There is evidence that well into the Nauvoo period of the Church, Joseph was still drawing parallels with Methodism. Peter Cartwright, a Methodist minister who visited JS in Nauvoo, recorded that “[Smith] believed that among all the Churches in the world the Methodists was the nearest right” and that JS told him “We Latter-day Saints are Methodists, as far as they have gone, only have advanced further.” (Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, 342).

Or, it may not be wrong.

“Even if one thinks that Smith was profoundly mistaken (as I do), one cannot help but marvel at the religious genius of this project: It has all the advantages of Reformation Protestantism and nineteenth-century Restorationism (“Let’s get back to what Jesus and the apostles originally taught”) with all the advantages of Catholicism and Orthodoxy—an apostolic magisterium within the confines of a visible church. Smith has both a priesthood of all believers and a priesthood managed by a church hierarchy. He offers a new gospel unconstrained by centuries of theological precedent, yet it he could claim that it is as old as the apostles. He could, without contradiction, reject tradition while claiming to be the true guardian of an ancient message. It may be wrong, but it was brilliant.”

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=754

The author, Francis Beckwith, comes from an interesting perspective. He is the immediate past president of the Evangelical Philosophy society who just became a Roman Catholic, generating much controversy. He was also co-editor of “The New Mormon Challenge.”

Have you read Larry Porter’s article on the Young family’s transition from Reformed Methodism to Mormonism, published in the recently released A Witness for the Restoration: Essays in Honor of Robert J. Matthews?