Founded in the United States in 1830, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims to be the restoration of Christ’s early church. It took root against impossible odds and eventually exploded across the world with membership in the millions. It defies easy labeling by those unfamiliar with its doctrine and beliefs. The following is an encapsulated version of the singular events that led to the establishment of the Church.

     A Prayer in the Woods. After the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the death of His Apostles, the world entered a prolonged period of spiritual darkness. Historians refer to this period, in part, as the Dark Ages. Latter-day Saints call the period from about the second century to the early 1800s the Apostasy, a period in which direct revelation from heaven to lead and guide Christ’s Church was lost, and in which the authority to administer the Church was withdrawn by God.
     Latter-day Saints believe that this spiritual darkness could be ended, not by a reformation of existing practices, but only by a literal restoration of Christ’s Church, including divine priesthood authority. They also believe that this is foretold and taught in the scriptures.
     In the spring of 1820, 14-year-old Joseph Smith sought out a secluded grove in woodlands near his home in upstate New York. His reason: to pour out his heart to God and to learn which of all the competing churches he should join.

Sacred Grove

The answer to his prayer was the most dramatic revelation and visitation since the time of the Apostles. God, the Eternal Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, personally appeared, shattering not only the current beliefs of the nature of God and Christ, but also giving instructions to stay clear of the existing churches of the day. Instead, the boy was told that he would help restore Christ’s original church.
    
    
     After 10 difficult years of struggle, opposition, and persecution, he fulfilled his charge and established The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on 6 April 1830 in Fayette, New York.

     A Book for the Ages. In Joseph Smith’s short life—from the time of his vision in a secluded woodland to his death at the hands of a mob in 1844—he established a body of doctrine that would fill three volumes, including the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ; he launched a missionary program that would soon cover the earth; and molded a people and a Church that survived every obstacle that sought to derail it.

Original Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon, published in 1830, became the tangible focus for much of what made Latter-day Saints different from other beliefs. Never before had anyone claimed to produce a new volume of scripture, let alone one that told of Jesus Christ once visiting the people of ancient America.

     The Book of Mormon itself was the translation of a religious history of ancient America, etched on metal plates and buried in a hillside for 14 centuries. According to Joseph’s own account, he was led to the resting place of the ancient record by a resurrected prophet and leader named Moroni, who originally helped compile it.
     Telling as it did of Christ’s appearance to these ancient people, the Book of Mormon literally became a second witness to the divinity of Jesus Christ for all who would accept it as a companion record to the Bible. It also gave rise to the nickname Mormon, applied especially in early years to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

     Building the Restored Church. Joseph Smith went into the woods near his home with a simple query in 1820: Which of all the churches is the true one? Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him in response to his plea. A new day was about to dawn; the Church of Jesus Christ was to be restored to the earth. Joseph learned a further truth: God and Jesus were separate and distinct heavenly beings.
     Sometime previous to Joseph’s completion of the Book of Mormon translation, on 15 May 1829, he and an assistant named Oliver Cowdery retired to the woods to seek answers in prayer. The question regarded the biblical doctrine of baptism and the proper method of performing it. Once again in response to fervent seeking, an angelic being appeared to them, announcing himself as the same who was called John the Baptist in the New Testament record. He conferred upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery the Aaronic Priesthood, which he held anciently, and explained that the higher, or Melchizedek, Priesthood would be given to them later. He then instructed Joseph and Oliver to baptize each other by full immersion in the waters of the nearby Susquehanna River.
     Some weeks later Joseph and Oliver were visited by the biblical Apostles Peter, James, and John, who conferred upon them the Melchizedek Priesthood, the complete or full authority for reestablishing the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth. With approximately 60 individuals present, Joseph Smith and five others organized the Church on 6 April 1830 in Fayette, New York.
     Among the foundational beliefs of the Latter-day Saints is that God has spoken from the heavens once again and will yet speak to mankind through living prophets.
     One of the early revelations given to Joseph Smith, many of which were later compiled into a volume now known as the Doctrine and Covenants, instructed him to gather the growing number of converts to this young faith to a common community. Over the next 16 years this physical gathering would strengthen the Latter-day Saints within populations ever more hostile to them. Within a short time most of the Latter-day Saints began occupying properties in and around tiny Kirtland, Ohio, swelling its population. Over the next few years, thousands would also gather to the Independence area of western Missouri. By the summer of 1838, almost the entire body of Latter-day Saints—now numbering perhaps 12,000—had moved to western Missouri.

As the infant Church gathered converts, additional doctrines and teachings were given by revelation. The now well-known Latter-day Saint health code, the Word of Wisdom, was given by revelation in 1833; the first post-biblical Quorum of Twelve Apostles was designated by revelation in 1835; missionary work, a foundational tenet and practice of the Church, expanded to Europe in 1837; and a temple was erected in Kirtland.
     But as the converts poured in from many nations and the Latter-day Saints gained economic and numerical strength in the areas where they settled, neighboring populations increasingly took exception to their peculiar doctrines and practices. Claims of new revelation, angelic manifestations, divine authority from God, living prophets, and other matters served to alienate them from many.
     Tragedy struck in the fall of 1838 when a marauding band of self-appointed militiamen in Missouri abducted three Latter-day Saints from a remote homestead, and a group of Saints led by Apostle David Patten pursued them. In the encounter, Patten and two others of his force were killed. But the supposed "Mormon aggression" excited the political vanity of newly-elected Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs, and he signed an "extermination order" against the Latter-day Saints.
     Three days later, 240 armed Missouri militiamen attacked the Saints at Haun’s Mill and shot 18 homesteaders to death, accepting no pleas for mercy, not even from the children. Gathering at Far West for their own protection, the Latter-day Saints were obliged to surrender. Joseph Smith and about 80 associates were arrested for treason. While most were detained briefly, Joseph and five companions were transported by wagon to a jail 40 miles distant in a frontier settlement ironically named Liberty. Four of them spent that entire winter and much of the next spring in jail until a constable transporting them to another jail let them escape in early April.
     While Joseph and his companions languished in prison, Brigham Young, the senior member in good standing of the Twelve Apostles, led the homeless and beleaguered Saints back across Missouri and into Illinois, where they established the city of Nauvoo. This journey would serve as a prelude to the greatest forced human migration in American history, beginning just eight years later, again under the direction of Brigham Young.
     In Nauvoo the Latter-day Saints prospered for a time, founding a university, building a second temple, and establishing a thriving religious and economic center. But the prejudice and intolerance that had followed them all along soon caught up with them. Disaffected members within their own ranks were among the most ardent persecutors. On 7 June 1844 apostates printed in Nauvoo the first and only issue of a newspaper called the Nauvoo Expositor, which was filled with lies and innuendos about the Prophet Joseph Smith. Alarmed, the city council met and determined the publication to be a public nuisance and ordered the offending press destroyed, an act which the city marshal carried out that evening. Lines drawn, citizens began to take private action. Joseph and his brother, Hyrum, were soon arrested for inciting a riot, but acquitted of the charge.
     As commander of the Nauvoo Legion, Joseph Smith declared martial law on 18 June. Illinois governor Thomas Ford sided with the opposition, however, and ordered Joseph re-arrested on the earlier charges. On 27 June 1844 Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were shot to death in the Carthage Jail in Carthage, Illinois, by an armed mob of between 100 and 150 men. Brigham Young would next lead the Church. And he would lead it to safety, 1,300 miles west in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake.