Who are Latter-day Saints? |
You see the occasional commercial on TV but you rarely, if ever, see them advertise their
church services in the local newspaper.
This group was originally founded in the United States of America by their prophet Joseph
Smith.
He was born in Sharon, Vermont in 1805.
According to extracts from the History of the Church, Volume 1, Chapters 1-5, when he was
15 years old, Joseph Smith claimed that two heavenly personages, known as Heavenly Father
and Jesus Christ, appeared to him out of his desire to know which of the christian sects
in his region of the country was correct.
He was answered that he must join none of them for they were all wrong and that all their
creeds were an abomination in His sight (JSH, 1:18-19).
In 1823, an angel called Moroni appeared to Mr. Smith and informed him about gold plates
which contained what later would be known as the Book of Mormon. He received the plates in
1827 and then proceeded to finish the Book of Mormon's publication circa 1830 in Palmyra,
New York.