35
edits
Changes
no edit summary
In Mormonism, you do not have to be Mormon to be a martyr for the cause of Christ. Mormons look at all who die for their religion and for Jesus in all the varying forms of Christianity as martyrs.
==Distinctive Mormon "Scriptures"==
===The Book of Mormon===
In 1823 Smith claimed to have been visited by an [[angel]] named Moroni, who told him of a chronicle of ancient history supposedly engraved in "Reformed Egyptian" on tablets of gold, and buried in a hill near Manchester, New York. Smith allegedly obtained these plates in 1827 and translated them into English via the use of two seer-stones which he called the "Urim and Thummim." These stones should not be confused with the [[Old Testament]] Urim and Thummim (the stones on the High Priest’s breastplate used to relay messages from God to the Israelites), though . Mormons sometimes try believe they are the same type of holy instruments but that the one Joseph Smith claimed to connect have was not the one mentioned in the twoBible.
This translation became ''The Book of Mormon'', which is revered as "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" by Mormons. The monikers referring to Smith's church as "the Mormon Church" and its members as "Mormons" are derivations from''The Book of Mormon.'' This book purports to be a religious and secular history of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas--called Nephites, Lamanites, Mulekites, and Jaredites--from about 2200 B.C. to A.D. 421. It claims that at least some Native Americans are descended from groups of Near Eastern peoples (mostly [[Judaism|Jews]]) who immigrated during pivotal periods in Israel’s history.
