Monument in Salt Lake City. Young believed in the racial superiority of white men. His manuscript history from January 5, 1852, which was published in the Deseret News , reads: The negro … should serve the seed of Abraham; he should not be

549-651: A Coptic scholar from the University of Utah , was looking through the MMA's collection when he came across the Heusser fragments; upon examining them, he recognized one as the vignette known as Facsmile   1 from The Pearl of Great Price. He informed LDS Church leaders, and several months later, on November   27, 1967, the LDS Church was able to procure the fragments, and according to Henry G. Fischer, curator of

732-469: A clean beast, or a clean fowl, according to his household." The killing of sacrifices was a prerogative of Strangite Priests, but female Priests were specifically barred from participating in this aspect of the priestly office. "Firstfruits" offerings were also demanded from all Strangite agricultural harvests. Animal sacrifices are no longer practiced by the Strangites, but belief in their correctness

915-679: A conference in Norway, Illinois , he converted the entire branch. While in Voree, the Strangites published a periodical known as the Voree Herald . Strang's church also fielded a mission to England, one of the primary sources of converts to Mormonism. This mission was led by Martin Harris , the financier of the Book of Mormon and one of its Three Witnesses . Harris proved a poor spokesman, however, and

1098-468: A family of children for him, and it is a great trial to me for him to have more women;' then I say it is time that you gave him up to other women who will bear children." Young believed that sexual desire was given by God to ensure the perpetuation of humankind and believed sex should be confined to marriage. One of the more controversial teachings of Young during the Mormon Reformation was

1281-599: A gold mint in 1849 and called for the minting of coins using gold dust that had been accumulated from travelers during the Gold Rush. The mint was closed in 1861 by Alfred Cumming , gubernatorial successor to Young. Young also organized a board of regents to establish a university in the Salt Lake Valley. It was established on February 28, 1850, as the University of Deseret; its name was eventually changed to

1464-690: A member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles . On May 4, 1835, Young and other apostles went on a mission to the east coast, specifically in Pennsylvania and New York. His call was to preach to the "remnants of Joseph", a term people in the church used to refer to indigenous people. In August 1835, Young and the rest of the Quorum of the Twelve issued a testimony in support of the divine origin of

1647-511: A mission to raise funds for the Nauvoo temple and its guesthouse. Young's six-year-old daughter Mary Ann died while he was on this mission. On November 22, 1843, Young and his wife Mary Ann received the second anointing , a ritual that assured them that their salvation and exaltation would occur. In March 1844, Brigham Young was an inaugural member of the Council of Fifty , which later organized

1830-399: A monogamous counterweight to Young's polygamous version of Mormonism, Strang's decision to embrace plural marriage proved costly to him and his church. Strang found his greatest support among the scattered outlying branches of Mormonism, which he frequently toured. His followers may have numbered as many as 12,000, at a time when Young's group had just over 50,000. After Strang won a debate at

2013-569: A new First Presidency with Young as president of the church. A church conference held in Iowa sustained Young and his First Presidency on December 27, 1847. Not all church members followed Young. Rigdon became the president of a separate church organization based in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania, and several other potential successors emerged to lead what became other denominations of the movement. Before departing Nauvoo, Young focused on completing

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2196-523: A non-Mormon governor. Buchanan accepted the reports of the Runaway Officials without any further investigation, and the new non-sectarian governor was appointed and sent to the new territory accompanied by 2,500 soldiers. When Young received word in July that federal troops were headed to Utah with his replacement, he called out his militia to ambush the federal force using delaying tactics. During

2379-403: A ruler, nor vote for men to rule over me nor my brethren. The Constitution of Deseret is silent upon this, we meant it should be so. The seed of Canaan cannot hold any office, civil or ecclesiastical. … The decree of God that Canaan should be a servant of servants unto his brethren (i.e., Shem and Japhet [sic]) is in full force. The day will come when the seed of Canaan will be redeemed and have all

2562-739: A small house adjacent to a pail factory, which was Young's main place of employment at the time. Their daughter, Elizabeth, was born on September 26, 1825. According to William Hayden, Young participated in the Bucksville Forensic and Oratorical Society. Young converted to the Reformed Methodist Church in 1824 after studying the Bible. Upon joining the Methodists, he insisted on being baptized by immersion rather than by their normal practice of sprinkling . In 1828,

2745-411: A spokesman and that the twelve apostles, not Rigdon, had "the fullness of the priesthood" necessary to succeed Smith's leadership. Young claimed access to revelation to know God's choice of successor because of his position as an apostle. The majority of attendants voted that the Quorum of the Twelve was to lead the church. Many of Young's followers stated in reminiscent accounts (the earliest in 1850 and

2928-594: A successor, and insisted that the next Strangite prophet must be chosen and ordained by angels just as he and Smith had been, Strang's church was left leaderless and vulnerable. One day before his death, vigilantes from Mackinac Island and other Lake Michigan communities converged on Beaver Island. The Strangites were rounded up, forced onto hastily commandeered steamships, and removed from the island. Most were simply dumped onto docks in Chicago and Green Bay , destitute and deprived of all their property. Strang's death and

3111-732: A temple. Strangite Priests, Elders, High Priests or Apostles (of all four degrees) may perform this ceremony. Eternal marriages are still contracted among the Strangites today. Same-sex marriage and homosexuality in general are not permitted within the Strangite organization. Conservation of forests and resources is mandated by the Strangites. Within Strang's Beaver Island kingdom and other places where Strangites were numerous, groves of trees were to be maintained upon each farm, village and town. Farms and cities without trees were required to plant them, and to establish parklands so that "the aged and

3294-518: A thorough reform." Large gatherings and meetings during this period were conducted by Young and Grant, and Young played a key role in the circulation of the Mormon Reformation with his emphasis on plural marriage , rebaptism , and passionate preaching and oration. It was during this period that the controversial doctrine of blood atonement was occasionally preached by Young, though it was repudiated in 1889 and never practiced by members of

3477-468: A way that sheds blood. The LDS Church has formally repudiated the doctrine as early as 1889 and multiple times since the days of Young. Young is generally considered to have instituted a church ban against conferring the priesthood on men of black African descent, who had generally been treated equally to white men in this respect under Smith's presidency. After settling in Utah in 1848, Young announced

3660-572: A widow named Hannah Brown and sent Young off to learn a trade. Young moved to Auburn, New York , where he was an apprentice to John C. Jeffries. He worked as a carpenter , glazier , and painter . One of the homes that Young helped paint in Auburn belonged to Elijah Miller and later to William Seward , and is now a local museum . With the onset of the Panic of 1819 , Jeffries dismissed Young from his apprenticeship, and Young moved to Port Byron , which

3843-515: Is a farrago of nonsense from beginning to end. Egyptian characters can now be read almost as easily as Greek, and five minutes' study in an Egyptian gallery of any museum should be enough to convince any educated man of the clumsiness of the imposture. The controversy intensified in the late 1960s when portions of the Joseph Smith Papyri were located. The translation of the papyri by both Mormon and non-Mormon Egyptologists does not match

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4026-547: Is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement , first published in 1842 by Joseph Smith . Smith said the book was a translation from several Egyptian scrolls discovered in the early 19th century during an archeological expedition by Antonio Lebolo , and purchased by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from a traveling mummy exhibition on July 3, 1835. According to Smith,

4209-515: Is also symbolic of Jesus Christ, the central figure in God's plan of salvation." The Book of Abraham also explores pre-mortal existence. The LDS Church website explains: "Life did not begin at birth, as is commonly believed. Prior to coming to earth, individuals existed as spirits." These spirits are eternal and of different intelligences. Prior to mortal existence, spirits exist in the "first estate". Once certain spirits (i.e., those who choose to follow

4392-617: Is believed that he died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix . His last words were "Joseph! Joseph! Joseph!", invoking the name of the late Joseph Smith Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. On September 2, 1877, Young's funeral was held in the Tabernacle with an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people in attendance. He is buried on the grounds of the Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument in

4575-510: Is disputed. Leonard J. Arrington reports that Young received a rider at his office on the day of the massacre, and that when he learned of the contemplated attack by members of the church in Parowan and Cedar City, he sent back a letter directing that the Fancher party be allowed to pass through the territory unmolested. Young's letter reportedly arrived on September 13, 1857, two days after

4758-428: Is led by a Presiding High Priest, who does not claim to have the authority or office possessed by Smith or Strang. The other claims that this first assemblage is in error, and that by incorporating in 1961 and allegedly organizing a new order of the priesthood to rule them and a new man-made set of laws to govern them, it lost its identity as a faithful continuation of Strang's organization. This second group claims that it

4941-467: Is near unto me, for I am the Lord thy God: I have set this one to govern all those which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest. Based on this verse, the LDS Church claims that "Kolob is the star nearest to the presence of God [and] the governing star in all the universe." Time moves slowly on the celestial body; one Kolob-day corresponds to 1,000 earth-years. The Church also notes: "Kolob

5124-518: Is nothing more than the hieratic version of [...] a 'w' in Egyptian. It has no phonetic or semantic relationship to [Smith's] 'Ah-broam. ' " University of Chicago Egyptologist Robert K. Ritner concluded in 2014 that the source of the Book of Abraham "is the 'Breathing Permit of Hôr,' misunderstood and mistranslated by Joseph Smith", and that the other papyri are common Egyptian funerary documents like

5307-582: Is one Person (not three, as in the traditional Christian Trinity ). Jesus Christ, Strangites believe, was the natural-born son of Mary and Joseph , who was chosen from before all time to be the Savior of mankind, but who had to be born as an ordinary mortal of two human parents (rather than being begotten by the Father or the Holy Spirit ) to be able to truly fulfill his Messianic role. Strang claimed that

5490-488: Is preserved[.] The Book of Abraham's narrative tells of Abraham's life, travels to Canaan and Egypt, and a vision he received concerning the universe, a pre-mortal existence , and the creation of the world. The book has five chapters: Nearly half of the Book of Abraham shows a dependence on the King James Version of the Book of Genesis . According to H. Michael Marquardt , "It seems clear that Smith had

5673-517: Is still required. Strangites reject both the traditional Christian doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and the Mormon doctrine of plurality of gods . They insist that there is but one eternal God, the Father , and that alleged progression to godhood (a doctrine supposedly taught by Smith, but Strangites reject that assertion) is impossible. They believe that God has always been God, and he

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5856-983: Is still revered by Strangites today, remaining a vital part of their canon of scripture. In addition to printing religious materials, the Strangite printing press on Beaver Island became the source of a new periodical, the Northern Islander , which was the first real newspaper in all of northern Michigan. As St. James became an entrepôt for Great Lakes shipping, the Strangites began to compete with more established commercial lake ports such as Mackinac Island . Tensions grew between Mormons on Beaver Island and their non-Mormon neighbors, which frequently exploded into violence. Accusations of thuggery and thievery were leveled by both parties against each other, compounded by ever-increasing dissension among some of Strang's own disciples, who chafed at what they saw as his increasingly tyrannical rule. In 1854, Strang published Ancient and modern Michilimackinac, including an account of

6039-416: Is suggested in the work that those who are foreordained to the priesthood earned this right by valor or nobility in the pre-mortal life. In a similar vein, the book explicitly denotes that Pharaoh was a descendant of Ham and thus "of that lineage by which he could not have the right of Priesthood". This passage is the only one found in any Mormon scripture that bars a particular lineage of people from holding

6222-474: Is the longest-serving president of the LDS Church to date, having served for 29 years. During time as prophet and governor, Young encouraged bishops to establish grade schools for their congregations, which would be supported by volunteer work and tithing payments . Young viewed education as a process of learning how to make the Kingdom of God a reality on earth, and at the core of his "philosophy of education"

6405-488: Is the sole true remnant of Strang's church. The first group no longer emphasizes missionary work, as they tend to believe that after three murdered prophets (Smith, Hyrum Smith , and Strang), God closed his dispensation to the "gentiles" of the West. Consequently, this group's congregation remains small. Current membership figures vary between 50 and 300 persons, depending upon the source consulted. There are two groups among

6588-509: The Adam–God doctrine . According to Young, he was taught by Smith that Adam is "our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do". According to the doctrine, Adam was once a mortal man who became resurrected and exalted . From another planet, Adam brought Eve , one of his wives, with him to the earth, where they became mortal by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. After bearing mortal children and establishing

6771-475: The Book of Mormon which he said he translated from ancient golden plates that had been inscribed with " reformed Egyptian " text. He took an immediate interest in the papyri and soon offered Chandler a preliminary translation of the scrolls. Smith said that the scrolls contained the writings of Abraham and Joseph , as well as a short history of an Egyptian princess named "Katumin" . He wrote: [W]ith W. W. Phelps and Oliver Cowdery as scribes, I commenced

6954-495: The Community of Christ , consider Young the "Father of Mormon Polygamy". In 1853, Young made the church's first official statement on the subject since the church had arrived in Utah. Young acknowledged that the doctrine was challenging for many women, but stated its necessity for creating large families, proclaiming: "But the first wife will say, 'It is hard, for I have lived with my husband twenty years, or thirty, and have raised

7137-416: The Community of Christ . Strangites share the same history with other Latter Day Saint denominations up until the assassination of Joseph Smith . During the resulting succession crisis , several early Mormon leaders asserted claims to succeed Smith, including Sidney Rigdon , Brigham Young and James Strang . Rigdon's claim rested on his status as the senior surviving member of Smith's First Presidency ,

7320-586: The Doctrine and Covenants published prior to Smith's death (which contained the Lectures on Faith ) to be scripture. Strangites hold the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible to be inspired, but do not believe modern publications of the text are accurate, so they "cautiously use the publication of his earliest corrections published as the 'Inspired Version' or 'Joseph Smith Translation' by

7503-547: The Doctrine and Covenants . He oversaw the finishing of the Kirtland temple and spoke in tongues at its dedication in 1836. Shortly afterwards, Young went on another mission with his brother Joseph to New York and New England. On this mission, he visited the family of his aunt, Rhoda Howe Richards. They converted to the church, including his cousin Willard Richards . In August 1837, Young went on another mission to

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7686-554: The Joseph Smith Papyri . Upon examination by professional Egyptologists (both Mormon and otherwise), these fragments were identified as Egyptian funerary texts , including the " Breathing Permit of Hôr " and the " Book of the Dead ", among others. Although some Mormon apologists defend the authenticity of the Book of Abraham, no scholars regard it as an ancient text. Eleven mummies and several papyri were discovered near

7869-544: The Kirtland Egyptian papers . One of these manuscripts was a bound book titled simply "Grammar & A[l]phabet of the Egyptian Language", which contained Smith's interpretations of the Egyptian glyphs. The first part of the book focuses almost entirely on deciphering Egyptian characters, and the second part deals with a form of astronomy that was supposedly practiced by the ancient Egyptians. Most of

8052-477: The Kirtland Temple and went to a grammar school. His third child and first son, Joseph A. Young , was born shortly after his return. Mary Ann, who was pregnant at the time, had provided for Young's two daughters and the children of her brother Solomon Angell and their friend Lorenzo Booth while Young was away with Zion's Camp. At a conference on February 14, 1835, Brigham Young was named and ordained

8235-596: The Latter Day Saint movement —Eleazer Miller, Elial Strong, Alpheus Gifford, Enos Curtis, and Daniel Bowen—came from the branch of the church in Columbia, Pennsylvania , to preach in Mendon. A key element of the teachings of this group in Young's eyes was their practicing of spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues and prophecy. This was partly experienced when Young traveled with his wife, Miriam, and Heber C. Kimball to visit

8418-704: The New York Tribune that he considered slavery a "divine institution   ... not to be abolished". In 1856, Young organized an efficient mail service known as the Brigham Young Express and Carrying Company, which transported mail and passengers between Missouri and California. In 1858, following the events of the Utah War and Mountain Meadows Massacre , he stepped down to his gubernatorial successor, Alfred Cumming . Young

8601-468: The Pearl of Great Price since 1880. It thus forms a doctrinal foundation for the LDS Church and Mormon fundamentalist denominations, though other groups, such as the Community of Christ , do not consider it a sacred text . The book contains several doctrines that are particular to Mormonism , such as the idea that God organized eternal elements to create the universe (instead of creating it ex nihilo ),

8784-496: The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (of which he was president ) should be sustained as the presiding body of the church. Young and his followers migrated west to the Salt Lake Valley , in what became Utah Territory , continuing to use Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as their name until incorporating in 1851, when the spelling was standardized as "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". Although he

8967-493: The Revelations of James J. Strang . This text contains his purported "letter of appointment" from Smith and his translation of the Voree plates. The Book of Jasher was consistently used by both Smith and Strang, but as with other Latter Day Saint denominations, there is no official stance on its authenticity and it is not considered canonical. One distinctive difference between Strangites and other Latter Day Saints concerns

9150-462: The Salt Lake Valley , which was then part of Mexico. Young organized the journey that would take the Mormon pioneers to Winter Quarters, Nebraska , in 1846, before continuing on to the Salt Lake Valley. By the time Young arrived at the final destination, it had come under American control as a result of war with Mexico , although U.S. sovereignty would not be confirmed until 1848 . Young arrived in

9333-738: The United Order of Enoch . Young was also involved in the organization of the Salt Lake Gas Works, the Salt Lake Water Works, an insurance company, a bank, and the ZCMI store in downtown Salt Lake City. In 1873, he announced that he would step down as president of the Deseret National Bank and of ZCMI, as well as from his role as trustee-in-trust for the church. He cited as his reason for this that he

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9516-451: The University of Utah . In 1849, Young arranged for a printing press to be brought to the Salt Lake Valley, which was later used to print the Deseret News periodical. In 1851, Young and several federal officials—including territorial Secretary Broughton Harris —became unable to work cooperatively. Within months, Harris and the others departed their Utah appointments without replacements being named, and their posts remained unfilled for

9699-502: The Urim and Thummim were used in the translation. A non-church member who saw the mummies in Kirtland spoke about the state of the papyri, and the translation process: These records were torn by being taken from the roll of embalming salve which contained them, and some parts entirely lost but Smith is to translate the whole by divine inspiration, and that which was lost, like Nebuchadnezzar's dream can be interpreted as well as that which

9882-456: The seventh-day Sabbath —i.e., Saturday —as the Book of the Law commanded it, in lieu of Sunday. Strangites believe in baptism for the dead and practiced it to a limited extent in Voree and on Beaver Island. However, rather than simply baptizing for anyone whose name can be located, Strang required a revelation for those seeking to have a baptism done for someone outside of a close relative "within

10065-522: The "catalyst theory", though the relative popularity of these theories among Latter-day Saints is unclear. The "missing scroll theory" holds that Smith may have translated the Book of Abraham from a now-lost portion of papyri, with the text of Breathing Permit of Hôr having nothing to do with Smith's translation. John Gee , an Egyptologist and Latter-day Saint, and the apologetic organization FAIR (Faithful Answers, Informed Response; formerly FairMormon) favor this view. Other Latter-day Saints hold to

10248-485: The "catalyst theory," which hypothesizes that Smith's "study of the papyri may have led to a revelation about key events and teachings in the life of Abraham", allowing him to "translate" the Book of Abraham from the Breathing Permit of Hôr papyrus by inspiration without actually relying on the papyrus' textual meaning. This theory draws theological basis from Smith's "New Translation" of the Bible , wherein in

10431-476: The "non-incorporated" group does not, insisting that the first body does not currently possess authority to ordain any. Both factions enjoy the ministry of Elders and Aaronic Priesthood offices. Another unique feature of Strangite doctrine is its singular version of the Ten Commandments . The Strangite Decalogue differs from any other Jewish , Catholic , Islamic or Protestant version, by including

10614-445: The 'Pearl of Great Price.' The 'Book of Abraham,' it is hardly necessary to say, is a pure fabrication. Cuts 1 and 3 are inaccurate copies of well known scenes on funeral papyri, and cut 2 is a copy of one of the magical discs which in the late Egyptian period were placed under the heads of mummies. There were about forty of these latter known in museums and they are all very similar in character. Joseph Smith's interpretation of these cuts

10797-693: The 30 years between the Mormons' arrival in Utah in 1847 and [his death in] 1877, Young directed the founding of 350 towns in the Southwest. Thereby the Mormons became the most important single agency in colonizing that vast arid West between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada . Memorials to Young include a bronze statue in front of the Abraham O. Smoot Administration Building, Brigham Young University;

10980-463: The Aaronic priesthood, Strang enumerates three "orders": In addition, a "King's Council" and a "King's Court" are established, though none function within the Strangite church today. While no direct link is made between the King's Court and the " High Council " established in the Doctrine and Covenants, certain parallels exist, such as requiring all members to hold the High Priesthood, and limiting their number to twelve. Although Strang briefly retained

11163-431: The Bible open to Genesis as he dictated this section [i.e., Chapter   2] of the 'Book of Abraham. ' " Smith explained the similarities by reasoning that when Moses penned Genesis, he used the Book of Abraham as a guide, abridging and condensing where he saw fit. As such, since Moses was recalling Abraham's lifetime, his version was in the third person , whereas the Book of Abraham, being written by its eponymous author,

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11346-411: The Book of Abraham describes a unique (and purportedly Egyptian) understanding of the hierarchy of heavenly bodies, each with different movements and measurements of time. In regard to this chapter, Randal S. Chase notes, "With divine help, Abraham was able to gain greater comprehension of the order of the galaxies, stars, and planets than he could have obtained from earthly sources." At the pinnacle of

11529-643: The Book of Abraham has been a source of controversy. Egyptologists, beginning in the late 19th century, have disagreed with Joseph Smith's explanations of the facsimiles. They have also asserted that damaged portions of the papyri have been reconstructed incorrectly. In 1912, the book 'Joseph Smith, Jr., As a Translator' was published, containing refutations to Smith's translations. Refuters included Archibald Sayce , Flinders Petrie , James Henry Breasted , Arthur Cruttenden Mace (refutation below), John Punnett Peters , C. Mercer, Eduard Meyer , and Friedrich Wilhelm von Bissing . I return herewith, under separate cover,

11712-440: The Book of Abraham is "confirmed as a perhaps well-meaning, but erroneous invention by Joseph Smith", and "despite its inauthenticity as a genuine historical narrative, the Book of Abraham remains a valuable witness to early American religious history and to the recourse to ancient texts as sources of modern religious faith and speculation". As noted above, a second untranslated work was identified by Joseph Smith after scrutinizing

11895-429: The Book of Joseph to which Smith had referred. Egyptologist John A. Wilson stated that the recovered fragments indicated the existence of at least six to eight separate documents. The twelfth fragment was discovered in the LDS Church Historian's office and was dubbed the "Church Historian's Fragment". Disclosed by the church in 1968, the fragment was designated JSP   IX. Although there is some debate about how much of

12078-433: The Book of the Dead. Original manuscripts of the Book of Abraham, microfilmed in 1966 by Jerald Tanner, show portions of the Joseph Smith Papyri and their purported translations into the Book of Abraham. Ritner concludes, contrary to the LDS position, due to the microfilms being published prior to the rediscovery of the Joseph Smith Papyri, that "it is not true that 'no eyewitness account of the translation survives ' ", that

12261-520: The Decalogue (together with the rest of his teaching) are rejected by all non-Strangite Mormon factions, including the mainline LDS Church. The full text of the fourth commandment according to the Strangites reads: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: thou shalt not revile him, nor speak evil of him, nor curse him: thou shalt do no injustice unto him; and thou shalt maintain his right, against his enemy: thou shalt not exact rigorously of him, nor turn aside from relieving him: thou shalt deliver him from

12444-487: The Eastern seaboard. During his time in Nauvoo, Joseph Smith introduced the doctrine of plural marriage among church leaders. Young performed the sealing ordinances for two of Joseph Smith's plural wives in early 1842. Young proposed marriage to Martha Brotherton, who was seventeen years old at the time and had recently immigrated from Manchester, England. Brotherton signed an affidavit saying that she had been pressured by Young and then Smith to accept polygamy. The affidavit

12627-563: The Egyptian Collection at the MMA, an anonymous donation to the MMA made it possible for the LDS Church to acquire the papyri. The subsequent transfer included ten pieces of papyri, including the original of Facsimile   1. The eleventh fragment had been given to Brigham Young (then church president) previously by Chief Banquejappa of the Pottawatomie tribe in 1846. Three of these fragments were designated Joseph Smith Papyrus (JSP) I, X, and XI . Other fragments, designated JSP   II, IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII, are thought by critics to be

12810-418: The English Book of Abraham text". The Community of Christ , formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, does not include the Book of Abraham in its scriptural canon, although it was referenced in early church publications. The Strangite branch of the movement does not take an official position on the Book of Abraham. The branch notes, "We know that 'The Book of Abraham'

12993-401: The English missions sided with the LDS Church led by Young. Because the high price of land in the Voree area made it difficult for Latter Day Saints to "gather" there, Strang moved his church headquarters to Beaver Island in Lake Michigan . Here his disciples founded a town known as St. James (now St. James Township ), and in 1850, openly established an ecclesiastical monarchy with Strang as

13176-643: The Kimball family later that summer. Here he became acquainted with Mary Ann Angell , a convert to the faith from Rhode Island , and the two were married in February 1834 and obtained a marriage certificate on March 31, 1834. In May 1834, Young became a member of Zion's Camp and traveled to Missouri. He returned to Kirtland with members of the camp in August. After his return to Kirtland, Young did carpentry, painting, and glazing work to earn money. He also worked on

13359-675: The Latter-day Saints can receive a good education unmixed with the pernicious atheistic influences that are found in so many of the higher schools of the country." The school broke off from the University of Deseret and became Brigham Young Academy in 1876 under the leadership of Karl G. Maeser , and was the precursor to Brigham Young University . Within the church, Young reorganized the Relief Society for women in 1867 and created organizations for young women in 1869 and young men in 1875. The Young Women organization

13542-409: The Law of the Lord speaks of them as being offered for sins, the prohibition on such sacrifices contained in 3 Nephi 9:19–20, meant that Strang focused instead on sacrifice as an element of religious festivities, especially the commemoration of his own coronation as king (July 8, 1850). The head of every house, from the king to his lowest subject, was to offer "a heifer, or a lamb, or a dove. Every man

13725-469: The Lord was. According to Young, the matter was beyond his personal control and was divinely determined rather than historically or personally as many assumed. Young taught that the day would come when black men would again have the priesthood, saying that after "all the other children of Adam have the privilege of receiving the Priesthood, and of coming into the kingdom of God, and of being redeemed from

13908-413: The Mormon exodus from Nauvoo. In 1844, Young traveled east again to solicit votes for Joseph Smith in his presidential campaign . In June 1844, while Young was away, Joseph Smith was killed by an armed mob who stormed the jail where he was awaiting trial for the charge of treason. Young did not learn of the assassination until early July. Several claimants to fill the leadership vacuum emerged during

14091-415: The Mormon pioneers, in an exodus through a desert, to what they saw as a promised land. Young was dubbed by his followers the "Lion of the Lord" for his bold personality and commonly was called "Brother Brigham" by Latter-day Saints . A century after Young's death, historian Rodman W. Paul wrote, [Joseph Smith] was succeeded by one of the outstanding organizers of the 19th century, Brigham Young. If

14274-479: The Mormons. Although dealing with controverted matters and colored by Strang's indignation at the outrages he and his people had to endure, the pamphlet is a responsible source on the events of which it treats, and is also interesting for the considerable measure of learning it reveals in Strang". Tensions finally came to a head on June 20, 1856, when two Strangite malcontents shot Strang in the back, leading to his death three weeks later. Since Strang refused to appoint

14457-687: The Native Americans. Young was also one of the first to subscribe to Union Pacific stock, for the construction of the First transcontinental railroad . He also authorized the construction of the Utah Central railroad line, which connected Salt Lake City to the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad. Young organized the first Utah Territorial Legislature and established Fillmore as the territory's first capital. Young established

14640-556: The Nauvoo city council in 1841 and oversaw the first baptisms for the dead in the unfinished Nauvoo temple. He joined the Masons in Nauvoo on April 7, 1842, and participated in an early endowment ritual led by Joseph Smith that May and became part of the Anointed Quorum . Young and the other apostles directed the church's missionary work and the immigration of new converts from this point forward. Young served another mission to

14823-533: The Nauvoo temple. After the exterior was completed on December 10, 1845, members received their temple endowments day and night, and Young officiated many of these sessions. An estimated 5,000 members were endowed between December 10, 1845, and February 1846. With the repealing of Nauvoo's charter in January 1845, church members in Nauvoo lost their courts, police, and militia, leaving them vulnerable to attacks by mobs. Young instructed victims of anti-Mormon violence on

15006-455: The Prophets by 1856. Another denomination, the Community of Christ , began ordaining women to the priesthood in 1984, while most other Latter Day Saint churches do not ordain women to the priesthood. Animal sacrifice was instituted in the Strangite church under Strang's leadership, primarily as a part of Strangite celebration rituals. Though the chapter on "Sacrifices" in Strang's Book of

15189-403: The Reformed Methodist Church and become a Christian seeker, unconvinced that he had found a church possessing the true authority of Jesus Christ . Sometime in 1830, Young was introduced to the Book of Mormon by way of a copy that his brother, Phineas Howe, had obtained from Samuel H. Smith . Young did not immediately accept the divine claims of the Book of Mormon. In 1831, five missionaries of

15372-591: The Salt Lake Temple was under construction. The majority of Young's teachings are contained in the 19 volumes of transcribed and edited sermons in the Journal of Discourses . The LDS Church's Doctrine and Covenants contains one section from Young that has been canonized as scripture, added in 1876. Though polygamy was practiced by Young's predecessor, Joseph Smith, the practice is often associated with Young. Some Latter Day Saint denominations, such as

15555-619: The Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, a date now recognized as Pioneer Day in Utah. Two days after their arrival, Young and the Twelve Apostles climbed the peak just north of the city and raised the American flag, calling it the "Ensign of Liberty". Among Young's first acts upon arriving in the valley were the naming of the city as "The City of the Great Salt Lake" and its organization into blocks of ten acres, each divided into eight equal-sized lots. On August 7, Young suggested that

15738-735: The Salt Lake Valley, Young designated the location for the Salt Lake Temple ; he presided over its groundbreaking years later on April 6, 1853. During his tenure, Young oversaw construction of the Salt Lake Tabernacle and announced plans to build the St. George (1871), Manti (1875), and Logan (1877) temples. He also provisioned the building of the Endowment House , a "temporary temple", which began to be used in 1855 to provide temple ordinances to church members while

15921-580: The Smith family. Another adherent was John C. Bennett , former mayor of Nauvoo and a former member of the First Presidency . Bennett had been in Smith's innermost circle but had broken with the founding prophet and had written an anti-Mormon exposé. Bennett founded a secretive Strangite fraternal society known as the "Order of Illuminati", but his presence disrupted Strang's church and ultimately led to his excommunication . Bennett's "order" fell by

16104-465: The Strangite organization opens two priesthood offices to women: Priest and Teacher. While only the "course" of "Singer" in the office of Priest (as opposed to "Sacrificator") is permitted to females, all five "degrees" in the office of Teacher are available. Women may serve as "leaders" of the Singers. Strang ordained women to these ministries as early as 1851, and allowed them to lecture in his School of

16287-526: The Territory, preaching to Latter-day Saint communities and settlements with the goal of inspiring them to reject sin and turn towards spiritual things. As part of the Reformation, almost all "active" or involved LDS Church members were rebaptized as a symbol of their commitment. At a church meeting on September 21, 1856, Brigham Young stated: "We need a reformation in the midst of this people; we need

16470-476: The United Kingdom. There, he showed a talent for organizing the church's work and maintaining good relationships with Joseph Smith and the other apostles. Under his leadership, members in the United Kingdom began publishing Millennial Star , a hymnal, and a new edition of the Book of Mormon. Young also served in various leadership and community organization roles among church members in Nauvoo. He joined

16653-504: The alphabet was used in two Deseret News articles, two elementary readers, and in a translation of the Book of Mormon . By 1870, it had all but disappeared from use. Young was involved in temple building throughout his membership in the LDS Church, making it a priority during his time as church president. Under Smith's leadership, Young participated in the building of the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples. Just four days after arriving in

16836-491: The ancient Egyptian city of Thebes by Antonio Lebolo between 1818 and 1822. Following Lebolo's death in 1830, the mummies and assorted objects were sent to New York with instructions that they should be sold in order to benefit the heirs of Lebolo. Michael H. Chandler eventually came into possession of the mummies and artifacts and began displaying them, starting in Philadelphia . Over the next two years Chandler toured

17019-455: The ban, which also forbade blacks from participating in Mormon temple rites such as the endowment or sealings . On many occasions, Young taught that blacks were denied the priesthood because they were "the seed of Cain". In 1863, Young stated: "Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain,

17202-576: The best possible mate based upon any factors deemed important to them even if that mate were already married to someone else. Rather than being forced to wed "corrupt and degraded sires" from the scarcity of more suitable men, a woman could wed the one she saw as the most compatible to herself, the best candidate to father her children and the man who could give her the best possible life, no matter how many other wives he might have. Brigham Young Brigham Young ( / ˈ b r ɪ ɡ əm / BRIG -əm ; June 1, 1801 – August 29, 1877)

17385-722: The blessings their brethren enjoy. Any person that mingles his seed with the seed of Canaan forfeits the right to rule and all the blessings of the Priesthood of God; and unless his blood were spilled and that of his offspring he nor they could not be saved until the posterity of Canaan are redeemed. Young adopted the idea of the Curse of Ham —a racist interpretation of Genesis 9 which white proponents of slavery in antebellum America used to justify enslaving black people of African descent —and applied it liberally and literally. On this topic, Young wrote: "They have not wisdom to act like white men." Book of Abraham The Book of Abraham

17568-476: The book was "a translation of some ancient records... purporting to be the writings of Abraham , while he was in Egypt , called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus ". The Book of Abraham is about Abraham's early life, his travels to Canaan and Egypt, and his vision of the cosmos and its creation . The Latter-day Saints believe the work is divinely inspired scripture, published as part of

17751-631: The branch of the church in Columbia. After meeting Joseph Smith , Young joined the Church of Christ in April 9, 1832. He was baptized by Eleazer Miller. Young's siblings and their spouses were baptized that year or the year afterwards. In April 1832, a branch of the church was organized in Mendon; eight of the fifteen families were Youngs. There, Young saw Alpheus Gifford speak in tongues, and in response, Young also spoke in tongues. Young and Kimball spent

17934-572: The church as the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles , Young reorganized a new First Presidency and was sustained as the second president of the church on December 27, 1847, at Winter Quarters. Young named Heber C. Kimball as his first counselor and Willard Richards as his second. Young and his counselors were again sustained unanimously by church members at a church conference in Salt Lake City in September 1850. The Utah Territory

18117-549: The church's highest leadership quorum . Rejected by the main church body in Nauvoo, Illinois , Rigdon and his followers moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , where his organization faltered. A descendant of the Rigdonite church lives on today as The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite) , which is not recognized as legitimate by Strangites. Brigham Young initially argued that Smith could have no immediate successor, but rather that

18300-1018: The church. The Reformation appeared to have ended completely by early 1858. Shortly after the arrival of Young's pioneers, the new Latter-day Saint colonies were incorporated into the United States through the Mexican Cession . Young petitioned the U.S. Congress to create the State of Deseret . The Compromise of 1850 instead carved out Utah Territory, and Young was appointed governor. As governor and church president, Young directed both religious and economic matters. He encouraged independence and self-sufficiency. Many cities and towns in Utah, and some in neighboring states, were founded under Young's direction. Young's leadership style has been viewed as autocratic. When federal officials received reports of widespread and systematic obstruction of federal officials in Utah (most notably judges), U.S. President James Buchanan decided in early 1857 to install

18483-479: The circumstances of his life had worked out differently [he] might have become a captain of industry —an Andrew Carnegie or John D. Rockefeller or a railroad builder. Instead, this able, energetic, earthy man became the absolute ruler and the revered, genuinely loved father figure of all Mormons everywhere. He credited Young's leadership with helping to settle much of the American West: During

18666-691: The commandment: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." While not in the list of commandments, this admonition appears in the Hebrew Bible in Leviticus 19:18, and five times in the New Testament. In his "Note on the Decalogue," Strang asserted that no other version of the Decalogue contains more than nine commandments and speculated that his fourth commandment was lost perhaps as early as Josephus ' time (circa 37–100 AD). Strang's version of

18849-493: The comprehensiveness of the language, one might reasonably expect to see sufficient to develop much on the mighty of the ancient men of God. A visitor to Kirtland saw the mummies, and noted, "They say that the mummies were Epyptian, but the records are those of Abraham and Joseph...and a larger volume than the Bible will be required to contain them." The Book of Abraham text is a source of some distinct Latter Day Saint doctrines, which Mormon author Randal S. Chase calls "truths of

19032-529: The conflagration. After the fire, however, it was believed that all the sources for the book had been lost. Despite this belief, Abel Combs still owned several papyri fragments and two mummies. While the fate of the mummies is unknown, the fragments were passed to Combs' nurse Charlotte Benecke Weaver, who gave them to her daughter, Alice Heusser. In 1918 Heusser approached the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA) about purchasing

19215-403: The controversy between Mackinac and the Mormons . Dale Morgan , a historian of the Latter Day Saint movement, writes: "Strang surveys the geography and history of Mackinac and the surrounding region, particularly the islands of Lake Michigan, and after giving an account of the Mormon settlement upon Big Beaver Island, addresses himself to the bitter controversies between the people of Mackinac and

19398-464: The cosmos is the slowest-rotating body, Kolob , which, according to the text, is the star closest to where God lives. The Book of Abraham is the only work in the Latter Day Saint canon to mention the star Kolob. According to the Book: [Abraham] saw the stars, that they were very great, and that one of them was nearest unto the throne of God;   [...] and the name of the great one is Kolob, because it

19581-515: The course of rereading the first few chapters of Genesis, he dictated as a revelatory translation the much longer Book of Moses . FAIR has claimed the church "favors the missing scroll theory". However, in 2019, the Joseph Smith Papers ' documentary research on the Book of Abraham and Egyptian papyri makes it "clear that Joseph Smith and/or his clerks associated the characters from the [surviving Breathing Permit of Hôr] papyri with

19764-609: The defense of Utah, now called the Utah War, Young held the U.S. Army at bay for a winter by taking their cattle and burning supply wagons. Young eventually reached a settlement with the aid of a peace commission and agreed to step down as governor. Buchanan later pardoned Young. The degree of Young's involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre , which took place in Washington County in 1857,

19947-528: The earthly Christ was in essence " adopted " as God's son at birth, and fully revealed as such during the transfiguration . After proving himself to God by living a perfectly sinless life, he was thus enabled to provide an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of men, prior to his resurrection and ascension . Musing at length on the nature of sin and evil , Strang wrote that of all things that God could give to man, he could never give him experience . Thus, if " free agency " were to be real, humanity must be given

20130-474: The eastern United States, displaying and selling some of the mummies as he traveled. In late June or early July 1835, Chandler exhibited his collection in Kirtland, Ohio . A promotional flyer created by Chandler states that the mummies "may have lived in the days of Jacob, Moses, or David". At the time, Kirtland was the home of the Latter Day Saints, led by Joseph Smith . In 1830 Smith published

20313-654: The eastern states. He then returned to Kirtland where he remained until dissenters, unhappy with the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society , forced him to flee the community in December 1837. He then stayed for a short time in Dublin, Indiana , with his brother Lorenzo before moving to Far West, Missouri , in 1838. He was later joined by his family and by other members of the church in Missouri. He became

20496-409: The establishment of settlements throughout present-day Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, California, and parts of southern Colorado and northern Mexico. Under his direction, the Mormons built roads, bridges, forts, and irrigation projects; established public welfare; organized a militia; issued a "selective extermination" order against male Timpanogos ; and after a series of wars, eventually made peace with

20679-429: The family moved briefly to Oswego, New York , on the shore of Lake Ontario, and in 1828 to Mendon, New York . Young's father, two brothers, and sister had already moved to Mendon. In Mendon, Young first became acquainted with Heber C. Kimball , an early member of the LDS Church. Young worked as a carpenter and joiner, and built and operated a saw mill. By the time Young moved to Mendon in 1828, he had effectively left

20862-411: The four-quarters of the earth, and have received their resurrection from the dead, then it will be time enough to remove the curse from Cain and his posterity." These racial restrictions remained in place until 1978, when the policy was rescinded by church president Spencer W. Kimball , and the church subsequently "disavow[ed] theories advanced in the past" to explain this ban, essentially attributing

21045-432: The fourth degree of consanguinity". This could come through dreams, angelic appearances, or other means listed within Strang's revelation on the subject. While still believed in, baptisms for the dead are not currently performed in the Strangite church due to the lack of a temple and prophetic leadership. Eternal marriage is taught in the Strangite church, but unlike in the LDS Church, it is not required to be performed in

21228-406: The gospel of Jesus Christ that were previously unknown to Church members of Joseph Smith's day." Examples include the nature of the priesthood , an understanding of the cosmos, the exaltation of humanity, a pre-mortal existence , the first and second estates, and the plurality of gods . The Book of Abraham expands upon the nature of the priesthood in the Latter Day Saint movement, and it

21411-484: The gospel of Jesus Christ will receive eternal life, the greatest gift of God, and will have 'glory added upon their heads for ever and ever'." Also notable is the Book of Abraham's description of a plurality of gods, and that "the gods" created the Earth, not ex nihilo , but rather from pre-existing, eternal matter. This shift away from monotheism and towards henotheism occurred c.  1838–39 , when Smith

21594-581: The gospel of Jesus Christ" and that all will be revealed "according to that which was ordained in the midst of the councyl [ sic ] of the eternal God of all other Gods before this world was." Three images ( facsimiles of vignettes on the papyri) and Joseph Smith's explanations of them were printed in the 1842 issues of the Times and Seasons . These three illustrations were prepared by Smith and an engraver named Reuben Hedlock. The facsimiles and their respective explanations were later included with

21777-611: The grand key-words of the holy priesthood. Facsimile No.   3 portrays Abraham in the court of Pharaoh "reasoning upon the principles of Astronomy". The Book of Abraham was canonized in 1880 by the LDS Church, and it remains a part of the larger scriptural work, the Pearl of Great Price. For Latter-day Saints, the book links Old and New Testament covenants into a universal narrative of Christian salvation, expands on premortal existence, depicts ex materia cosmology, and informed Smith's developing understanding of temple theology, making

21960-403: The handwriting of the letter does not graphologically resemble any extant letters written by Smith. Furthermore, wording in the letter was ambiguous; some insist that it only appointed Strang to be president of the new Voree Stake of the church, while Strang and his followers interpreted it as a call to follow Smith as President of the Church . Strang also claimed at the moment of Smith's death, he

22143-629: The heart of Salt Lake City. A bronze marker was placed at the grave site June 10, 1938, by members of the Young Men and Young Women organizations, which he founded. Young engaged in a vast assortment of commercial ventures by himself and in partnership with others. These included a wagon express company, a ferryboat company, a railroad, and the manufacturing of processed lumber, wool, sugar beets, iron, and liquor. Young achieved greatest success in real estate. He also tried to promote Mormon self-sufficiency by establishing collectivist communities, known as

22326-658: The human race, Adam and Eve returned to their heavenly thrones where Adam acts as the god of this world. Later, as Young is generally understood to have taught, Adam returned to the earth to become the biological father of Jesus. The LDS Church has since repudiated the Adam–God doctrine. Young also taught the doctrine of blood atonement , in which the atonement of Jesus cannot redeem an eternal sin , which included apostasy , theft , fornication (but not sodomy ), or adultery . Instead, those who committed such sins could partially atone for their sin by sacrificing their life in

22509-404: The items; at the time, the museum curators were not interested, but in 1947 they changed their mind, and the museum bought the papyri from Heusser's widower husband, Edward. In the 1960s the MMA decided to raise money by selling some of its items which were considered "less unique". Among these were the papyri that Heusser had sold to the museum several decades earlier. In May 1966, Aziz S. Atiya ,

22692-497: The latest in 1920) that when Young spoke to the congregation, he miraculously looked or sounded exactly like Smith, which they attributed to the power of God. Young began acting as the church's president afterwards, though he did not yet have a full presidency. He also led the Anointed Quorum. Young led the church as president of the Quorum of the Twelve until December 5, 1847, when the quorum unanimously agreed to organize

22875-561: The learning institutions that would later become the University of Utah and Brigham Young University . A polygamist , Young had at least 56 wives and 57 children. He formalized the prohibition of black men attaining priesthood , and led the church in the Utah War against the United States . Young was born on June 1, 1801, in Whitingham, Vermont . He was the ninth child of John Young and Abigail "Nabby" Howe. Young's father

23058-450: The loss of his Beaver Island settlement were twin catastrophes for his church. Despondent and spiritually adrift after the Strangite organization failed to provide a successor for Strang, most Strangites eventually chose to join what was then known as the "New Organization" of Latter Day Saints. This group had chosen not to follow Young and would eventually accept the leadership of Joseph Smith III , eldest son of Smith. This "New Organization"

23241-405: The massacre. As governor, Young had promised the federal government he would protect migrants passing through Utah Territory, but over 120 men, women, and children were killed in this incident. There is no debate concerning the involvement of individual Mormons from the surrounding communities by scholars. Only children under the age of seven, who were cared for by local Mormon families, survived, and

23424-535: The members of the camp be re-baptized to signify a re-dedication to their beliefs and covenants. Young spent just over a month in the Valley recovering from mountain fever before returning to Winter Quarters on August 31. Young's expedition was one of the largest and one of the best organized westward treks, and he made various trips back and forth between the Salt Lake Valley and Winter Quarters to assist other companies in their journeys. After three years of leading

23607-574: The monument stood as a memorial to those traveling the Spanish Trail through Mountain Meadow. According to Wilford Woodruff, Young brought an entourage to Mountain Meadows in 1861 and suggested that the monument instead read "Vengeance is mine and I have taken a little". Before his death in Salt Lake City on August 29, 1877, Young suffered from cholera morbus and inflammation of the bowels. It

23790-636: The mummies, along with some papyri, to the St. Louis Museum in 1856. Upon the closing of the St.   Louis Museum, these artifacts were purchased by Joseph H. Wood and found their way to the Chicago Museum in about 1863, and were promptly put on display. The museum and all its contents were burned in 1871 during the Great Chicago Fire . Today it is presumed that the papyri that formed the basis for Facsimiles   2 and   3 were lost in

23973-553: The murdered members of the wagon train were left unburied. The remains of about 40 people were later found and buried, and U.S. Army officer James Henry Carleton had a large cross made from local trees, the transverse beam bearing the engraving, "Vengeance Is Mine, Saith The Lord: I Will Repay" and erected a cairn of rocks at the site. A large slab of granite was put up on which he had the following words engraved: "Here 120 men, women and children were massacred in cold blood early in September, 1857. They were from Arkansas." For two years,

24156-683: The next two years. These individuals later became known as the Runaway Officials of 1851 . Young supported slavery and its expansion into Utah and led the efforts to legalize and regulate slavery in the 1852 Act in Relation to Service , based on his beliefs on slavery . Young said in an 1852 speech, "In as much as we believe in the Bible   ... we must believe in slavery. This colored race have been subjected to severe curses   ... which they have brought upon themselves." Seven years later in 1859, Young stated in an interview with

24339-519: The oldest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when David Patten died after the Battle of Crooked River . When Joseph Smith arrived in Far West, he appointed Young, along with Thomas Marsh and David Patten, as "presidency pro tem" in Missouri. Under Young's direction, the quorum organized the exodus of Latter Day Saints from Missouri to Illinois in 1838. Young also served a year-long mission to

24522-504: The one, true " Kingdom of God " prophesied in scripture and destined to spread over all the earth. The constitution of this kingdom was contained within the Book of the Law of the Lord , which Strang claimed to have translated from the Plates of Laban mentioned in the Book of Mormon. Originally published in 1851, this new book of Strangite scripture would be republished in a greatly expanded edition in 1856, just after Strang's murder. The book

24705-404: The opportunity to fail and to learn from its own mistakes. The ultimate goal for each human being, according to Strangites, is to willingly conform oneself to the revealed character of God in every way, preferring good to evil not out of any fear of punishment or desire for reward, but rather "on account of the innate loveliness of undefiled goodness; of pure unalloyed holiness." Strangites observe

24888-507: The origins of the ban solely to Young. During 1856 and 1857, a period of renewed emphasis on spirituality within the church known as the Mormon Reformation took place under Young's direction. The Mormon Reformation called for a spiritual reawakening among members of the church and took place largely in the Utah Territory . Jedediah M. Grant , one of the key figures of the Reformation and one of Young's counselors, traveled throughout

25071-412: The outskirts of Nauvoo to move to Nauvoo. Young negotiated with Stephen A. Douglas and agreed to lead church members out of Nauvoo in the spring in exchange for peace. Some Mormons counterfeited American and Mexican money, and a grand jury indicted Young and other church leaders in 1845. When officers arrived at the Nauvoo temple to arrest Young, he sent William Miller out in Young's hat and cloak. Miller

25254-443: The papyrus collection is missing, there is broad agreement that the recovered papyri are portions of Smith's original purchase, partly based on the fact that they were pasted onto paper which had "drawings of a temple and maps of the Kirtland, Ohio area" on the back, as well as the fact that they were accompanied by an affidavit by Emma Smith stating that they had been in the possession of Joseph Smith. Since its publication in 1842,

25437-414: The penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so." Young was also a vocal opponent of theories of human polygenesis , being a firm voice for stating that all humans were the product of one creation. Throughout his time as prophet, Young went to great lengths to deny the assumption that he was the author of the practice of priesthood denial to black men, asserting instead that

25620-423: The plan of salvation offered by God the Father of their own accord) take on a mortal form, they enter into what is called the "second estate". The doctrine of the second estate is explicitly named only in this book. The purpose of earthly life, therefore, is for humans to prepare for a meeting with God; the Church, citing Abraham 3:26 , notes: "All who accept and obey the saving principles and ordinances of

25803-484: The possession of his mother, Lucy Mack Smith , and she and her son William Smith continued to exhibit the four mummies and associated papyri to visitors. Two weeks after Lucy's death in May 1856, Smith's widow, Emma Hale Smith Bidamon, her second husband Lewis C. Bidamon , and her son Joseph Smith III , sold "four Egyptian mummies with the records with them" to Abel Combs on May   26, 1856. Combs later sold two of

25986-528: The potential exaltation of humanity, a pre-mortal existence , the first and second estates, and the plurality of gods . The Book of Abraham papyri were thought to have been lost in the 1871 Great Chicago Fire . However, in 1966 several fragments of the papyri were found in the archives of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and in the LDS Church archives. They are now referred to as

26169-426: The priesthood. Even though nothing in the Book of Abraham explicitly connects the line of Pharaoh and Ham to black Africans, this passage was used as a scriptural basis for withholding the priesthood from black individuals. An 1868 Juvenile Instructor article points to the Pearl of Great Price as the "source of racial attitudes in church doctrine", and in 1900, First Presidency member George Q. Cannon began using

26352-421: The prospective polygamist was given the right to express her opinion, and even to object, but not to veto the marriage. This passage seems to offer any aggrieved wife an appeal to the "Judges," but how this was to be carried out is not made clear. Strang's defense of polygamy was rather woman-centered. He claimed that far from enslaving or demeaning women, it liberated and "elevated" them by allowing them to choose

26535-557: The recent decoding of Ancient Egyptian writing systems with the Rosetta Stone was not widely known in the Americas. Between July and November 1835 Smith began "translating an alphabet to the Book of Abraham, and arranging a grammar of the Egyptian language as practiced by the ancients." In so doing, Smith worked closely with Cowdery and Phelps. The result of this effort was a collection of documents and manuscripts now known as

26718-529: The scripture "critical to understanding the totality of his gospel conception". Church leadership traditionally described the Book of Abraham straightforwardly as "translated by the Prophet [Joseph Smith] from a papyrus record taken from the catacombs of Egypt", and "Some have assumed that hieroglyphs adjacent to and surrounding facsimile 1 must be a source for the text of the book of Abraham". However, modern Egyptological translations of papyrus fragments reveal

26901-593: The second. One group has a website based in Independence, Missouri , and the second has a website based in Shreveport, Louisiana . Both conduct missionary work on the Internet. The Strangites "believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; [and] also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God," just as do most other Latter Day Saint denominations. They consider editions of

27084-407: The services of Apostle William Smith as "Chief Patriarch" of his church, he makes no mention of this office anywhere in his book. No Apostles (of any degree) exist within the Strangite organization today, as all must be appointed by a Strangite prophet, and the prophet himself must be appointed by God through the direct ministry of angels. The "incorporated" group of Strangites has high priests, but

27267-511: The short term. These included the church's Presiding Patriarch and apostle William Smith (Smith's only surviving brother); Book of Mormon witness Martin Harris (who left and later rejoined the LDS Church in Utah); Nauvoo Stake President William Marks ; second Bishop of the Church and church trustee-in-trust George Miller ; apostle John E. Page ; former apostle William E. McLellin ; Smith's mother Lucy Mack Smith ; and other members of

27450-600: The singular subdivisions Strang makes within the Melchizedek priesthood , which his Book of the Law refers to as "The Priesthood of an endless life," and the Aaronic priesthood , referred to as "the Priesthood of life." In the Melchizedek priesthood, Strang enumerates two "orders," that of "Apostles," and that of "Priests." Apostles are subdivided into four "degrees": Priests are subdivided into two "degrees": In

27633-425: The snare and the pit, and shalt return his ox when he strayeth: thou shalt comfort him when he mourns, and nurture him when he sickens: thou shalt not abate the price of what thou buyest of him, for his necessity; nor shalt thou exact of him, because he leaneth upon thee: for in so doing thousands shall rise up and call thee blessed, and the Lord thy God shall strengthen thee in all the work of thy hand. As noted above,

27816-581: The sons of Joseph Smith in Plano, Ill., 1867." Strangites do not have any official stance on the Book of Abraham . Strang's Book of the Law of the Lord is accepted as scripture in its expanded 1856 form; it is believed to be the same "Book of the Law of the Lord" mentioned in the Bible, and Strang claimed to have translated it from the Plates of Laban mentioned in the Book of Mormon. The Strangites also hold as scripture several prophecies, visions, revelations, and translations printed by Strang, and published in

27999-423: The spiritual "king" of his church. The date of his coronation , July 8, is still mandated as one of the two most important days in the Strangite church calendar (the other is April 6, the anniversary of the founding of Smith's church). Contrary to popular belief, Strang never claimed to be king over Beaver Island, or any other geographical entity. Rather, he asserted that he was king over his church, which he saw as

28182-501: The story of Pharaoh as a scriptural basis for the ban. In 1912, the First Presidency responded to an inquiry about the priesthood ban by using the story of Pharaoh. By the early 1900s, it became the foundation of church policy in regards to the priesthood ban. The 2002 Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual points to Abraham 1:21–27 as the reasoning behind not giving black people the priesthood until 1978 . Chapter 3 of

28365-419: The succession crisis that ensued. Church members gathered at a meeting on August 8, 1844 with the intent to choose between two claimants, Young and Sidney Rigdon , the senior surviving member of the church's First Presidency . At the meeting, Rigdon argued no one could succeed Smith and that he (Rigdon) should become Smith's "spokesman" and guardian of the church. Young argued that the church needed more than

28548-489: The summer following their baptism conducting missionary work in western New York, while Vilate Kimball cared for Young's family. After Miriam died of consumption, Vilate continued to care for Brigham's children while he, Heber, and Joseph Young traveled to visit Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Ohio. During the visit, Brigham spoke in a tongue that Smith identified as the " Adamic language ". After visiting Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Brigham set out to preach with his brother Joseph in

28731-430: The surviving Egyptian text matches the Breathing Permit of Hôr, an Egyptian funerary text, and does not mention Abraham. The church acknowledges this, and its members have adopted a range of interpretations of the Book of Abraham to accommodate the seeming disconnect between the surviving papyrus and Smith's Book of Abraham revelation. The two most common interpretations are sometimes called the "missing scroll theory" and

28914-449: The symbol was provided. Smith's subsequent translation of the papyri takes on the form of five "degrees" of interpretation, each degree representing a deeper and more complex level of interpretation. In translating the book, Smith dictated, and Phelps, Warren Parrish , and Frederick G. Williams acted as scribes. The complete work was first published serially in the Latter Day Saint movement newspaper Times and Seasons in 1842, and

29097-406: The text of the Book of Abraham as purportedly translated by Joseph Smith. Indeed, the transliterated text from the recovered papyri and facsimiles published in the Book of Abraham contain no direct references, either historical or textual, to Abraham, and Abraham's name does not appear anywhere in the papyri or the facsimiles. Edward Ashment notes, "The sign that Smith identified with Abraham [...]

29280-415: The text of the Pearl of Great Price in a re-engraved format. According to Smith's explanations, Facsimile No.   1 portrays Abraham fastened to an altar, with the idolatrous priest of Elkenah attempting to sacrifice him. Facsimile No.   2 contains representations of celestial objects, including the heavens and earth, fifteen other planets or stars, the sun and moon, the number 1,000 and God revealing

29463-482: The translation of some of the characters or hieroglyphics, and much to our joy found that one of the [scrolls] contained the writings of Abraham, another the writings of Joseph of Egypt, etc. – a more full account of which will appear in its place, as I proceed to examine or unfold them. Smith, Joseph Coe , and Simeon Andrews soon purchased the four mummies and at least five papyrus documents for $ 2,400 (equivalent to $ 71,000 in 2023). During Smith's lifetime,

29646-492: The wayside and no longer exists among the Strangites. All of these persons—with the exception of Miller, who would remain loyal to Strang until death—left the Strangite church by 1850. Many of these defections were due to Strang's seemingly abrupt "about-face" on the turbulent subject of polygamy . Vehemently opposed to the practice at first, Strang reversed course in 1849 to become one of plural marriage 's strongest advocates. Since many of his early disciples had looked to him as

29829-456: The winter of 1832–1833. Joseph had been a Reformed Methodist preacher and the two made a similar "preaching circuit" in eastern Canada. They described the Book of Mormon as the "stick of Joseph", mentioned in Ezekiel 37. Young continued to preach in eastern Canada in the spring and accompanied two Canadian converts to Kirtland in July 1833. Young and his two daughters moved to Kirtland along with

30012-429: The writing in the book was written not by Smith but rather by a scribe taking down what Smith said. The "Egyptian Alphabet" manuscript is particularly important because it illustrates how Smith attempted to translate the papyri. First, the characters on the papyri were transcribed onto the left-hand side of the book. Next, a postulation as to what the symbols sounded like was devised. Finally, an English interpretation of

30195-506: The young may go there to rest and to play." Although Strang's kingdom has disappeared, his followers still endeavor to practice basic conservation measures. Plural marriage is sanctioned but not expressly commanded, in the Book of the Law. The applicable text reads: "Thou shalt not take unto thee a multitude of wives disproportioned to thy inheritance, and thy substance: nor shalt thou take wives to vex those thou hast; neither shalt thou put away one to take another." Any wife already married to

30378-572: Was a farmer, and when Young was three years old his family moved to upstate New York, settling in Chenango County . Young received little formal education, but his mother taught him how to read and write. At age twelve, he moved with his parents to the township of Genoa , close to Cayuga Lake . His mother died of tuberculosis in June 1815. Following her death, he moved with his father to Tyrone, New York . While there, Young's father remarried to

30561-551: Was a relatively recent convert at the time of Smith's death, James Strang posed a formidable—and initially quite successful—challenge to the claims of Young and Rigdon. Strang was a Mormon elder charged with establishing a stake or "place of refuge" in Wisconsin , should the Mormons be forced to abandon their headquarters in Nauvoo . He possessed a document that came to be known as the " letter of appointment ", alleged to have been written by Smith prior to his death. Critics assert

30744-440: Was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until his death in 1877. During his time as church president, Young led his followers, the Mormon pioneers , west from Nauvoo, Illinois , to the Salt Lake Valley . He founded Salt Lake City and served as the first governor of the Utah Territory . Young also worked to establish

30927-489: Was arrested but released when it was discovered he was not Brigham Young. Young himself condemned the counterfeiting. John Turner's biography states: "it remains unclear whether Young [...] had sanctioned the bogus-making operation". The indictment of Young and other leaders, combined with rumors that troops would prevent the Mormons from leaving, led Young to start their exodus in February 1846. Repeated conflict in Nauvoo led Young to relocate his group of Latter-day Saints to

31110-815: Was bolstered by his discovery of the Voree plates , purporting to contain the last testament of an ancient Native American , one "Rajah Manchou of Vorito". These plates were found in the Hill of Promise , which would become the temple site in the new Strangite town of Voree. This event was reminiscent of Smith's translations of the golden plates (the Book of Mormon ) and the Book of Abraham , and may have encouraged some Latter Day Saints to accept Strang over any of his competitors, who had not produced any such "records". Many prominent Latter Day Saints believed in Strang's "letter of appointment" and accepted him as Mormonism's second " Prophet, Seer, Revelator and Translator "—at least in

31293-421: Was composed in the first person . The Book of Abraham was incomplete when Joseph Smith died in 1844. It is unknown how long the text would be, but Oliver Cowdery gave an indication in 1835 that it could be quite large: When the translation of these valuable documents will be completed, I am unable to say; neither can I gave you a probable idea how large volumes they will make; but judging from their size, and

31476-675: Was created at John C. Bennett 's request, after his excommunication and in conjunction with his distribution of false information combined with true information about the church's practice of polygamy. Brigham Young and William Smith discredited Brotherton's character, and Brotherton herself did not associate with the church afterwards. Young campaigned against Bennett's allegations that Joseph Smith practiced "spiritual wifery"; Young knew of Smith's hidden practice of polygamy. He also helped to convince Hyrum to accept polygamy. Young married Lucy Ann Decker in June 1842, making her his first plural wife. Young knew her father, Isaac Decker, in New York. Lucy

31659-452: Was created by Congress as part of the Compromise of 1850, and as colonizer and founder of Salt Lake City , Young was appointed the territory's first governor and superintendent of American Indian affairs by President Millard Fillmore on February 3, 1851. He was sworn in by Justice Daniel H. Wells for a salary of $ 1,500 a year and named as superintendent of Indian Affairs for an additional $ 1,000. During his time as governor, Young directed

31842-482: Was first called the Retrenchment Association and was intended to promote the turning of young girls away from the costly and extravagant ways of the world. It later became known as the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association and was a charter member of the National Council of Women and International Council of Women. Young also organized a committee to refine the Deseret alphabet —a phonetic alphabet that had been developed sometime between 1847 and 1854. At its prime,

32025-586: Was imprisoned in the Liberty Jail in Clay County, Missouri (this was after the majority of the Book of Abraham had been supposedly translated, but prior to its publication). Smith noted that there would be "a time come in the [ sic ] which nothing shall be with held [ sic ] whither [ sic ] there be one god or many gods they [ sic ] shall be manifest all thrones and dominions, principalities and powers shall be revealed and set forth upon all who have indured [ sic ] valiently [ sic ] for

32208-503: Was later canonized in 1880 by the LDS Church as part of its Pearl of Great Price . Eyewitness accounts of how the Papyri were translated are few and vague. Warren Parish, who was Joseph Smith's scribe at the time of the translation, wrote in 1838 after he had left the church: "I have set by his side and penned down the translation of the Egyptian Hieroglyphicks [sic] as he claimed to receive it by direct inspiration from Heaven." Wilford Woodruff and Parley P. Pratt intimated second hand that

32391-441: Was later incorporated as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , becoming the second-largest body in the Latter Day Saint movement. A few congregations of Strangites, however, remained loyal to their prophet's memory. Wingfield W. Watson , a high priest who had known and served under Strang, kept the Strangite church alive into the 20th century. Strang's disciples today are divided into two main factions; one

32574-403: Was published in an early periodical as a text 'purporting to be the writings of Abraham' with no indication of its translation process (see Times and Seasons, March 1, 1842), and therefore have no authorized position on it." The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints holds to the canonicity of the Book of Abraham. After Joseph Smith's death, the Egyptian artifacts were in

32757-434: Was ready to relieve himself from the burden of "secular affairs". At the time of his death, Young was the wealthiest man in Utah, with an estimated personal fortune of $ 600,000 (equivalent to $ 17,200,000 in 2023). Young had many nicknames during his lifetime, among the most popular being "American Moses " (alternatively, "Modern Moses" or "Mormon Moses"), because, like the biblical figure, Young led his followers,

32940-880: Was still married to William Seeley when Young married her. Young supported her and her two children while they lived in their own home in Nauvoo. Lucy and Young had seven children together. Young was one of the first men in Nauvoo to practice polygamy, and he married more women than any other polygamist while in Nauvoo. While in Nauvoo, he married Clarissa Decker, Clarissa Ross, Emily Dow Partidge, Louisa Beaman, Margaret Maria Alley, Emmeline Free, Margaret Piece, and Zina Diantha Huntington. These wives bore him children after they moved to Utah. He also married in Nauvoo, but did not have children with Augusta Adams Cobb, Susannah Snively, Eliza Bowker, Ellen A. Rockwood, and Namah K. J. Carter. Eight of Young's plural marriages in Nauvoo were to Joseph Smith's widows. Young traveled east with Wilford Woodruff and George A. Smith from July to October 1843 on

33123-412: Was the belief that the church had within itself all that was necessary to save mankind materially, spiritually, and intellectually. On October 16, 1875, Young deeded buildings and land in Provo, Utah , to a board of trustees for establishing an institution of learning, ostensibly as part of the University of Deseret. Young said, "I hope to see an Academy established in Provo ... at which the children of

33306-448: Was then called Bucksville. Young reported having a strict Puritan -style Christian upbringing. He used tobacco but did not drink alcohol. He refused to sign a temperance pledge, however, stating that "if I sign the temperance pledge I feel that I am bound, and I wish to do just right, without being bound to do it; I want my liberty." Young married Miriam Angeline Works, whom he had met in Port Byron in October 1824. They first resided in

33489-457: Was visited by angels who ordained him to be Smith's successor, though he claimed no other witnesses to the event. Strang's assertion appealed to many Latter Day Saints who were attracted to Mormonism's doctrine of continuing revelation through a living prophet . In the face of protracted Mormon anguish at Smith's death, Strang insisted that there still was , indeed, a Mormon seer who communed with God and conversed with angels. Strang's claim

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