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The Mormons
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Influenced by the Churches of Christ?
(from Wikipedia)
Martin Harris
was the first financier of The
Book of Mormon. He was also one of
Three Witnesses of The Book of Mormon who testified they were shown the
Golden Plates in a vision.. He had previously spent time in the
Restoration Movement, as well as several other new movements of the time.
Sidney Rigdon's
influence over the Latter Day Saints movement is considered by many to have been
nearly as strong as that of church founder
Joseph Smith Jr.
Sidney Rigdon
served as a
Regular Baptist preacher for a number of years in his early life, but became
disaffected after close associations with
Alexander Campbell and
Walter
Scott, founders of the
Restoration Movement.
Rigdon became a popular
Restoration Movement preacher in the
Western Reserve area of Ohio and led congregations in
Kirtland and
Mentor.
Many prominent early Mormon leaders, including
Parley P. Pratt and Edward Partridge were members of Rigdon's Restoration
Movement congregations prior to their conversion to
Mormonism.
Rigdon is reputed
to have read the Book of Mormon and believed in it. He was baptized into
Mormonism and converted hundreds of members of his Ohio congregations to the new
religion. In 1830, Rigdon traveled to New York to meet
Joseph
Smith. Smith recognized Rigdon's gift as a fiery orator and Smith appointed
him the spokesman for the church. Rigdon also served as a scribe and helped with
Smith's ongoing re-translation of the Bible.
Many believe that
Rigdon was the true force behind Mormonism, believing that Rigdon took a
manuscript of a novel from a Pittsburgh publishing company that had been written
by
Solomon Spalding. Supposedly the novel contained the "historical portion" of
the
Book of Mormon which Rigdon re-worked and expanded into its present form.
For more on this
click here.
The Name "Church of Christ"
From the
organization of the Mormon church there has been contention over the name. David
Whitmer (the sixth person baptized in the group, and before the church was
organized, one who claims to have seen the gold plates of the Book of Mormon,
and conversed with the Angel who translated the plates), together with Harris
and Cowdery, the other witnesses, with many other leading men, claimed that the
proper name was "The Church of Christ." (Whitmer's address, pages
73-75).
Many parts of the Book of Mormon show the name of the church was "The Church of
Christ." (Nephi 12, 3).
In the Book of Commandments, a work containing the revelations of Smith,
published in 1833, from start to finish the church is referred to as "The Church
of Christ." The title page reads, "A Book of Commandments for the government of
the Church of Christ."
(Source).
3 Nephi
27:8 reads: "And how be it my church save it be called in my name? For if a
church be called in Moses' name then it be Moses' church; or if it be called in
the name of a man then it be the church of a man; but if it be called in my name
then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel."
The Mormon scripture Doctrine and Covenants 20:1 reports that the
original name (1830) of the church was the "Church of Christ." In 1834,
the name was changed to "The Church of Latter-day Saints" (History of the
Church 2:63). In 1838 it was changed again to its current name. See
here for source.
Similarities
1. Communion
is taken every Sunday in the Mormon Church.
2. Mormons do not
believe in the traditional definition of the Trinity, as many hard-line Churches
of Christ do not. The Mormons believe that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are
three separate persons entirely, as do the Churches of Christ. Beyond this the
definition of the godhead is markedly different from the Churches of Christ.
3. Mormons also do
not believe in original sin.
4. Alexander
Campbell
wrote:
"Baptism for remission is, however, taught in the Book of Mormon, and
therefore, according to his own reasoning, the inference is wholly an
imagination. It is found variously and frequently stated in the Book of Mormon.
On page 479 it is expressed in the following words:--'Blessed are they which
shall believe in your words, and be baptized: for they shall be visited with
fire and the Holy Ghost, and shall receive a remission of their sins.' Again, p.
581. 'Baptism is unto repentance for the fulfilling the commandments unto the
remission of sins.' Again, p. 582. 'The first point of repentance is
baptism, and baptism cometh by faith unto the fulfilling of the commandment, and
the fulfilling of the commandment is unto the remission of sins.' Indeed, as
early as page 240 it is plainly taught in the form of a precept--'Come and be
baptized unto repentance, that you may be washed from your sins.' "
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