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...)

Jane Elizabeth Manning James (1822 – April 16, 1908), fondly known as "Aunt Jane", was an early African-American member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and traveled to Utah as a pioneer. She lived with Joseph Smith and his family for a time in Nauvoo, Illinois. She traveled with her family to Utah, spending the winter of 1846–1847 at Winter Quarters, and was among the first of the pioneers to enter the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. As a black woman, Jane was not allowed to enter the temple during her lifetime and petitioned the First Presidency of the church multiple times to be endowed and sealed. As a result of her requests she was adopted as a servant into the family of Joseph Smith through a specially-created temple ceremony. She was posthumously endowed by proxy in the Salt Lake Temple in 1979. (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 Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (abbreviated to FLDS and not to be confused with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) is a religious sect of the fundamentalist Mormon denominations whose members practice polygamy. It is variously defined as a cult, a sect, or a new religious movement. The organization has been involved in various illegal activities, including child marriages, child abandonment, sexual assault, and human trafficking including child sexual abuse. The church has been disavowed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Full article...)

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

Joseph Smith (December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement whose current followers include members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Community of Christ, and other Latter Day Saint denominations. The early life of Joseph Smith covers his life from his birth to the end of 1827.

Smith was born in Sharon, Vermont, the fifth of eleven children born to Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith. By 1817, Smith's family had moved to the "burned-over district" of western New York, an area repeatedly swept by religious revivals during the Second Great Awakening. Smith family members held divergent views about organized religion, believed in visions and prophecies, and engaged in certain folk religious practices typical of the era. Smith briefly investigated Methodism, but he was generally disillusioned with the churches of his day. (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 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 it is debated whether or not Nephites used minted coins?
• ... that the name of the "Mormons vs. Mullets" game was a play on the 1988 "Catholics vs. Convicts" game?
• ... that a book about Mormon polygamy claims that polygamy was an early form of feminism?
• ... that James Goldberg co-founded the Mormon Lit Blitz, an annual writing competition for very short works of Mormon fiction?

• 17 July 1831: The 1831 polygamy revelation (pictured) in which Christ commands Smith's followers to take “wives of the Lamanites and Nephites.”
• 4 July 1838: Rigdon's July 4th oration was delivered.
• 12 July 1843: The 1843 polygamy revelation in which Christ commands polygamy in a “new and an everlasting covenant.”
• 24 July 1847: Brigham Young arrives in Salt Lake Valley; Salt Lake City established, Pioneer Day.
• 10 July 2003: The film Latter Days premiered at the Philadelphia QFest.

“	He saw the light gradually approaching him until it rested upon the tops of the trees. He beheld that the leaves of the trees were not consumed by it, although its brightness, apparently, was sufficient, as he at first thought, to consume everything before it. But the trees were not consumed by it, and it continued to descend until it rested upon him and enveloped him in its glorious rays. When he was thus encircled about with this pillar of fire his mind was caught away from every object that surrounded him, and he was filled with the visions of the Almighty, and he saw, in the midst of this glorious pillar of fire, two glorious personages, whose countenances shone with an exceeding great lustre. One of them spoke to him, saying, while pointing in the other, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him."	”
— Orson Pratt was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and spoke about the First Vision.

Read more...