Saturday, June 19, 2010

Mormon Church Genealogy: Knowing About the History of Mormons

There is no question that religion is definitely needed in a man's daily life. It gives you a sense of purpose and it also gives you a moral guide. Today, one of the most popular religion and part of the Christian religion is the Latter Day Saint movement or more commonly called as Mormon.

However, not many people know about the genealogy of the Mormon Church. Mormon is considered to be adherents to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to history, the term "Mormon" came from the Book of Mormon. This particular book is a religious text that a person named Joseph Smith, Jr. translated. The book contains information about the history of early inhabitants of the Americas and was written and compiled by a prophet called Mormon.

You have to consider that Mormons are neither Protestants nor the members of this religious sect does not consider themselves as a large part of Christianity. However, they do consider themselves as Christians who also believes in Jesus Christ and on what He stood for.

The Mormon's history is definitely not a very pleasant one. They have struggled and have faced prosecution from other religion and other sect of Christianity. According to the Book of Mormon, the prophet Mormon who lived in the Americas during the 4th century was called by God to compile records about his people and compile it in a single book.

After Mormon's death, his son named, Moroni witnessed the persecution and complete destruction of his people. He is also the person who buried the original Book of Mormon in a hill called Comorah, which is now called upstate New York.

After 1400 years, Moroni was said to have been sent by God as a messenger to a man named Joseph Smith, Jr. Smith was then sent by Moroni to the book's burial place and was instructed to translate it into English. Claiming that Smith don't even know about the language that was written in the book, he translated the Book of Mormon completely and accurately. These miraculous events have made Smith as a prophet of God.

However, the struggle of the Mormon people didn't end there. Smith was murdered in 1844 by a mob in a Carthage, Illinois jail. After that terrible year, most of the followers of Latter-day Saints began following Brigham Young who became president of his denomination. He then proceeded to an Exodus to Salt Lake City in Utah, which has now the largest population of Mormons all over the world. Other claimants to the Church presidency led their followers to other locations all over the United States, and some stayed behind Nauvoo, Illinois.

Up until this day, the term "Mormon" was used to describe Brigham Young's group in Salt Lake City, Utah. However, the other smaller groups have adopted the Latter Day Saints and have made efforts to reject the use of the word "Mormon" to describe their group. They claimed that it made no reference to Jesus on which the Church of Mormon and Latter Day Saints Church is their central figure.

You have to understand that Mormon are very different in terms of theology, practice and culture among other religious sect, such as Mennonites, Religious Society of Friends, Jehovah's Witnesses and Amish.

These are the genealogy of the Mormon Church. As you can see, Mormons are quite different from other Christian religion and other forms of religious Sect.

If you are looking for the first time at your family tree, your heritage or your lineage, this genealogy guide is the place to start to uncover your ancestry.

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