From the period of 1830 until his death in 1844 (at the hands of an angry mob in Illinois), he created an entirely new religious movement which adapted traditional Christian teachings and scriptures by the application of his own insights and of American ideals. Of course, he claims that these adaptations were the result of direct divine revelations. Here are a few of them listed below, as objectively and impassionately as I can present them. You can decide for yourselves whether or not you think that God inspired these innovations.
- the Garden of Eden was located in America
- Adam is in fact God. He and Eve are the spiritual "Parents" of all humanity.
- God is literally our "Heavenly Father"; Jesus is biologically His Son; we are all God's spirit children and we are co-eternal along with God.
- God, a glorified eternal man, is now seated on a throne near the planet Kolob.
- Adamic is the language that was spoken in Eden and, thus, is the divine language.
- Ahman is the name of God in the original "pure" Adamic language.
- The "lost tribes of Israel" emigrated to America before the time of Christ. After his resurrection, Jesus visited them to share with them the "true" gospel.
- We humans can experience "eternal life with God as families". It is family units that are sealed by the authorized priesthood (coming from Joseph Smith) which will continue for ever into eternity.
- Each man can become a God of his own world, along with his spiritual wives who will produce his spiritual children for him in the Celestial Kingdom, if he obeys the commandments given through Jospeh Smith.
- Plural marriage (or spiritual wifery, as Smith called it) is God's ordained plan to bring order and peace to human society.
- Revelation from God is always an on-going process.
- The New Jerusalem will be built here in America by the Saints in preparation of the Second Coming of Christ was is soon to come.
- Those who commit the unpardonable sin will be consigned to dwell in "Gnolom" for all eternity (the place of burning fire.
I don't think any of the theological tenets of the LDS church are any more inherently absurd or weird than that of traditional orthodox Western Christianity (and I agree that "Revelation from God is always an on-going process" and think there's not much heterodox in "Those who commit the unpardonbable sin will be consigned to dwell for all eternity in the place of burning of fire"). I think a theology ultimately has to be judged by its social fruits (does it liberate those oppressed by social sin?), and thus Smith's teaching has not only child-marriage to speak for (I don't think polygamy in and of itself is an inherent evil), but much in the way of homophobia, antifeminism, opposition to reproductive freedom, and general social conservatism as well among its sins (although of course the traditional churches are far from spotless in this regard!).
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