Who are Mormons? Origins and beliefs of this religion

Those popularly known as Mormons, officially called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are a variant of Christianity whose members consider their set of beliefs and rituals an update of the "original" idea of ​​Christianity.

The essential particularity of Mormons is the staging of their appearance. Contrary to the mythology and mystique surrounding the renowned prophets of the three great religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) its founder and also considered a Mormon Prophet, was an ordinary person who lived during the modern age: Joseph Smith Jr.

It happens that in every new branch of a monotheistic religion, controversy appears and spreads from time to time. In the case of the emergence of Mormons, their emergence from someone of flesh and blood was at the time a great cause of controversy.

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Who are Mormons? Origins of the movement

One of the curiosities of the Mormons is their recent creation and in a relatively recent environment. Shortly after the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, a humble boy of farm parents settled in the town of Palmyra, New York began to have revelations when he was still a teenager, at the age of 14 years.

According to his direct testimony, Joseph Smith Jr. had witnessed how Jesus of Nazareth himself had approached him to grant him the privileged title of "prophet on Earth" to spread the last message of God and the restoration of the "Primitive Church of Jesus Christ" with a new prism, detaching itself from the Christian postulates and the official Catholic Church. It just so happens that all this takes place in a time of national construction and of the identity of the United States.

This doctrine raises its origin in "The First Vision" that Joseph Smith had in the year 1820. A few years later, while Joseph Smith Jr. was praying, he had another apparition of the angel Moroni (son of the prophet Moron), which would give him the popular name that we know today. It is at that moment where theologians fix the most controversial controversy.

The testimony left by the Mormon prophet is that the angel gave him specific geographical indications to collect some plates of pure gold in which the true commandments of Jesus Christ were engraved. Smith did not hesitate to obey in the search for evidence. After several unsuccessful attempts at digging land, he finally got hold of those plates and was impressed by the event he had just witnessed.

The Mormon Text Controversy

Taking into account other aspects of Mormonism that we will comment on later, the essential basis of the controversy between this religion and the rest of the variants of Christianity reside in that discovery of the works buried in a field on the outskirts of New York. Without evidence or testimony beyond Smith himself (as is the case with other religions), Mormons defend the idea that the Plates were, as the angel Moroni had revealed, next to some “seer” stones that would help translate the manuscripts.

Then the mother of all suspicions arises: These texts were intelligible, the language was unknown and, according to Joseph himself, it was a mixture of Greek with Hebrew. However, the solution was found in a kind of mask with glasses that allowed him to translate the found writings into English. This is how it led to the publication of the Book of Mormon in the year 1830. However, further hampering the Mormon prophet's credibility, historians claim that he barely knew how to read and write. How then could he transcribe the original texts?

To the further frustration of advocates of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Smith was unable to finish translating the entire content of the Book because the angel who had designated him heir to his message, took all the elements that he had exhumed along with all the accessories complementary. Equally, Joseph was given time to flesh out the 15-volume work with relevant chapters and verses, with the same structure as any other religious book, but with a greater number of volumes.

Main differences with other branches of Christianity

Mormons they have some very deep differentiating characteristics with the rest of the Christians, especially when it comes to marriage. At its core, Mormons allowed polygamy, as did Islam, but with a larger number of spouses. Joseph Smith himself consummated a total of 40 marriages and had about fifty parents.

Unsurprisingly, he was the subject of endless suspicions about the true purposes of the Mormon prophet, whose detractors accused of Trickster and manipulator with women with the sole objective of having sexual relations through the new prophecy that he divulged. In fact, historians suppose, Mormons had to rethink that jarring element, and today only monogamy is allowed.

Similarly, the primitive Gospel Movement currently has the characteristic of accepting and adopting homosexual and transgender members, and they have even offered I explicitly support laws to protect the LGBT community in the United States, especially through Mitt Romney, who was the first Mormon candidate for president of the country in the year 2012.

Persecution, expansion and current influence of this religion

Mormons were victims of persecution from the beginning of their founding. Joseph Smith was charged with the crimes of public disorder, sectarianism and sedition. In fact, the prophet and his followers had to found their own city to avoid being persecuted.

So that, the persecution resulted in the birth of Nauvoo (La Hermosa, in Hebrew) in the year 1839, current state of Illinois, USA. There he wanted to settle and establish his headquarters after the Mormon War in Missouri, from where they were exiled.

After countless escapes, accusations, lynchings and a long history of both political and religious accusations, Joseph Smith was assassinated in 1844 by a group of anti-Mormons in the jail where he was being held. in the city of Carthage, Illinois. With some internal tensions and divisions, the Mormons soon appointed their new prophet, a disciple of Smith, Brigham Young, nicknamed "the American Moses," as he helped spread the creed throughout the world. country.

Today, this branch of Christianity continues to grow gradually throughout the Globe. It has about 10 million parishioners, and according to some studies and reports, a growth of 120% is calculated for the year 2080. Its headquarters are located in Salt Lake City, in the State of Utah, whose founder was Smith's successor.

Bibliographic references:

• Marquardt, H.M. and Walters, W.P. (1994). Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books.
• Russell, William D. (Winter 2005). An RLDS Schismatic Group Finds a Prophet of Joseph's Seed. Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 38(3).
• Shields, S.L. (2012). Proposing an Academic Name for the Movement. Restoration Studies. 13: pp. 47 - 60.