The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints Popular Books

The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints Biography & Facts

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a restorationist, nontrinitarian Christian denomination that is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. The church is headquartered in the United States in Salt Lake City, Utah and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. According to the church, it has over 17 million members and over 99 thousand volunteer missionaries. As of 2012, the church was the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the U.S. As of 2023, the church reported over 6.8 million U.S. members. The church was founded as the Church of Christ in western New York, in 1830 by Joseph Smith during the Second Great Awakening. Under Smith's leadership, the church's headquarters moved successively to Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. After Smith's 1844 death and a resultant succession crisis, the majority of his followers sided with Brigham Young, who led the church to its current headquarters in Salt Lake City. Young and his successors continued the church's growth, first throughout the Intermountain West, and more recently as a national and international organization. Church theology includes the Christian doctrine of salvation through Jesus Christ, and his substitutionary atonement on behalf of mankind. The church has an open canon of four scriptural texts: the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C), and the Pearl of Great Price. Other than the Bible, the majority of the church canon consists of material the church's members believe to have been revealed by God to Joseph Smith, including commentary and exegesis about the Bible, texts described as lost parts of the Bible, and other works believed to be written by ancient prophets, including the Book of Mormon. Because of doctrinal differences, many Christian groups consider the church to be distinct and separate from mainstream Christianity. Members of the church, known as Latter-day Saints or informally as Mormons, believe that the church president is a modern-day "prophet, seer, and revelator" and that Jesus Christ, under the direction of God the Father, leads the church by revealing his will and delegating his priesthood keys to its president. The president heads a hierarchical structure descending from areas to stakes and wards. The church has a volunteer clergy at the local and regional levels; wards are led by bishops, who are drawn from the membership of the wards themselves. Male members may be ordained to the priesthood, provided they are living the standards of the church. Women are not ordained to the priesthood, but occupy leadership roles in some church organizations. Both men and women may serve as missionaries. The church maintains a large missionary program that proselytizes and conducts humanitarian services worldwide. The church also funds and participates in humanitarian projects independent of its missionary efforts. Members adhere to church laws of sexual purity, health, fasting, and Sabbath observance, and contribute ten percent of their income to the church in tithing. The church teaches ordinances through which adherents make covenants with God, including baptism, confirmation, the sacrament, priesthood ordination, endowment and celestial marriage. The church has been criticized throughout its history. Modern criticism includes disputes over the church's historical claims, treatment of minorities, and finances. The church's practice of polygamy was controversial until it was curtailed in 1890 and officially rescinded in 1904. History Beginnings Joseph Smith formally organized the church as the Church of Christ, on April 6, 1830, in western New York; the church's name was later changed to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.: 627 n. 73  Initial converts were drawn to the church in part because of the newly published Book of Mormon, a self-described chronicle of indigenous American prophets that Smith said he had translated from golden plates.: 57, 72, 90  Smith intended to establish the New Jerusalem in North America, called Zion.: 122  In 1831, the church moved to Kirtland, Ohio,: 97  and began establishing an outpost in Jackson County, Missouri,: 162 : 109  where Smith planned to eventually move the church headquarters. However, in 1833, Missouri settlers violently expelled the Latter Day Saints from Jackson County.: 222–227  The church attempted to recover the land through a paramilitary expedition, but did not succeed.: 141, 146–159 : 322  Nevertheless, the church flourished in Kirtland as Smith published new revelations and the church built the Kirtland Temple,: 101  culminating in a dedication of the building similar to the day of Pentecost.: 310–319 : 178  The Kirtland era ended in 1838, after a financial scandal rocked the church and caused widespread defections.: 328–338  Smith regrouped with the remaining church in Far West, Missouri, but tensions soon escalated into violent conflicts with the old Missouri settlers.: 357–364 : 227–230 : 97–98  Believing the Latter Day Saints to be an insurrection, the Missouri governor ordered that they be "exterminated or driven from the State". In 1839, the Latter Day Saints converted a swampland on the banks of the Mississippi River into Nauvoo, Illinois, which became the church's new headquarters.: 383–384  Nauvoo grew rapidly as missionaries sent to Europe and elsewhere gained new converts who then flooded into Nauvoo.: 409 : 258, 264–65  Meanwhile, Smith introduced polygamy to his closest associates.: 334–336 : 437  He also established ceremonies, which he stated the Lord had revealed to him, to allow righteous people to become gods in the afterlife, and a secular institution to govern the Millennial kingdom.: 120–122  He also introduced the church to a full accounting of his First Vision, in which he claimed that two heavenly "personages" appeared to him at age 14. This vision would come to be regarded by the LDS Church as the most important event in human history since the resurrection of Jesus. On June 27, 1844, Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois,: 393–394  while being held on charges of treason. Because Hyrum was Joseph's designated successor, their deaths caused a succession crisis,: 143 : 398  and Brigham Young assumed leadership over a majority of the church's membership.: 556–557  Young had been a close associate of Smith's and was the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in Smith's church. Other splinter groups followed other leaders around this time. These groups have no affiliation with the LDS Church,: 198–211  however they share a common heritage in their early church history. Collectively, they are called the Latter Day Saint movement. The largest of these smaller groups is the Community of Christ, based in Independence, Missouri, followed by the Church of Jesus Christ, based in Monongahela, Pennsylvania. Like the LDS Church, these faith.... Discover the The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints popular books. Find the top 100 most popular The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints books.