Draft:Mormonism and authority

Within Mormonism, authority typically refers to priesthood authority, or the ability to act in God's name. According to its founder, Joseph Smith, this authority had been removed from the primitive Christian church through a Great Apostasy, which Mormons believe occurred due to the deaths of the original apostles. Mormons maintain that this apostasy was prophesied of within the Bible to occur prior to the Second Coming of Jesus, and was therefore in keeping with God's plan for mankind. Smith said that the priesthood authority was restored to him from angelic beings—John the Baptist and the apostles Peter, James, and John.

Priesthood authority was used as a foundation for early political structures in the Latter Day Saint movement. These included the Council of Fifty in Nauvoo, Illinois, and the theocracy established in the State of Deseret.

Priesthood authority in early Mormonism
Priesthood authority as it now known in the Latter Day Saint movement originated from the movement's founder, Joseph Smith. Some of the early movement's most important charismatic experiences were shared between Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, who joined the movement during the translation of the Book of Mormon. During the translation of the Golden Plates, Smith and Cowdery determined that they needed to obtain priesthood authority, or the authority to act in God's name, which they believed had been lost from the earth during the Great Apostasy. According to an account by Cowdery in 1834, they went into the woods near Harmony, Pennsylvania on May 15, 1829, were visited by an angel who gave them the "Holy Priesthood". In 1835, Smith and Cowdery stated that the angel was John the Baptist, and that the "Holy Priesthood" was specifically the Priesthood of Aaron", which included the power to baptize. Today this area is maintained by the LDS Church as the Aaronic Priesthood Restoration Site.

Smith and Cowdery further elaborated for the 1835 publication of the Doctrine and Covenants that they were also later visited by Peter, James, and John, who restored the "keys of your ministry" and the "keys of the kingdom". Neither Smith nor Cowdery ever gave a date for this visitation.

Political structures in Utah


Early Mormonism established community legal structures as essentially theocracies (see theodemocracy). Joseph Smith and his successor, Brigham Young, presided over the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) as prophet, President of the Church, and spiritual king until Jesus Christ's Second Coming. U.S. President Millard Fillmore appointed Young governor of the Territory of Utah, and there was minimal effective separation between church and state until 1858.

Young envisioned a Mormon state spanning from the Salt Lake Valley to the Pacific Ocean; he sent church leaders to establish colonies in various parts of the western United States. These colonies were governed by Mormon officials under Young's mandate to enforce "God's law" by "lay[ing] the ax at the root of the tree of sin and iniquity," while preserving individual rights. Despite the distance to these outlying colonies, local Mormon leaders received frequent visits from church headquarters, and were under Young's direct doctrinal and political control. Mormons were taught to obey the orders of their priesthood leaders, as long as they coincided with the church's religious principles. Young's view of theocratic enforcement included a death penalty. However, there are no documented cases showing that capital punishment was ever used by the Mormons. Mormon leaders taught the doctrine of blood atonement, in which Mormon "covenant breakers" could in theory gain their exaltation in heaven by having "their blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering for their sins." More clearly stated, this doctrine holds that capital punishment is required to atone for murder. Local church leaders occasionally took the rhetoric of such doctrines seriously as they contemplated sanctionable applications of violence.

According to rumors and accusations, Brigham Young sometimes enforced "God's law" through a secret cadre of avenging Danites. The truth of these rumors is debated by historians. While there existed active vigilante organizations in Utah who referred to themselves as "Danites", they may have been acting independently.