The beginning of any search for
knowledge is to gather all the facts that pertain to the subject to be
examined. I will not attempt in this blog to gather all the facts throughout
Church history but to gather those facts that led up to the many sects and
cults calling themselves Christian. The beginning can be found in the
Reformation a time when men of God upon their study of the Bible found that the
Roman Catholic Church was teaching and demanding a form of Christianity that
was not in the Bible. Martin Luther can be called the forerunner of the
Reformation. Other men such as, Ulrich Zwingli, William Tyndale, Heinrich Bullinger, and John Calvin and before those men one could find
that Augustine and others led to the Reformation. For this study we will begin
with the Reformation that had its heart in, a recovery of the true
gospel of Jesus Christ.
Europe was not divided into nations as it is today and
within those colonies, and nations much turmoil existed and in England with it
ever changing king and queens who either held to Protestantism, or Catholicism
much persecution occurred making it necessary for people to leave England and
then even the Netherlands where they had sought peace and safety. The famous voyage
of the pilgrims occurred in 1620 A.D. and we must remember that they were real people
struggling in persecution to their Christian faith. The voyage to America
was on a famous ship, the Mayflower and we might just remember the Mayflower
Compact that had impact upon the forming of our Constitution.
The pilgrims called for a simpler
faith and a less structured form of worship. This from of worship they desired
was a return to the way of worship of the early Christians. Furthermore, they
wanted to purify the Church so they became called “Puritans.” Another group who
were considered very radical and thought that the Church of England could not
be reformed were called “Separatists.” The Separatists demanded a formation of
new, separate church congregations. This was at that time illegal in England.
By fleeing to the Dutch Netherlands they could practice their own religion
without fear of persecution. This freedom was not easy and this led for them to
travel to America. The Pilgrims had decided to land in the northern part of the
Virginia Colony and at this time that Colony extended from Jamestown in the
South to the mouth of the Hudson River in the North. The Pilgrims decided to
settle near the now New York City. Other people were coming to America, some
religious, others atheistic, or Deist. The Pilgrims held to the fact they were
Christians and were worshiping people of Jehovah God.
The people who came to America did
not totally separate themselves from England and considered themselves as of
England so what would happen in England and in Europe would have an affect on
them. Fighting among various religious and political groups in England came to
a halt in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 A.D. and by this the Church of
England was established as the reigning Church of England and suppressed,
although allowed, other religions. The one Church religion for worship had a
negative affect even though it brought stability. This negative affect was that
there was no longer a driving force for religious belief and this created complacency
and spiritual dryness among the believers. Church became a past time and a just
going through the motions without deeply felt convictions of the heart and
soul. While this had a great affect among the Christians of England it also had
it affect on men and women in America. This after some 90 years came what we
call the First Great Awakening, a spiritual revival. This religious vacuum had
a need to be filled for even though complacency had occurred these men and
women still held to the fact that they needed God. Powerful preaching gave
listeners a deep personal understanding of their need of salvation by Jesus
Christ. The First Great Awakening had then a large and permanent impact upon
American Protestantism. This impact was a leaving behind ritual, ceremony,
sacramentalism, and hierarchy. The Great Awakening caused Christianity so that
the average person came to know and to foster a deep sense of spiritual
conviction and redemption. The Great Awakening then encouraged introspection
and commitment to a new standard of morality.[1]
The Great Awakening was an important social event as it
challenged established authority. This challenge incited great consternation
and division among the traditionalist Protestants who insisted on a
continuation of the importance of ritual and doctrine and that of the
revivalists who were teaching and encouraging emotional involvement. The impact
was a reshaping of many Protestant denominations but had little impact on the
Anglicans, Lutherans, and Quakers they were staunch in their doctrine of the
“inner light.” Prominent leaders of the First Great Awakening were Johnathan
Edwards, George Whitefield, and Samuel Davies.
The First
Great Awakening saw a new method of preaching and a new way people practiced
their faith bringing a new life into the religion of America. People were no
longer complacent and became passionately and emotionally involved in their
religion. The preachers of this new method were called “new lights” and those
who remained unemotional were called “old lights.” People began to study their
Bible at home. This new way of thinking religiously caused schisms and
conflicts. The Congregational Church in New England experienced 98 schisms.
These splits were between the “New Lights,” and the “Old Lights.”
The Great Awakening divided also
between the “Arminians,” who welcomed the revivals. The Arminians believed that
everyone could experience conversion at one of the revivals. The Calvinists
disputed this and held to a doctrine that everyone’s fate was a matter of predestination
and that the revivals were false, a false religion. The Great Awakening having
a huge impact on religion also had its negative side due to over-preaching. The
Great Awakening was mostly in the upper part of America especially in the upper
part of New York. This area became called the “burned out district due to over preaching.” It is from
this “burned out district” that several cults and sects were formed.Western New York in the 1800's where much preaching of the Gospel stirred the souls of men and women. The new nation being now formed in 1776 A.D., people began to move from the East into the West and onto the frontier. This movement by people caused and isolation from their roots and to fill this isolation some people turned to men of God, seers, and mystics and out of this many cults and sects began as a wave of religious revival spread across the land especially in the new frontier. Revivals and religious innovations had an impact upon the people. Immigrants looking for a better and new way of life migrated to work on the Erie Canal, and farmland, with constant economic up and downs. During this time conversions were swift, emotional and with intense fervor.
Some of those who led this religious fervor that were outlandish were: Lorenzeo, "Crazy Dow" who offered an eccentric take on the Christian gospel. Isaac Bullard preached free love and communism; John Humphrey Noyes founded the utopian Oneida Community that promoted "complex marriage' a sort of holy free love. Within the Shakers Mother Ann Lee preached celibacy and to ability to become perfect. William Miller whose followers became the Seventh Day Adventist preached that Jesus Christ would return in 1843 A.D. even the mainline Protestants Churches received some new way to worship, a re-styling of the service. Charles Finney began his preaching and revivals and it was in one of Finney's meetings that Joseph Smith Jr. says that he experience conversion and that by this God revealed that the current religions were fakes. It was the mother of Joseph Smith Jr. that encouraged him to start a new religion.
We have facts and knowledge to understand why people would turn to a new religion especially if that religion touted that they were Christian and that God somehow told them to start a new religion. Not all Christians succumbed to this new religious wave of emotion and fervor and stood firm for the gospel as it was first preached and taught. Men such as Jonathan Edwards, Whitfield, and others who held to the faith once received kept the orthodox belief in the minds of those who were seeking truth. Yet out of all this Mormonism began and we need to now examine this new belief starting with the one who began this religion: Joseph Smith Jr.
[1] Thomas S. Kidd, The Great Awakening: The Roots of
Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America (2009)
