Church History (the Wentworth letter)
A sketch of ‘the rise, progress, persecution, and faith of the Latter-Day Saints’ that Joseph Smith printed in 1842, written at the request of the Chicago editor John Wentworth. It ends with the thirteen statements later called the Articles of Faith.
Read the text at josephsmithpapers.org ↗The Articles of Faith as now printed in the Pearl of Great Price (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) ↗
Smith says at the outset that he wrote the sketch at the request of John Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat. It tells of his vision of “two glorious personages”, the plates and the Book of Mormon, the organizing of the church on 6 April 1830, the expulsions from Missouri and the building of Nauvoo, and closes with thirteen statements, twelve of which begin “We believe”, above his name. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prints those statements, with small changes of wording, as the Articles of Faith.
It is Joseph Smith’s own summary, written twelve years after the church was organized. It places that event in the town of Manchester, New York, where his manuscript history has Fayette; see the dating note of Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints.
Cited in
- 6 April 1830, firm date