In April 1830, the
Church of Christ was organized by Smith in upstate New York. By October of that year, the church had grown to between seventy and eighty disciples. That fall missionaries were sent west to convert the
Native Americans in Missouri. They passed through
Kirtland, Ohio, where they encountered widespread success among the congregations of Sidney Rigdon, adding hundreds of additional converts. Many of these members, including Rigdon, had formerly been members of the
Disciples of Christ led by
Alexander Campbell. The doctrine of the new Church of Christ had not been completely developed or understood yet in Kirtland, especially with Joseph Smith in New York and missionaries having moved on to Missouri. As such, many early Kirtland converts retained Disciple of Christ doctrines and practices. Regarding the
afterlife, Alexander Campbell published in 1828 a vision he had received of "three kingdoms" where he wrote, "While musing upon the three kingdoms, I fancied myself in the kingdom of glory after the final judgment." He went on to explain that heaven was divided into "the Kingdom of Law, the Kingdom of Favor, and the Kingdom of Glory" where the deceased would enter based on levels of faith, works, and Abrahamic lineage. Disciples of Christ also believed that most people would be numbered among the sinners sent to a "lake of fire and brimstone" outside of heaven.
The Vision On February 16, 1832, while working on
translation of the New Testament passage in the upstairs bedroom of the
John Johnson home, Smith and Rigdon received what was known to early Latter Day Saints as "the Vision." It detailed a heaven divided into three degrees of glory (the celestial, terrestrial, and telestial kingdoms), where resurrected beings would go after the final judgement. Assignment to a particular kingdom in the resurrection is contingent upon the desires and actions exhibited during mortal and post-mortal life. Critically different from Disciple of Christ beliefs was that in Latter Day Saint theology, virtually all would be saved. The first misunderstanding that came from the vision, and persists in the church to this day, is that sinners would also be saved in heaven, a distinction that caused some to apostatize from the young church. and that
1 Corinthians speaks of these three degrees of glory, comparing them with the glory of the sun, moon, and stars.
Response by early Latter Day Saints Christian universalism, or the idea that God would save all of humanity, was a prominent and polarizing religious belief in the 1830s. Many converts to the early church disagreed with Universalism and felt the Book of Mormon justified their views. When news of "the Vision" reached the branches of the church, it was not well received by all and seen by many as a major shift in theology towards Universalism. An antagonistic newspaper wrote sarcastically that with "the Vision" Joseph Smith had tried to "
disgrace Universalism by professing ... the salvation of all men." The branch in
Geneseo, New York was particularly apprehensive. Ezra Landon, a leader of the Geneseo branch who had convinced a number of others against the Vision, told visiting missionaries that "the vision was of the Devil & he believed it no more than he believed the devil was crucified ... & that he, Br Landon, would not have the vision taught in the church for $1000." Joseph Smith sent a letter to the branch making clear that "disagreement with church doctrine, and particularly disbelief in JS’s revelations, was grounds for excommunication." After refusing to change his position, Landon was excommunicated.
Joseph Young, Brigham's brother, said, "I could not believe it at first. Why the Lord was going to save every body." ==Celestial kingdom==