LATTER DAY SAINT MOVEMENT

The 'Latter Day Saint movement' (a subset of 'Restorationism') is a group of religious denominations and adherents who follow at least some of the teachings and revelations of Joseph Smith, Jr., publisher of the ''Book of Mormon'' in 1830. The Latter Day Saint movement is one of a number of separate movements, known collectively as Restorationism, intending to transcend Protestant denominationalism, and to restore a form of Christianity thought to be truer to the New Testament. The church founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. was first known as the Church of Christ. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement divided into several groups, the largest of which, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) migrated to Utah and became famous in the 19th century for its practice of plural marriage. The LDS Church abandoned this practice in 1890. Other denominations, who refer to themselves as Mormon fundamentalists, continued the practice.
Other groups originating within the Latter Day Saint movement followed different paths in Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. For the most part these groups rejected plural marriage and some of Smith's latest and most controversial or disputed teachings. The largest of these, the Community of Christ (originally known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), was formed in Missouri in 1860 by several groups uniting around Smith's son, Joseph Smith III. Most denominations existing today who follow the teachings of Joseph Smith, Jr. have some historical relationship with the movement.

Contents

Brief history

Denominations through 1844

"Prairie Saint" denominations

Rocky Mountains denominations

Other

References

Notes

See also

Brief history

Main articles: History of the Latter Day Saint movement

The driving force behind and founder of the early Latter Day Saint movement was Joseph Smith, Jr., and to a lesser extent, during the movement's first two years, Oliver Cowdery. Throughout his life Joseph Smith shared and later wrote on a number of occasions of an experience he had as a boy having seen God the Father and Jesus Christ, as two separate beings, who told him that the true church had been lost and would be restored through him, and he would be given the authority to organize and lead the true Church of Christ. Smith and Cowdery claimed that the angels John the Baptist, Peter, James and John visited them in 1829 and gave them authority to reestablish the Church of Christ.
The first Latter Day Saint church was formed in April 1830, consisting of a community of believers in the western New York towns of Fayette, Manchester, and Colesville. They called themselves the ''Church of Christ''. On April 6, 1830, this church formally organized into a legal institution under the name ''Church of Christ''. By 1834, the church was being referred to as the ''Church of the Latter Day Saints'' in early church publications,^[1] and in 1838 Joseph Smith announced that he had received a revelation from God that officially changed the name to the ''Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints''.
In the late 1830s, William Law and several other Latter Day Saints in church leadership positions publicly accused Joseph Smith of being a false prophet, resulting in some schisms in the church. Many of these people later returned to the church under Smith's leadership. Others formed new churches around other leaders.
Following Smith's martyrdom by a mob in Carthage, Illinois, some prominent members of the church claimed to be Smith's legitimate successor resulting in a succession crisis, in which the majority of church members followed Brigham Young's leadership; others followed Sidney Rigdon. The crisis resulted in several permanent schisms as well as the formation of occasional splinter groups, some of which no longer exist. These various groups are occasionally referred to under two geographical headings: "Prairie Saints" (those that remained in the Midwest United States) and "Rocky Mountain Saints" (those who followed Brigham Young to what would later become the state of Utah).
Today, there are many schism organizations who regard themselves as a part of the Latter Day Saint movement, though in most cases they do not acknowledge the other branches as valid and regard their own tradition as the only correct and authorized version of Smith's church. Most of these organizations are small. The vast majority of Latter Day Saints belong to the largest denomination, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which reports 13 million members worldwide. The second-largest denomination is the more ecumenical Community of Christ, which reports over 250,000 members. The third largest is The Church of Jesus Christ, with fewer than 20,000 adherents.

Denominations through 1844

Denominations which formed prior to the death of the church's founder, Joseph Smith, Jr.

Church Name	Organized by	Date Organized	Split off/Continuation of	Current Status	Notes
'Church of Christ'	Joseph Smith Jr.	April 6, 1830	NA	Renamed	Name changed to 'Church of the Latter Day Saints' in 1834 and name remained in flux ('Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'/'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints') until the death of Smith.
'Pure Church of Christ'	Wycam Clark	1831	'Church of Christ'	Defunct
'Church of Christ (Parrishite)'	Warren Parrish	1837	'Church of Christ'	Defunct
'Church of Jesus Christ, the Bride, the Lamb's Wife'	George M. Hinkle	1840	'Church of Christ'	Defunct
'True Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'	William Law	1844	'Church of Christ'	Defunct

"Prairie Saint" denominations

'Prairie Saint' denominations

Church Name	Organized by	Date Organized	Split off/Continuation of	Current Status	Notes
'Church of Jesus Christ of the Children of Zion'	Sidney Rigdon	1844	'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'	Dissolved by 1847	Originally also used the name 'Church of Christ'. Also known as 'Rigdonites'.
'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)'	James J. Strang	1844	'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'	A few hundred members; headquartered in Voree (now Burlington) Wisconsin.	Web site: churchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints.org
'Church of Christ'	Aaron Smith	1846	'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)'	Defunct
'Church of Christ (Whitmerite)'	David Whitmer	1847 and 1871	'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'	Extant until around 1925
'Church of Christ (Brewsterite)'	James C. Brewster and Hazen Aldrich	1848	'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'	Defunct	Published a periodical entitled ''The Olive Branch''
'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Gladdenite)'	Gladden Bishop	1851	'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'	Dissolved after Bishop's death in 1865	Many members later helped form the 'Church of Christ (Temple Lot)'
'Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite)'	Alpheus Cutler	1853	'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'	Handful of members; headquartered in Independence, Missouri	Formerly called 'The True Church of Jesus Christ'; adherents commonly called 'Cutlerites'
'Community of Christ'	Joseph Smith III	1860	'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints'	Second-largest Latter Day Saint denomination; approximately 250,000 members; headquartered in Independence, Missouri.	Previously known as the "Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" (RLDS Church); organized by Joseph Smith III in 1860. Web site: cofchrist.org.
'The Church of Jesus Christ'	William Bickerton	1862	Organized by former followers of 'Church of Jesus Christ of the Children of Zion', which by then was defunct	15,000 members; headquartered in Monongahela, Pennsylvania	Web site: thechurchofjesuschrist.org. Adherents commonly referred to as 'Bickertonites' (church actively opposes use of this term)
'Church of Christ (Temple Lot)' ('Hedrickites')	Granville Hedrick	1863	'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'; some members from 'Gladdenites'	5000 members; headquartered on the Temple Lot in Independence, Missouri	Web site: churchofchrist-tl.org; adherents commonly referred to as 'Hedrickites'
'Church of Christ with the Elijah Message'	Otto Fetting and William Draves	1929 and 1943	'Church of Christ (Temple Lot)'	Headquartered in Independence, Missouri	A denomination which split with the Temple Lot church over reported revelations from John the Baptist; web site: elijahmessage.com
'Independent RLDS / Restoration Branches'	Unknown	1980s	'Community of Christ'	12,000 members in 15 branches; movement centered in Independence, Missouri but each branch is relatively autonomous	RLDS Church branches that became independent of the RLDS Church in the 1980s due to opposition to RLDS doctrines and practices. Branches are loosely affiliated into a Joint Conference of Branches. Web site: centerplace.org
'Restored Church of Jesus Christ (Eugene O. Walton)'	Eugene O. Walton	1980	'Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite)'?	25 members; headquartered in Independence, Missouri
'Lion of God Ministry'	David B. Clark	1985	'Community of Christ'	Headquartered in Oak Grove, Missouri	Web site: lionofgod.com.
'Restoration Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'	several RLDS entities	1989	'Community of Christ'	Headquartered in Independence, Missouri	Web site: restorationchurch.net.
'Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'	Frederick Niels Larsen	2000	'Community of Christ'	1000-2000 members; headquartered in Independence, Missouri	Chiefly composed of former members of the Community of Christ who oppose what they consider to be recent doctrinal innovations, especially the passing of the church presidency to someone not descended from Joseph Smith, Jr. (Larsen is a descendant of Joseph Smith, Jr. through his grandson Frederick Madison Smith.) Web site: theremnantchurch.com

Rocky Mountains denominations

Latter Day Saint denominations headquartered in the Rocky Mountains

Church Name	Organized by	Date Organized	Split off/Continuation of	Current Status	Notes
'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'	Brigham Young	1847	'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'	The largest Latter Day Saint denomination, with 13 million members worldwide; headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah	Also commonly known as 'Mormon Church' or 'LDS Church'. Adherents are popularly called 'Mormons' or 'Latter-day Saints'. Resulted from Latter Day Saints that followed Brigham Young after succession crisis. Practiced plural marriage until 1890. Web site: lds.org
'The Church of the First Born'	Joseph Morris	1861	'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'	Probably defunct, remnants of this organization survived into the mid-20th century.	Believe in reinarnation
'The Church of Zion'	William S. Godbe	1868	'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'	Defunct
'Apostolic United Brethren'	Lorin C. Woolley	1920s	'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'	5000-8000 members; headquarters in Bluffdale, Utah.	Practices plural marriage. Part of Mormon fundamentalist movement.
'Latter Day Church of Christ'	Thomas R. King	1926	'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'	Approximately 2000 members; headquartered in Davis County, Utah	Commonly known as the 'Kingston clan'; also known as the 'Davis County Cooperative Society'. Pracitices plural marriage. Part of Mormon fundamentalist movement.
'Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'	John Y. Barlow	1935	'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'	Approximately 8,000-10,000 members; traditionally headquartered in Colorado City, Arizona; recently moved to Eldorado, Texas.	Largest group of Latter Day Saints who practice plural marriage. Part of Mormon fundamentalist movement. Also called 'FLDS Church'.
'Aaronic Order'	Maurice L. Glendenning	1942	'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'		Also called 'House of Aaron'. Web site: houseofaaron.org
'Restoration Church of Jesus Christ'	Antonio A. Feliz	1985	'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'	Approximately 500 members in Utah and California. Majority of members are LGBT.	Commonly called the 'Gay Mormon Church' or 'Liberal Mormon Church'. Originally called the 'Church of Jesus Christ of All Latter Day Saints'. Web site: RCJC
'The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days'	James D. Harmston	1994	'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'	Approximately 500-750 members. Headquartered in Manti, Utah.	Practices plural marriage. Part of Mormon fundamentalist movement. Also called 'TLC Church'.

Other

Latter Day Saint denominations that cannot be classifed as "Prairie Saint" or "Rocky Mountain Saint" denominations

Church Name	Organized by	Date Organized	Split off/Continuation of	Current Status	Notes
'Latter Day Church of Christ the Lamb'			'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'	Headquartered in Indiana	Mormon fundamentalist group that practices plural marriage
'The Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ'	Matthew P. Gill	2007	'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'	Organized in Derbyshire, England by former members of the LDS Church	Met informally as 'The Latter Day Church of Christ' until formal organization. Added the ''Book of Jeraneck'' to scriptural canon. Web site: thelatterdaychurchofchrist.blogspot.com

References

★ Steven L. Shields, ''Divergent Paths of the Restoration: A History of the Latter Day Saint Movement'' Los Angeles: 1990.

★ Jon Krakauer, ''Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith'' New York: 2003.

Notes

1. See, e.g., Joseph Smith, Jr. (ed), ''Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints'' (Kirland, OH: F.G. Williams & Co., 1835).

See also

★ Mormonism and Christianity

★ Criticism of Mormonism