The organization of the Church of Christ to the earth: so much,

much more than a social gathering of like-minded friends.

Coming up next on the Joseph Smith Papers.

K-jazz television, in cooperation with the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, presents this weekly series highlighting the research of scholars and historians as they prepare for the publication of the Joseph Smith Papers. And now your host, Glen Rawson.

Among the most important and noted events of Church history to students of Mormonism today was the actual founding event of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To Joseph Smith

It was the culmination of the sacred experiences he'd had to that day.

It was also, as he later said,

“the fulfillment of biblical antecedents.”

The organizational meeting that took place in Fayette Township, New York, it was the next step in the sequence of the Restoration of the gospel.

In discussing the formalization of the Church, we have to acknowledge and recognize that Joseph Smith was not familiar with pews and pulpits necessarily.

He had grown up in a home that was divided regarding religious sentiment and Joseph Smith,

while he was immersed in the Bible, he was immersed in the concepts of legitimate Christianity,

he had never been a a person who visited

a formal meetinghouse regularly.

So where did he get his ideas about how this Church was to be organized? Some have diminished Joseph Smith by kind of calling him a divine eclectic, that he kind of just picked and chose the things and that Mormonism is just kind of a mongrelization of all the other religious organizations at the time. That's just simply not the case.

Being unfamiliar with much of formal Christianity, the polished Christianity,

which the Atlantic sea coast Christians were familiar with,

taught to them by the

the college trained divines was something that was not familiar to Joseph Smith. So where did that information come from about the components that were required and necessitated in

the organization of the cCurch?

I think we would have to recognize

the importance of what Joseph's religious experience had been

prior to the organization of the Church. And the single most consequential thing that had happened to him

was his experience with the Book of Mormon.

When did Joseph Smith learn that he should organize the Church

and what the mission of that Church would be?

The documentation of his youth suggests that in his mind,

salvation and church were inextricably tied together.

Those were the questions I think, that compelled him to go to the woodlands that spring morning of 1820, wondering how he stood before God

and which church actually administered salvation correctly.

And of course, that led him to ask that question. Which church is right?

Joseph was told that he should join no church,

but that the fulness of the gospel or the fulness of the plan of salvation would be made known unto him. The promises in the woodlands that spring morning begin to be answered

in September of 1823 when Moroni,

a messenger sent from the presence of God,

came to instruct him. Moroni told him that the fulness of the gospel, of the plan of salvation, if you will,

was contained in a book, in an ancient record.

The Book of Mormon was key for giving insights on the nature and character and organizational structure of the Church. In fact, the Lord in Revelation said to Joseph and to Oliver and David Whitmer,

“Rely on the Book of Mormon for the foundation of my church and my gospel.” And

much of what we have regarding organizational structure,

doctrine, the mission of the Church officers, priesthood authority, was given at the time, understood by Joseph at the time of the translation.

The Book of Mormon, as Joseph translated it, taught him a great deal about the covenantal process made to the fathers of Israel,

but it also gave him insights into its fulfillment by indicating that it would be through a restoration of the Church of Christ that it would be fulfilled.

In fact, Joseph, from his own Christian experience,

had a perception that the Church was the means of carrying the gospel message to people.

It was in this place that Joseph learned that he would be the Lord's instrument in this work.

During Moroni’s visit about the covenant made to the fathers,

he not only clarified for Joseph the covenant,

but he more or less said, Joseph, you have been selected,

you have been appointed by God to assist him to make sure that this covenant with the fathers is fulfilled.

The turning of the hearts of the children to the fathers to understand the covenant.

Among the most important events concerning the Restoration of the gospel, especially when one looks at it as

the unfolding of events that eventually brought about the full Restoration of the gospel,

the organization of the Church is one of those very, very important events, although from—we’ve kind of made it

from hindsight, maybe more significant than what even early Latter-day Saints thought of it.

Certainly the First Vision is of great consequence and was the platform upon which everything else was built.

The coming forth of the Book of Mormon between 1823 and 1827,

then the restoration of the priesthood in 1829 and all those preliminary events with John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John. And then comes along the organization of the Church. The organization of the Church, however,

was not really even celebrated until 1832.

And even today, we generally don't give it the kind of attention that maybe it merits unless it happens to coincide with the general conference held on the 6th of April in whatever given year.

It’s kind of that way in the early Church as well.

I think one of the the ideas that we can glean from this is that

while it was very consequential to all of us,

to the early Latter-day Saints, it was just the natural consequence of the things that had been occurring.

One of the purposes of the formal organization of the Church was to create the mechanism or the vehicle, if you will, to effectively gather

the Lord's people from across the earth. In 1843 in Nauvoo, Joseph described it this way: “Why gather the people together in this place? For the same purpose that Jesus wanted to gather the Jews to receive the ordinances, the blessings and glories that God has in store for the Saints.”

In Moroni’s instruction to Joseph that night,

he was also told that in spite of Israel’s rebellions and there being scattered among the nations of the earth,

in the latter days, they would be gathered and the righteous of Israel, as well as the gentile nations as well,

Jew and Gentile, if you will, all peoples of the earth,

God made the promise that they would be gathered. And

the gathering, of course, would take place through the Church.

Joseph was told that “This is the day in which my Church will come forth out of the wilderness,” kind of symbolically, like this army with banners.

Joseph was instructed as well that if this generation would repent,

the Church would be established among them, and the gospel would be taught.

Even the Lord in his ministry to the Nephites fortold of the latter days, when he said “If the Gentiles will repent, I will establish my church among them,

and they will come into the covenant

and be numbered among the House of Israel.”

The Church then would be organized,

and messengers with authority would go forth across the nations of the earth and invite the peoples of the earth, be they Jew or gentile,

to come and receive those sacred ordinances of salvation,

and thereby if they received Him, to be counted as the children of Abraham.

The date of the organization of the Church of Christ, April 6th, 1830, was specified by revelation.

It was a Tuesday, and the manner of the organization of the Church was dictated by the laws of New York State.

The Prophet Joseph Smith,

during this process of the translation of the Book of Mormon, at the very same time, he’s receiving visitations from angelic

beings transferring power to him.

He’s receiving revelations and about this period of time,

he says he received a commandment to organize the Church. It was just a part of the unfolding of the founding of the gospel in the last days.

Joseph Smith was told the very day

the Church was to be organized.

Interestingly, a Tuesday, the 6th of April 1830.

The first Sabbath event for the Church, took place the following Sunday, April the 11th,

where Oliver Cowdrey delivered the first sermon to the Church. One would naturally think, I suppose, that the Church would be organized on a Sunday.

Well, it wasn't. There was an event that was created.

The reasons for which we simply do not know right now,

we can conjecture, but we simply do not know. But he was told to organize the Church on the 6th of April 1830.

The day of the church’s organization was even noted in revelation when Joseph was told that on April the 6th, 1830, the Church would be organized.

Joseph and Oliver then made sure that

the people who were believers and faithful, all of those in

the Harmony, Pennsylvania, area, those in the Manchester area, as well as around the Whitmer farm,

were notified of the day that the Church would be organized.

The Church’s organization at the Whitmer home resulted as a consequence that there was was considerable peace and acceptance in that area. There wasn't the

animosity and persecution that had been felt in the Harmony area as well as over in the Manchester area. OK. And the Whitmers were inclined to listen and believed Joseph's message.

A number of the family were witnesses to the Book of Mormon.

On this particular day of April the 6th,

the six official members of the Church gathered.

That was Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdrey; as well as Samuel Smith,

a younger brother of the Prophet; and then Hyrum,

an older brother of the Prophet; David Whitmer; and Peter Whitmer Jr. Those were the first six men baptized in this dispensation.

They were as well—each of them were either among the three witnesses or among the eight witnesses of the Book of Mormon. They were the ideal and appropriate people,

the founding fathers of the kingdom, if you will.

There's been some confusion in the last generation about the organizational site based upon some documents suggesting perhaps the organization took place at the Smith home in Manchester, New York.

Joseph Smith himself was always very clear about where the Church was organized at Father Whitmers home,

Peter Whitmer Senior, in Fayette Township, New York.

We learned later on that David Whitmer, who was one of the initial six members,

also identified his father's home as the site of the foundation of the organization of the Church.

There was an 1813 law for the state of New York that religious organizations established must have between three and nine people.

So they hit on six. Yeah.

And these were all relatively young men.

The gathering that they included about 50 others from those areas of Manchester, Harmony and around the Whitmer Farm.

We don't know exactly how many were gathered there in Fayette Township at the home of Peter Whitmer Senior, who was,

I think, 57 at the time this occurred.

His son David Whitmer was just a very young man in his mid 20s,

along with Joseph Smith, along with Oliver Cowdrey.

The founding of this Church was by a group of young men.

As we’ve seen before on the Joseph Smith Papers,

historians and experts have uncovered things we didn’t know before. One of those is about the Whitmer cabin itself.

Based on archaeological data,

we surmised that the structure was approximately 30 feet long, perhaps 35 feet long, about 20 feet wide.

David Whitmer himself says that both large rooms were filled to overflowing. And

this was a large gathering.

The replica built in 1979 and ready for the 1980 conference in which President Kimball spoke to us

represents those wonderful folk who dealt with that structure that they had in mind.

We’ve subsequently learned additional data. At

the organizational meeting, Joseph

said that the meeting was begun with solemn prayer to God. Right.

Those six official members were then asked if they would accept

he and Oliver as their spiritual leaders regarding things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

And if they were willing that the Church of Christ should now be established.

Those six answered in the affirmative.

Joseph then ordained Oliver Cowdrey an elder in the Church.

Oliver Cowdrey in turn ordained Joseph an elder.

Following that, the sacrament was passed.

Then those who were gathered partook of the sacrament.

It was a time of revelation and considerable joy as well.

Section 21 of the Doctrine Covenants was received at that time, stating that Joseph—that a record should be kept

of the rise of the Church of Christ and its unfolding in the world, and that in the Church, Joseph would be called a prophet, a seer, and a revelator, and an Apostle of Jesus Christ.

In Section 21 of the Doctrine and Covenants, given the day the Church was organized,

the revelation begins with “Behold, there shall be a record kept among you.”

Well, if there was a record kept of the founding event on the 6th of April, we don’t know where that is, because we do not have it today.

Clearly, there was a consciousness raised in the Prophet Joseph Smith about keeping records, because

the first conference of the Church, held on the 9th of June, 1830,

we do have a record of that, and of subsequent conferences.

But right at the founding,

we are absent any contemporary information about what took place,

where it was at, and who was there.

The best source for information about the founding of the Church comes from Joseph himself as a part of his 1838, 1839 history of the Church.

And then Joseph said, at least in the history of the Church, it stated that “we all dismissed with the pleasing assurance that we were now individually and collectively members of the Church of Christ

and acknowledged as such by God.”

One of the consequential documents that does come out of the time of the organization of the Church is what today is called Section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

The articles and covenants of the Church,

as it was referred to in the early organization. And later on, some have even dubbed it the Constitution because it lays out for the Church

the protocols by which the Church should operate; sacramental prayers,

the relationship of priesthood officers, the duties of priesthood holders,.

Doctrine and Covenants Section 20 was given to Joseph Smith

previous to the organization of the Church,

it became customary at conference time to read Section 20 to the assembled Saints.

And then a sustaining vote was called for,

thereby effectively placing the Saints under covenant to abide by its terms and conditions. They were a covenant people.

It hearkened into

a procedure that was followed in ancient Israel with Moses at Sinai. Also, it repeated before Joshua takes Israel across the River Jordan into the promised land.

In Joshua, Chapter 24,

where a covenant had been made with Israel, with God and God with Israel,

and then explained why Israel would be more than pleased to be subject unto God's covenant because of His goodness unto them, as he had manifested on many occasions.

There were stipulations stated and what a covenant person must abide by.

There were also reference to blessings and cursing.

And then there was an annual reading by the high priest before the people in which they verbally— and apparently by hand—would acknowledge that they were a covenant people and would abide by it.

So significant is Section 20, as it’s now aligned in our Doctrine and Covenants,

that in the first publication of the Doctrine and Covenants in 1835 through 1868,

Section 20 was the first section in the Doctrine and Covenants following the Lord’s preface.

I didn’t know that. And section 107 on the priesthood is second.

The Church was not organized in a finished and completed form April the 6th, 1830.

Line upon line, structure by structure, doctrine by doctrine, quorum by quorum, the process continuing in some respects even to the present day.

Now, the Church at that time formalized according to

New York law,

and we never have found the incorporation papers.

And scholars through the years have looked high and low to try to find them in New York repositories, without success. The incorporation papers, if they were created, would have said something to the effect that the Church of Christ had been organized,

and that was the formal name of the Church in 1830.

It's probably important to remember that there was a transition, which I think illustrates

the unfolding of what latter day Israel was to the Latter-day Saints as showing up in the name of the church. In May of 1834

the Prophet Joseph Smith and other leaders determined that the church's name would be changed to the Church of the Latter-day Saints. Now, that had some meaning to it.

Latter-Day Saints suggests something about the return of Christ,

about the fulfillment of all of those biblical preparatory events

that were to come to a climax with the return of Jesus.

It's interesting that not long after that,

we begin to see in some of the records reference to

the Church of Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Well, then some, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Doctrine and Covenants, though,

in 1835, refers to the church as the Church of the Latter-day Saints. And that didn’t go away altogether.

But finally, when the church was in Missouri in 1838, April 1838, as I recall,

there is a revelation given to Joseph Smith where he formalizes

the name of the church,

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,

and it has been known by that name

thereafter. Joseph’s entire life would be an unfolding process

as he sought God. He was a very tenacious individual and prophet, seeking after the mind and the will of God regarding the unfolding of his kingdom.

And it would be line upon line and precept upon precept.

It would be Kirtland, Ohio,

before the real organizational structure of the church, with its

councils, such as the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve, et cetera, would be organized.

But it’s there again, it’s just a manifestation of line upon line and precept upon precept.

For those who sense that Joseph came out of the woodlands in 1820

knowing everything, or that he completed

the organizational meeting in 1830.

I think we need to just step back and give the Prophet an opportunity for growth and development

and to be inspired and enriched and to seek.

That's one of the great things about Joseph Smith, is his humility, his seeking, and the spirit of God manifesting itself to him.

He was not just a passive conduit to whom he just sat down and said, well, here I am, Lord, let it come.

And then instruction came like a

a spiritual funnel stuck in his head with the contents poured into his head. He struggled.

He was in the process of growing and learning and developing.

And as I say, becoming a prophet, a seer, and a revelator.

Naturally, after the church’s organization and missionaries began to take the word abroad,

there were those in the Christian world who took exception to Joseph Smith's audacity.

But Joseph felt compelled by what he'd been commanded to do to carry forth the work.

“We do not ask any people to throw away any good they’ve got,”

he said. “We only ask them to come and get more.”

And the reason for restoring or organizing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to restore

Christianity. Nobody who

really loves that will be offended. They’ll come to it.

They'll eventually, at some point or another, come and see inside the restored Church,

everything beautiful and wonderful.

There was certainly the thought, it appears that our founding fathers, Joseph the Prophet, Oliver Cowdry and so forth,

wanted the church to be seen as a Christian church.

And—but that didn’t altogether work.

But missionaries who went out as emissaries for the church thereafter taught considerably about the covenant

as established with the fathers and the unfolding of the covenant,

as it had been expressed to Joseph and as Joseph learned,

as he translated the record. For example,

that Israel would be scattered, but then in the latter days, they would be gathered, but before this gathering took place,

there would be a book from the remnant of Israel that would come forth containing the fulness of the gospel,

and it would join with the record of the Bible,

which was also a book containing the fulness of the gospel, to bear more than one witness to the people of God's covenant,

to ancient Israel and of its promises to, in the latter days, about gathering all people.

This church is expansive.

It provides the solution to everybody.

It's not for people in one part of the United States.

It's gone global. One of the most emphatic things about the Doctrine and Covenants is the calling of missionaries, by the dozens and then hundreds, to the ends of the earth.

The great commission that Christ gave to his apostles, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,” is renewed to Joseph Smith.

So it's not a provincial church. It's not an exclusive church.

It’s the Church of Christ that’s been sent forth to everybody.

Now, some would consider it an irony, perhaps, that America, the land of the free, would be the cradle of the Restoration.

And also, as Isaiah said, the nursing father and mother to the Gentiles.

But that America would also prove to be inhospitable,

even hostile at times to the infant church.

But the church organized by Joseph Smith in 1830

would move beyond the farmsteads and villages of western New York.

It would, as Joseph said, fill all of North and South America.

It would fill the whole earth.

Next week on the Joseph Smith Papers,

the beginnings of the Church in Kirkland. I’m Glen Rawson.

Thanks for joining us.