Mormonism claims to be a much-needed restoration after a great apostasy of Christ’s true Church. However, the idea of a restoration was already being pursued. Could Joseph have borrowed that idea as well?
The Restoration Movement developed from several independent strands of religious revival that idealized early Christianity. Two groups which independently developed similar approaches to the Christian faith were particularly important.[3] The first, led by Barton W. Stone, began at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, and identified as "Christians". The second began in western Pennsylvania and Virginia (now West Virginia) and was led by Thomas Campbell and his son, Alexander Campbell, both educated in Scotland; they eventually used the name "Disciples of Christ". Both groups sought to restore the Christian church based on visible patterns outlined in the New Testament, and both believed that creeds kept Christianity divided. In 1832, they joined in fellowship with a handshake.
Among other things, they were united in the belief that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; that Christians should observe the Lord's Supper on the first day of each week; and that baptism of adult believers was necessarily by immersion in water.[4]: 147–148 Because the founders wanted to abandon all denominational labels, they used the biblical names for the followers of Jesus.[4]: 27 Both groups promoted a return to the purposes of the 1st-century churches as described in the New Testament.
The ideal of restoring a "primitive" form of Christianity grew in popularity in the U.S. after the American Revolution.[34] This desire to restore a purer form of Christianity played a role in the development of many groups during this period, known as the Second Great Awakening.[35] These included the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Baptists and Shakers.[35] The Restoration Movement began during and was greatly influenced by, this Second Awakening.[36] While the Campbells resisted what they saw as the spiritual manipulation of the camp meetings, the Southern phase of the awakening "was an important matrix of Barton Stone's reform movement" and shaped the evangelistic techniques used by both Stone and the Campbells.
Lots and lots of restorations.
Premise 1. Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable.
Premise 2. The best evidence for the Book of Mormon is eyewitness testimony.
Conclusion. Therefore, the best evidence for the Book of Mormon is notoriously unreliable.
I’d like to build on this—it’s worth noting that Sidney Rigdon was deeply involved in these Restorationist movements.
Before joining Joseph Smith, he had been one of Alexander Campbell’s leading preachers in the Disciples of Christ movement in Ohio and western Pennsylvania, but he broke with Campbell over several key issues: communalism, prophetic gifts, and continuing revelation.
Others have pointed out that Rigdon’s theological ideas are represented in the Book of Mormon, and I’ve intimated that the story of Mosiah sending Ammon to “check on the status” reflects Rigdon’s claim that a book was coming that would explain everything and support his theological ideas over Campbellite views.
I’ve mentioned somewhere in another thread that several of the Book of Mormon’s “churches” (Zarahemla, Gideon, Ammonihah, etc.) can be read as fictionalized accounts of congregations within Rigdon’s circuit across Ohio and Pennsylvania, where he had built communities of believers around his “ancient gospel” preaching, and I believe the seven named churches described in Alma and Mosiah resemble the structure of this Restorationist network of dispersed branches of a larger body.
During the 1820s, Sidney Rigdon oversaw a small network of Restorationist congregations across northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, notably at Mentor, Kirtland, Perry, Bainbridge, and Pittsburgh, that already spoke of themselves as “the churches of Christ.”
What has intrigued me is that when read alongside the Book of Mormon, these communities line up with the text’s geographical concepts: Zarahemla, the central administrative and spiritual hub, parallels Kirtland or Mentor, Rigdon’s base of operations; Gideon, a smaller but devout settlement near the main body, could fit his Perry/Bainbridge congregations; Ammonihah, a rebellious outpost destroyed for rejecting prophetic warnings, resembles Rigdon’s Pittsburgh period. Melek, Sidom, and Jershon mirror the Restorationist groups that maintained linkages through his preaching circuit. The seven named churches in Mosiah 25–26 and Alma 5–8 also reflect this concept.
The Jershon–Morley Farm parallel is particularly interesting: in both settings, converts flee “the world” to take refuge in a place where property and faith are shared. The Book of Mormon’s portrayal of Jershon as a set apart land for the repentant Anti-Nephi-Lehies reads like a description of Rigdon’s communal theology, reflected physically in the Morley settlement and later at the Johnson Farm.
From this view, the Book of Mormon doesn’t describe an ancient “church” network, it places Rigdon’s 1820s Restorationist landscape into an ancient setting, embedding his theological solutions and ministry within the book.
I believe this is the setting for the original “book of Lehi” that is “lost” and replaced by Joseph’s insertion of himself into the book.
It is very odd timing, isn’t it? Mormon God waited until the exact time when everyone was talking about the origins of the native Americans and restoring the church, to give Joseph a revelation about the origins of native Americans and how to restore the church.
It’s almost as if all of it could have been drawn from the ideas floating around Joseph Smith, and not an angel with a flaming sword.
It is very odd timing, isn’t it? Mormon God waited until the exact time when everyone was talking about the origins of the native Americans and restoring the church, to give Joseph a revelation about the origins of native Americans and how to restore the church.
It’s almost as if all of it could have been drawn from the ideas floating around Joseph Smith, and not an angel with a flaming sword.
A clever disguise for the only true church!
You can help Ukraine by talking for an hour a week!! PM me, or check www.enginprogram.org for details. Слава Україні!, 𝑺𝒍𝒂𝒗𝒂 𝑼𝒌𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒊!
It is very odd timing, isn’t it? Mormon God waited until the exact time when everyone was talking about the origins of the native Americans and restoring the church, to give Joseph a revelation about the origins of native Americans and how to restore the church.
It’s almost as if all of it could have been drawn from the ideas floating around Joseph Smith, and not an angel with a flaming sword.
When you go back and read Joseph Smith's History and the surrounding environment in the United States, such as it was at that time, you're right...it was the perfect time and place to restore the Church or Jesus Christ. What came before and what came after wouldn't have lent itself to what ended up being the result.
By the way, I don't remember there being an angel with a sword commanding Joseph to restore the church. You're mixing that up with Nauvoo Polygamy aren't you? The church was already on its way to becoming the CofJCofLDS.
A deeper discussion on the angel with the sword that you seem to be confusing with the First Vision?
It is very odd timing, isn’t it? Mormon God waited until the exact time when everyone was talking about the origins of the native Americans and restoring the church, to give Joseph a revelation about the origins of native Americans and how to restore the church.
It’s almost as if all of it could have been drawn from the ideas floating around Joseph Smith, and not an angel with a flaming sword.
Smith was apparently an expert at pulling together contemporary thought. Nothing new, nothing original, and in my opinion nothing from a supernatural being. He just chased trends and took advantage of them.
It is very odd timing, isn’t it? Mormon God waited until the exact time when everyone was talking about the origins of the native Americans and restoring the church, to give Joseph a revelation about the origins of native Americans and how to restore the church.
It’s almost as if all of it could have been drawn from the ideas floating around Joseph Smith, and not an angel with a flaming sword.
When you go back and read Joseph Smith's History and the surrounding environment in the United States, such as it was at that time, you're right...it was the perfect time and place to restore the Church or Jesus Christ. What came before and what came after wouldn't have lent itself to what ended up being the result.
By the way, I don't remember there being an angel with a sword commanding Joseph to restore the church. You're mixing that up with Nauvoo Polygamy aren't you? The church was already on its way to becoming the CofJCofLDS.
A deeper discussion on the angel with the sword that you seem to be confusing with the First Vision?
Joseph was sufficiently vague that we cannot be sure that an angel with a sword did not appear during the First Vision. Perhaps if he had not been murdered he would have written about it
You can help Ukraine by talking for an hour a week!! PM me, or check www.enginprogram.org for details. Слава Україні!, 𝑺𝒍𝒂𝒗𝒂 𝑼𝒌𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒊!
When you go back and read Joseph Smith's History and the surrounding environment in the United States, such as it was at that time, you're right...it was the perfect time and place to restore the Church or Jesus Christ. What came before and what came after wouldn't have lent itself to what ended up being the result.
By the way, I don't remember there being an angel with a sword commanding Joseph to restore the church. You're mixing that up with Nauvoo Polygamy aren't you? The church was already on its way to becoming the CofJCofLDS.
A deeper discussion on the angel with the sword that you seem to be confusing with the First Vision?
Joseph was sufficiently vague that we cannot be sure that an angel with a sword did not appear during the First Vision. Perhaps if he had not been murdered he would have written about it
Like I said on another thread, a critic might think that. Even if it might be a stretch. I think we ought to go with what we have on this one. drumdude just got mixed up or ‘over spoke’. We all do that now and then.
And here recently I’ve being lambasted for not seeing a little arrow that represented a link to another post.
Sheesh. I honestly hadn’t put two and two together. Now I have. Believe me! Another mountain out of a molehill.
The joke's on all the restorationists - Jesus never intended to start a church, and there was never just one New Testament denomination
Whatever you think he might have intended or not…it is what it is. Christianity grew to become a major world religion out of a little seed. In my opinion, that’s the way God works. By small means great things come to pass.
One minuscule singularity brought about the known universe. Whatever that ‘singularity’ was at the time Christ lived on the earth literally/figuratively exploded into a Christianity that has generally influenced the world for the better. Big time.
The question in my mind is whether or not there was a need for any type/kind of course correction as Christianity evolved and mutation/corruption took place. That’s obviously something that many folks have differing opinions on.
God works through evolutionary means. Everywhere and in and through everything. Mormonism has its place in that evolution. An important part, again…my opinion.
