u/Matias-Castellanos

It only superficially resembles the Protestant Christianity it was born embedded in. Protestants understand religion in spiritual, not literal terms: Zion = heaven, Israel = the believers, covenant = your “personal relationship with God”. JS de-spiritualized all of it back into OT meanings. Zion is a literal city to be built in a literal place, Israel is a literal people with tribal lineages, covenant is a binding agreement with specific blessings and cursings.

In Moroni’s first visit, the scriptural references cited are Malachi, Isaiah and Joel. The Campbellites, a fellow restorationist group,also wanted to restore “primitive Christianity”, but their model was Acts 2 and Romans. JS went past the NT entirely, back to Sinai, back to Abraham.

The OT texture is specific enough that Margaret Barker, a non-Mormon British OT scholar, has shown interest in JS’s materials, describing them as (in her view) a genuine attempt to recover Israelite first temple theology. Don Bradley, in his research on the lost 116 pages, found Martin Harris describing JS as a prophet for the Jews, so even JS’ earliest associates understood the project in OT terms. And notably, even the most NT figure to appear in the early restoration (John the Baptist) was introduced to the historical record first through Cowdery, not Joseph himself.

JS’ project was restoring Israel. Literally. That put him on a completely different theological trajectory than anyone around him