Teachings of Joseph Smith
The teachings of Joseph Smith include many religious doctrines as well as political ideas and theories, many of which he said were revealed to him by God.
[4] Steven C. Harper states that because, in the 1830s, Smith privately described to some of his followers his 1820 first vision as a theophany of "two divine, corporeal beings," "its implications for the trinity and materiality of God were asserted that early".
[10] Smith extended this materialist conception to all existence and taught that "all spirit is matter", meaning that a person's embodiment in flesh was not a sign of fallen carnality, but a divine quality that humans shared with deity.
For instance, in the early 1830s, Smith temporarily instituted a form of religious communism, called the United Order, that required Latter Day Saints to give all their property to the church, to be divided among the faithful.
[22] This book contained discussions and sermons teaching many traditional Christian doctrines, such as the idea that Jesus' death represents an atonement for the sins of humanity, that he was the Messiah, and that he was one with God the Father.
This translation was a source of new doctrinal teachings, also influenced by the conversion of Sidney Rigdon, a former Disciples of Christ minister who converted to the church in 1831 with his entire congregation.
Instead of presenting his ideas with logical arguments, Smith dictated authoritative scripture-like "revelations" and let people decide whether to believe,[27] doing so with what Peter Coviello calls "beguiling offhandedness".
[34] An 1832 revelation called "The Vision" added to the fundamentals of sin and atonement, and introduced doctrines of life after salvation, exaltation, and a heaven with degrees of glory.
[36] Three months later, Smith gave a lengthy revelation called the "Olive Leaf" that discussed subjects such as light, truth, intelligence, and sanctification.
[37] In 1833, Smith edited and expanded many of his previously dictated revelations, publishing them as the Book of Commandments, which later became part of the Doctrine and Covenants.
In 1833, at a time of temperance agitation, Smith delivered a revelation called the "Word of Wisdom", which counseled a diet of wholesome herbs, fruits, grains and a sparing use of meat.
[39] The Word of Wisdom was originally framed as a recommendation rather than a commandment and was not strictly followed by Smith and other early Latter Day Saints,[40] though it later became a requirement in the LDS Church.
In 1830, Smith taught a doctrine of voluntary religious egalitarianism known as the Law of Consecration designed to achieve income equality, eliminate poverty, increase group self-sufficiency, and create the ideal utopian society Mormons referred to as Zion.
[citation needed] Smith envisioned that the theocratic institutions he established would have a role in the worldwide political organization of the Millennium.
[41] Beginning in 1832, Smith taught a doctrine based on 1 Corinthians 15 known as the degrees of glory, holding that those who repent and are worthy will receive greater blessings than those who are wicked, the greatest of which is eternal life, which is to live with God in the celestial kingdom.
[43] In Smith's cosmology, those who became gods would reign, unified in purpose and will, leading spirits of lesser capacity to share immortality and eternal life.
[46] During the early 1840s, Smith unfolded a theology of family relations, called the "New and Everlasting Covenant", that superseded all earthly bonds.
[55] Smith also taught that the highest level of exaltation could be achieved through polygamy, the ultimate manifestation of the New and Everlasting Covenant.
[56][e] In Smith's theology, marrying in polygamy made it possible for practitioners to unlearn the Christian tradition which identified the physical body as carnal, and to instead recognize their embodied joy as sacred.
[57] Smith also taught that the practice allowed an individual to transcend the angelic state and become a god, accelerating the expansion of one's heavenly kingdom.
[58] There is wide evidence that Smith practiced polygamy (referred to by Latter Day Saints as plural marriage), and may have begun to do so as early as 1833.
[59] Polygamy (marriage to multiple partners) was illegal in many U.S. states, and in Western cultures was widely perceived as an immoral and misguided practice.
These sources indicate that, though the doctrine was not widely taught during Smith's life, marriages of this type were performed for select members of the church in the early 1830s.
[63] On May 3, 1842, Joseph Smith prepared the second floor of his Red Brick Store, in Nauvoo, Illinois, to represent "the interior of a temple as circumstances would permit".
Participants are taught symbolic gestures and passwords considered necessary to pass by angels guarding the way to heaven, and are instructed not to reveal them to others.
[76] In practice, Smith advocated accepting Texas into the Union, claiming the disputed Oregon country, and someday incorporating Canada and Mexico into the United States.
[77] To protect U.S. business and agriculture, Smith favored high tariffs and a publicly-owned central national bank with democratically elected officers that would print currency but "never issue any more bills than the amount of capital stock in her vaults and the interest".
[78][79] He opposed imprisonment for debt or as a criminal penalty (except in the case of murder), recommended abolishing courts-martial for military deserters, and encouraged citizens to petition their state leaders to pardon all convicts.
[78][80] He suggested that courts instead sentence convicts to labor on public works projects, such as road building, and he argued that providing education would make prisons obsolete.
