Beginning the Investigation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Joseph Smith Jr.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has its beginnings in New York State in the year of 1827. The man Joseph Smith Jr. had made the claim to have gone to the woods nearby his home and prayed for the Divine guidance of God in his quest for Religious truth. This was reported by Joseph Smith Jr. to have occurred when he was fourteen years old in Palmyra, New York. He further stated that in the year 1823 he had another Celestial experience in the form of an angelic visit. He spoke of an angel Moroni that told him of some Golden Plates that contained ancient writings bearing the historical and religious records of people on the American continents who had fled Jerusalem and religious corruption of the true faith. Joseph Smith Jr. claimed to have located the plates in 1827 and began to translate them from a their ancient language to English by the use of the Urim and Thummum. In 1830, Joseph Smith Jr. published his first English translation of the text under the name of: "The Book of Mormon". The Book of Mormon is still read and used today as Scripture in the LDS Church based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

This is by no means a comprehensive history of the events that took place at the time. It is meant to give the person with no knowledge base of the LDS church a basic overview of this Religion. It is important that the reason for this beginning be understood in the way it is by the Latter-Day Saints themselves. Joseph Smith Jr. said that he was confused as a boy as to which Church he should join. He said that God the Father and Jesus Christ met him face to face in the woods and instructed him not to join any of them. Some of the documented accounts of this vision say that all of the churches were corrupt and their Creeds abominable in the sight of God. Joseph Smith Jr. was to be the object of the Restoration of the true church that Jesus had started with His Apostles in the First Century A.D. A Restoration of a church that sometime between the First Century and the Nineteenth Century had become Apostate and fallen from the truth and lost all of its Authority to operate in the Name of Jesus Christ.

This page is an investigation of the LDS church but, more specifically the first Prophet, Seer and Revelator of the church Joseph Smith Jr. Every person should be convinced in his own mind about matters of God, Faith and Truth. God has revealed Himself to mankind for Thousands of years through Prophets who faithfully proclaimed and recorded His message to us starting with His first Prophet Moses. It can become confusing to a person as to who is a Prophet and who isn't. God marked the Prophet Moses as authentic through the signs and wonders He did through Moses in the leading of the Hebrew people out of Egypt as recorded in the book of Exodus. He later brought God's Legislation to the people from Mt. Sinai as recorded in Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. These books became known as the Torah or "the Law". All of the subsequent Prophecy and Scripture that came after these Books of the Law were measured by these books to judge them as authentically from God or from the result of False Prophecy. All Prophets since then were and are to be judged against the Torah in their content. This also includes Jesus of Nazareth who proved to be the Prophet promised to save Israel and be a Light to the Gentiles; Also referred to as the Messiah or Christ. Joseph Smith Jr. must be measured not only in his message but also in his claim in its totality. He must stand the same test that all the other Writers of Scripture have had to stand. To the end that all may be convinced in his own mind.

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