Need a citation for entanglement of the Christian Church with Mormonism. I only know of an individual, Sidney Rigdon, who was indeed from the Christian Church. Don’t know anything about the other group’s entanglements.
Signey Rigdon was from the “Cambellite” movement. What’s interesting is that he influenced Smith to introduce weekly communion services.
What’s weird is that in the Mormon church, instead of bread and wine (or grape juice) on a weekly basis, they instituted bread and water.
My conclusion: they didn’t want to talk about the blood of Christ. They wanted to talk about water, which is only symbolic of a one-time baptism. The blood of Christ is not in their repertoire. Why not, they are gods-becoming, and teach that they will be on a level with Jesus (the spirit brother of saton).
Hey! If they talk about the blood of Christ, and the sacrifice He had to make, all those Gods-becoming might have to consider that in some future planet, if they indeed will be gods on a parity with Jesus, they might have to hang on a cross and shed their blood to have parity with Jesus Christ.
Not an appealing thought when talking about conversion to the LDS, eh?
Nevermind, we’ll just have water and drop this blood thing. That could get these gods-becoming a little nervous.
Rigdon came with his congregation(s) ~ I think in the end he was determined to be a bit nuts though. It's a mixed bag regarding the degree of early Christian Church movement and LDS entanglements ~ but they have been acknowledged by many researchers to have been numerous. Probably worth a doctorate or two for some candidate for a Ph.D in history. I do know Mormons are more open about it than DofC folks, and you can send them screaming from the church on Wednesday night you bring this up with the Church of Christ.
Sidney Rigdon's Grandson Says Their Family Understood it to be a Fraud -- EDITOR TRIBUNE: -- In the intervals of my literary labors here I have many talks with men who were in Utah at a very early day, and occasionally with original Mormons or their sons, which would be interesting had I the time to detail them. But my chance talks with one of these are so agreeable that I report him briefly for you. Mr. Walter Sidney Rigdon is a citizen of Carrolton, Cattaraugus County, N. Y., and a grandson of Sidney Rigdon, thepartner of Joe Smith. He talked with old Sidney hundreds of times about the "scheme of the Golden Bible." and his father still has many of the old Sidney's documents.
"Grandfather was a religious crank," says Mr. Rigdon, "till he lost money by it. He started in as a Baptist preacher, and had a very fine congregation for those days, in Pittsburg. There was no reason at all for his leaving, except that he got "cracked." At that time he had no ideas of making money. Indeed, while he was with the Mormons, his chances to make money were good enough for most men; but he came out of it about as poor as he went in."
B. -- "But how did he change first?"
"Well, he tried to understand the prophicies, and the man who does that is sure to go crazy. He studied the prophets and baptism, and of course he got [enough?] [Daniel?} and Ezekiel and Revelation [to] 'rattle' any man who gives [in his] mind to 'em -- at any rate [they got] him, and he joined Alexander Campbell. Campbell then [taught that] the end of the world was [nigh]. [His] Millennial Harginger [thoroughly] 'rattled' all who listened to him in Ohio and other places; [then] grandfather got disgusted and [ducked out?] [of] the new deal. He 'found' Joe Smith and they had a great many talks together before they brought out the [plates]. None of us ever doubted that they got the whole thing up; but [father?] always maintained that grandfather helped get up the original Spaulding book. At any rate he got a copy [very] early and schemed on some way to make it useful. Although the family knew these facts, they refused to talk on the subject while grandfather lived. In fact, he and they took on [a] huge disgust at the whole subject.
Grandfather died at Friendship, Alleghany county, N. Y. in 1876, [age] eighty years old. His son Sidney, my father, was born at Mentor in 1828 and remembers the stirring [times of] Mormonism. He lives [where I know] Grandfather had preached to his [near] neighbors in Alleghany and [taken the] converts to Nauvoo, so after the break up in 1844, he returned to live at Friendship. For a while he spoke of Mormonism as an attempt to [improve] Christianity; but the later [phases] of the thing in Utah were totally different from what he had taught. His daughter Nancy Rigdon is now Mrs Ellis of Pittsburgh, and her husband is a journalist in that city. Her testimony against Joe Smith is very strong. The Prophet was no doubt a thoroughly bad man, etc."
I only report that part of Mr. Rigdon's talk which shows the history of the "Golden Bible," as accepted in the family. Of course, if Sidney Rigdon had wanted the world to believe the Smith story of the plates, he would have told them so. But, though the family do not care to ventillate it, he evidently taught them to treat the whole thing as a fraud.-- J. H. Bradley.-- New York, April 7, 1888.