NewVistas organizational, social, and economic structure:
Historical foundations
Introduction
The NewVistas organizational structure is non-hierarchical. Each of the 480 four-person operational presidencies has a clear set of unique duties to perform, and the 960 four-person Branch Presidencies serve and live with participants at each unique apartment building site. The Organizational structure is a result of analysis of the original LDS organization, which was initially not hierarchical, and adaption of all the other LDS organizational innovations that occurred between its original organization in June of 1829 through to the innovations brought in by the Plat of Zion and the House of the Lord design revelations of June 1833 and additional revelations and changes through 1847.
The early LDS movement’s leadership was originally organized as an egalitarian structure. This structure unfortunately rapidly evolved to become rigidly hierarchical. The evolution was the product of the social and economic circumstances the founding leader found himself in. It was also a response to the various political and historical forces that he faced, as well as his interpretation of scripture and editing of his own revelations and the prevailing culture of the times.
There was an incentive by church leaders and members to shape the church in a way they understood or desired, rather than what had been revealed, or what would be sustainable for the long term, especially regarding achieving the objective of spreading Zion communities worldwide as commanded.
This paper explains the evolution of the LDS church’s organization. It points out what was missed or changed so that the LDS church’s leadership structure ended up as it is today, compared to what is recommended for NewVistas. It also offers a timeline of the church’s origins and development. The life of Joseph Smith is central to this development, explaining his disposition on various matters that shaped the early church’s organization into what it is now.
Origins – Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack
Joseph Smith Jr was the son of Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith. Joseph Sr was born in Topsfield, Massachusetts in 1771. Joseph Sr was descended from Puritans who had emigrated to America from England in the 17th century. Though he was a spiritual man, and identified with the protestant faith, Joseph Sr did not actively participate in any congregation.
On January 24, 1796, in Tunbridge, Vermont, Joseph Sr married Lucy Mack, the daughter of Solomon Mack. Lucy Mack was born in 1775. Solomon had served in the colonial army during the French and Indian War, and later, in the Revolutionary War. Solomon was a farmer and a logger.
Lucy met Joseph Sr in Tunbridge, where Lucy was visiting with her brother, Stephen, who was reasonably prosperous and owned a tavern and a store in the town. Stephen was acquainted with Joseph Sr through Joseph’s father, Asael, and elder brother, Jesse.
On their wedding, Solomon gave the newlyweds a set of silver teaspoons, a prized possession that they carried throughout their subsequent relocations. Stephen Mack, Lucy’s brother, gave them a farm, approximately 100 acres, and $1,000 in cash.
The couple’s first child to survive adulthood, Alvin, was born in 1798. 10 more children would arrive over the next several years. Using the wedding gifts, Joseph Sr and Lucy Mack endeavored to be as successful as could be possible in their time, though they found success hard to come by. They opened a store in Randolph, as well as other businesses in the town.
In 1802, Joseph heard that ginseng was a hot commodity in China. He and his wife invested much of the money they had received in the ginseng business. The enterprise involved digging up and processing ginseng roots, which, if properly dried or crystalized, can last for several years – making them ideal for 18th and 19th-century international trade. The product was utilized for medicinal properties in China.
Normally, a trader agreed with the captain of a ship that when the ship reached China, the captain could sell the commodity, and on returning, would give the trader the agreed-upon money. Joseph Sr duly did this, but before he had contacted the ship’s captain, he had tried to enter into a business agreement with another business associate, known as Stephen. While Stephen got wind of the story, and was also sending his son to China, he connived to shortchange Joseph.
Stephen’s son sold Joseph Sr’s ginseng and kept all the proceeds. When the ship returned, Joseph Sr was only given a case of tea, being told that either his ginseng was of low quality or had gone bad. While he tried to continue, the business had left him virtually bankrupt. He was facing mounting debt and was forced to sell off the farm to settle his accounts.
The misfortune set off a period of economic and social hardship for the Smith family. They would move houses and towns more than 10 times in the next few years, living in several locations including Tunbridge, Royal Town, and Sharon, Vermont, where Joseph Smith was born on December 23, 1805. The family was supported by the Macks significantly; for instance, the Sharon farm was owned by Stephen Mack, who had also established that Joseph Sr had been conned of his ginseng shipment to China.
Throughout this time, the activities that the Smith family engaged in – commerce, psychedelic mushroom harvesting, treasure-hunting, maple syrup sapping, and others were unlike other struggling farmers in New England, who were mostly content to survive. It was a legacy of the early years after Joseph Sr’s marriage to Lucy, and his experience with international trade from the coastal cities. These characteristics would shape their lives over the next decades, and ultimately, how the church developed.
Joseph Smith – early years: 1805 – 1819
Joseph Smith Jr. was the 4th child in a family of eleven children with 6 living into adulthood. When he was born in the area of Sharon Vermont on December 23, 1805, his father had failed as an aspiring businessman and over the next several years a combination of factors including weather and the War of 1812, conspired to sabotage his efforts at farming.
In 1812, when Joseph was 7 years old, a typhoid outbreak swept through the region. Joseph and his younger sister were among those infected. He underwent an experimental operation by a well known surgeon of the time to deal with a typhoid infection in one of his legs, which consigned him to clutches for several years, and even after that, a limp – as a result, he was not very useful on the farm.
After the operation, Joseph Smith went with his uncle, Jesse Smith to Salem, Massachusetts, where his mother felt that he would recover better in the fresh sea air on the Atlantic coast. Jesse was an assertive religious man, who, at around this time drafted a “certificate of protest” to prevent Turnbridge town, Vermont from collecting a tax from him to pay a minister whose theological positions he disagreed with. After living with Jesse for a few months , the young Joseph was sent to live with a more distant relative in the household of Joseph Peabody and Elizabeth Smith. Peabody was a successful merchant known for his maritime trade that Jesse and the Smith family knew because of business and family connections.
Joseph Peabody (1757 – 1844) was at first married to Catherine Smith, who died childless in 1793. 2 years later, in 1795, he married Catherine’s sister, Elizabeth, with whom he had 4 children who survived to adulthood. The sisters were Rev Elias Smith’s daughters. Elias Smith was a respected minister who was the chaplain of the Massachusetts Militia during the American Revolution. He passed away before Joseph’s stay with his daughter Elizabeth, but Joseph would have become exposed to his influence and theology through books he had access to in the Peabody home and discussions with his foster mother at the time Elizabeth Smith.
After humble beginnings, Joseph Peabody grew to become one of the wealthiest merchants in Salem. His trade focused on goods that were obtained in Asia, including pepper and textiles. He was also a noted philanthropist, with his legacy including the Peabody Essex Museum.
In the early 1800s, tales and rumors of pirate activity were common along the eastern seaboard of the US. Hidden treasure became a fascinating preoccupation for many and formed a significant part of local folklore. All these stories, though in many cases, exaggerations contributed to the mystique that defined New England’s seafaring reputation.
While living in the Peabody household, Joseph Smith was exposed to books that for a young man like Joseph were the “video games” of the period. Joseph was also exposed to a sophisticated social scene, with well-informed people who were versed not only in seafaring and business but also in matters of philosophy and religion. As a young boy, Salem exposed Joseph to exciting accounts of pirates and hidden treasure, that had been hidden in Salem.
These influences would stay with him for much of his life –, when he and Fanny Alger were kicked out of Kirtland, Ohio on Sunday July 24, 1836, Joseph returned to Salem in search of gold treasure that he had heard about as a child and tried to find the gold to cover the large debts that were incurred while building the Kirtland temple.
Joseph Smith, after nearly 3 years of recovering but still walking with a limp, returned home to Norwich, Vermont in 1815 where his family had moved to from Lebanon New Hampshire. He returned to a family in financial turmoil. They were under pressure from the local community, due to their failure to meet their financial obligations. A series of crop failures had made their financial situation even more untenable. In addition, allegations of treasure-hunting further poisoned relations with their neighbors.
Their financial situation meant that their neighbors were required to help them, under Vermont’s “poor laws”. However, to avoid this, the Smith family was “warned out.” Warning people out of town in 19th-century rural communities, like Norwich, Vermont, involved publicizing the names of individuals or families who couldn’t meet their financial obligations, such as unpaid debts or mortgages.
This method of social pressure was designed to shame people into fulfilling their obligations. For the Smith family, this would have meant facing public embarrassment and social ostracism, adding further difficulty to their already precarious economic situation. Norwich became unviable, forcing the family to move, this time to Palmyra, New York in 1816, after withstanding harsh weather conditions that caused massive crop failure, later known as the “year without summer.”
The year without summer was caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in 1816, which pumped huge amounts of ash into the atmosphere. By blocking the sun, there were widespread weather anomalies in the Northern Hemisphere, with the effects most acutely being felt in North America and Europe. The spring and winter were very cold, even snowing sometimes, and led to massive crop failure. Many farming communities in New England.
In Palmyra, the Smiths got by performing odd jobs, including working the fields for farmers, digging wells, and other jobs that came along. Joseph, who was still recuperating, walking with a limp, was known to spend much of his time in the local bookstore. He would spend hours reading books at the store but never buying any as reported by residents of Palmyra in later years.
The Smith family moved to a farm in nearby Manchester in 1818. The densely forested land required the best efforts of the Smith clan, to clear and till the land, dig wells, build barns, and other amenities. By 1820, they had cleared around 30 acres, with much of the land still being heavily wooded.
By the time they moved to the farm, Joseph was able to help. Part of the land consisted of a maple tree grove. The family would sap the maple syrup every year and boil it down to produce sugar. Joseph’s main task was to cut down the trees needed to get the firewood needed for the extraction. In the process, they were clearing up more land for cultivation.
As indicated, treasure-hunting was a preoccupation among some New Englanders in the early 1800s. Neighbors later recounted negatively that treasure hunting was not only significant but the main economic activity for the Smiths.
Book of Mormon – preparation to receive plates – 1819 – 1827
In 1819, Joseph became interested in the activities of a local well-known seer, Sally Chase, who was also a neighbor. After interacting with her for a short time, Joseph used Sally’s stone to locate his own.
Joseph’s experiences in Salem, as well as treasure-hunting and reading books, enabled him to reflect on the issue of religion and his sins. As he recalled later when he wrote his history in 1838, as he read the book of James, the brother of Jesus. One verse greatly impressed him, which inspired him to pray and inquire of the Lord about the right path.
The verse, James 1:5, reads “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” He was also impressed to seek forgiveness for his sins. On Sunday March 26, 1820 Joseph was in his 14th year and he proceeded to a grove where his family had been harvesting the maple trees for the yearly maple sugar cash crop and prayed audibly for the first time in his life, at which time God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. The vision is known in the LDS movement as the” First Vision.” The vision occurred on March 26, 1820.
Joseph Smith declared in his history that he had received a vision, and shared details of the vision with a few family members and a local religious leader. This brought about persecution, with Joseph being ridiculed for the ostensible “blasphemous” claim that he had received a visitation from God.
In the meantime, he continued treasure-hunting and other odd jobs as they presented themselves. On one occasion in 1822, he and his elder brother, Alvin, were hired by Willard Chase, Sally’s brother, to help him dig a well. As they dug the well, Joseph Smith obtained another seer stone, in addition to the one he had obtained in 1819 using Sally’s seer stone.
At the same time, Joseph also worked for other people, including Martin Harris, a wealthy farmer who first hired Joseph Smith Sr as a farm hand, as well as digging a well and a cistern.
On September 21, 1823, after praying again for the forgiveness of his sins, the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith, told him that God had a calling for him, and revealed the location of the golden plates that he would later translate into what would become the Book of Mormon. He was shown the plates, and other translating instruments hidden buried in a hill but forbidden to extract them for the next four years.
At the time Moroni appeared to Joseph, he was 17 years old. He was deemed by the angel to be still “not ready” for the calling he was due to embark on. He was commanded to go back every year on the anniversary of Moroni’s first visitation. In addition to being too young, Joseph was still deeply involved in the treasure-hunting business, performing odd jobs, and was generally not in the right mental and financial frame to embark on the calling that God had prepared for him.
Every year, Joseph would be prepared more to be ready to receive and translate when the Lord eventually decided that it was time. This time was a trying time for the Smith family. Joseph’s eldest brother, Alvin, who was a major breadwinner in the family, died in December 1823, a few months after Moroni appeared to Joseph. The burden of caring for their elderly parents, finishing the family house, and making mortgage payments on their farm fell on Hyrum and Joseph.
In September 1824, exactly one year after the Angel Moroni first appeared and showed him the gold plates, Joseph went to the place where the angel had shown him the plates. He had been told that he would be collecting the plates and returning home with them. However, he was not yet ready. He was preoccupied in his mind about the material worth of gold plates, and whatever else was in the stone chest.
The angel momentarily gave him the plates, but soon after took them away and sent Joseph away, because he was not yet ready. The next year weighed hard on the Smiths, making Joseph more, not less, eager to exploit the plates’ material value. It is therefore clear that this mindset made his attempt in 1825 to be unsuccessful as well.
By 1825, matters had come to a head. The Smith family was being hounded by creditors. Alvin’s death two years earlier had made it difficult to make the required mortgage payments on their farm. Their creditor foreclosed in 1825, though the Smiths gained a reprieve by convincing a local farmer, Lemuel Durfee, to buy the farm and rent it back to them. This way, they were able to stay on the farm.
The financial hardship seems to have led Joseph to abscond his aim to quit treasure-hunting and focus on his calling. When Josiah Stowell called on him to help him look for a rumored old Spanish silver mine in Harmony, Pennsylvania, Joseph readily agreed. He heard of Joseph’s abilities and hired both him and his father to help. While treasure-hunting was going to make him less worthy to receive the plates, Joseph accepted hoping to alleviate his family’s dire economic situation.
Joseph was engaged by Josiah from October 1825. The treasure-hunting exercise was unsuccessful, and after only a few months, Joseph convinced Josiah to call off the operation. Even before this, Josiah’s relatives, especially his nephew, Peter Bridgeman, thought that Joseph was defrauding Josiah.
On March 20, 1826, Joseph Smith was charged with the misdemeanor of “pretending to discover where lost goods may be found.” In the trial in Bainbridge, New York, he was described in court papers as “the glass looker.” working to discover lost goods was indeed against the law, as described in a statute that the New York State Legislature had enacted in 1813. Joseph was acquitted for lack of evidence. He continued working for Josiah Stowell, until at least early 1827.
When Joseph and Josiah had begun working on the rumored mine in 1825, they had boarded the home of Isaac Hale. While living there, Joseph met Hale’s daughter, Emma. They courted for the next several months and decided to marry. When they informed Emma’s father, he flatly refused.
The two were united in their resolve to get married, however. In early 1827, they returned to Bainbridge, where one of the justices of peace present at the trial – Zachariah Tarbell – married them in his home. Thereafter the couple travelled to the Smiths’ family home.
In September of 1827, Joseph had a wife, was 21 years old, and had given up the treasure-hunting business (at least at that time), after Moroni commanded him to do so, telling him that the Smith family’s financial situation, though dire, was subordinate to God’s plan for him. Moroni then deemed him ready to retrieve the golden plates.
Receiving the plates and translating the Book of Mormon – 1827 – 1829
On 22 September 1827, Joseph went to the hill with Emma. He was finally allowed to access the plates so that he could translate them to create what is now the Book of Mormon. The couple went home with the plates. However, there was enormous pressure from treasure hunters, who considered themselves as partners of Joseph. Therefore, believed that they had a claim to his discovery. It became impossible to do the translation work in New York.
Joseph and Emma eventually took the plates with them to a home in Harmony, Pennsylvania in late October 1827. Emma’s father set the couple up on a farm and a house. Over the next few months, Joseph translated 116 pages, with Emma and Martin Harris acting as scribes, and Martin funding the translation process.
Harris, spending a considerable amount of money and effort on the process, was under immense pressure from his wife, Lucy, who did not see the venture as a good use of their family’s resources. Harris convinced Joseph to let him take the translated manuscript to Lucy to allay her fears. In mid-July 1828, shortly after showing the papers to his family, the manuscript was lost, possibly burnt by Lucy, and has never found although many have spent years in trying to locate it.
Consequently, the plates were taken away from Joseph by the angel Moroni, causing Joseph great distress. After humbling himself and repenting his sins (D&C 3), Smith received the plates back in September of 1828. However, he made little progress on translation until April of 1829 when Oliver Cowdery joined him as a full-time translator. The pair were told not to re-do the first part of the Book of Mormon that had been lost. Instead, they began with the second part of the Book of Mormon, starting with what is now the Book of Mosiah. They worked full-time for the next three months to complete it.
They later translated the first part of the Book of Mormon, using what was called the small plates of Nephi. These plates were separate from the plates of Mormon and were given to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery by the prophet Nephi in May of 1829. Oliver, as promised in D&C 8, helped translate these additional ancient plates which were called the small plates of Nephi.
Offices/ terms in the Book of Mormon
As Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, they became conversant with some of the offices that would be established in the future church over time. Some of the offices and terms were in due course operationalized by Joseph Smith, though not always in the context revealed in scripture. They include:
Prophet – People who receive revelations and guide people. They also seek God’s opinion on behalf of the people and communicate back. In the Book of Mormon, prophets deliver messages to the people, in 1 Nephi 1:4 warning them to repent. A prophet is an ordinary person who makes mistakes and must repent and become holy, spotless, and cleansed through the atonement of Christ before being able to receive any revelation from God (Alma 5:24). Rejecting God’s prophets, according to Helaman 13, brings about God’s wrath. Prophets labor diligently to keep the faith and stay on the right path, according to Jarom 1:11. Prophets in the Book of Mormon always appear out of the blue when needed and without any succession.
Priests – in the Book of Mormon, they perform religious rites. They also teach the people, alongside prophets and teachers, as noted in Jarom 1:11 “Wherefore, the prophets, and the priests, and the teachers, did labor diligently, exhorting with all long-suffering the people to diligence; teaching the law of Moses, and the intent for which it was given; persuading them to look forward unto the Messiah, and believe in him to come as though he already was. And after this manner did they teach them.”
Priests are ordained by elders to teach the people (Mosiah 18:18). They can also be consecrated, as Nephi did to Jacob and Joseph in 2 Nephi 5:25 so that they can be priests and teachers over the people. Priests watch over the people, and nourish them on righteousness, according to Mosiah 23:17. They are members of the Aaronic priesthood which has a lot fewer callings than the Melchizedek.
Teachers – They assist in instructing the people in the ways of the Lord (Mosiah 23:17). Teachers impart knowledge to the people about the law and God’s word. They play an important part in keeping people on the right path as God commands.
High priests – High priests hold a distinct role from priests and teachers. High priests are people of exceedingly strong faith and good deeds. They teach the commandments, and because of their status, they will declare the second coming of Christ. They are members of the Melchizedek priesthood and are also involved in Temple ceremonies.
Disciples – they are called by the Lord. They are tasked with testifying and professing the word of God. They also collectively lead the church, as they did in the Americas, according to 3 Nephi. Disciples, however, are not witnesses of Christ’s mission on earth especially his death and resurrection, like the apostles in Jerusalem.
While disciples followed Jesus and learned his ways, apostles were sent out to preach the message of God. As followers, disciples could easily replicate – there could be more followers of Christ willing and able to testify and profess the word of Christ as taught by Christ. However, apostles could not – there was only a limited number of apostles – 12 – who were known as apostles. Paul was also called an apostle because he was visited by Christ, but he was not considered part of the 12 who were witnesses to all of Christ’s ministry. This was because to be an apostle, one had to have three attributes – chosen by Christ, be taught by him, and see him after his resurrection – attributes that Paul met.
Other terms and concepts
The time that Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and Martin Harris spent translating or scribing the Book of Mormon enabled them to be familiar with some key aspects, such as baptism, and the concept of the twelve disciples, among other key concepts that would in future be foundational to the LDS faith and NewVistas’ organizational structure.
In May 1829, Joseph and Oliver were working on the book of Mosiah. They came across important concepts and offices, which led them to seek divine guidance. They included the works and fate of the Prophet Abinadi, the first Nephite martyr, and Alma’s preaching and of converts.
In the book of Mosiah, Alma also ordained priests. Each priest was responsible for 50 people, teaching and preaching to them about God’s commandments. The priests also had a responsibility to ensure that the conduct and welfare of the community aligned with the teachings of God. Learning these concepts was important for Joseph and Oliver and caused them to go to the woods to pray and inquire about baptism and the authority to confer priestly authority.
When they sought divine guidance, on the 15th of May 1829, they received a visitation from John the Baptist, who bestowed the Aaronic priesthood on them and authorized them to ordain other Priests and to baptize. John also promised them that Peter James and John would later appear to them and give them the power to bestow the gift of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist directed them to baptize each other as Alma had done – through immersion – at the Susquehanna River.
The two also ordained each other after baptism, marking their status as the first two people to belong to the nascent church, as well as its first priests of this the “last dispensation of time”. The Melchizedek priesthood was restored later in May with a visitation by Peter, James, and John to Joseph and Oliver.1
The translation of the Book of Mormon before June 1 was done in Joseph Smith’s house in Harmony, Pennsylvania. Due to local pressure from Emma’s family and neighbors who objected to the new religion, Joseph, Oliver, Emma, and others left for the Whitmer’s home in Fayette, New York. The rest of the translation was done here.
The Three Witnesses and 8 Witnesses – 1829
From the translation, Oliver and Smith had learned about the three witnesses who would be allowed to see the golden plates, besides Joseph Smith, who had been the only one to see them before June 1829. By a revelation given through Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and David Whitmer were chosen as the Three Witnesses. The three testified that their being witnesses, and the translation of the Book of Mormon had been enabled by the power of God.
Thereafter, an additional 8 witnesses declared that they too had had the opportunity to see, examine, and lift the plates. The 8 were members of the Smith and Whitmer families, who had been in close contact with Joseph Smith as he translated the Book of Mormon.
The Three Witnesses, the Eight Witnesses, and Joseph Smith added up to 12 people who had seen the plates. These were the first disciples, like the disciples in the Book of Mormon. They started preaching and proclaiming the gospel, declaring their faith, and baptizing and giving the gift of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands to new members and testifying about their miraculous witness of the Book of Mormon which was another witness of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, the LDS church was first organized with the selection of the 12 disciples who were also the 12 witnesses to the Book of Mormon in June of 1829. On April 6, 1830, a more formal re-organization was carried out by Joseph Smith primarily in a move to solidify leadership away from the Book of Mormon example of 12 Disciples towards a Biblical Moses. This fact is alluded to by David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses, when he discloses that by April 6, 1830, when the Church was “formally organized”, he and other disciples had already been baptizing and confirming new members into the church for eight months. In addition, there were already three branches of the church by April 1830. The three branches held the first annual conference of the church in Fayette, New York at the home of Peter Whitmer Sr on June 9, 1830.
Publishing the Book of Mormon – August 1829 – March 1830
Translating the Book of Mormon was completed by 30 June 1829. A few weeks before, on 11 June, Joseph Smith had filed a copyright as the author of the book. This was chiefly to protect the book, rather than an assertion that he was indeed the author – while he was, in fact, the translator, alongside, for parts of the small plate of Nephi, Oliver Cowdery.
While the Book of Mormon was now complete, it was necessary to have copies so that the 12 disciples could show their audiences what they were talking about. Therefore, the book needed to be published.
After searching hard to find a printer, they settled on E. B. Grandin. The cost was $3,000. This was a huge figure – almost $100,000 in today’s terms – and was expected to be raised by a group of young men who did not have the means. Martin Harris, who had financially supported Joseph Smith over the last few years, was the only one with the ability to raise the money.
Grandin was at first hesitant to print the book, fearing for his reputation, and well-founded fears that the book might not be profitable. At the time, he was just 23 years old and had only recently started the printing business in his own right. However, after he first turned down Joseph, Joseph secured a commitment from another publisher in Rochester to print, he had second thoughts, egged on by business associates who assured him that he would not be associated with the book.
On 26th June 1829, Grandin announced that he would be publishing the book via the Wayne Sentinel, a newspaper that he had recently acquired. This was just days before the translation was officially over. Grandin likely acquired the title page that he published in the newspaper from the copyright application that Joseph had filed 2 weeks earlier.
Over July of 1829 and much of August, Joseph and others worked with Grandin to secure a deal to have the Book of Mormon published. The initial solution had been for Martin to sell all or part of his farm. When this failed, the next best solution was mortgaging the farm. Martin was pushed into an agreement with Joseph by a revelation that was very much “from the mind of Joseph” because he was desperate which is now published as D&C 19. D&C 19:26. “And again, I command thee (Martin) that thou shalt not covet thine own property but impart it freely to the printing of the Book of Mormon, which contains the truth and the word of God.”
Joseph Smith, Martin Harris, and others on one side, and E. B. Grandin on the other, reached an agreement on 25 August 1829 to print the book. Martin mortgaged his farm, agreeing to pay Grandin $3,000 within eighteen months, though he needed assurances that he would be paid back from the sales of the book from Joseph.
The mortgage solution effectively meant that should Martin Harris fail to pay the publisher $3,000; he would lose his farm. Grandin had been initially apprehensive about the deal because of this fact, and because he feared the book may never sell enough copies in time to thwart the real chance of a foreclosure.
Printing – September 1829 – March 1830
Printing work started after Oliver Cowdery had prepared a printer’s manuscript. Grandin owned the Wayne Sentinel, a local newspaper, which first reported the existence of the book to the public and printed the title page. Grandin had recently acquired a Smith Improved Printing Press, which was among the most advanced at the time.
A local journalist, Abner Cole, also used Grandin’s press to print a weekly newspaper and therefore had access to Grandin’s printing office. He came across some pages of the manuscript, which he published without Smith’s approval, mocking the book and Smith, as its assumed author. Smith threatened legal action against Cole for his actions, which Cole heeded.
However, word had got out, and soon after, the Wayne Sentinel reported a plan to boycott the book, due to bad press that the book suffered from Cole, and since the local community was unhappy with the Smith family’s religious activities, as well as the debts they had incurred. Grandin was also threatened with a boycott, and decided to stop the publishing work, though Smith eventually convinced him to resume.
While this was going on, behind the scenes, Martin was hedging on selling the land but on January 16, 1830, he received assurances from Joseph, in the form of an agreement that he would have “equal privilege” in selling the book until the printing debt had been settled.
His hesitation on following through with his commitment to fund led other disciples to panic, worried that Martin may not avail of the needed funds. They felt he was not committed to selling the land. In particular, Hyrum Smith, Joseph’s brother and one of the disciples, was highly critical.
Hyrum suggested an alternative way to raise the money: sell the book’s copyright in Kingston, Canada. Canada was also ideal since it had more straightforward copyright laws compared to the US, and it was part of the British empire, giving the saints a great platform to sell the book elsewhere throughout the empire.
Hyrum contended that by being able to bypass Martin, they would deny Martin any share of the proceeds of its sales, should it be successful, which they all earnestly believed it would be. Hyrum encouraged Joseph Smith to seek a revelation on this, which Smith duly delivered. The revelation was received in early 1830, probably at around the same time Joseph and Harris were signing their agreement.
In the revelation, Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Knight, Hiram Page, and Josiah Stowell were to go to Kingston, Canada, a populous city at the time, and sell the book’s rights. Between January and March 1830, Oliver and Hiram Page made the journey. They returned half-starved and empty-handed, as they had failed to secure any deal for the book.
They had found out that Canada did not have the authority to issue a copyright. Upper Canada did not have a copyright law, and therefore, there was no one to give the copyright. In addition, the New York copyright could not be applied to Canada, as there was a ban on importing books into Canada – they all had to come from England. The first law that would have somehow helped Oliver and Hiram was only operational from 1841.
In October of 1830, four months before the mortgage was due, Grandin assigned the mortgage to Thomas Rogers at a discount for $2,000. The book had not sold well, and Grandin needed funds to pay for supplies and labor. The foreclosed mortgage was sold in April 1831 to Thomas Lakey for $3,000, who in turn sold it a few years later for $3,300 with the new owner foreclosing and Martin Harris never recovered the farm.
Revelations of God, man, or the devil
The Canada misadventure shook the saints, who enquired of Joseph Smith how it was that a revelation from God could fail so miserably. Joseph sought a revelation in all humility about this, and it came through the seer stone, saying that “some revelations are of God: some revelations are of man: and some revelations are of the devil.”
The first conference held by the church on June 9, 1830, in Fayette, New York, at the home of Peter Whitmer Sr. was a significant gathering for the early church. During the conference, church business was discussed, with Joseph Smith presiding. Among other things, he taught the members that they had a duty to review all revelations and seek the Holy Spirits guidance to determine whether they were of God, man, or the devil.
In later years, David Whitmer elaborated on this, teaching that determining whether a revelation was of God, man, or the devil meant closely examining the desires of the revelator. According to Whitmer, to receive a revelation from God, a man must be humble and contrite. When Joseph Smith was translating the Book of Mormon, he would periodically be unable to translate, because “his mind dwelt too much on earthly things,” making him unable to do anything until he became sufficiently humble before God.
David also beseeched saints to carefully analyze revelations to determine whether they were of God, man, or Satan. Man is a free agent, bestowed with the ability to discern between good and bad. He should therefore be able to distinguish between truth and error in doctrine.
The motivations behind a revelation also point a person toward the truth. When Joseph Smith sent people to Canada, he was doing so after having received a revelation whose command he anticipated. He had already decided that he would send some members of the church to Canada to try to sell the copyright. When a person is persuaded by his own “carnal desires”, rather than an honest motivation to know God’s will, the revelation received is a revelation of man or the devil.
In an 1848 letter to William McLellin, Hiram Page disclosed that when Joseph Smith heard that there was a supposed opportunity to sell the copyright useful in Canada, he jumped at the idea because of the reward he would reap – he would get “a handsome sum of money,” at his disposal. This directly mirrors Joseph’s attempt to obtain the golden plates in September 1824, intending to make a profit for them, an attempt that had failed as well.
One who seeks to establish the origin of a revelation, as well as those who seek revelations from God, must be sufficiently humble. Only then, by suppressing their ambition, can they either receive a revelation from God or discern the legitimacy of a revelation.
Releasing the book and reorganization of the church – 1830
After these delays and other hiccups, the book was released to the public on 26 March 1830, exactly 10 years after the First Vision. The very first book to be completed was given to Joseph Smith, who was 24 years old. Grandin, the printer, was only 23 years old at the time. Joseph Smith presented the book to Martin Harris, who had funded the production. In turn, Martin gave the book to his brother, Emer Harris. Emer and his descendants protected the book until it was donated to Thomas Monson, who was at the time the president of Deseret Book.
The book was on display in the LDS Church History Museum just West of Temple Square in Salt Lake City until December of 2005, when it was replaced by another first edition of the Book of Mormon. In January of 2006, the book was sold by Deseret Book to David Hall, who kept it in his family until 2011, when he gifted it back to the church via Marlin Jensen, who was church historian at the time.
The 12 disciples and other church members had projected in their financial planning that the book would be a big hit and sell out very quickly, but they were disappointed and the $ from sales were very slow to come in. Martin as a result had to sell his farm to cover what was owed to the mortgage holders. Lucy, his wife, left him, together with their children, in June 1830. They would remain estranged until Lucy died in 1834. He and other members desperately tried to sell the books but were met with very limited success.
Amidst all this, the 12 disciples continued to profess their faith, preach, and bear witness to the Book of Mormon. They were also receiving revelations in their own right as they were expected to as disciples, especially Hiram Page. Hiram received revelations through a seer stone about the place where Zion was to be and the governing principles of Zion, which prominent members of the church, including the Whitmer’s, believed.
Hiram Page was later forced by Joseph to denounce his revelations as false and of the devil. However, those who had believed in their legitimacy, mainly, the Whitmer family, moved to Independence, Missouri, in 1832 to fulfill Hyrum Page’s revelation – Independence was later on July 20, 1831, identified as a center place for the city of Zion by Joseph Smith confirming that Hyrum Page was on the right track with his revelations as an equal Disciple to Joseph.
Today, most historians and members of the LDS movement believe that Independence is “the place” where Zion is to be established. However, D&C 57 explains that Independence was to be the “center” of that particular city of Zion in Missouri, D&C 94 designates Kirtland as another beginning and a foundation of another City of Zion, consistent with the NewVistas position based on statements from the “plat of Zion” that Zion-type cities are to be established throughout the world and for all mankind, rather than being in one specific place and for only one people.
The existence of 12 disciples, all on an equal footing, was the intended scenario envisaged when the body was established. However, without rotating presiding among the 12, and regular weekly meetings and communication, there was soon chaos and the sense by Joseph that he needed to be the “ONE”.
Reorganization of the church – April – June 1830
On April 6, 1830, Joseph Smith reorganized the church. At this meeting, attended by 6 of the disciples and a few other members, Joseph announced himself as a “seer”, which was, according to Mosiah 8:15-16, “greater than a prophet, a gift which is greater can no man have.”
This was at the time seen by most of the other disciples to be a power play and from his “own mind” rather than from GOD, with Joseph Smith claiming that the revelation had commanded the early church that, “ thou shalt give heed unto all his words, and commandments, which he shall give unto you, as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me: for his word ye shall receive as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith; for by doing these things, the gates of hell shall not prevail against thee:”
At this meeting, Oliver Cowdery ordained Joseph Smith as the first elder, before Joseph ordained Oliver as the second elder. In doing so, Joseph had effectively named himself as the church’s leader, with Oliver as his deputy.
Two months later on June 9, 1830, the church held its first annual conference, one year after the church had been founded by the appearance of Peter James and John and also the calling of the 12 disciples. At this conference, more elders, as well as more priests and teachers, were ordained.
The conference was tense as the financial situation had not improved, with the saints still facing bills accrued in the printing of the Book of Mormon, now owed to Martin Harris. It was also at this conference, as pointed out before in this paper, that Joseph Smith taught again that not all revelations were of God – some could be of man, and others, of the devil, depending on the motivations and sincerity of the revelator.
Besides trying to have more control over affairs, the organization of the church was a consequence of the poorly performing Book of Mormon sales, which meant that there was not as much money as the saints had anticipated. There was much anxiety amongst the saints owing to their precarious financial position and standing in society.
Ordination of Emma Smith, and possibly of Elizabeth Whitmer:
In July 1830, Joseph Smith received a revelation for Emma Smith, his wife, now recorded as D&C 25. In the revelation, Emma was to expound and exhort God’s word before the saints. She was also to be ordained to her calling as an “elect lady.” By July of 1830, therefore, the church had in effect three ordained “presidents” – Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and Emma Smith.
When the Nauvoo Relief Society was organized on March 17, 1842, Joseph told the sisters that Emma had already been ordained to be a President of the demographic of women and did not ordain her again. He instructed Emma to select two others to assist her in the Presidency. Emma selected Sarah M. Clevland and Elizabeth Ann Whitney. This three-person presidency was the first Demographic Presidency (Melchizedek) of women in the LDS church. it is likely the first ever in all of history for any religion.
The three women would have occupied the three top row seats (10,11,12) on the West side of the higher court of the temple, with Joseph Smith, Sydney Rigdon, and Hyrum Smith who were the demographic (Melchizedek) presidency of three for the married men and who would have occupied the three seats (10,11,12) on the top row of the West side of the assembly hall of the lower court of the temple. The Nauvoo temple had not been completed but it followed the same pattern as the Kirtland Temple with duplicate lower and higher courts with 4 rows of 3 seats on both the East and West side of both the lower and higher courts.
First (bottom) row – Elders presidency: married men demographic of 3: 1,2,3.
2nd row – High priests’ presidency: married men demographic presidency of 3: 4,5,6
3rd row – Bishopric Presidency: married men demographic presidency of 3: 7,8,9
4th (top) row – Melchizedek presidency: married men demographic presidency of 3: 10,11,12
Joseph also instructed the sisters to organize themselves as an independent organization of women like the men with all the presidencies and their quorums in duplicate fashion, including Priests, Teachers, and Deacons. If Joseph and Emma had followed all the patterns that were provided to them, they would have each formed all the 480 Operational 4- person presidencies with their boards of 12 and their demographic presidencies of 3. Joseph for the married men demographic and Emma for the married women demographic.
Oliver was helping Joseph with an inspired translation of the Bible, resulting in the 5 books of Moses. From the book of Genesis, Oliver, and Joseph understood the essential nature of Adam and Eve as husband and wife, with a command to multiply and replenish the earth.
Elizabeth Ann Whitmer, who was 15 at the time, was David Whitmer’s brother, Oliver Cowdery’s future wife, and one of the earliest baptized converts to the church. Elizabeth had also been the witness to an important miracle.
The details of the miracle are as follows: in late May 1829, David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses, and Elizabeth’s brother, needed to go to Harmony to see Oliver and Joseph. He was to bring them to his father, Peter Whitmer’s house, where they could continue translating the Book of Mormon. His father was okay with all this but required that David first take care of his assigned duties – till and harrow a piece of land and apply lime.
The job would take time that David was not sure that he had, given the distress that Oliver and Joseph were in. He labored hard to finish the assigned duties, but despite his best efforts, was still unable to complete the work. Elizabeth watched on sympathetically, and while she could not help with the land – she was not yet 15 at the time – she could help in other ways, like making breakfast.
On the second day, she rose early to prepare breakfast for her brother. As she stepped out into the yard, however, she saw that the field was all neatly harrowed and plastered. Two strange men were leaving the field at the far side. Presently, David joined her, and the two saw the two men together. It then dawned on them that the two men must have been angels. They had been sent to ensure that David made the trip to Harmony.
David came back with Joseph and Oliver to his father’s house, where the translation of the Book of Mormon recommenced on June 1, 1829. She was a witness to these events, as well as the church’s first conference taking place in June 1830. All these events gave her a ringside seat of the church’s early organization, scripture, miracles, and revelations. Perhaps except for Emma, no other woman had the opportunity to be so intimately involved with the formative period of the church.
Elizabeth married Oliver on December 18th, 1832, in Missouri. If Joseph had been aware of the four-person presidency that was later specified by the May of 1833 Plat, the June of 1833 House of the Lord design, and the two buildings commanded in D&Cs 94 and 95, then the first full four-person presidency could have included Elizabeth filling the single woman demographic court, and Oliver the single men demographic court.
Therefore, in July of 1830, Joseph could have been the married man president, Emma the married woman president, Oliver, the single man president, and Elizabeth, the single woman president.
On April 6, 1836, the very first “sealings” in the church took place. They were termed as “adoptions” – of daughters – at the time. Fanny Alger, who was 19 years old at the time, was adopted by Joseph and Emma Smith. Adeline Fuller, who was 11 years old, was adopted by Oliver and Elizabeth; the couple had married in 1833. Here, while there was now again the potential of 4 presidents, they were all married individuals, and therefore, there were no single men or women presidents and so those positions would have had to be filled by others.
Further attempts By Joseph to gain control from 1830
In the aftermath of the June 1830 conference, the 12 disciples continued to have revelations. However, Joseph Smith sought to put an end to this, since it was complicating his hold on the church as its leader. Hiram Page was receiving revelations on the upbuilding and location of Zion and had received significant support from some members, including Oliver Cowdery. Others, such as David Whitmer, received revelations critical of leaders’ decisions, for instance, the decision to publish the revelations in a Book of Commandments in Independence.
Then, in September 1830, Joseph Smith claimed that he had received a revelation, codified as D&C 28, in which he identified himself as the only one who could receive revelations for the church. In essence, he dismantled the non-hierarchical structure of the 12 disciples and the church in general and replaced it with a rigid hierarchy with himself as the only head.
Smith’s translation of the Old Testament greatly influenced D&C 28. In this revelation, Smith asserted that Hiram Page’s revelations about the upbuilding of Zion had come from Satan, not from God. He also said, “…no one shall be appointed to receive commandments and revelations in this church excepting my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., for he receiveth them even as Moses.” This would inform his future attempts to consolidate control, and in some cases, reject the counsel of his advisors, including Oliver Cowdery.
As indicated elsewhere in the paper, members of the Whitmer family believed Hiram Page’s revelations about the upbuilding of new Jerusalem in Independence. In early 1831, they journeyed to Missouri, intending to set up the new Zion in accordance with the revelations of Hyrum Page. Soon after, they were joined by others, and even Joseph Smith visited thereafter, declaring Independence as the beginning of the new Zion On July 20, 1831.
A new stake of the church was established in Missouri by 1832. Essentially, there were two centers of power, none subordinate to the other. Joseph Smith, however, continued to see himself as the church’s leader. He continued to write letters and send revelations to the Missouri congregation for them to review and accept or reject, including the 1833 plat and House of the Lord design, but the Missouri stake regarded itself as equal and separate.
Bible translation – June 1830 – February 1831
Soon after completing the translation of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith began an inspired translation of some passages in the Old Testament, specifically those attributed to Moses. According to the translation, some aspects had been lost in the original book of Genesis. God had promised to raise a prophet in the latter days to enable these words to be restored, which duly happened when they were translated by Joseph Smith.
The translation of the Bible had a profound impact on Joseph Smith, especially how he viewed himself. Instead of being a disciple just like the others, Joseph started viewing himself as Moses, a powerful prophet who was solely responsible for communicating with God, as well as ministering to the people.
In many respects, however, Joseph moved in the opposite direction. Where in Exodus 18:21, Moses was counseled by Jethro to delegate power, Joseph moved to dismantle the original 12 disciples, which would have acted as a council to help in revelation and administering the church. While Moses later on groomed a successor, Joseph became more dictatorial, amassing investing more power in himself and ensuring that whatever institutions would be set up in the future would only serve at the pleasure of the prophet, and later, the first presidency of the church.
Besides translating the works of Moses, Joseph Smith, and Oliver Cowdery also critically read and translated some parts of the New Testament. As they did so, they encountered important offices and terms, which would be crucial in organizing the church as a community in Christ. Some of the terms they came across and were later implemented, with varying degrees of accuracy and effectiveness, include the following:
Deacon: in the Acts of the Apostles, deacons were ordained by the apostles, led by Peter, to help the poor members of the church, as well as assist church leaders in their ministry. In D&C 107:68, their role is to assist the bishop in administering temporal things.
Elders: Elders were selected to teach, lead, and protect local churches. Paul expected them to be respectable, capable, and above reproach, according to 1 Timothy 3. The role of elders in the LDS church (D&C 20:42) is to teach, baptize, and watch over (protect) the church. The two roles therefore largely therefore match.
Bishop: In 1 Timothy, a bishop’s primary role is to be an overseer, in which capacity they teach and govern. In Acts 20:28 – 31, a bishop is expected to protect and watch over the church, while being a model citizen, neither drinking too much, nor lying, nor greedy for money. In D&C, the bishop has several roles, a crucial one being appointing a storehouse for the church (D&C 51:13). This storehouse has a few roles, including taking care of the poor in the church. According to D&C 72, the bishop would give those “who came unto Zion,” a stewardship, which they would manage wisely to the bishop’s satisfaction.
Seventy: the seventy disciples were selected by Jesus to go to the masses, preach, and heal. Jesus told them, “He that heareth you, heareth me (Luke 10:16).” Joseph Smith also called the seventies in 1835 to be special witnesses, to preach, and to teach the gospel as taught by the church. They were not subordinate to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Their decisions were to be arrived upon unanimously, rather than through a majority of members of the quorum.
Arrival and Influence of Sidney Rigdon – From October 1830
Sidney Rigdon first encountered the church in October 1830, when he met a former member of his congregation, Parley Pratt, and Oliver Cowdery on their way to Missouri to preach among the Indians. He was baptized the following month, bringing along with him several members of his congregation.
As a preacher in the First Baptist Church, Rigdon had been involved with the Campbellites. A key teaching of Alexander Campbell and others, which Rigdon embraced, was a return to the early Christian church as illustrated in the Gospels and the Acts of Apostles. Rigdon advocated for literal “all things in common”, without economic production as a cornerstone of the concept. Rigdon also advocated for other concepts of communalism and highly conservative views as were held by the early Christians.
Rigdon and Joseph met while Joseph was working on what became known as his inspired translation of the Bible. Rigdon had a strong command of the English language, as a powerful orator, coupled with unmatched knowledge of the Bible. These two qualities endeared him to Joseph Smith, who increasingly sought revelations that led to many revelations that the saints would have to discern as from God, the mind of man, or the devil.
Emboldened by Rigdon, Joseph Smith saw himself as the rightful “prophet, seer, and revelator.” He became more dictatorial, forcing through his agenda even in the face of opposition from the disciples. In one such instance in 1832, David Whitmer and others strongly objected to Joseph and Sidney’s intention to publish revelations in a book. Joseph responded by warning any dissenters that, “any man who objects to having these revelations published, shall have his part taken out of the tree of Life and ” out of the Holy City,” – definitely a statement from and by the “mind of man”.
If Joseph had strengthened the 12 disciples as a functional body of equals, all would have presented their visions and dreams and ideas to a “council” over which no one, including Joseph, could unduly influence. The council would then provide a pattern for review, discussion, and discernment. Instead, only Joseph was to receive and without any review or counsel from others.
To this day, there has not been a thorough discussion and review of his revelations to determine what was from God, what was from the mind of Joseph, and what was from the Devil. It is therefore important to argue that some of the revelations and edits to the revelations that were published by Joseph Smith were from his “mind” and some are perhaps from “the Devil” as he had warned the saints.
The Law
In February 1831, a few months after joining, Edward Partridge, who had converted with Sidney to the church, was ordained as the first bishop. He was responsible for temporal matters, administering church properties, and attending to the needs of the poor.
On February 9, 1831, the Law, which had been promised to Joseph Smith upon his arrival in Ohio, was revealed, now coded as the D&C 42. The law had several important commandments for the saints. It taught the importance of repentance and charged the early leadership to go on missions and convert more people into the church through baptism.
The key part of the law was addressed to Edward Partridge, the bishop. Saints were to consecrate their property and lay it before the bishop. The “bishop” with the assistance of “elders” was to issue a “covenant and a deed which cannot be broken”.
The following is a quote from the original manuscript of the revelation:
“shalt consecrate all thy properties that which thou hast unto me with a covenant & a deed which cannot be Broken. & they shall be laid before the Bishop of my Church & two of the Elders shuch as he shall appoint & Set apart for that purpose & it shall come to pass that the Bishop of my Church after that he has Received the properties of my Church that it cannot be broken taken from you he shall appoint evry man a stewart over his own property or that which he hath Received in as much as shall be sufficient for himself & family to the person who consecrated their property.”
He was also charged to give every person who had consecrated their properties a “stewardship, as is sufficient for himself and his family.”
By having saints’ properties “laid before the bishop,” issuing a deed to a share of the community bank that was equal to the value of the “properties,” and giving stewardships, it was clear that the bishop was intended to be the agent for a bank: he would accept “investments” and issue a receipt or statement showing what a person had invested or in the language of the revelation, “consecrated.”. The bank would then use these capital investments to create leveraged loans to community agencies (the elders) that would purchase land and buildings equipment and supplies that would be rented back to (stewards) so that people could be productive and provide for their families.
The Law was to be buttressed by the principles outlined in D&C 94 and 95, the Plat of the City of Zion, and the Design of the House of Lord, revelations that were received over the next two years, up to August 1833.
Partridge thereafter went to Independence, where he joined the Whitmers and other saints in the effort to establish Zion. Here, he controlled a store that was designated as a church storehouse, meant to generate revenue to fund the church’s temporal obligations as revealed to Joseph Smith. Partridge, however, never did set up a bank. Instead, he took in contributions from those immigrating to the area and practiced communal re-distribution. Therefore, instead of treating the contributions as investments that could capitalize a community bank, which would leverage those assets by creating loans to other community agencies, he depreciated whatever little the poor immigrants parted with. Instead of shared prosperity, the practice resulted in more poverty for the saints.
“Presidency” – 1831 – 1833
In November 1831, Joseph Smith received a revelation, recorded later as part of D&C 107. In verses 64 – 66, Joseph was informed that there would be a president of the high priesthood, who would be appointed soon. This duly happened on January 25, 1832, when Joseph was ordained by Sidney Rigdon to that office. At the time there were only a few thousand members of the church and so Joseph would have been Agency #11 married man demographic president with a seat on the West side of the assembly hall on the Top row. (see seating chart on page 41)
In March 1832, another revelation was received, which called Sidney Rigdon and Jesse Gause to be Joseph Smith’s counselors. Gause was a former Shaker and had experience with the sect’s communal society. It is probable he quickly rose to the position because of this experience, as well as age – Gause was significantly older than other leaders, having been born in 1785.
Gause soon left the church and was replaced in the presidency by Fredrick Williams. The three were referred to as the (Melchizedek) Presidency. In March 1833, Joseph Smith received another revelation in which all three members were to be “to be equal with him in holding the Keys of the Kingdom and to the Presidency of the High Priesthood. However, in practice it continued operating under the direction of Joseph Smith, effectively meaning that the three were only equal on paper.
It is this (Melchizedek) presidency once set up that received the House of the Lord Design, as well as the Plat of the City of Zion, which were mailed by Frederick Williams at the end of June of 1833 to Edward Partridge in Independence.
At this time, there were around 1,000 saints. This Presidency at the time was over the complete church but in reality, the positions they held were the demographic (Melchizedek) presidency for married men. Sydney would Have been Agency 10 demographic president for married men, Joseph Agency 11 demographic president, and Fredrick the Agency 12 demographic president. Together 10,11, &12 are the (Melchizedek) demographic presidency for married men. As explained earlier in the paper the Relief society (Melchizedek) Presidency for the married women demographic have their seats directly above in the higher court that is in the same building as the lower court where the married men demographic presidencies are seated.
The early saints and their leadership did not realize that there would need to be presidents representing all 4 demographic divisions- married men – married women, single women, and single men. The Kirtland temple had two of the 4 courts and so they should have seen the need for duplication for married women but were so deep into hierarchy and patriarchy they did not see that parallelism and then because they did not build the second building #17 that sections 94 and 95 commanded they did not ever see the need for filling 4 identical courts each with 480 seats and so they completely missed having courts for single women and single men.
Their failure to realize this was a product of the patriarchal and hierarchical society they lived in where married men monopolized power. They were able to envision filling up the lower floor of the Kirtland temple with all officers of the church. These officers, however, were all married men. They were unable to see how they were to fill the higher duplicate court in the same building #5 let alone the two additional courts in building #17 that were commanded to be built at that same time.
Four v. three-member presidency
1800s America was a solidly patriarchal society, with married men reserving most legal and political rights and responsibilities. While the Great Awakening slightly moved the needle, with women taking on more roles in society, the world that Joseph Smith and the early LDS membership lived in in the 1830s had limited space for women’s participation and no participation by single women and men despite the July revelation to Joseph about ordaining Emma Smith.
At this time in history, the Christian world was united in the concept of God being a trinity, with God the Father, the Son, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. Joseph Smith’s vision in 1820 however turned this concept on its head, at least according to the LDS church and others who accept the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith’s First Vision as divinely inspired scripture.
In his vision, Joseph recounted seeing two personages, God the Father, and God the Son, as two distinct entities. God the Father instructed Joseph, “This is my beloved Son. Hear Him!” This was the same as Biblical statements at the baptism of Jesus, when the Holy Spirit descended on him as he was baptized by John the Baptist, and the voice of the Father was heard.
In the LDS church, early church members recall Joseph Smith teaching them that there is a heavenly mother, who, together with God the Father, are our heavenly parents.
Jesus lived and died as a single man and undertook the duties that would in society be entrusted to single men – a champion of peace, suffering, and dying for the sins of man.
The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, comforted Mary, especially in childbirth, and took on the responsibilities of a “comforter and witness “for all of mankind, duties that suited the characteristics of a single woman of spirit (a beloved Daughter) who has not yet come to earth to receive a body as Jesus (the beloved Son) has but may do so at some future point in her eternal plan.
LDS theology, with open canon, was developing in a way that makes it feasible and possible to evolve in the future from the current 3 personage Godhead to a four–personage godhead, with God the Father (married man) God the Mother (married woman) God the Son (single man), and the Holy Spirit (single woman spirit).
The House of the Lord and the Plat of the City of Zion
After the 1831 Law given to the church in Kirtland, which gave the saints an economic model that would be used in the new Jerusalem to guarantee prosperity, another revelation was received on the building up of the new Jerusalem in 1833. Between December 27, 1832, and January 3, 1833, a revelation that commanded the saints to build a house of the Lord was given. Recorded as D&C 88, the revelation told the saints to organize themselves and build a house of faith, fasting, glory, and order. The house would ensure that all their activities were well-guided.
Between this time and June 1833, the Design of the House of the Lord and the Plat of the City of Zion were revealed to the recently set up (High Priest) Presidency and drawn up and recorded by Fredrick G Williams. The plans were a fulfillment of the promise and commandments given to the saints in D&C 88. The plans were also meant to give the saints greater capacity to implement the Law, by establishing 24 agencies which would be needed for the many responsibilities of a fully functional city of Zion. These plans were mailed to Edward Partridge on June 25, 1833.
Shortly afterwards the saints in Independence were forced by local mobs to leave their homes. The Plat and House of the Lord documents were placed into safe hiding in a chest owned by Bishop Edward Partridge’s wife Lydia Partridge. The documents remained in her possession, lost and forgotten by the church. Consequently, when the Doctrines and Covenants were canonized and printed in 1835, the documents did not make it into this book. 2
The persecution in Missouri, as well as the leadership’s inability to understand the revelations, prevented them from implementing the plan. In the preceding two years, the saints had tried practicing a variety of forms of communalism, which was generally a means of wealth redistribution, with economic production not featuring anywhere in Bishop Edward Cowdery’s interpretation, besides the operation of small businesses in Missouri. The revenues from these businesses may have been able to buy some land, but it would have been impossible to build Zion without relying on big loans from a bank they controlled.
Before receiving the house designs, Joseph Smith had received a revelation on May 6, 1833 (DD&C 94) which advised that these designs would soon be revealed. The May 6 revelation gave clear dimensions of the houses, and described in good detail, the use of each space. These details were further elaborated in the House of the Lord and Plat revelations that were mentioned in the revelations.
A key part of the building design was the presence of two buildings #5 and #17 each with two courts for a total of four courts. These courts indicated that there would be both 3-person demographic presidencies sitting together in each of the 4 courts, and 4-person presidencies that have specific offices right next to each other in one of the 24 district buildings. Each president would represent a demographic division – married men, married women, single women, and single men.
There would be no seniority within a presidency, nor in relation to other presidencies. All Presidencies would serve for a 4-year term and All presidents serve their communities without pay or expense reimbursement. Each of the 4 presidents would preside in one of the 4 weekly Friday meetings of each month so that in a quarter they each presided 3 times. On the 13th week of each quarter, they would all attend the quarterly conference where they would sit in a specific seat together with the others who serve in their specific demographic.
The following table shows all the positions or “callings” that sit in one of the 4 courts. It is followed by a graphic showing all the seats for one of the courts. If we assume that we use this table and graphic to fill just the married men “A” court which is the lower court of building # 5, then we can imagine what the early saints could have completed when the Kirtland temple (building #5) was completed in March of 1836.
Because of custom and culture, they believed that the callings were filled by married men only. They built a duplicate higher court just above the lower court as directed, but did not understand that perhaps that court would be for duplicate callings, but from another demographic division. In this case, this would be married women (B).
The saints had also been commanded to build another building #17 with duplicate higher and lower courts. They never had the chance to start the second building. This meant that they never understood the additional 2 demographics that needed representation, represented by the two courts in building 17. To accomplish what the plat and building design implied, they would need to expand their thinking to include equal status not only to married women “B” but also to single women “C” and single men “D”.
Deacons’ presidency 13,14,15; teachers’ presidency 16,17,18; priests’ presidency 19,20,21; Aaronic Presidency 22,23,24
| Title | Quorums needed In each community | # in each Quorum | total presidents |
| High Council | 1 | 12 | 12 |
| Deacons | 1 | 12 | 12 |
| teachers | 1 | 24 | 24 |
| priests | 1 | 48 | 48 |
| High priests | 3 | 24 | 72 |
| Elders | 3 | 96 | 288 |
| Melchizedek presidency | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Bishopric | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| High Priest Presidency | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Elders Presidency | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Aaronic Presidency | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Priests Presidency | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Teachers Presidency | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Deacons Presidency | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Total | 480 |
The revelations provided the precise number of “callings” and just a few hints about the duties of each of the offices necessary for running a full community. They also reasserted the non-hierarchical nature of the new Jerusalem, with each office holder having unique, autonomous duties, an office, and being commanded to stand in their place and do their specific unique duty.
The Evolution of the “courts” in LDS temples over time:
The inner court of the “houses of the Lord” were prescribed as 55’ wide and 65’ long three times in sections 94 & 95. The saints misinterpreted the design and placed the pulpits with their side seating areas with the inner court. As prescribed, they divided the inner court into 4 and also the pulpits into 4. They had no way of designing the chairs and pulpits to be self-moving and adjustable and so they had to build permanent pulpits and seating. The photos that follow show the detail of the lower and higher courts of the Kirtland Temple that has been preserved as it was built in 1836. Notice the slit down the middle of the pews and again in the middle of the pews dividing the room into 4 areas. The early builders did not provide an outer court and so they had to have isles and also structural posts in the middle of the room. They also included the pulpits within the inner court and so the room was not large enough to sit all of the quorums that each community would need to serve them properly. The duplicate higher court for the married women demographic was as nice because they were running out of funds. They also did not figure out that the courts were for different demographic divisions of the community and so never came up with a good explanation for why two duplicate courts in each building. They also did not build the 2nd building and so didn’t figure out that there are 4 divisions of the community and so 4 courts of 480 demographic presidents. The Top photo is of the full lower court, next is the full higher court, next the West side pulpits for the Melchizedek presidencies for married men and the bottom photo is the East side pulpits for the Aaronic presidencies for married women.
The Nauvoo “House of the Lord” also had two courts, a lower and higher. They also added a baptismal font in the basement or first floor. Although the building was closer to the 132’x88’x70’ prescription they did not have an outer court for hallways and elevators and bathrooms. They preserved the 4 rows of pulpits in each court but did not preserve a way to divide the court into 4 rooms. Instead, they moved the chairs and set up partitions for each of the 4 endowment sessions; Creation, Garden, World, Terrestrial, and also a celestial room. The lower courts in all the early temples after Nauvoo were replaced with individual rooms like the one to the left.
Since they could not easily move the benches or chairs and since they did not have the ability to change the scenes on screens or have the modern LED screens that are now available in temples, they were not able to visualize that the reason for the 4 curtains that divided the courts was for the 4 endowment rooms or as technology advanced “sessions” that took you through all 4 room virtually.
The pulpits couldn’t be moved and so they were not able to visualize that that area was perfect for the celestial room with a veil separating it from the other 4 rooms and since it faced towards the East or West it had the natural light of the windows of the building.
The bottom two photos are first the higher court of the saint George Utah temple and 2nd the bottom court of the Logan Utah temple. Both had two identical pulpits on the East and the West but more than the 480 seats that were prescribed.
Eventually the courts were viewed only as assembly halls for solemn assemblies. In the SLC temple the two courts were way oversized and after Brigham Youngs death the bottom court was turned into multiple rooms for the endowment. The SLC Top court is shown, and you can see how it is a very large general purpose assembly hall instead of a specific court for 480 presidents that could also dual as a public use area for basket ball and pickle ball and community activities as well as school rooms and conference rooms.
Eventually the lower and higher courts were eliminated and at this point in time none of the modern LDS temples are built in any fashion that is even close to the original revealed design. The Kirtland temple is the only building left that has identical lower and higher courts. To this day there has not been a public explanation of why the two courts were necessary. Guides talk about the higher court being a school of the prophets. No historian or church leader has ever come up with the 4 demographic divisions that I discovered because of the two identical courts in each of two buildings that were commanded to be built. Both buildings were to be identical and both with two courts. The only way of filling them up is to have 4 demographic divisions each with 480 presidents. To arrive at 480 presidents x 4 we end up needing 3 demographic elders quorums of 96 in each court plus 3 demographic high priest quorums of 24 plus a deacons quorum of 12, a teachers quorum of 24, a priest quorum of 48, a high council of 12, a elders presidency of 3, a high priest presidency of 3, a Melchizedek presidency of 3, a deacons presidency of 3, a teachers presidency of 3, a priest presidency of 3 and a Aaronic Presidency of 3. Yielding a total of 480 unique seats in each of the 4 courts with the details as follows:
Figure 14: Seating Chart for one of the 4 demographic “Courts”
The failure of the saints to implement the different commandments and laws as given in the revelation was also because the leadership had become gradually hierarchical, with the 12 disciples no longer operational as a decision-making or leadership entity, and the First Presidency being controlled by Joseph Smith, with Sidney Rigdon providing the ideological basis for the presidency, and ultimately, the church.
Camp of Zion – 1834
In 1834, Joseph Smith spotted another opportunity to consolidate his power over both stakes. The saints in Missouri were under pressure from their neighbors and were facing eviction. Smith received a revelation, recorded as D&C 103, in which he was instructed to raise a militia of between 100 and 500 men, to go and defend the saints in Clay County.
The militia did not see any action, as a huge storm raised the waters of the Fishing River, across which they were encamped, preventing either an attack from their enemies or their own crossing the river. In any case, they were severely outnumbered and under-equipped and would have most certainly faced defeat.
The experience of the men, and Smith’s determination to come to the Missouri Saints’ aid, cemented his position and ensured that he would henceforth be undisputed as the church’s leader. He further moved to consolidate his position by reorganizing the church again in February of 1835.
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles – 1835
In reorganizing the church, Joseph Smith was seeking to further bolster his position, while reuniting the different stakes of the church under his leadership. Back in June 1829, David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery had received a revelation through Joseph Smith (D&C 18), which, in verses 37 – 39, instructed them to select the 12 “disciples”. Joseph Smith declared that the time to do so had come.
In January of 1835, a month before the year that the quorum was re-organized this time as “apostles”, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer, two of the three witnesses, received a revelation that among others, Phineas Young, Brigham Young’s elder brother, was to be chosen as one of the Twelve Apostles.
Instead, Joseph Smith forced the selection of his younger brother, William, to join the Twelve. This was even though D&C 18 had given the Three Witnesses the prerogative to select the Twelve. The conference at which the Twelve were presented was held on 14th February 1835.
The Twelve Apostles at that time were by age as follows:
| Apostle | Birth Date | Age at Calling (1835) |
| Thomas B. Marsh | November 1, 1799 | 35 |
| David W. Patten | November 14, 1799 | 35 |
| Brigham Young | June 1, 1801 | 33 |
| Heber C. Kimball | June 14, 1801 | 33 |
| Orson Hyde | January 8, 1805 | 30 |
| William E. McLellin | January 18, 1806 | 29 |
| Parley P. Pratt | April 12., 1807 | 27 |
| Luke S. Johnson | November 3, 1807 | 27 |
| William Smith | March 13, 1811 | 23 |
| Orson Pratt | September 19, 1811 | 23 |
| John F. Boynton | September 20, 1811 | 23 |
| Lyman E. Johnson | October 24, 1811 | 23 |
They were not part of the Quorum of 12. The Twelve Apostles were ordained by Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer, rather than Joseph Smith.
Joseph viewed the 12 as under his authority. However, there is no actual revelation that was ever revealed to specify this. D&C 107, when it was revealed, determined that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was equal to the First Presidency (Melkezedek presidency 10,11,12). However, it was edited by Joseph in 1835 to Place Joseph as over the quorum. This position was not only not a “revelation of God,”, but it was also incorrect from an organizational standpoint. All presidents and all quorums are equal in authority. None has precedence over any other.
At first, presiding and clerking was rotational among all 12 apostles as recorded in the first minutes of their meetings: “If they will, on every time they assemble, appoint a person to preside over of over them during the meeting and one or more to keep a record of their proceedings.”
This was based on Joseph’s specific instructions on the matter, as well as the fact that each of the 12 held all the priesthood keys necessary to preside over the church – and in this respect, no one was superior.
William Smith, Joseph’s brother, and one of the apostles, was a confrontational character, who would frequently get into altercations with other members of the church, including Joseph. The relationship between the brothers deteriorated in the fall of 1835, the year the quorum was constituted. Matters came to a head in December, when, at one meeting, William, apparently incensed by a decision on the church’s debate school that had not gone his way, physically assaulted Joseph.
The fallout after the fistfight was contained, and William sought Joseph’s forgiveness, which was granted.
However, Joseph was determined to cut his brother down to size. He reformed the presiding order and in so doing, introduced seniority in the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. Seniority was to follow age at the time. William was one of the youngest and therefore became a junior member of the body. The same seniority adjustment made Marsh the president.
In the first place, William’s selection was not the product of divine revelation, but instead, an unrighteous decision needed for, political expediency, as Oliver explained in a letter dated 27 February 1848, “At the time the Twelve were chosen in Kirtland, and I may say before, it had been manifested that Brother Phinehas [Young] was entitled to occupy the station as one of the number; but owing to Brother Joseph’s urgent request at the time, Brother David and myself yielded to his wish, and consented for William to be selected, contrary to our feelings and judgment, and to our deep mortification ever since.”
If Joseph Smith had agreed to Oliver and David’s revelation to have Phineas as one of the Twelve, it would have far-reaching implications for the church. Phineas (born in February 1799) was older than Brigham Young (June 1801), but also David Patten (November 1799), and Thomas Marsh (November 1800.
By the time Joseph died in 1844, Patten was already dead (1838), while Marsh had been excommunicated (1838). Brigham Young therefore only became a senior member and later, president, only because his elder brother had failed to be included as one of the original twelve.
Joseph’s interference with the three witnesses’ selection also clearly shows that by 1835, he was the undisputed leader, who was now able to wave away other church leaders’ divinely inspired revelations, or even wise counsel, if it did not serve his interests.
Had age-based seniority been instituted, Phineas would have stood three slots ahead of Brigham and would have been the first and only senior member of Twelve from 1835 all the way to 1880. Because Brigham himself died in 1877, he could never have taken the seniority rank from his brother and thus could never have been president of the Twelve and therefore also could never have made himself president of the church.
The significance of Phineas’ revelatory selection to the Twelve is even more when Thomas Marsh’s role in excommunicating Oliver Cowdery from the church is considered. Marsh was a key figure in charging Oliver as being the one behind accusations about an improper relationship between Joseph Smith and Fanny Alger. This riled up Joseph’s feelings and was decisive in causing Cowdery’s ouster and his family to be physically abused and run out of town by supporters of Joseph.
The exclusion of the First Presidency from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the implied seniority led to the succession confusion which ensured after Joseph was assassinated in 1844. The First Presidency, as a different body, did not have the necessary political clout to argue its case, in the absence of the much-revered prophet.
Kirtland Safety Society and the move to Far West 1836 – 1838
Back in 1833, Joseph Smith had received a revelation – D&C 94 – which instructed the saints to start work on building the “city of the stake of Zion here in the land of Kirtland beginning at my house.” Over the next years, the saints put in much effort and resources to complete God’s command, supplemented significantly by loans, such that by the time the temple was dedicated in 1836, the church owed around $13,000 to banks.
Kirtland temple
The church was in dire financial straits. Joseph Smith and other leaders were at their wits’ end, at one point, even resorting to treasure-hunting – in Salem, which had had such a significant influence on Joseph in his formative years. D&C 111 promised Joseph and other leaders “much treasure in this city for you, for the benefit of Zion, and many people in this city, whom I will gather out in due time for the benefit of Zion, through your instrumentality.” The quest for treasure in Salem was ultimately unsuccessful.
In addition to the funds owed, the saints, as part of a frontier economy that was short on financial services, were in a poor economic position. As an answer to the issues they faced, Joseph Smith realized that the church needed a bank, as had been implied in D&C 42. He then set up the Kirtland Safety Society. The organization was established in October 1836 as a joint-stock company.
Some of the stock, worth $4 million ($120,000,000 in 2024$), was sold between October and December 1836. The organization applied for a bank charter from the Ohio State Legislature. However, a few factors prevented the bank from granting the bank charter. The bank’s capitalization was unrealistic, at 4 million dollars. It did not reflect the economic realities in Kirtland at the time.
KSS banknote
Another factor that prevented the granting of the charter was the anti-Mormon sentiment in society at the time, among other factors. With the paper-printing plates already obtained, but without the charter, the bank was not organized as a bank. Instead, in January 1837, the church’s leaders organized the organization as an “anti-bank”. Anti-banks operated without a legal charter, exposing their customers to bank runs and failures, but were sometimes encouraged in frontier economies where banking services were usually non-existent.
KSS, after its reorganization in January 1837, proceeded to issue specie or bank notes, backed by real estate. A prime part of this real estate was the Kirtland Temple, which was itself in debt. The capitalization was also revised downwards to a more realistic figure – $300,000 (9,000,000 in 2024$). In February, the bank again sought approval to operate a legal bank. This attempt, though backed by respectable members of Kirtland society, also failed.
The bank produced banknotes with a face value of around 150,000. Joseph Smith had signed a 45-day note with the Bank of Geauga, while additional funds were provided through the stock sales. It is estimated the available funds, therefore, were in the region of $9,000, far too little to meet its immediate obligations.
The bank made some steps to shore up the bank’s position, in the face of hostility, a precarious financial position, and the lack of proper regulatory approval. The church’s leadership urged saints to shore up the bank’s finances by depositing their money.
While there was momentary respite, the panic of 1837 ensured that these actions were in vain. The panic led to a devaluation of the currency, crashed land values, and brought about a general economic downturn. In addition, the bank had a 45-day obligation that was due. These factors effectively ended its operations in April, and Joseph and Sidney resigned as officers at the bank on 8 June. The last notes were printed on 31 July, and in December 1837, it was included in a list of bankrupt or closed banks.
The failure of the bank brought financial ruin to the LDS community in Kirtland and some non-LDS members too. Joseph Smith and other church leaders were accused of being complicit in fraud, and it became increasingly unsafe for him to remain there. In January 1838, he fled Kirtland after an arrest warrant was issued for him. He went to Far West, Missouri, where Brigham Young and other leaders soon joined. During 1838, most of the remaining LDS members left Kirtland to reestablish their lives in Far West, Missouri, where Joseph Smith was now based.
Could the KSS have survived?
A series of missteps led to the failure of the KSS, as shown here. However, the underlying problem was a failure to critically analyze the revelations that had been received from the early days of the church, which, with the right structures and implementation, would have enabled the saints to not only set up a highly successful bank, with enormous resources, but ultimately, build Zion.
The saints’ leadership failed to see the various revelations as constituting an economic model. D&C 42, which had been revealed as “the Law of Consecration” was to be the bedrock of such a model. The revelation had aimed to use the saints’ collective net worth to capitalize a bank; instead, they redistributed the wealth, ending up poorer than they already were.
The Plat of the City of Zion and the House of the Lord design were to provide the physical infrastructure that would have enabled such a system to thrive. Other revelations especially D&C 88, 94, and 95 would have all come together to enable them to build not just three banks (community agencies 7,8 &9), but also 21 other community agencies that together would have ensured its success, even in the face of various banking crises, including the panic of 1837.
By the time the bank failed, the list of people who had invested in the joint stock company had not yet been completed. Therefore, the commandment that each investor was to receive a deed that could not be broken was not heeded. The covenant (agreements) and deed would have shown what obligations the bank had to an investor for interest, in addition to obligations that the community had to provide the participant with stewardship that was sufficient to meet the needs and wants of the participant. The agreements would have also restricted the amount of money that an investor could withdraw each month to 2% so that the community never had a “run” on the bank.
During panics, banks usually failed because all customers came to the bank at the same time, with banks failing to meet these obligations. In addition, when other banks were unsure about the trustworthiness of the bank’s notes, they could either reject them, or buy them at hugely discounted prices, further damaging a bank’s ability to meet obligations, and eliminating any trust that people had in it as a custodian of their money. All these factors were at play as KSS failed.
However, had the bank, properly constituted as such, rather than an antibanking society, put limits on the amount of money that each customer could withdraw, it would have been possible to meet customers’ obligations.
The bank would also have benefitted by hiring experienced people to run the bank, which would have enabled it to be set up properly and therefore enabled it to not only withstand legal challenges but to ally with other banks to cushion it from market shocks.
Regrouping in Missouri and ex-communications
Joseph Smith and his entourage, which included his wife and children, arrived in Far West, Missouri, on 14 March 1838. Joseph found himself in the middle of another conflict, which had engulfed the Missouri stake.
Thomas Marsh had been named president of the Twelve Apostles in 1835. He immediately saw himself as a senior official of the church. Also, in this position, he had Joseph Smith’s ear, influencing his decision-making in the events that would take place in 1838.
When the bank failed in 1837, Oliver Cowdery and others left Kirtland for Far West, where they would be joined by the bulk of Kirtland saints in 1838. The Far West Stake, under the leadership of David Whitmer, John Whitmer, and Phelps, among others, was thriving, in stark contrast to what had just occurred in Kirtland.
In July, the saints’ businesses were not only thriving, but, as WW Phelps wrote to Cowdery with pride, there were rapid conversions to the church, drawing crowds that were bigger than Kirtland had ever managed to muster. At the same time, some members of the church had left on missions to England, without the consent of Marsh and Patten, who were the senior-most members of the Twelve.
In July 1837, Marsh and Patten went to see Joseph Smith in Kirtland. They found the bank to be in free fall, with Joseph facing open dissent or loss of confidence in his leadership from several members of the church, including Oliver.
The situation appalled the pair, but it also presented an opportunity for them to dominate the Missouri stake where Phelps, Whitmer, and others had effectively stolen their thunder. Marsh curried Joseph’s favor, standing with him in the face of the dissension, working as a mediator between earring functions, and thereafter, taking a letter from Joseph to the saints in Missouri. In the letter, Joseph updated the Missouri stake about the Kirtland “apostasy,” and warned them not to make the same mistakes.
When Joseph finally arrived in Missouri in March 1838, he found Marsh and Patten’s strategy to take over the stake in full motion. Joseph also had Cowdery to deal with – he had been fanning rumors of a relationship between Joseph and Fanny Alger. He had been working as a lawyer and transacting other business that was personal and had been falsely accused by Marsh that his dealings had no benefit to the church. Phelps and other leaders were accused of profiting from the church’s resources, dealing in land, and keeping the profits to themselves.
In April, key figures in the Missouri stake – including the Whitmers and Phelps, as well as Oliver Cowdery, were ex-communicated from the church. The people who surrounded Joseph were now only those who would undoubtedly agree with him, and be blind to his conduct, including his relationships with other women, even when this was clearly against scripture.
Mormon War and move to Nauvoo
Background
When the saints had been attacked for their faith before 1832, they had reacted with peace, to pacify the situation and in the Christian principle of “turning the other cheek.” In 1832, when Joseph and Sidney Rigdon, the two most visible leaders of the faith, were tarred and feathered, they had not reacted with violence. This is remarkable given that Joseph was himself described by his detractors, with reason, as being “pugnacious” while Sidney Rigdon was also not keen on avoiding violence.
By 1833, however, the saints, especially in Missouri, had been pushed to the end. Missourians, fearful that the Mormons’ migration would complicate their political power, as well as upend the cultural status quo, were increasingly hostile and violent.
In his Address to All Believers of Christ shortly before his death, David Whitmer blamed the decision to print the Book of Commandments, containing Joseph’s revelations. According to him, when the people of Missouri saw the book, they took it to mean that according to the Mormon creed, non-Mormons were to be ejected from Independence so that Mormons could establish their City of Zion there.
In any case, Joseph Smith, 900 miles away in Kirtland, received a revelation- D&C 98 – regarding the Missouri saints’ predicament. While the revelation preached forgiveness and repentance, it also said that “war is only justified if God commands it”, and that if the saints’ enemies did not repent, God’s wrath would be visited upon them. These statements clearly laid the ground for what would follow.
In February 1834, the saints received another revelation, D&C 103, which commanded the saints to organize themselves, and in a meeting held sometime after, the church appointed Joseph Smith as “Commander in Chief of the Armies of Israel.” Needless to say, these steps would shape the saints’ armed approach to resolving some issues over the next few years, and Joseph Smith’s central role in their execution.
1838 Mormon War
Saints continued migrating to Missouri from Kirtland and other areas, such that by June, their population had started causing unease amongst non-Mormons, especially with an upcoming election. This led to clashes that eventually led to yet another displacement of Mormons from their homes, this time to Nauvoo.
In June 1838, a Mormon militia – the Danites – was formed by Sampson Avard, though David Whitmer would later say Sidney Rigdon had a big role to play in its formation and operations. The group, besides protecting Mormons, aimed to pressure dissenters to either return to the fold or leave. This was the culmination of several years’ attempts to dismantle the church’s non-hierarchical leadership structure, such that now, the whims of Joseph Smith as prophet, revelator, and seer, were paramount, and could easily alter church doctrine for expediency.
The simmering tensions between the saints and Missourians were exacerbated by an address delivered by Sidney Rigdon on July 4, 1838, and endorsed by Joseph Smith. The address explicitly warned dissenters to leave, and other saints to encourage them to do so. The address was seized upon by the saints’ enemies as a testament of the church’s tyrannical and belligerent worldview, poisoning relations further.
On August 6, a brawl broke out in Gallatin Town relating to the election that was held on that day. There was incitement by politicians against Mormons, accusing them of aiming to take over the state. This finally set off the violence that would consume the area for the next few months. Peter Black, a judge, was forced two days later to sign a letter guaranteeing Mormon civil rights in the state of Missouri.
On October 18, Millport was pillaged and burned, and according to some accounts, Gallatin was burned too. This hardened anti-Mormon sentiment in the state, especially with the authorities. A day later, Thomas Marsh left the association of the church, citing these actions by the Mormon militia (the Danites), though there were other underlying issues.
Patten, who was second in seniority based on age, was Marsh’s successor as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. In addition, he was an active leader of the Mormon militia, adopting a catchy nom de guerre – Captain Fearnot. On October 25, he led a force of around 100 men, in the Battle of the Crooked River against a Missouri militia. He lost his life in the battle. Brigham Young was next in line and assumed the presidency of the quorum after.
The battle activated Governor Boggs into action. He mobilized the state militia, which started systematic attacks on Mormon targets. On October 27, he issued the infamous Extermination Order directing Mormons to leave the state or be eliminated. On October 30, Haun’s Mill was attacked, resulting in the massacre of 17 Mormons. On November 1, the militia converged on Far West, forcing the town to surrender.
Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, and other leaders stood trial before a court-martial but were not executed as the presiding judge desired. They escaped from civil jail on 4 April 1839. They later made their way to Illinois, where other saints had migrated.
Nauvoo
After the Mormon War, church members migrated to Nauvoo, where the church bought land just outside a town called Commerce in Illinois. Joseph Smith named the town Nauvoo, a Hebrew term for “they are beautiful.” From 1839, the population of the town grew quickly, reaching 12,000 people, and becoming one of the largest cities in Illinois.
John Bennett, a physician, joined the church and was baptized in 1840. He was instrumental in the awarding of a charter to the city in 1841, whereupon he became its first mayor. He was also appointed assistant president by Joseph Smith, as well as leader of the Nauvoo Legion, the city’s militia.
Figure 17: the original Nauvoo temple was close to the 132’ x 88 x 70’ original specification
It is in Nauvoo that Joseph Smith and the church made several pronouncements and decisions that were significant to the church’s theological development. First was the baptism of the dead in 1840. In 1842, He instituted “the endowment.” Another significant teaching was his assertion that Zion was not going to be just one place, such as Independence or Nauvoo. Instead, it would encompass North and South America. This was still not as expansive as the Plat but was a significant expansion from what their current understanding was. Individual Mormon communities, he taught, would be known as stakes.
Meanwhile, rumors about polygamy had become more intense, with Joseph Smith and Bennett being rumored to have several wives. Bennett called the marriages “spiritual wifery.” When the stories became impossible to suppress, Joseph forced Bennett to resign. Incensed, Bennett produced sensational stories about the church and the practice of polygamy.
These issues forced the surrounding non-Mormon population to turn against the saints, such that by 1842, attacks against them had reached worrying levels. This caused Joseph Smith to petition Congress in 1843, to make Nauvoo an independent territory, which would require federal troops to protect its inhabitants from hostile neighbors. This petition was not granted.
Undeterred, Joseph then sought out the leading presidential contenders, to request that they undertake to protect church members from violence if they won, in return for receiving a block Mormon vote. These overtures were coldly regarded or ignored altogether. Seeing himself with few options, Joseph Smith officially entered the race in 1843 and sent out the 12 and other leaders of the church to campaign for his bid.
Joseph Smith, in 1842, laid the foundations for the Council of 50. When initially set up on April 7, 1842, it was known as the “Living Constitution.” Its membership reflected its temporal focus – three of the initial 3 members of the council were not members of the LDS. Among other functions, the Council of 50 was meant to put in place contingency measures in case the saints needed to relocate from Nauvoo at a later date. This was especially relevant because trouble was already brewing at the time.
Another aim of the Council of 50 was to enable the formation of a government that drew on theological concepts. This was informed by the ideals of Zion and a society where church and state were not separate, as had been the case in 16th-century Europe and before. However, in what can arguably be described as a demonstration of hubris, Joseph Smith was elected by the council as “prophet, priest, and king” in April 1844, a few weeks before his death.
Joseph Smith – Death and aftermath
By 1844, Joseph Smith ruled as an absolute leader, determining the laws, economy, and religion in Nauvoo. No opposition to his power was brooked, leading to a lift between him and his top advisors. In addition, two influential members, William Law who was 2nd councilor in the first Presidency from 1841 and Robert Foster who was a prominent member and a physician in Nauvoo, accused Joseph of having proposed to their wives.
On April 18, Joseph excommunicated the two men and their supporters. They responded soon after, first, in May, by issuing an indictment against Joseph for perjury (saying that he did not practice polygamy). Second, in June, they published a newspaper, the Nauvoo Expositor. The paper called for reform, repealing of the Nauvoo charter, and encouraged non-Mormons to more closely scrutinize Joseph’s leadership, which they said aimed at creating a theocratic government.
To prevent further negative press, Joseph had the newspaper’s press destroyed, and fearing mob violence, mobilized the Nauvoo Legion, declaring martial law in the process. This did not have the desired effect. The Illinois governor threatened to raise a larger militia. Joseph did not want to risk a confrontation. He attempted to flee to the West in June 1844.
He crossed the Mississippi River heading towards Iowa. However, he returned to Nauvoo after being persuaded by his wife Emma and others that his presence in Nauvoo was needed and after Governor Ford promised protection. After returning, he expressed acceptance of his fate, famously saying, “I am going like a lamb to the slaughter” on June 24, 1844, before heading to Carthage, Illinois.
On June 25, Joseph and his brother, Hyrum were charged with inciting a riot, though this charge was changed to treason so that they could retain him in custody. On June 27, the two brothers were murdered by a mob in Carthage.
Figure 18: Joseph Smith at 38 years old just a few weeks prior to his death on June 27, 1844, the image is by Joseph Brickey using a daguerreotype, skeletal data and his death mask. Copyright NSI2024
Succeeding Joseph Smith 1844 – 1845
When Joseph died, the apostles were out campaigning for his presidential bid. Brigham Young was out in New England. Sidney Rigdon, who was the only remaining member of the first presidency, was in Pittsburg, where he had moved, against the wishes of Joseph Smith. Both leaders made their way back to Nauvoo. Sidney arrived earlier than Brigham, who only learned about the death in early July.
Both Brigham and Sidney asserted their claim to lead the church. Sidney contended that, as the surviving member of the first presidency, should succeed Joseph, at least, as a “guardian” of the church as it put its affairs in order. Brigham, as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, saw the quorum as equal to the first presidency and therefore decided to try and convince the members that the 12 with him as its president were the natural successors to Joseph.
On August 8, 1844, a conference was held by the church to decide who among the two contestants would lead the church. Sidney presented his case for some two hours, after which Brigham took the podium. As he discussed why the 12 were the rightful heir with him as its president, witnesses at the meeting later recounted that in a “transfiguration,” he assumed the voice, gesturing, and even appearance of Joseph Smith. This occurrence, in addition to the weight his message carried, carried the day, and he was chosen as Joseph’s successor.
Brigham had dictatorial tendencies, and the idea that the quorum would somehow have equality amongst its members was quickly snuffed out. Brigham was a dominant man and would soon be the only voice in the church. His approach antagonized many of the other apostles, who either left the church or relegated themselves to other activities like filling missions.
On December 27, 1847, with several of the apostles absent that would have opposed, Brigham reorganized the First Presidency, with himself as the president, and Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards as counselors. Brigham and Heber had been friends since prior to their joining the church and were among the 12 who were set apart in February of 1835. Willard Richards was added to the 12 on April 14, 1840, with the excommunication of Orson Pratt who was reinstated later that year and so was one of the 12 who opposed the formation of the 1st presidency at first but eventually yielded to Brigham’s bullying.
Over the next 3 decades, until Brigham died on August 29, 1877, this was the organization of the church. However, shortly before his death, Brigham Young because of many disagreements he had with Orson Pratt, reorganized the seniority of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Orson Pratt who was at the time the senior member of the 12 was placed lower in seniority. This adjustment was made because Brigham Young and other leaders decided that seniority would be based on the latest date of ordination into the Quorum, rather than the first date of ordination. Orson Pratt, who had been excommunicated and later reinstated, was affected by this change and was placed behind those who had been ordained after him but had not experienced a break in service. Consequently, he was moved down in the line of seniority compared to his original position.
The reordered seniority meant that John Taylor was the senior-most apostle, and therefore, the one to succeed Brigham. However, after Brigham’s death not everyone in the quorum was convinced that a first presidency was needed. There was a 3-year impasse on the matter, and it was not until October 10, 1880, that John Taylor was finally able to convince the quorum to make him President over the whole church.
When John Taylor died on July 25, 1887, it took another three years before Wilford Woodruff convinced the quorum to make him the next president on April 7, 1889. The reason these impasses occurred was because some of the apostles still held on to the original concept that the Twelve Apostles were equal in authority and holding all the keys individually as well as a full quorum. They did not support the concept of a first presidency that was separate and superior to their authority. As the original members of the 12 died off or were replaced, the tradition of quickly confirming a new President on the death of the existing as the most senior member of the 12 became standardized and was completed quickly after the death of the incumbent.
Other offices and organizational structures
The top church leadership never operationalized the 4- person presidency that is required for all offices in the church, as outlined in D&C 94 and 95. The revelations outline the presence of 4 equal courts that were commanded to be built in May of 1833.
As the top leadership body, the 12 apostles would have served as area world presidencies. Each apostle would be serving one world area. By 2100, there will be 12 billion people, after which it will be stable. Each world area of one billion people, as illustrated in the map below, would be served by a world area presidency of 4.
Figure 19: World areas. Each will have approximately 1 billion people in 2100
Serving under the direction of the world presidencies, in each world area would be seventies. Each seventies presidency of 4 serves an “area” of 25 million people. Each world area, therefore, would have approximately 40 “areas.” A world area would therefore have 40 area presidencies or seventies of four presidents.
D&C 107:96 says that there can be up to 70X70 or 490 seventy presidencies of 4. Using the description above, each world area would have 40 seventy presidencies, translating to 480 seventy presidencies. With some world areas having more than 1 billion people, and others, less, there would be variations, and an allowance of 10 “areas”, adding up to 490 will accommodate the variations in population with some world area having a few extra area presidencies and some others less.
In 1984, the LDS leadership, under the direction of the 12 Apostles started forming 3-person are presidencies composed of seventies. They would serve smaller areas around the world. However, the presidencies were made up of all married men. The concept described above has therefore never been thoroughly considered for implementation as clearly indicated in various revelations primarily because of the firm patriarchy composed of only married men that the LDS church has embraced because of polygamy.
Migration Westwards and D&C 136
The violence amongst Mormons continued in 1845, forcing them to act on their contingency measures. They started migrating in 1846, headed for the Great Salt Lake Valley, at that time part of Mexico, but soon to be a US territory after the conclusion of the Mexico – US War in 1848. On January 16, 1847, Brigham recorded an important revelation that would guide the journey west, and hopefully, the saints’ social organization once they arrived. This was recorded on January 26, 1847, and is now known as D&C 136.
The revelation, given at the Winter Quarters, commanded the saints to organize into “companies.” Each company would be organized with a firm undertaking to keep all the commandments and statutes of God.
There would be captains of ten, captains of fifty, and captains of 100, served by a president with two counselors. They would all work under the direction of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Companies would need to be as self-sufficient as possible. Advance parties would be sent to produce food for others in their company so that there would be enough food by the time they arrived in Salt Lake.
The destination was not “Zion” as an end by itself. Instead, it was going to be a “stake of Zion,” echoing Joseph Smith’s teaching about Zion in 1842.
Comparing the NewVistas structure to early LDS structure development
This analysis of how the church’s scripture and structures developed over time is an opportunity to point out the desired results, and why they were in many cases not achieved.
A stated goal of the LDS movement from its inception was to restore the Christian faith to what God had originally intended it to be, well laid out in the Bible. With additional scriptures – the Book of Mormon, revelations, and the inspired translation of the Bible by Joseph Smith, the leaders aimed to recreate Zion, a community of shared prosperity, where there were no poor among them, and all things were in common.
NewVistas is inspired by the same principles that were revealed to the early saints to build Zion. The LDS movement failed to build Zion as it desired because it did not have the capacity to interpret and implement the various scriptures it received to guide the setting up of Zion. Zion as revealed to the saints was a complex system that had physical, economic, social, and organizational concepts that were alien to them in that era. Here, we discuss these concepts with regard to NewVistas.
Organizational structure
As we have discussed, the LDS movement was meant to be nonhierarchical. As it developed, it realized the need for various offices, which it established. However, this did not always go as it should have been. Four-person presidencies did not develop, and the offices that developed were rigidly hierarchical.
The organization of the church’s leadership as a hierarchy was necessary to streamline its operations. In the absence of many of the offices that are operational today in the church, and others that are included in NewVistas, Joseph Smith and other leaders must have seen no other way to help the church succeed. It is also arguably the only way they knew leadership to work.
Additionally, the church adopted some policies that turned people against them, while making conversions more difficult. These included communalism and polygamy, which were ironically never provided for in the revelations of the church, but which would take center stage in the first few decades of the church’s existence.
A careful examination of LDS organizational revelations, as well as the Plat of Zion, the House of the Lord Design, and D&C 94 and 95 show that every public servant position was to be four-person presidencies.
In NewVistas organizational structure, all officeholders are also presidents. In the modern understanding of the term, a president is a powerful official with executive powers. However, in the context of NewVistas, and the early LDS, a president is a person who “presides” in an office or meeting, and is therefore meant to “serve”, instead of ruling or otherwise having executive powers. No superiority exists among NewVistas presidencies. There also isn’t any seniority amongst presidents in a presidency.
In the plat, there were 24 temples, or Houses of the Lord. In NewVistas, these buildings are known as public buildings. The revelations that promised the design of the House of the Lord envisaged them as buildings where the main official business of the community would be conducted, therefore having offices for presidents, as well as the bulk of commercial activities. Therefore, they were to effectively serve as the community’s “downtown.”
Buildings 5 and 17 were to be built first and have assembly halls. Buildings 1 – 12 were to have offices for holders of the Melchizedek priesthood, while 13 – 24 was to be for Aaronic priesthood holders. The Melchizedek priesthood was literary taken by the saints to mean “superior,”, and the Aaronic, “inferior.” However, another interpretation is that the terms were not meant to indicate seniority, but numbers. There are far more public servants serving buildings (agencies) 1 – 12 (384) than there are for 13 – 24 (96).
Some presidencies are involved in formulating and updating bylaws. For this purpose, and due to the need for widespread consultation and agreement needed to formulate them, these presidencies also form boards of 12, so that three presidencies, of four presidents each, form a 12-member board. Within the board, the presidents from the same demographic division form 4 demographic presidencies of 3 that meet monthly and quarterly in each of the 4 courts.
The Book of Mormon indicates in 2 Nephi 28: 3 that disciples in the Americas retired at the age of 72. A specific retirement age enables the community to be served by energetic leaders at all times. The introduction of seniority by age, and later, by the date of ordination, meant that from 1880, the church has been led by elderly men, with no exceptions.
Economic system
When the first elements of the Law of Consecration were first revealed, they were taken to an end by themselves by the saints. Edward Partridge, with strong emphasis on early Christianity’s principles of “all things in common” and the assertion that there “were no poor among them,” embarked on a wealth-redistribution in the name of consecration, where those who did not have anything would receive some of the consecrated property. Other revelations were thereafter revealed to supplement the law were not implemented as they should have been.
While a bank was eventually established, it was set up in the wrong way, even by the ways of the time. Additionally, the bank seems to have been established not to satisfy revelations, but to address a dire financial situation. The storehouse was not to be a place to store things, but a repository which would serve as a center of exchange, adding value, and leveraging what was brought to the storehouse.
In the NewVistas system, the 24 agencies are part of an elaborate economic system. At its core, there are three banks, described in the plat as the Sacred Apostolic Repository. The three banks are described as the bishopric. When a limited partner joins the community, they invest (consecrate) their net worth in the community. The investment is made to the Capital Bank, which gives the limited partner a “covenant and a deed that cannot be broken.”
Using the invested funds as capital, the Capital Bank invests in bank agencies, enabling them to have the necessary down payment for loans and for operations. The bank alco capitalizes the Commercial and Community Banks. These banks create loans to agencies. Agencies use the loans to develop the infrastructure needed to provide services to participants, who pay a fee for these services.
Some of the services provided include space, inventory and accounts receivable factoring, business and life planning, among others. Each participant therefore has ample help to establish a business, or “stewardship,” which they run to satisfy not just their needs, but wants as well for themselves and their dependents. This means that there are “no poor among them,” just as intended.
Because the Capital Bank is the repository of limited partners’ investments, all limited partners have a stake in the community and therefore have “all things in common.” However, they do not surrender their assets to the community owns these assets, it issues them a “deed that cannot be broken.” They can withdraw from the community, taking their investment with them, but at a rate that protects banks from “runs.”
Besides their business and the deed that shows their investment, a participant does not own any asset. They rent whatever they need from the community. The community, through agencies, develops or otherwise secures use of the assets they then lease out to participants. Since the agencies obtain the funds from invested capital, the principle of “all things in common” is achieved.
Social systems and bylaws
The early LDS leadership intended to create Zion under the auspices of the church. This made sense to them, since Joseph Smith had been chosen to translate the Book of Mormon and key sections of the Bible, while he and others had received important revelations which explained how Zion would be built. These revelations had religious language as well, referring to “temples,” “house of the Lord,” “consecration,” among others.
Creating Zion within the church, however, would prevent it from being “for all people everywhere.” People of different faiths would find it impossible to join without renouncing their faith. The initial understanding was that Independence would be Zion, which seemed practical for the saints as they were still so few. Only later did they see the possibility of Zion potentially covering North and South America.
For many years, the leaders were obsessed with the establishment of a theocracy, which can be blamed for much of the persecution they encountered.
By using the same revelations, NewVistas has been able to come up with a pattern that can cover the entire world and accommodate people from all over the world and all religions. The NewVistas concept only requires that societies where it is to be implemented to have freedom of expression and worship.
NewVistas’ bylaws ensure that it is a strictly secular society, where all beliefs are welcome, including atheists and nonbelievers. Religious practices are welcomed, but they are practiced in private rented spaces. Religious demonstrations and events that consume large amounts of time and space are not allowed.
Political events also follow the same guidelines. Excessive, even provocative expressions such as having controversial flags in public spaces is not allowed. Political demonstrations are also not allowed, but small political events within private rented spaces are allowed. These bylaws ensure that all people feel welcome regardless of their political and religious affiliation.
NewVistas operates under the laws of the city, state, and country where it operates. Bylaws are finetuned to align with these laws. In places where there are there only one religion is allowed, however, NewVistas does not participate. People in such a country can adopt the NewVistas model, but there would need to be many modifications that might prevent it from achieving the desired potential.
Physical infrastructure
D&C 88, 94, and 95, as well as the Plat of the City of Zion and the House of the Lord Design, included several details on how the city of Zion was to be built up. In addition, the House of the Lord had details that included the dimensions of houses, how people were to use them, among other specifications.
The details included were, to say the least, complicated for the saints’ leadership, due to the range of their knowledge and exposure, and the available information then. While the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples must be applauded as remarkable engineering feats, they were off the mark in many areas.
Shortly after sending the plans to Missouri, Frederick Williams sent a revised plat, saying that the earlier had errors, having been “drawn in haste. The revision fundamentally altered the character of the plat, and future cities that were designed using some aspects of the plat, such as Salt Lake City, have not lived up to the potential of the plat.
In NewVistas, the plat is the centerpiece of its concept. The original plat consisted of lots that were half-acre in size. Each row of lots did not face the next row giving each house in a village (apartment building) a clear view of the street ahead. As discussed, the center of the community consists of 24 district buildings, as well as a “storehouse.”
The NewVistas community physical plat follows the original plat in keeping intensive agriculture operations, industrial zones, and major logistic areas just outside the community, in mirrored blocks.
The entire community is entirely walkable. The distance from one end to the farthest end is only 1 mile. In addition, cars are not allowed within the community. This closely mirrors the requirement in the plat to have stables outside the community, preventing the chaos that was associated with horse-drawn carriages and wagons.
Each NewVistas community is surrounded by farmland and pastures, after which, there are hinterlands and wildlife areas where environmental conservation can be practiced. Each community is expected to be as self-sustaining as possible. 50 communities are organized into a NewVista. Due to the social and geographical diversity, a NewVista has a greater chance to be self-sustaining, while a world area, made up of 5 NewVistas, would be close to 100% self-reliant.
Beyond a community
When Joseph Smith established the Council of 50, it was meant to help the church navigate temporal matters at a time when there were concerns about the church’s ambition and theology. The council was made up of both LDS members and nonmembers. It was not just meant to be for a stake, but for different LDS communities as a means of coordinating their efforts to petition the government for protection and improve cooperation between them.
In the NewVistas structure, the Council of 50 brings together 50 communities, which form a “NewVista”. With each community having a population of 100,000, a NewVista has 5 million people. The population size brings significant opportunities for the communities involved and enables them to develop common infrastructure and economic interests.
The council is formed by the Capital Bank presidencies of each community. It therefore has 200 members. Raw material extraction that would otherwise be expensive to mine alone, is developed under the guidance and patronage of the council. Large airports, motorways, ports, and railroads that connect a NewVista to other NewVistas, or communities within a NewVista, are also constructed and maintained this way.
To achieve self-reliance, trade between communities in a NewVista is encouraged. The council plays an instrumental role in this, by providing the necessary connectivity, and commissioning reports and surveys to inform businesses and agencies, with the aim of influencing their business strategies.
5 NewVistas, adding up to 25 million people, form an “area”. Areas are served by an area presidency, modeled after the original LDS “seventy”. An area presidency, of four presidents, facilitates loose cooperation between the NewVistas. This cooperation includes environmental conservation, trade, where needed, cooperation between councils on infrastructure and resource extraction. Area presidencies visit communities virtually to select the first trustee presidencies, which are thereafter self-replacing.
Area presidencies do not play a role in coordinating with the authorities in areas where they operate. They also do not play any role in shaping bylaws. For these reasons, they do not form boards, or other organized groupings that are constituted for such purposes. Members of a presidency meet every week on Friday, with one president presiding each week in rotation, and another clerking, also in rotation. On the 13th week, area presidencies listen into the proceedings of the World area Presidencies.
40 such areas form a world area. A world area has a population of around 1 billion people. It is served by the world area presidency. In the LDS structure, this is the equivalent of an apostle which was supposed to be a presidency of 4 and so in NewVistas each world area presidency is composed of four with one from each demographic just as in every presidency in every service calling. The World area presidency serves 1 billion and is assisted by 40 area presidencies of 4 who as mentioned earlier serve 5 50 community NewVistas or 25,000,000 people.
12 world area presidencies, each with 4 presidents, and therefore comprising of 48 presidents, form 4 boards of 12 presidents each from same demographic. Every week on Friday, each presidency meets, virtually or physically as the circumstances may dictate, with rotating presiding and clerking duties. Every month, each of the 4 demographic boards of 12 meet virtually, with presiding and clerking being rotational, such that every president has a chance to preside and clerk annually.
Process for changing By-Laws of the Worldwide system:
Quarterly, on the 13th week, all world area presidencies meet. The meeting is physically attended by all 48 presidents with the location rotating between all 12 areas and exact location chosen by the presidency who serves that area. The meeting is different from the community quarterly conferences, but both are on the same weekend.
On Saturday there are three sessions held: 10-12; two-hour lunch break, 2-4; with one hour break and then joint dinner at 5-7; final session 7-9.
Each session on Saturday is attended by all 48 and the objective is to get approval for the past quarters 12 proposals from Presidencies 1,2, &3 are put up for discussion and secret vote. The sessions are two hours long and so the 4 presidents from area 1 present their proposal from the last qtr. again for 15 minutes to all 48 starting with the Married men president. After the 15-minute presentation there are 10 minutes for questions from anyone and then 5 minutes for private secret voting by phone app. Any proposal must receive a 2/3 approval from the 48 world area presidents. Right after the vote area 1 married woman’s president presents, again for 15 minutes followed by 10 minutes of questions and response and again 5 minutes for voting. Then the single women and single men presidents present so that by the end of the first session 4 proposals have been voted on. The next session area presidency 2 repeats and last evening session area presidency 3. 2nd qtr. Areas 4,5,6 present previous proposals from prior qtr. for vote. 3rd qtr. areas 7,8,9 present for vote. 4th qtr. areas 10,11,12.
Every year 48 proposals by all 48 world area presidents are proposed the prior qtr. on Sunday and approved or rejected the next qtr. on Saturday. During the qtr. each proposal is rigorously debated (online via an app which records comments by all) within the 48 prior to the next qtr. so that the president who proposed the change has ample opportunity to adjust their proposal so as to get enough support to receive the 32 votes required for approval.
On Sundays there are similarly 3 sessions except that this time each of the 12 from the same demographic meet separately and the area presidents who are presenting that qtr. do so. So, in qtr. 1 the Presidency of area 1,2,3 make proposals to their demographic 12. By dividing into 4 groups those presenting have a full hour to present and another hour for discussion among their demographic 12. Proposals are not necessarily specific to a demographic. They can be on any subject that the president presenting decides upon. By the end of the three sessions the area presidency of 1,2 &3 would have completed presentations on 12 proposals.
The presidents who made the proposals have a full qtr. to revise and improve their proposal and time to access their probability of approval and time to adjust or allow to fail. Every world area president gets one chance each year to make a proposal for changing by-laws of the community.
Since the term for being a president is 4 years that means each world area president gets a chance on making 4 changes or adjustments to the bylaws.
Once a change has been voted on and approved by the 48 worldwide presidents. The change is published via the community phone app available in all the communities worldwide so that every participant in the world can see it. World participants have one month using the systems phone app to vote yes or no privately and secretly. If 50%+ approve within that month then that change becomes law for all participants.
After the World Area Presidency meetings each qtr. each world area presidency holds a conference for all their area seventy presidencies at a location within their world area selected by that world presidency. This conference is held on Monday following the Sunday Proposal session. Area seventy are encouraged to make comments and suggestions for changes directly to the proposals web site area so that their opinion can be considered by that world area president who made the proposal.
The specific World Area presidency will have issues and problems that are happening within their area for discussion with their area seventy presidencies. The Monday meeting will have 3 sessions similar to the other qtr. meetings. This gives the world area presidency 3 2-hour sessions for discussions and interactions with their area seventy presidencies.