This blog post explores the significance of the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, detailing the miraculous events leading to its organization, including Joseph Smith's visions, the translation of the Book of Mormon, and the restoration of priesthood authority. It emphasizes the ongoing impact of these events in the context of the gospel's restoration and the preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized 195 years ago today, on April 6, 1830. This momentous occasion was marked by a small congregation of believers and friends who gathered to witness the outpouring of the Spirit. During this gathering, the ordinance of the sacrament was administered, the gift of the Holy Ghost was conferred, priesthood ordinations were performed, and the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ were preached.
In re-establishing His Church, the Lord designated by revelation 24-year-old Joseph Smith as its earthly leader. He was described as "a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle of Jesus Christ, an elder of the church through the will of God the Father, and the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ." As we reflect on this significant event, I earnestly pray for the help of the Holy Ghost to understand its importance and ongoing impact in the history of the world.
The formal organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the culmination of a sequence of miraculous experiences. The first of these experiences occurred ten years earlier in upstate New York. In the spring of 1820, a young boy named Joseph Smith went into the woods near his home to pray. He had questions regarding the salvation of his soul and yearned to know which of all the churches was right so he could join the correct one. Joseph trusted that God would answer his prayer and direct him.
Joseph did not pray merely to know what was right; he prayed to know what was right so he could act accordingly. In response to his sincere prayer, God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph and inaugurated the "restitution of all things" as foretold in the Bible. In this vision, he learned that following the death of the original apostles, Christ’s New Testament Church was lost from the earth.
Joseph Smith was instrumental in restoring the doctrine, authority, and covenants and ordinances of the Savior’s ancient Church. He affirmed, "I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other— This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him!" Through this vision and subsequent experiences, Joseph came to understand that God and Jesus Christ knew him as an individual, cared about his eternal salvation, and had a mission for him to perform.
He learned vital lessons about the attributes, character, and perfections of the Godhead, understanding that the Father and the Son are separate and distinct Beings. Joseph declared that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are corporeal beings, stating, "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit."
The second miraculous experience leading to the formal organization of the Church was the translation and coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith was given the gift and power of God to translate an ancient record: the Book of Mormon—Another Testament of Jesus Christ. This sacred text includes an account of the personal ministry of Jesus Christ among people in the Western Hemisphere soon after His Resurrection.
The Book of Mormon teaches about life's purpose and explains the doctrine of Christ, which is central to that purpose. As a companion scripture to the Bible, it testifies that all human beings are sons and daughters of a loving Father in Heaven, who has a divine plan for our lives. It affirms that His Son, Jesus Christ, speaks today as well as in days of old.
As members of the Savior’s Restored Church, we believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. The Book of Mormon confirms the truthfulness of the Bible and restores plain and precious truths that were lost from it.
The Church teaches that the original Church established by the Savior, with its divine authority, doctrine, and covenants and ordinances, was lost from the earth. As part of the prophesied restoration of all things in the latter days, ancient prophets and apostles personally conferred priesthood authority upon Joseph Smith and committed priesthood keys to him.
Priesthood authority allows God’s servants to represent Him and act in His name. Priesthood keys are the authority to direct the use of the priesthood on behalf of God’s children. Under the direction of the Father and the Son, the resurrected John the Baptist restored in 1829 the authority to baptize by immersion for the remission of sins. In that same year, three of the original twelve Apostles—Peter, James, and John—restored the apostleship and additional priesthood authority and keys.
Six years after the formal organization of the Church in the Kirtland Temple, Moses, Elias, and Elijah committed to Joseph the additional authority necessary to accomplish God's work in the latter days. Moses committed the keys of the gathering of Israel. Elias committed the dispensation of the gospel of Abraham, including the restoration of the Abrahamic covenant. Elijah committed the keys of the sealing power, providing the authority that allows ordinances performed on earth to be binding in eternity, such as joining families together in eternal relationships that transcend death.
As Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, he received revelations indicating that the Church of Jesus Christ would be re-established. However, the Lord instructed Joseph not to organize His Church immediately. Rather, by the Spirit of Prophecy and revelation, the Lord revealed to Joseph the precise day he should proceed to organize His Church once again upon the earth.
The Church was organized in proper sequence only after the restoration of the priesthood and the publication of the Book of Mormon. The first copies of the Book of Mormon became available on March 26, 1830, and the Church was formally organized on April 6th.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ’s New Testament Church restored. This Church is anchored in the perfect life of its chief cornerstone, Jesus Christ, and in His infinite Atonement and literal Resurrection. Jesus Christ has once again called Apostles and has given them priesthood authority. He invites all of us to come unto Him and His church, to receive the Holy Ghost, the ordinances of salvation, and to gain enduring joy.
The appearance of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith, the translation and coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and the restoration of priesthood authority and keys were necessary prerequisites to the organization of the Lord’s restored Church 195 years ago today.
In the Old Testament, the prophet Daniel interpreted a dream about a stone that would be cut out of a mountain without hands and fill the entire earth. One year after the organization of the Church, the Lord instructed Joseph Smith that the keys of the kingdom of God had again been "committed unto man on the earth" and the "gospel of Jesus Christ would roll forth unto the ends of the earth as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands."
I testify the Lord is fulfilling His promise. The Savior’s restored Church is being established throughout the world and is the instrument by which God will gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him.
My beloved brothers and sisters, the Lord’s latter-day work is a cause that has interested the people of God in every age. It is a theme upon which prophets, priests, and kings have dwelt with peculiar delight; they have looked forward with joyful anticipation to the day in which we live. Fired with heavenly and joyful anticipations, they have sung, written, and prophesied of this our day.
In this greatest and last of all gospel dispensations, a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, keys, powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed from the days of Adam even to the present time. Not only this, but things which never have been revealed from the foundation of the world shall be revealed in this the dispensation of the fulness of times.
The Prophet Joseph further explained, "All the ordinances and duties that ever have been required by the Priesthood, under the directions and commandments of the Almighty in any of the dispensations, shall all be had in the last dispensation, bringing to pass the restoration spoken of by the mouth of all the Holy Prophets."
I have attempted to summarize basic elements of the most important and glorious "good news" any person anywhere in this world can ever receive—the message that the Lord Jesus Christ has restored His gospel and Church in the latter days. I invite all to learn about and prove this message. I promise that individuals who prayerfully study the message of the Restoration and act in faith will be blessed through the power of the Holy Ghost to gain their own witness of its divinity and of its purpose to prepare the world for the promised Second Coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
As you pray earnestly with the expectation to both receive and act upon an answer from God, as did young Joseph Smith, your capacity to recognize and respond to that divine witness will be increased. I witness God, the Eternal Father, is our Father. I testify and witness that Jesus Christ is the Father’s Beloved Son and His Only Begotten in the flesh. He is our Savior and Redeemer. And I joyfully witness that the Father and the Son appeared to the boy Joseph Smith, thus initiating the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the latter days. The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and contains the word of God. Priesthood authority to represent the Savior and act in His name again is found on the earth. And The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ’s New Testament Church restored. I bear my sure witness that all of these things are true. In the sacred name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
