Joseph Smith was a charlatan with a God complex. He claimed he was a prophet of God, used his social status to gain control over the people of Nauvoo, and led them into what became the fastest growing religion in America: Mormonism. He experienced “revelations” that led him to polygamy, The Book of Mormons, freemason rituals, and ultimately his demise.
On his eighteenth birthday, Joseph Smith claimed that he was visited by an angel in the woods that told him of a book that he would one day write. That book was to become known as The Book of Mormon or “The Golden Bible”. In Beam’s book, Smith was to find the golden plates and translate the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics inscribed on the face of the plates. But, “Joseph Smith could neither write …show more content…
He believed that God was once a man who perfected himself to become God (29). Mormons believe that in order to gain entry into Heaven one must perfect himself/herself to be saved and that God had evolved from mankind. This became known as the “doctrine of eternal progression”. One of his most well known doctrines was that of polygamy, or plural marriage. Polygamy was one of the largest marks of false religion. The very nature of it seeks carnal satisfaction and denotes the values of marriage between a man and a woman. If Smith desired to be a prophet, to be holy, then why would he succomb to the desires of his earthly flesh? He seduced and married young teenage girls as well as the wives and daughters of his close friends. He stole mothers away from children and wives from other men. According to Smith’s friend benjamin Winchester, scandal followed …show more content…
After Smith escaped jail in Missouri, he traveled to Nauvoo to join the Mormon population. The Mormons were becoming their own civilization and grew in economic and political power. They were attacked through the press and there were Anti Mormon political parties held in Hancock about the perverseness of polygamy and Smith’s rising theocratic power. Smith ordered the Mormons to destroy the printing press. Afterwords, Carthage officials issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of enticing a riot and adopted a resolution that blamed the Mormons and threatened to “exterminate the wicked and abominable Mormon leaders...a war of extermination should be waged to the entire destruction, if necessary…” (125). Non Mormons had become fearful of the idea of a new religion along with the growing theocratic powers it possessed. They believed that Smith was trying to corrupt the government with his newfound religion. According to reporter Thomas Sharp, “the Mormons...had stepped beyond the proper sphere of religious denomination and become a political body” (62). All who did not have insight to Mormonism saw them as a threat to American Political Society and felt that they had to be rid of them once and for
On his eighteenth birthday, Joseph Smith claimed that he was visited by an angel in the woods that told him of a book that he would one day write. That book was to become known as The Book of Mormon or “The Golden Bible”. In Beam’s book, Smith was to find the golden plates and translate the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics inscribed on the face of the plates. But, “Joseph Smith could neither write …show more content…
He believed that God was once a man who perfected himself to become God (29). Mormons believe that in order to gain entry into Heaven one must perfect himself/herself to be saved and that God had evolved from mankind. This became known as the “doctrine of eternal progression”. One of his most well known doctrines was that of polygamy, or plural marriage. Polygamy was one of the largest marks of false religion. The very nature of it seeks carnal satisfaction and denotes the values of marriage between a man and a woman. If Smith desired to be a prophet, to be holy, then why would he succomb to the desires of his earthly flesh? He seduced and married young teenage girls as well as the wives and daughters of his close friends. He stole mothers away from children and wives from other men. According to Smith’s friend benjamin Winchester, scandal followed …show more content…
After Smith escaped jail in Missouri, he traveled to Nauvoo to join the Mormon population. The Mormons were becoming their own civilization and grew in economic and political power. They were attacked through the press and there were Anti Mormon political parties held in Hancock about the perverseness of polygamy and Smith’s rising theocratic power. Smith ordered the Mormons to destroy the printing press. Afterwords, Carthage officials issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of enticing a riot and adopted a resolution that blamed the Mormons and threatened to “exterminate the wicked and abominable Mormon leaders...a war of extermination should be waged to the entire destruction, if necessary…” (125). Non Mormons had become fearful of the idea of a new religion along with the growing theocratic powers it possessed. They believed that Smith was trying to corrupt the government with his newfound religion. According to reporter Thomas Sharp, “the Mormons...had stepped beyond the proper sphere of religious denomination and become a political body” (62). All who did not have insight to Mormonism saw them as a threat to American Political Society and felt that they had to be rid of them once and for