According to Joseph Smith, an 1823 visitation from a resurrected prophet named Moroni had led to his finding and eventual unearthing of a long-buried book, inscribed on metal plates, which contained a record of God's dealings with the ancient Israelite inhabitants of the Americas.

The record, along with other artifacts (including a breastplate and what Smith referred to as the Urim and Thummim), had been found buried in a hill near his home.

On September 22, 1827, Smith's record indicates that the angel had allowed him (after 4 years of waiting and preparation) to take the plates and other artifacts.

Almost immediately thereafter, Smith began having difficulties with people trying to discover where the plates were hidden on the Smith farm.

With the monetary and moral support of a wealthy Palmyra neighbor named Martin Harris, Smith and his wife Emma move from western New York to Harmony, Pennsylvania, where Smith reports to a few family members and colleagues including Harris that he has translated some of the Reformed Egyptian text from the Golden plates.

According to Smith's history, he had invited Harris to take a sample of the characters from the plates to a few well-known scholars including Charles Anthon.

Harris returns to report that Anthon had initially provided authentication to the translation of the Reformed Egyptian, but had torn up his written statement upon hearing the story of how Joseph had obtained them.

Harris returns, and acts as Smith's scribe while Smith translates words using Urim and Thummim.

In June 1828, after completing the first 116 pages of the record, Smith allows Harris to take the manuscript to Palmyra to show Harris' wife.

Harris returns, long overdue, and informs Smith that the manuscript has been lost or stolen.

Smith will record, "the Lord took the Urim and Thummim and the plates,” stopping the work of translation.

Around the same time, Smith's wife gives birth to a stillborn son, their first child.

Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery move to Fayette, New York at the beginning of June 1829 for the remainder of the translation of the golden plates.

The plates' title page indicates the book is to be entitled the Book of Mormon: An account written by the hand of Mormon, upon plates taken from the Plates of Nephi (Smith 1830b, title page).

Translation of the hitherto unknown religious history of descendants of the ancient Hebrews who lived and warred long ago on the North American continent is completed around July 1, 1829.

Joseph Smith shows the purportedly ancient record to eleven other men, who record their personal witnesses of seeing an angel show them the record (plates), seeing the record, handling the plates, and hearing the voice of the Lord command them to bear witness of the veracity of the record.

These testimonies are included in the title pages of the Book of Mormon as The Testimony of the Three Witnesses, and The Testimony of The Eight Witnesses.

By the time the Book of Mormon is published in Palmyra on March 26, 1830, with the financial assistance of Martin Harris, Smith's record indicates that he had received additional revelations and had begun the work of organizing a new Christian church.

Smith and Cowdery report having been visited by John the Baptist, the same as referenced in the New Testament, and state that he had ordained them "the Priesthood of Aaron."

They said that he then commanded them to baptize one another.

Smith and Cowdery state that, not long after the appearance of John the Baptist, Christ’s disciples Peter, James, and John, found in the New Testament, had visited them.

According to Smith and Cowdery, the disciples had come to them in order to restore the Melchizedek priesthood, which, they told the men, contains the necessary authority to restore Christ's church.

On April 6, 1830, a church is formally organized as the Church of Christ, and small branches are soon set up in Palmyra, Fayette, and Colesville, New York.

There is strong local opposition to these branches, however, and Smith soon dictates a revelation (D & C 57:1-3) that the church would establish a "City of Zion" in Native American lands near Missouri.

In preparation, Smith dispatches missionaries led by Cowdery to the area of this new "Zion.”

On their way, the missionaries convert a group of Disciples of Christ adherents in Kirtland, Ohio led by Sidney Rigdon, a former Campbellite minister.

At the end of 1830, Smith dictates a revelation (D & C 37) that the three New York branches should gather in Ohio pending the results of Oliver Cowdery's mission to Missouri.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints has more than doubled in size following the conversion of Sidney Rigdon in September 1830.

Rigdon leads several congregations of Restorationists in Ohio's Western Reserve area, and hundreds of his adherents follow him into Mormonism.

Rigdon is soon called to be Smith's spokesman and quickly becomes one of the early leaders of the Movement.

To avoid further conflict of the kind encountered in New York and Pennsylvania, Smith moves with his family to Kirtland, Ohio, joining with the converts that have joined with Rigdon.

The church's headquarters are soon established there and Smith urges the rest of the membership to gather here or to a second outpost of the church in Missouri.

Joseph Smith will not to escape persecution for long, due to the controversy that follows him.

On March 24, 1832, a violent mob comes to Smith's house in Hiram and attacks him.

According to recorded accounts of the event, the mob breaks down the front door, takes Smith's oldest surviving adopted child from his arms (McKiernan 1971), and drags Smith from the room.

The mob then beats, tars and feathers Smith, and attempts to poison him.

This period is prolific in its expansion of Church doctrine and organization; a number of new doctrines and leadership offices are added, based on Smith's teachings.

An attempt to establish a communitarian economy based on Smith's "Law of Consecration" is established, but is abandoned after its unfeasiblity becomes apparent.

A mob in Jackson County, Missouri destroys the printing office of the early Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, containing what is now known as The Doctrine and Covenants.

Joseph Smith, his new religion spreading from its roots on the New York Panhandle, has established a Latter Day Saints community in Jackson County, the westernmost yet.

A fundamental tenet of Latter Day Saint theology is that the biblical New Jerusalem will be built in the Americas, a belief established by 1829 and included in the Book of Mormon, a scripture of the religion.

On July 20, 1831, Joseph Smith had identified the location of this New Jerusalem as Jackson County, Missouri and began sending Latter Day Saint settlers there to establish a City of Zion, which is to be a Latter Day Saint millennial kingdom.

By the summer of 1833, there are about twelve hundred Latter Day Saints in Jackson County, and older settlers feel threatened by their political and economic power, a fear exacerbated by rumors that Latter Day Saints favor abolitionism.

Forming militia groups, the "old settlers" as they are called, organize attacks against the Latter Day Saints during the summer of 1833.

A revelation dictated by Joseph Smith in August 1833 discourages immediate retaliation but permits Latter Day Saints to retaliate after the fourth act of aggression and "unto the third and fourth generation."

The Saints initially attempt to regain their lands through political and legal means, enlisting four Missouri attorneys to communicate with the court and the Missouri government.

This decision to engage lawyers and fight the issue in court likely sparks further violence in late October 1833.

When the Missourians attack the Saints the fourth time, they fight back as allowed by Smith's revelation.

By the end of 1833, Latter Day Saint homes, as well as the church print shop, have been destroyed, and nearly all church members have fled the county.

Mormon refugees settle temporarily in neighboring counties, including Clay County to the north, across the Missouri River from Jackson County.

In December 1833, Smith dictates another revelation about the "redemption of Zion."

It commands Missouri settlers to seek redress through the courts or the political process but warns that a military solution will become necessary should those efforts fail.

The revelation predicts that God will soon command Smith to gather warriors of the church to "get ye straightway unto my land; break down the walls of mine enemies; throw down their tower, and scatter their watchmen."

Further, should the Missourians oppose the Saints, the latter will "avenge me of mine enemies, that by and by I may come with the residue of mine house and possess the land."

The first temple built by the Church of the Latter Day Saints is constructed in Kirtland, Ohio, under Joseph Smith's leadership and direction.

The work been begun in 1833; it is completed by 1836.

Around the time of its completion, many extraordinary events are reported: appearances by Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Elias, and numerous angels, speaking and singing in tongues, prophesying, and other spiritual experiences.

However, the construction of the temple, in addition to other ventures of Smith's, has left him and the Church deeply in debt.

To raise money, Smith plans a banking institution, which is called the Kirtland Safety Society.

The State of Ohio denies Smith a charter to legally operate a bank causing Smith to rename the company under the advice of non-Mormon legal counsel as 'The Kirtland AntiBanking Safety Society' and he continues to operate the bank and print notes.

The bank becomes insolvent after twenty-one days of operation in January and collapses later this year.

During this time, Smith and his associates are accused of illegal and unethical actions.

In the wake of this bank failure, many church members, including prominent leaders who had backed the venture, become disaffected with Smith.

Bertel Thorvaldsen's statue of the resurrected Christ, commonly referred to as Thorvaldsen's Christus, has appealed to the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a three point four meter eplica is on display at Temple Square and images of the statue are used in official church media, such as the internet site LDS.org.

Thorvaldsen had attended Copenhagen's Royal Danish Academy of Art (Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi), winning all the prizes including the large Gold Medal.

As a consequence, he had been granted a Royal stipend, enabling him to complete his studies in Rome, where he arrived on March 8, 1797.

Thorvaldsen's first success had been the model for a statue of Jason, highly praised by Antonio Canova, the most popular sculptor in the city.

In 1803, he received the commission to execute it in marble from Thomas Hope, a wealthy English art-patron.

From that time Thorvaldsen's success had been assured, and he did not leave Italy for sixteen years.

In 1819 he visited his native Denmark, where he had been commissioned to make the colossal series of statues of Christ and the twelve Apostles for the rebuilding of Vor Frue Kirke (from 1922 known as the Copenhagen Cathedral) between 1817 and 1829, after its having been destroyed in the British bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807.

Executed after his return to Rome, they are not completed until 1838, when Thorvaldsen returns to Denmark, hailed as a hero of the arts.

The 'Latter Day Saints' had begun migrating to Missouri after Joseph Smith stated that Missouri would be the future center of the New Jerusalem.

Smith had identified Independence, Missouri, as "the center place" and the spot for building a temple.

Smith had first visited Independence in the summer of 1831, and a site had been dedicated for the construction of the temple.

Soon afterward, Mormon converts—most of them from the New England area—had begun immigrating in large numbers to Independence and the surrounding area.

After Mormon leadership leaves Kirtland in 1838, the Saints from Kirtland follow them to Missouri, increasing the church's numbers, which confirms the fears of the local leaders and residents that the Mormons would dominate Missouri politics.

Joseph Smith and his followers suffer many instances of violent conflict and legal difficulties during the Missouri period.

The Mormons and non-Mormons in Missouri are, in general, fundamentally very different people.

Local leaders and residents see the Latter Day Saint community as a threat to their property and their political control due to the Mormon practice of voting 'en bloc'.

The tension is further fueled by the Mormon belief that Jackson County, Missouri, and the surrounding lands will become a "promised land" to the Mormons as they purchase property and build settlements.