Book of Mormon Church shines the light on how different “church” was in The Holy Book of Mormon compared with how it is today in Mormonism. Prior to Joseph Smith forming a church in 1830, the way early believers in The Holy Book of Mormon did “church” was how it was in The Holy Book of Mormon, which largely resembled Protestantism.
In fact, Joseph was not commissioned to start a church; Oliver Cowdery was (more info here: link).
In truth, it was Thomas Campbell who God prepared to merge Protestantism with The Holy Book of Mormon as can be learned from his life (Wikipedia – Thomas Campbell) and treatise Declaration and Address (1808):
About the Book
This is the Centennial Celebration Edition published in 1908. Thomas Campbell was born February 1, 1763 in Ireland, and migrated to the United States in 1807. A Presbyterian minister who grew tired of denominationalism, set forth in this publication the reasons why. He proclaimed that all the churches had gone astray and encouraged them to use the New Testament as their guide book. Barton W. Stone, as well as others came to the same conclusion, which started the Restoration Movement – to restore the churches to the New Testament. Today, their followers are known as Disciples of Christ, Christians and churches of Christ (https://zarahemlabookstore.com/books/declaration-and-address-centennial-edition/).
Sidney Rigdon was a rival of Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander Campbell. God’s plan was for The Holy Book of Mormon to merge with the Campbells—not Sidney Rigdon.
Things got off-track the minute Joseph merged with Rigdon, as first-hand witness David Whitmer said:
- Rigdon changed the name of their church by removing the name of Jesus
- Added a whole new priesthood structure by resurrecting the Old Testament priestly system, which placed the authority of the name of Jesus Christ as secondary, i.e., “I do these things by the power of the Melchizedek Priesthood and in the name of Jesus Christ…”
For more on that, visit David Whitmer’s website here: https://whitmercollege.com. Protestantism could learn much from how church was done in The Holy Book of Mormon. Nothing done in Christianity today is based on The Holy Bible, just as nothing in Mormonism is based on The Holy Book of Mormon.
Each group of believers could benefit from combining the two books of scripture as God intended.