Today in Church History 12/12

--December 12, 1712
The colony of South Carolina passed a "Sunday Law" which required everyone to attend church each Sunday and to refrain from both skilled labor and traveling by horse or wagon beyond what was absolutely necessary. Violators received a fine and/or a two hours in the village stocks.

--about December 12, 1830
Fayette, New York. Joseph Smith received by revelation extracts from the prophecy of Enoch, which later became Moses 7 in the Pearl of Great Price.

--December 12, 1833
Kirtland, Ohio. Word was received that the Saints who had already fled from northwestern Jackson County, Missouri, were also about to be expelled from a southern area of that county soon to be known as Van Buren County, Missouri.

--12 Dec (Sat) 1835
William Smith (then nolonger a member of the Church) challenged his brother Joseph to a debate on whether or not "it was necessary for God to reveal Himself to mankind..." William was apparently denying the validity of his brother's claims to receiving divine manifestations.

--1835 December 12
Joseph attends a debate at the home of William Smith. " the question proposed to debate upon was, as follows.- was it necessary for God to reveal himself to man, in order for their happiness.- I was on the affirmative and the last One to speak on that Side of the question,â€" but while listning, with interest to the, ingenuity displayed, on both Sides of the qu[e]stion, I was called, away to visit, Sister Angeline Work[s], who was Suposed to be dangerously Sick …" Diary-2, 64.

--December 12, 1835
Kirtland, Ohio. Joseph Smith attended a debate at his brother William Smith’s, on the following question: “was it necessary for God to reveal Himself to mankind in order for their happiness?”

--December 12, 1840
Nauvoo, Illinois. Joseph Smith wrote a letter to Newel K. Whitney.

--1843 12 Dec
to the chair who addressed the meeting in a vary feeling manner & interesting to our minds, he reasoned clearly that we should follow our file leaders & our savior in all his law & commandments without asking any questions why they were so[

--1845 12 Dec.
At 10:15 a.m., the general membership of the LDS church began receiving the anointing and endowment ordinances in the Nauvoo temple, and the apostles continued the initiations until midnight. Every, Sunday morning until he closed the Nauvoo temple in February 1846, Brigham Young conducted a prayer circle meeting to which all endowed persons were imvited. Continuing the previous terminology, he told these newly endowed people that they were also members of the "First Quorum" established by the martyred prophet. However, when the newly endowed numbered in the hundreds, it was no longer possible for every interested person to participate in the prayer circle. Within weeks thousands had been endowed, and the temple was too small to accommodate a meeting of everyone who had joined the "First Quorum." After the Mormons left Nauvoo, the term became a nostalgic memory, especially for those initiated during Joseph Smith's administration.

--1845 12 Dec.
The apostles begin initiating new people into the endowment ceremonies. For those already endowed, there is a repetition of the ordinances within the Nauvoo temple.

--1887 Dec 12
Rudger Clawson pardoned

Rudger Clawson pardoned by US President Grover Cleveland, cutting 4 months and 20 days off his 3 1/2 year sentence. (Smith, p. 488.)