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Mormon-book

The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2200 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi.

  • To read the Book of Mormon please visit this link.


Overview[]

The Book of Mormon is the earliest of the unique writings of the Latter Day Saint movement, the denominations of which typically regard the text primarily as scripture, and secondarily as a historical record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas. Some archaeological, historical, and scientific communities do not accept the Book of Mormon as an ancient record of actual historical events.

According to Smith's account and the book's narrative, the Book of Mormon was originally written in otherwise unknown characters referred to as "reformed Egyptian"[6] engraved on golden plates. Smith said that the last prophet to contribute to the book, a man named Moroni, buried it in the Hill Cumorah in present-day Manchester, New York, before his death, and then appeared in a vision to Smith in 1827 as an angel,[7] revealing the location of the plates, and instructing him to translate the plates into English for use in the restoration of Christ's true church in the latter days. Critics say that it was authored by Smith, drawing on material and ideas from his contemporary 19th-century environment rather than translating an ancient record.[8][9][10]

The Book of Mormon has a number of original and distinctive doctrinal discussions on subjects such as the fall of Adam and Eve,[11] the nature of the Christian atonement,[12] eschatology, redemption from physical and spiritual death,[13] and the organization of the latter-day church. The pivotal event of the book is an appearance of Jesus Christ in the Americas shortly after his resurrection.

The Book of Mormon is divided into smaller books, titled after the individuals named as primary authors and, in most versions, divided into chapters and verses. It is written in English very similar to the Early Modern English linguistic style of the King James Version of the Bible, and has since been fully or partially translated into 112 languages.[14] As of 2011, more than 150 million copies of the Book of Mormon had been printed.[15]

Historicity Dispute[]

Some archaeological, historical, and scientific communities do not accept the Book of Mormon as an ancient record of actual historical events. Many of the online social media platforms for these groups are very biased and do not accept arguments and evidences that do establish the authenticity of this record. Those will be presented here.

Christian Churches Embracing the Book of Mormon[]

The list of denominations in the Latter Day Saint movement includes:

  • The original church within this movement, founded in April 1830 in New York by Joseph Smith, was the Church of Christ, which was later named the Church of the Latter Day Saints. It was renamed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1838 (stylized as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United Kingdom),[1] which remained its official name until Smith's death in 1844. This organization subsequently splintered into several different denominations, each of which claims to be the legitimate continuation of this original church, and most of which dispute the right of other denominations within the movement to claim this distinction.
  • The largest denomination within the contemporary movement goes by the legal name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) (see the history of the name of the church here). With over 16.5 million members as of 2019, it is the largest of the various denominations claiming to be the heir of the original church.[2] It is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and uses the term members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or Latter-day Saints to describe its members (note the hyphenation and variation in capitalization usage). The church publicly emphasized its proper name with an official statement[3] on August 16, 2018 and a formal talk[4] to its members on October 7, 2018.
  • The second-largest denomination is the Community of Christ (first named the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church) from 1872 to 2001), a Missouri-based, 250,000-member denomination. Though members of this church have traditionally been called Latter Day Saints (without the hyphen), the Community of Christ has more recently stated that it rejects the use of the term Saints as a designation for its members in any official reference or publication.[5]
  • Other denominations within the movement either formed around various would-be successors to Smith, or else broke from denominations that did.

Though a few small factions broke with Smith's organization during his lifetime, he retained the allegiance of the vast majority of Latter Day Saints until his death in June 1844. Following Smith's death, the movement experienced a leadership crisis which led to a schism within the church. The largest group, which would become the LDS Church, followed Brigham Young, settling in what would become the Utah Territory. The second-largest faction, the RLDS Church, coalesced around Joseph Smith III, eldest son of Joseph Smith. Other would-be leaders included the senior surviving member of the First Presidency, Sidney Rigdon; the newly baptized James Strang from Wisconsin; and Alpheus Cutler, one of the Council of Fifty. Each of these men still retains a following as of 2014—however tiny it may be in some cases—and all of their organizations have experienced further schisms.[6][7][8] Other claimants, such as Granville Hedrick, William Bickerton and Charles B. Thompson, later emerged to start still other factions, some of which have further subdivided. 12 denominations are listed in the following table.

Estimation of membership in the Latter Day Saint movement by denomination
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) 16,565,036[9] 98.0110%
Community of Christ (RLDS) 250,301 1.5038%
The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite) 23,200 0.1394%
Church of Jesus Christ with the Elijah Message 12,500 0.0751%
Apostolic United Brethren 10,000 0.0601%
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) 10,000 0.0601%
Restoration Branches 10,000 0.0601%
Church of Christ (Hedrickites) 7,310 0.0439%
Fellowships of the remnants 5,000 0.0300%
Church of Christ (Fettingite) 2,450 0.0147%
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite) 300 0.0018%
Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite) 12 0.0001%


Articles[]

References[]

  1. See, for example, A collection of sacred hymns for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Europe.
  2. [1].
  3. official statement
  4. formal talk
  5. Herald House Style Guide, an official publication of the Community of Christ. See under entry "Saints".
  6. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named shilds
  7. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Cadman
  8. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Fletcher
  9. [2]
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