Portal:Latter Day Saint movement

The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Joseph Smith in the late 1820s.

Collectively, these churches have over 17 million nominal members, including over 17 million belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), 250,000 in Community of Christ, and several other denominations with memberships generally ranging in the thousands of members. The predominant theology of the churches in the movement is Mormonism, which sees itself as restoring again on Earth the early Christian church; their members are most commonly known as Mormons, though the LDS Church now rejects the use of that name. An additional doctrine of the church allows for prophets to receive and publish modern-day revelations.

A minority of Latter Day Saint adherents, such as members of Community of Christ, have been influenced by Protestant theologies while maintaining certain distinctive beliefs and practices including continuing revelation, an open canon of scripture and building temples. Other groups include the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which supports lineal succession of leadership from Smith's descendants, and the more controversial Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which defends the practice of polygamy. (Full article...)

Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs is an autobiography by American author Elissa Wall detailing her childhood in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and subsequent later life outside of the church. It was first published by William Morrow and Company in 2008.

Wall was born into a polygamous family in Salt Lake City and grew up attending the FLDS-run Alta Academy. She describes her living situation as tense; familial relations were further complicated when her mother was reassigned to marry another man in Hildale, Utah. FLDS leaders orchestrated a marriage between Wall, then 14, and her 19-year-old cousin, Allen Steed, an arrangement she vehemently opposed. During their four-year marriage, Steed abused her sexually and psychologically, and Wall eventually began an affair with Lamont Barlow, a 25-year-old former member of the FLDS. Barlow later persuaded her to leave the church and to press charges against Steed and Warren Jeffs, the FLDS "prophet" who performed the wedding ceremony. (Full article...)

The Auditorium (formerly the RLDS Auditorium) is a house of worship and office building located on the greater Temple Lot in Independence, Missouri. The Auditorium is part of the headquarters complex of Community of Christ which also includes the Independence Temple. (Full article...)

The Church of Jesus Christ is an international Christian religious denomination headquartered in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, United States. Organized at Green Oak, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. in the year 1862. The church is a Christian Restorationist church and accepts the Book of Mormon as scripture. The church considers itself the gospel restored, or the original church and good news as established by Jesus Christ in the New Testament, restored upon the earth. It also claims to be the spiritual successor to the Church of Christ, organized by Joseph Smith on April 6, 1830. The church sees Sidney Rigdon as Smith's rightful successor following the assassination of Smith because Rigdon was Smith's first counselor in the First Presidency. The church is not officially affiliated with any other church, organization or denomination.

As of August 2023, members of the church are located throughout the world including North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa—for a membership total of 22,992. The Church of Jesus Christ is considered "the third largest Restoration church to have resulted from the 1844 succession crisis", describing Joseph Smith's death that year without a clear line of succession. It has sometimes been referred to as a "Bickertonite church" or "Rigdonite organization" based upon the church's historical succession through William Bickerton and Sidney Rigdon. Some refer to the church as the Pentecostal Mormon church as it has the present operation of the gifts of the Spirit, similar to Charismatic or Pentecostal churches. However, the church does not use these terms in referring to itself. (Full article...)

• Outline of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Outline of the Book of Mormon
• Outline of Joseph Smith

Oliver H. P. Cowdery (October 3, 1806 – March 3, 1850) was an American religious leader who, with Joseph Smith, was an important participant in the formative period of the Latter Day Saint movement between 1829 and 1836. He was the first baptized Latter Day Saint, one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's golden plates, one of the first Latter Day Saint apostles and the Assistant President of the Church.

Cowdery's relationship with Joseph Smith and the church's leadership began to deteriorate in the mid-1830s. He was excommunicated in 1838 along with several other prominent Missouri church leaders on allegations of misusing church property amid tense relations between them and Smith. (Full article...)

• ... that No, Ma'am, That's Not History, Hugh Nibley's rebuttal to Fawn Brodie's divisive biography of Joseph Smith, started a trend of polemics in Mormon apologetics?
• ... that it is debated whether or not Nephites used minted coins?
• ... that Songs and Flowers of the Wasatch represented a shift in Mormon history toward a "socially-accepted American cultural and religious heritage", according to historian Jennifer Reeder?
• ... that a book about Mormon polygamy claims that polygamy was an early form of feminism?
• ... that an unnamed abuse survivor risks her life to become a spy in "one of the bravest actions in all of the Book of Mormon"?
• ... that Latter-day Saint diarist Ida Hunt Udall turned down a marriage offer from her longtime boyfriend because he was a monogamist, and she wanted a polygamous marriage?

• 21 September 1823: Moroni The Angel visits Joseph Smith.
• 22 September 1827: Joseph Smith receives the gold plates (pictured).
• 11 September 1857: The Mountain Meadows massacre happened.
• 30 September 1978: At the 148th Semiannual General Conference of the LDS Church, it unanimously voted to accept the 1978 Revelation on Priesthood "as the word and will of the Lord."
• 12 September 2003: The Book of Mormon Movie was given a limited theatrical release.

“	I am certain, because of my experience with the birth of Doctrine and Covenants 163, of this: God has some big dreams for the church. How we choose to respond to God’s vision for us as a prophetic people will make all the difference in the years ahead.	”
— Stephen M. Veazey, Prophet–President of the Community of Christ

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