The Mormon Jesus by Turner John G

Author:Turner, John G.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780674737433
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2016-04-24T16:00:00+00:00

The temple theology of Nauvoo, the figure of the martyred prophet, and Young’s interest in Adam all contributed to a partial eclipse of the intense christocentricity of Mormonism’s earliest period. The nineteenth-century events of the restoration of Christ’s church rivaled those of Jesus’s lifetime. An edition of the church’s Doctrine and Covenants published shortly after Joseph Smith’s death maintained that “the prophet and seer of the Lord, has done more (save Jesus only,) for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it.” On the tenth anniversary of Smith’s martyrdom, Young informed the crowd, “I am an apostle of Joseph Smith Jr. that brought forth life and salvation to the world.” Young knew his words were provocative (he said they would make his listeners “marvel and some of you perhaps apostatize”), and he did not mean that Joseph had usurped the position of Jesus Christ as God the Father’s Firstborn. Still, the significance of Joseph Smith for human exaltation was immense within Mormon thought, and parallels between the two martyrs proved irresistible. “I am a witness,” Young testified, “that he was willing to die for his testimony and the people and he did lay down himself … he did go like a lamb to the slaughter and like a sheep to be shorn opening not his mouth … and was slain.” Young and other nineteenth-century hierarchs taught that Smith would play a central role in human exaltation. At the time of Jesus Christ’s Second Coming, Smith would preside over the raising up of the Saints. “No man or woman in this generation,” Young cautioned, “will get a resurrection and be crowned without Joseph Smith says so.” In the last days before the Second Coming, the prophet held the keys to the kingdom of heaven.51

Such teachings amounted to a Mormon version of the Catholic affirmation of “no salvation outside the church”: the LDS Church and its prophets were the mediators of salvation. Only members of Christ’s one church could reach the celestial kingdom, and an acceptance of Joseph Smith as God’s prophet was inseparable from a place in the highest of heavens.52

Moreover, the reformulation of doctrine coupled with the practice and defense of polygamy pushed Mormonism farther away from its more Protestant, Christian roots. For the early followers of Jesus, while the Jewish scriptures and figures such as Moses and Abraham remained important, the figure of Jesus Christ came to tower over everything else. Somewhat similarly, in the years following his murder, the figure of Joseph Smith assumed a cosmic significance for Latter-day Saints. “Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah,” begins a hymn written by William Phelps a month after Smith’s murder. For Phelps, Smith’s “sacrifice,” much like Jesus’s, had brought forth “the blessings of heaven.” Smith was now “mingling with Gods,” where he could “plan for his brethren.”53 The hymn became and remains popular among Mormons. As the prophet whose visions inaugurated the events of the “Restoration,” Joseph Smith receives a full measure of reverence and love from contemporary church members.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.