 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
  Back to Religious LDS Art
THE STANDARD OF TRUTH |
|||||||||||||||||||||
 Original 48"x 60" (20 sq. ft.) Acrylic/Canvas Painting Found in the Collection of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City. It hangs permanently in the Missionary Training Center (MTC), Provo, Utah. Painted at the request of LDS Missionaries of the UTAH PROVO MISSION to celebrate 170 years of teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ by Elder and Sister Missionaries Worldwide. Thomas used those Utah Provo Missionaries and their Mission President as models in his painting. Frank Thomas produced this work of love as his tribute to the Mormon Elders who taught him the Gospel more than forty years ago. |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
NOTE: John Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat, in 1842 wrote Joseph Smith to
request information about the Church for a friend who was writing a history of New
Hampshire. In response to this inquiry, the "Wentworth Letter" was written by the
Prophet Joseph Smith. His letter briefly detailed the History of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints to date (1842), and included key events in the restoration
of the gospel. In it, the Prophet Joseph declared the purpose of the Church is to take
the gospel to every nation and prepare a people for the Millennium. The letter also
describes concisely the origin, contents, and translation of the Book of Mormon. In
concluding his account (sketch) of the coming forth of the Gospel in the latter-days,
the Prophet described the STANDARD of TRUTH and used it as preface to his thirteen
enumerated doctrinal statements that have since become known as the Articles of Faith.
The Articles of Faith are found today published in the Pearl of Great Price.
(For a complete text of the Prophet Joseph Smith's Letter to editor John Wentworth
(well worth the reading), see History of the Church Vol. 4, pp. 535-541). (Excerpts from
the Wentworth Letter follow)
|
| |||||||||||||||||||
|
March 1, 1842. At the request of Mr. John Wentworth, Editor and Proprietor of the Chicago
Democrat. I have written the following sketch of the rise, progress, persecution, and
faith of the Latter-day Saints, of which I have the honor, under God, of being the founder. I was born in the town of Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont, on the 23rd of December, A.D. 1805. When ten years old, my parents removed to Palmyra, New York, where we resided about four years, and ...............[So begins the familiar story......After describing the establishment and growth of the Church, coming forth of the Book Of Mormon and the intense persecutions that followed, the bloodshed, theft, misery and woe caused by lawless proceedings, (even an exterminating order issued by a governor under sanction of a state's law) the Prophet Joseph Smith continued,...] We arrived in the state of Illinois in 1839, where we found a hospitable people and a friendly home. We have commenced to build a city called "Nauvoo," in Hancock County [Illinois]. Persecution has not stopped the progress of truth, but has only added fuel to the flame, it has spread with increasing rapidity......the Elders of this Church [have] gone forth, and planted the Gospel in almost every state in the Union.... It has also spread into England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, where, in the year 1840, a few of our missionaries were sent, and over five thousand joined the Standard of Truth; there are numbers now joining in every land. ......The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done. We believe in God the eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. We believe that men will be punished according to their own sins and not for Adam's transgression. We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: (1) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; (2) Repentance; (3) Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; (4) Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. We believe that a man must be called of God by prophecy and by the laying on hands, by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof. We believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive Church, viz: apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, etc. We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion will be built upon this [the American] continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul, "We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. Respectfully, &c., JOSEPH SMITH |
||||||||||||||||||||
