Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite) is a denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement. The Strangite church is distinct from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is larger and better-known, although both organizations claim to be the original church established by Joseph Smith, Jr., on April 6, 1830. The Strangite church is headquartered in Voree, Wisconsin, just outside Burlington, and accepts the claims of James Strang as successor to Joseph Smith, as opposed to those of Brigham Young, Sidney Rigdon, Joseph Smith III, or any other Mormon^a leader.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Pre-Strang 1.2 The prophet James J. Strang 1.3 Early successes and losses 1.4 Establishing a kingdom on Beaver Island 1.5 After Strang 2 Scriptures 3 Doctrines 4 See also 5 Footnotes 6 References 7 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Pre-Strang

See also: History of the Latter Day Saint movement

The Strangites share the same early history with other Latter Day Saint denominations, up until the assassination of Joseph Smith Jr., the founding prophet of the movement. During the resulting succession crisis, several early Mormon leaders asserted claims to succeed Smith, including Sidney Rigdon and Brigham Young.

Rigdon's pretense rested on the fact that he was the sole surviving member of Smith's First Presidency, the church's highest leadership quorum. Young initially argued that Smith could have no immediate successor,^[1] but that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (of which he was president) should be sustained as the presiding body of the church. Rejected by the main church body in Nauvoo, Rigdon and his followers soon relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but there his organization soon faltered. A descendant of the Rigdonite church lives on today as the Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite).^b Meanwhile, Brigham Young's followers migrated west to the Salt Lake Valley in Utah, where they became the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest Latter Day Saint body today.

[edit] The prophet James J. Strang

See also: Succession Crisis

Although he was a relatively recent convert at the time of Smith's death, James J. Strang posed a strong and initially quite successful challenge to the claims of Young and Rigdon. Strang was a Mormon elder charged with establishing a stake or a place of refuge in Wisconsin, should the Mormons be forced to abandon their headquarters in Nauvoo. He possessed a document that came to be known as the Letter of Appointment, alleged to have been written by Smith prior to his death. This wording of this missive was somewhat ambiguous; some insist that it only appointed Strang to be president of the new Voree Stake of the church,^[2] while Strang and his followers interpreted it as a call to follow Smith as Church president. Strang also claimed that at the moment of Smith's death, he was visited by angels who ordained him to be Smith's successor.^[3]

Strang's claim appealed to many Latter Day Saints who had been attracted to Mormonism's doctrines of continuing revelation through the mouth of a living prophet. Strang announced that there still was, indeed, a Mormon prophet who communed with God and conversed with angels. Strang's claim was bolstered by his discovery of the Voree Plates, purporting to contain the last testament of an ancient Native American. These plates were found in the Hill of Promise, which would become the temple site in the new Strangite town of Voree.^c Strang's translation of the plates indicated that they were the history of one "Rajah Manchou of Vorito." This event may have reminded some Latter Day Saints of Smith's translation of the Golden Plates and the Book of Abraham, and encouraged them in their decision to accept Strang over any of his competetors.

[edit] Early successes and losses

Many prominent Latter Day Saints believed in Strang's Letter of Appointment and accepted him as Mormonism's second "Prophet, Seer, Revelator and Translator"–at least for the time being. These included the early church's Presiding Patriarch and Apostle William Smith (Joseph's only surviving brother); Book of Mormon witness Martin Harris (who left and later rejoined the LDS Church in Utah); Nauvoo Stake President William Marks; Second Bishop of the Church and church trustee-in-trust George Miller, Apostle John E. Page; former Apostle William E. M'Lellin; and many others.

Another adherent was John C. Bennett, former mayor of Nauvoo and a former member of the First Presidency. Bennett had been in Smith's innermost circle but had broken with the founding prophet and had written an Anti-Mormon exposé. Bennett founded a secretive Strangite fraternal society known as the Order of Illuminati, but his presence disrupted Strang's church and ultimately led to his excommunication.^[4] His "order" fell by the wayside, and no longer exists among the Strangites.

All of these persons, with the exception of George Miller (who would remain loyal to Strang until death), would leave the Strangite church by 1850. Many of these defections were due to Strang's seemingly abrupt "about-face" on the turbulent subject of polygamy. Violently opposed to the practice at first,^[5] Strang reversed course in 1849 to become one of its strongest advocates. Since many of his early disciples had looked to him as a monogamous counterweight to Brigham Young's polygamous version of Mormonism, Strang's decision to embrace plural marriage proved costly to him and his church.

Strang found his greatest support among the scattered branches of Mormonism, which he frequently toured. His followers may have numbered as many as 12,000,^[6] at a time when Young had perhaps 50,000 or so altogether.^[7] After Strang won a debate at a conference in Norway, Illinois, he converted the entire branch.^[8] While in Voree, the Strangites published a periodical known as the Voree Herald. The church also fielded a mission to England, one of the primary sources of converts to Mormonism. This mission was led by Martin Harris, the financier of the Book of Mormon and one of its Three Witnesses. Harris proved a poor spokesman, however, and the English missions sided with the LDS Church led by Brigham Young.

[edit] Establishing a kingdom on Beaver Island

Because the high price of land in the Voree area made it difficult for Latter Day Saints to "gather" there, Strang moved his church headquarters to Beaver Island in Lake Michigan. Here his disciples founded a town known as St. James (now St. James Township), and in 1850, openly established an ecclesiastical monarchy with Strang as the spiritual "king" over his church. The date of his coronation, July 8th, is still mandated as one of the two most important days in the Strangite church calendar (the other is April 6th, the anniversary of the founding of Joseph Smith's church).^[9]

Contrary to popular misconception, Strang never claimed to be king over Beaver Island, or any other geographical entity. Rather, he asserted that he was king over his church, which he saw as the one, true "Kingdom of God" prophesied in Scripture and destined to spread over all the earth.^[10] The constitution of this kingdom was contained within the Book of the Law of the Lord, which Strang claimed to have translated from the Plates of Laban mentioned in The Book of Mormon. Originally published in 1851, this new book of Strangite scripture would be republished in a greatly-expanded edition in 1856, just after Strang's untimely murder. It is still revered by Strangites today.

In addition to printing religious materials, the Strangite printing press on Beaver Island became the source of a new periodical, the Northern Islander, which was the first real newspaper in all of northern Michigan.^[11] As St. James became an entrepôt for Great Lakes shipping, the Strangites began to compete with more established commercial lake ports such as Mackinac Island. Tensions grew between Mormons on Beaver and their non-Mormon neighbors, frequently exploding into violence. Accusations of thuggery and thievery were leveled by both parties against each other, compounded by ever-increasing dissension among some of Strang's own disciples, who chafed at what they saw as his increasingly tyrannical rule.

In 1854 Strang published Ancient and modern Michilimackinac, including an account of the controversy between Mackinac and the Mormons. "Strang surveys the geography and history of Mackinac and the surrounding region, particularly the islands of Lake Michigan, and after giving an account of the Mormon settlemen upon Big Beaver Island, addresses himself to the bitter controversies between the people of Mackinac and the Mormons. Although dealing with controverted matters and colored by Strang's indignation at the outrages he and his people had to endure, the pamplet is a responsible source on the events of which it treats, and is also interesting for the considerable measure of learning it reveals in Strang" (Dale L. Morgan, Bibliography, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite.)

Matters came to a head on June 20, 1856, when two Strangite malcontents shot their "king" in the back, leading to his death three weeks later. Since Strang refused to appoint a successor,^[12] and insisted that the next Strangite prophet must be ordained by angels just as he and Joseph Smith had been,^[13] the Strangite church was left leaderless and vulnerable. One day before Strang's death, vigilantes from Mackinac Island and other Lake Michigan communities converged on Beaver Island. The Strangites were rounded up, forced onto hastily-commandeered steamships and removed from the island. Most were simply dumped onto docks in Chicago and Green Bay, destitute and deprived of all their property.

[edit] After Strang

The death of Strang and the loss of the settlement on Beaver Island were twin catastrophes for his church. Eventually, most of the former Strangites were gathered together into what was known at the time as the "New Organization" of Latter Day Saints. This group of midwestern Saints chose not to follow Brigham Young and the main body that had located to valley of the Great Salt Lake in Utah and would eventually come to be led by Joseph Smith, Jr.'s son, Joseph Smith III. This organization, called the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is now known as the Community of Christ.

A few congregations of Strangites, however, remained loyal to their prophet's memory. Wingfield W. Watson, a High Priest who had known and served under Strang personally, kept the church alive into the 20th century. Strang's disciples today are divided into two main factions; one is led by a Presiding High Priest, who does not claim to have the authority or office possessed by Joseph Smith or James Strang. The other claims that this first assemblage is in error, and that by incorporating in 1961, organizing a new order of the priesthood to rule them, and by establishing a new man-made set of laws to govern them, it lost its identity as a faithful continuation of Strang's organization. This second group claims that it is the sole true remnant of James Strang's church.^{d [14]}

The first group no longer emphasizes missionary work (unlike the LDS and many other Mormon sects), as they tend to believe that after three murdered prophets (Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith and James Strang) God closed His dispensation to the "gentiles" of the West.^[15] Consequently, this group's congregation remains small. Current membership figures vary between 50 and 300 persons, depending upon the source consulted.^[16]

There are two groups among the second. One group is (headquartered) in Independence, Missouri. The second group is (headquartered) in Shreveport, Louisiana. Both conduct missionary work on the Internet. The Shreveport group has a growing membership in America and in Africa; including Kenya, Uganda, Botswana, and Djibouti; and is organizing a group in Ghana. There are also members in Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Hawaii, and Canada. Their membership exceeds a thousand.

[edit] Scriptures

(In Progress)

[edit] Doctrines

The church believes in seventh-day worship, sacrificial ordinances, includes women in some offices of the priesthood, practices baptism for the dead, an endowment ceremony similar to that practiced by pre-Nauvoo Mormons, and believes in Eternal Marriage. Historically, some members of the church practiced plural marriage, including James Strang himself.

For more complete outline of Strangite Doctrines Click Here

A valid claim to the Melchisedec Priesthood still exists.

[edit] See also

• George J. Adams

[edit] Footnotes

• Note a: "Mormon," as used in this article, refers to adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement as a whole, and not just those of its largest branch, the LDS church (as is usual among smaller Latter Day Saint sects, many of which dislike this term). Its use here is only for convenience, not in any derogatory sense.
• Note b: The "Bickertonites," as they are commonly called, obtained their historical and priesthood lineage from Rigdon's organization, but their beliefs are not identical to Rigdon's sect in every respect.
• Note c: Though construction on a temple was started at this site, it was never completed, due to the poverty and divisions among Strang's followers.
• Note d: The first group does not have a website; the second has three: http://www.strangite.org, http://www.mormonbeliefs.com, and http://www.zionsreveille.org.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Church Site
• Here is the other Official Church Site
• Book of the Law of the Lord
• 7th Day Sabbath Mormons

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