Joseph Smith

The "Mormons" (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) do NOT worship Joseph Smith. We worship the same Lord as all other Christian religions. We just believe that Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit are three DIFFERENT entities in three DIFFERENT forms. Joseph Smith only restored the church in the new world.

Mormons worship only God the Father and Jesus Christ. To worship anything or anyone else is blasphemy. We believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet, just like Moses, Abraham, Isaiah, etc. We revere and respect him as a man of God, but do not worship him, just as we do not worship any of the other prophets.

You can learn more about who and how Mormons worship, as well as see other Mormons answers to this question, at the "Related Links below.

There has been no substantial evidence that Joseph Smith suffered from any mental illness.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was established by Joseph Smith on April 6 1830. Members of this church believe Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that there is a living prophet on earth today.It is the 4th largest christian church in America. Often referred to as the Mormon Church.

There have been a few splinter groups from the LDS church. The first and largest was the RLDS church, which has since melded into the community of christ for financial reasons, and has renounced the prophet-hood of Joseph Smith.

There is also the polygamist group lead by Warren Jeffs that was recently in the news. This group beleives in the Book of Mormon, but is unaffiliated with the LDS church.

Joseph Smith, Jr. ran for President of the United States of America in the 1844 election. He ran as an independent. He was murdered in June, 1844, before the election took place.

To read an article about Joseph Smith's campaign for the presidency, click the "Related Link" below.

Yes. There have been many real men named Joseph Smith. The most well-known Joseph Smith was a real man who lived from 1805 to 1844 in the eastern United States. He founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly called the "Mormon" church).

No. There is no evidence that Joseph Smith was attracted to young children. He was 'sealed' to a couple of younger girls (14-18) in his late 20's and early 30's, but there is no evidence that he ever had a romantic or sexual relationship with them.

Joseph Smith, Jr., the first prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "Mormon" church) was shot and killed by a mob while awaiting trial in Carthage Jail in Carthage, Illinois on the evening of June 27, 1844. His brother, Hyrum, was also shot and killed in the same attack.

Joseph Smith published several things, most famously, The Book of Mormon, which he published in the United States and England. He also published the Doctrine and Covenants and a newspaper or two.

Joseph Smith was lead to the hill near his home by the angel Moroni, who showed him where the plates were buried. The hill did not have a name at the time. Mormons call the hill Cumorah, because the Book of Mormon says that the plates were buried by Moroni in the hill Cumorah. Non-Mormons often call the hill "Mormon Hill" or "Gold Bible Hill".

No. Joseph Smith was not a slave owner. He believed that all men are children of God and therefore should be treated with equality, love, and respect. During Joseph Smith's leadership, freed slaves were welcome to join the Church, and were given equal treatment as the white members. Also, Joseph Smith was a Northerner, slavery was illegal in most Northern states by that time.

Joseph Smith was killed by a mob while awaiting trial on spurious charges at Carthage Jail in Illinois. The armed mob of men with painted faces stormed the jail and shot him and his brother Hyrum to death.. The Wikipedia article on the subject provides a lot of detail about the subject, a link is provided.

On January 17, 1827, Smith and Emma eloped across the state line to South Bainbridge (Afton), New York, where they were married the following day in the home of Zachariah Tarble. The marriage site is now the Afton Fairgrounds, located on New York State Route 41 on the east side of the Susquehanna River; and a New York State Historical Marker commemorates the location.

Check out the "Related Links" below to learn more.

None. He was engaged to marry Mary (lol, marry mary), and so he hadn't been married already, thus, he had no children before Jesus. and btw, jesus was only his adopted son, cuz God was Jesus's real father.

Jesus Actually had 4 brothers. James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. He also had Sister. Joseph actually had 7 children with his first wife who died in child birth with the seventh.

At one time during the early years of the church there were many widows that needed to be taken care of. For this reason, and a few others, the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith that he and other men in the church should take more then one wife. So yes, Joseph did have more then one wife. We don't know how many because of the reason listed above--since so many of the marriages were political contracts with older widows to allow them to keep their property, to assure that he would pay their mortgages, etc., it is assumed that there were many polygamous relationships that were not only non-sexual, but where the two may have never met one another. The church hasn't practiced polygamy since 1890.

The answer above gives an apologetic view to Mormon Polygamy and in some areas not 100% accurate. There is no historical evidence for the amount of widows compared to men in the Church in the early 19th Century. That argument is not accepted by historians and holds no water. The reason for the revelation calling Joseph Smith to live "the Principle," as it is called among some Fundamentalist groups, or Polygamy is contained in the revelation itself. He received the revelation because he was inquiring of the Lord concerning David, Solomon and Abraham's practice of plural wives. Historian Todd Compton in his book "In Sacred Loneliness" provides ample evidence that Joseph Smith had at least 28 plural wives and possible up to about 32 maximum. So, to answer your question, yes, Joseph Smith did have more than one wife. The argument above that Joseph Smith was married to them only to help them financially also holds no water, he was steeped deeply in debt and could not have rendered much, if any, financial support for those women. Joseph Smith did meet his wives and there are arguments for sexual relations between the two. However, the sexual relations must have been few and rare because in that time period there were no serious contraceptives and if Smith were running around with nearly 30 women on a regular basis there would be nearly dozens of documented and plausible illegitimate children. The thing is there are none. No one has found evidence supporting that any one person was an illegitimate child of Joseph Smith through any of his wives other than Emma Hale Smith. There are possibly 3 cases that could argue to be Smith's illegitimate children however none are accepted by scholars as plausible, let alone true. While many Latter-day Saints would like to think that all polygamy ended in 1890 there were many Members who did not accept the Manifest from President Wilford Woodruff and continued to perform and engage in Polygamous marriages. This is why we see so many fundamentalist Mormon sects today like the one Warren Jeffs once lead.

There are two camps to this question; (1) Brother Joseph was only married to Emma, and (2) Brother Joseph had between 40 to 80 other wives. From my high level of scholarly research, I have found not one single shred of credible historical evidence that Brother Joseph had more than one wife. While it is "cool" to say that he did, a rigorous academic investigation will show that claims that he had more than one wife hold no historical weight.

Today, millions revere Joseph Smith Jr. (1805-1844) as the prophet of the "restoration" of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Early American Christianity sought to de-legitimize Catholicism for its monarchical appearance. Many taught the bishops of the Catholic church had lost authority following the deaths of the Apostles. JS claimed at a young age to have beheld many visions of angels and deity and to have been the instrument of God to restore Christ's true church to the earth. On 6 April 1830, JS and five others officially organized the Church of Christ. Since then millions have accepted his claims to revelation and reception of holy priesthood authority. Many churches have sprung up as a result of his Latter-day Saint movement such as: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) based in Utah; the Community of Christ based in Independence, MO; and the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also based in Independence, just to name a few.

Joseph Smith, Jr. founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly called the "Mormon" church) in April, 1830 and was the leader of the church until he was murdered in Carthage, Illinois in June, 1844.

As in the Knights Templar?? No. Joseph Smith, Jr. (founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/"Mormon" church) was never affiliated with the Knights Templar. The Knights Templar is largely associated with the Roman Catholic Church, both the church and the organization were extremely unpopular in the time and location that Joseph Smith lived.

Joseph Smith didn't "find" any religious movement. He, in a way, founded one, the "Mormonism" branch of the Restorationist Christian movement. However, most Christian scholars would agree that he was simply one of the many who brought the Restorationist Movement into light during the Second Great Awakening. Other Christian denomininations, including the Christadelphians, Adventists, Charismatics, and Disciples of Christ, are usually considered Restorationist Christianity as well. Occasionally earlier groups are also referred to as Restorationists, including the Anabaptists and Puritains.

This question is a two part question that has no answer. The Mormon Trail is commonly known as the trek westward from the state of Illinois to the (now state) of Utah which began in 1846. The Prophet Joseph Smith was assassinated prior to the trek westward in 1844. Therefore Joseph Smith never traveled the Mormon Trail.

Joseph Smith had 11 children with his wife Emma, only 5 of them lived to adulthood. They were:

Alvin Smith (died on day of birth)

twins Thaddeus and Louisa Smith (died on day of birth)

twins Joseph and Julia Murdock (adopted - Joseph died in his first year, Julia lived to be 69)

Joseph Smith III (lived to age 82)

Fredrick Granger Williams Smith (lived to age 26)

Alexander Hale Smith (lived to age 71)

Don Carlos Smith (Died at 14 months)

a stillborn male was born in 1842

and the youngest, David Hyrum Smith, was born 5 months after Joseph was killed. He lived to be 60)

It was previously alleged that Joseph had children through other women as well, but DNA evidence proved these allegations false in 2007.

Joseph Smith left New York for a couple reasons. First, there were so many new converts in Ohio that it was decided Church headquarters should move there. Second, there were many people in New York that were hunting Joseph down and he needed to escape.

It was not Joseph who founded the Mormon religion, he was only an instrument in Gods hands. When a boy of about 14 years of age Joseph Smith became confused as to there being so many religions all professing to be Gods church. There was a passage in James chapter 1 verses 5 and 6 which caught his eye. "If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God..."

Joseph did just that, he went to a wood near his home and prayed that he might know which church was the right one. He was visited by God the father and His son Jesus Christ, and was told not to join any of them for they were all wrong.

Joseph was told of very ancient writings contained upon thin gold plates. It was the history of early American peoples who came out from Jerusalem and settled the Americas. It told of Gods dealings with these people, of their wars and contentions, until finally after many years only one people were left. The remnant of these people are the American Indians.

These golden plates which Joseph was allowed to translate by the power of God later became known as The Book of Mormon, Mormon being the last prophet to edit the records of these early American peoples.

The Book of Mormon goes hand in hand with the Bible, and confirms many truths which are contained in the Bible, but also adds to it many other precious truths which have been left out.

It was Christ who named the church as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, He being the head of the church. Joseph was the first prophet in this last dispensation. To this day the church has never been without a prophet to lead the church through inspiration from on high.

Robert

Addition from another user on 4/9/2012: It should be noted that the above answer is not the only potential answer to this question. Joseph Smith's motivations have been questioned widely. He was brought to court and convicted of money-digging (a con that involved charging people to tell them where they could find treasure), meaning that he was actively working as a con man at the time he was "creating" this new religious sect. It is interesting, and perhaps telling, that this type of "envisioning" is similar to how Joseph Smith allegedly heard the word of God. Although I am far from an authority on this subject, 10 minutes of research were all it took to find preliminary evidence that casts serious doubt on Robert's response. I'm not saying I'm right, but I think it is fair for anyone who sees the above response to know that there are varying opinions and they should research them further. Regardless of what you ultimately conclude for yourself, this should not be your last stop in answering this question.