The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .” (U. S. Constitution).

            With this written document of law, allowing for freedom of worship according to one’s conscience, now in place God the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ proceeded to restore the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its fullness, ushering in the final dispensation through an uneducated fourteen-year-old boy named Joseph Smith. This uneducated boy was educated by “God who would give him knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, [knowledge] that has not been revealed since the world was . . .(D&C 121:26).” And he would be tried and tested to prove his worthiness to translate the Golden Plates and publish the Book of Mormon, the book he would later call “the keystone of our religion”(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 194). Joseph Smith Jr. passed all his tests.

            Within days of publishing the Book of Mormon the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized on April 6, 1830 in the state of New York. Almost immediately missionaries were sent to proclaim the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The gathering had begun. Joseph’s next task was to begin building the Kingdom of God on earth. This included sending out missionaries to teach and gather the Saints to the “choice land” the Lord had prepared, America, as seen in vision by Nephi, to be the host nation where liberty could be restored unto “all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people” (D&C 112:1), and as seen by Daniel anciently (Dan 2). As the people gathered cities were built to house those gathered, temples were built to bestow the covenants of eternal life, 134 revelations were received, recorded, organized and published as the Doctrines and Covenants, with Joseph moving ever forward the cause of liberty — learning first hand about liberty, under extreme conditions in “Liberty Jail”— until his martyrdom in June 1844.