abstract
| - Sidney Rigdon was an influential leader in the early days of Mormonism and became a good friend of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He was a powerful orator and defender of the fledgling Mormon Church. He eventually became disaffected and left the Church. Sidney Rigdon was born on February 19, 1793, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1817, while caring for his widowed mother, Rigdon joined a church and within a year had became qualified as a licensed preacher of the Regular Baptists. He then moved to eastern Ohio to preach and learn more. In 1820, Rigdon married Phebe Brooks and was ordained as a Baptist minister. He was a successful preacher, and his congregation soon became one of the largest in Pittsburgh. Rigdon, however, was constantly looking for the pure church of Christ as described in the New Testament. In 1830, in Kirtland, Rigdon set up a Church that was looking for the restoration of Christ’s Church. His Church was at first associated with the Campbellite movement, which sought to bring back New Testament Christianity.
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