The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (abbreviated as the LDS Church , often colloquially referred to as the Mormon Church ) is a restorationist Christian church, and the largest denomination originating from the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. circa 1830. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has established congregations (called wards or branches ) worldwide.
Adherents are usually referred to as Latter-day Saints , LDS , or Mormons . They view faith in Jesus Christ as the central tenet of their religion. Latter-day Saints are often considered by other faiths to be a non-traditional member of Christianity despite their belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of the world. LDS Church theology includes the Christian doctrine of salvation only through Jesus Christ. The church has an open canon which includes four scriptural texts: the Bible (both Old and New Testaments), the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants , and the Pearl of Great Price . Other than the Bible, the majority of the LDS canon constitutes revelation dictated by Joseph Smith and includes commentary and exegesis about the Bible, texts described as lost parts of the Bible, and other works believed to be written by ancient prophets.
Latter-day Saints believe that Jesus leads the church by revealing his will to the President of the Church, whom they sustain as a modern-day prophet, seer, and revelator. Individual members are expected to receive personal revelation from God for specifics in conducting their lives. The President heads a hierarchical structure with various levels reaching down to local congregations. Male bishops, drawn from the laity, lead local congregations. Worthy male members, after age 12, may be ordained to the priesthood. Women do not hold positions within the priesthood but serve in an array of other leadership roles. Both men and women may serve as missionaries, and the church maintains a large missionary program which proselytizes and conducts humanitarian service worldwide. Faithful members adhere to laws regarding sexual purity, health, fasting, and Sabbath-day observance. Members also voluntarily tithe, donating 10 percent of their income to the church.
History
Main article: History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsThe history of the LDS Church is typically divided into three broad time periods: (1) the early history during the lifetime of Joseph Smith, Jr. which is in common with all Latter Day Saint movement churches, (2) a "pioneer era" under the leadership of Brigham Young and his 19th century successors, and (3) a modern era beginning around the turn of the 20th century as Utah achieved statehood.
Beginnings
See also: History of the Latter Day Saint movementFollowing his claim of being visited by God the Father and Jesus Christ in 1820, Smith gained a small following and began dictating the Book of Mormon, which he said was a translation of words found on a set of golden plates that had been buried near his home in western New York by an indigenous American prophet. Smith said he had been in contact with an angel, who showed him the plates' location.
On April 6, 1830, in western New York, Smith organized the religion's first legal church entity, the Church of Christ. The church rapidly gained a following, who viewed Smith as a prophet. In the 1830s, missionaries from the church converted thousands of new members and established outposts in Kirtland, Ohio. Smith said in 1831 that God intended the Mormons to "retain a strong hold in the land of Kirtland, for the space of five years." As persecutions increased and after Smith had received death threats, by fall 1838 Smith and most other Ohio Mormons had left Kirtland for the Mormon strong hold in Missouri. There, Smith intended to build a "city of Zion". Joseph Smith and his followers were plagued by persecution in both Missouri and Illnois. Finally Joseph Smith and some few others went to prison to answer charges brought against them. While in prison, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum Smith (second in line to the church presidency), were assassinated on June 27, 1844, by an angry mob.
After Smith's death, a succession crisis ensued, and the majority of the members of the church followed Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, to whom Smith had given the keys of the priesthood. Young had been a close associate of Smith's and was senior apostle of the Quorum of the Twelve. Other groups of Latter Day Saints followed other leaders to form other denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement.
Pioneer era
In 1846, after the difficulties experienced in Missouri (culminating in an extermination order issued against the Mormons) and with continued persecution in Illinois, Young led his followers, the Mormon pioneers, in the largest forced migration in American history from Nauvoo and the United States to what would later become known, in 1850, as the Utah Territory in search of religious freedom.
The group branched out and colonized a large region now known as the Mormon Corridor. Young incorporated The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a legal entity, and initially governed both the church and the state as a theocratic leader. He also publicized the previously-secret practice of plural marriage, a form of polygamy.
By 1857, tensions had again escalated between Mormons and other Americans, largely as a result of accusations involving polygamy and the theocratic rule of the Utah territory by Brigham Young. The Utah Mormon War ensued from 1857 to 1858, which resulted in the relatively peaceful invasion of Utah by the United States Army, after which Young agreed to step down from power and be replaced by a non-Mormon territorial governor, Alfred Cumming. Nevertheless, the LDS Church still wielded significant political power in the Utah Territory.
At Young's death in 1877, he was followed by other powerful LDS Presidents, who resisted efforts by the United States Congress to outlaw Mormon polygamous marriages. Conflict between Mormons and the U.S. government escalated to the point that in 1890, Congress disincorporated the LDS Church and seized all its assets. Soon thereafter, church president Wilford Woodruff issued a Manifesto that officially suspended the practice. Although this Manifesto did not yet dissolve existing plural marriages, and did not entirely stop the practice of polygamy, relations with the United States markedly improved after 1890, such that Utah was admitted as a U.S. state. Relations further improved after 1904, when church president Joseph F. Smith disavowed polygamy before the United States Congress and issued a "Second Manifesto" calling for all plural marriages in the church to cease. Eventually, the church adopted a policy of excommunicating its members found practicing polygamy and today seeks to actively distance itself from “fundamentalist” groups still practicing polygamy.
Modern times
During the 20th century, the church grew substantially and became an international organization, due in part to the influx of missionaries across the globe. In 2000, the church reported 60,784 missionaries, and global church membership stood at 11,068,861. As of 2007, membership had reached 13,193,999.
The church became a strong and public champion of the nuclear family and at times played a prominent role in political matters, including opposition to MX Peacekeeper missile bases in Utah and Nevada, opposing the Equal Rights Amendment, opposing legalized gambling, support of bans on same-sex marriage, and opposition to legalized physician-assisted death. Apart from issues that it considers to be ones of morality, however, the church usually maintains a position of political neutrality.
A number of official changes have taken place to the organization during the modern era. One significant change was the ordination of black men to the priesthood in 1978, which reversed a policy originally instituted by Brigham Young. There are also periodic changes in the structure and organization of the church, mainly to accommodate the organization's growth and increasing international presence. For example, since the early 1900s, the church has instituted a Priesthood Correlation Program to centralize church operations and bring them under a hierarchy of priesthood leaders. During the Great Depression, the church also began operating a church welfare system, and it has conducted numerous humanitarian efforts in cooperation with other religious organizations.
Teachings and practices
Sources of authority
See also: Standard Works and revelation (Latter Day Saints)The theology of the LDS Church consists of a mixture of biblical doctrines with modern revelations and other commentary by LDS leaders, particularly Jo
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