The Forming of the Church - Decoded (part 1)
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2025 3:10 pm
As most here know, there is some controversy over the date the LDS Church was first formed.Mosiah 25 1 And now king Mosiah caused that all the people should be gathered together.
New York’s 1813 Religious Corporations Act required six adult male members to organize a church legally.
The April 6 1830 meeting fits that criterion — suggesting it was likely a legal organization date, not necessarily the spiritual or theological founding.
Proposal: On 6 April 1828, Rigdon assembles everyone who is part of the project together in Kirtland (Zarahemla) for the first “General Conference” and “Foundation of the Church.”
Mulek and his people had already been absorbed into the churches at Zarahemla - these were splintered groups who followed Rigdon after his break with Campbell.Mosiah 25:2 Now there were not so many of the children of Nephi, or so many of those who were descendants of Nephi, as there were of the people of Zarahemla, who was a descendant of Mulek, and those who came with him into the wilderness.
Mulek means “king” in Hebrew. Mulek (according to the book, Mulek was from the tribe of Judah, descendant of Zedekiah and rightful heir of kingship) and his people had previously decided to join with and accept Mosiah (of the tribe of Manasseh) as their king.
This is a strange thing, as the scepter was to never pass from Judah. I believe the name “Mosiah” was chosen as a paronomastic device to reflect Rigdon fulfilling a “Messiah” typological role as savior-deliverer.
I see this as Rigdon’s intention to become “king” over a new group of believers, only to be usurped by Joseph.
From this came the “king-men,” referenced later in the Book of Mormon, which ultimately collapses later in the book.
I’ve explored the possibility of “Mulek” reflecting Mordecai M Noah, who had been seeking a homeland for Jewish people in America around that timeframe, but abandoned by 1826. Mordecai M Noah published articles in South Carolina under the pen name “Mulek.”
At any rate, by the late 1820s, the Restoration movement begun by Thomas and Alexander Campbell had spread rapidly through the Western Reserve (northeast Ohio) and western Pennsylvania.
Many Baptist congregations had split, forming independent “Churches of Christ” (also called “Reformers” or “Disciples”) that followed Campbell’s Christian Baptist periodical and his 1823-1829 preaching tours.
Rigdon had been one of the most gifted early preachers in that world. After his 1824 break from the Pittsburgh Baptists, he joined the Campbellites but gradually moved toward a more communitarian and millenarian theology, in contrast with Campbell’s rational, Bible-only emphasis.
By 1828, Rigdon had moved to Mentor, Ohio, where he took charge of a congregation that had split from a local Baptist church. From there, he traveled throughout the Western Reserve (particularly Portage, Trumbull, and Geauga Counties), preaching Restorationism and organizing branches.
Some, but not all, of the people within Rigdon’s congregations were believers that “a book was about to come forth,” promised by Rigdon. These are the “people of Zarahemla.” The “unbelievers” in the book are also present - the “Lamanites.”Mosiah 25 3 And there were not so many of the people of Nephi and of the people of Zarahemla as there were of the Lamanites; yea, they were not half so numerous.
4 And now all the people of Nephi were assembled together, and also all the people of Zarahemla, and they were gathered together in two bodies.
And the editorial note (attributed to Alexander Campbell) adds:Adamson Bentley letter to Walter Scott (Jan. 22, 1841; published in Millennial Harbinger, 1844)
From a document entitled Defense of the Faith and the Saints (vol. 2) quoting Bentley’s letter:
“I know that Sidney Rigdon told me that there was a book coming out, the manuscript of which had been found engraved on gold plates, as much as two years before the Mormon book made its appearance or had been heard of by me.”
Some of Joseph’s compatriots were present as well - the “Nephites.” It isn’t clear whether Joseph himself was there, but at least Martin Harris was, as we will see later. The historical record has Joseph in Harmony by this time, but he could have traveled to Kirtland to attend this “conference.”“The conversation alluded to in Brother Bentley’s letter of 1841 was in my presence as well as his, and my recollection of it led me, some two or three years ago, to interrogate Brother Bentley touching his recollection of it, which accorded with mine in every particular, except the year in which it occurred, he placing it in the summer of 1827, I in the summer of 1826 … Rigdon at the same time observing that in the plates dug up in New York there was an account, not only of the aborigines of this country, but also it was stated that the Christian religion had been preached in this country during the first century, just as we were preaching it in the Western Reserve.”