Church of Christ (Whitmerite)
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The Church of Christ (Whitmerite) was a denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement based on the claims of David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon's Golden Plates.
There were actually two separate organizations of this church. In 1847, William E. McLellin who led a congregation of Latter Day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio remembered that Joseph Smith, Jr., the movement's deceased founder, had designated David Whitmer as his successor. McLellin encouraged Whitmer to come forward and lead his church. Whitmer agreed and gathered others to his cause, including fellow Book of Mormon witnesses Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, Hiram Page and John Whitmer.
Taking the original name of the church, the "Church of Christ" published a periodical from Kirtland called, The Ensign of Liberty. Whitmer, however, never joined the main body of his followers in Kirtland and the church dissolved.
However, by 1870s David Whitmer was active again and had reorganized his Church of Christ. In 1887 he published his Address to All Believers in Christ which promoted his church and affirmed his testimony of the Book of Mormon.
Whitmer died in 1888, but the Whitmerite church continued on. The church published a periodical called The Return beginning in 1889, which became known as The Messenger of Truth in 1900. The church published its own edition of the Book of Mormon under the name, The Nephite Record and published a new edition of the Book of Commandments. By 1925, most remaining members of the Whitmerite church had united with the Church of Christ (Temple Lot).
[edit] References
- Steven L. Shields, Divergent Paths of the Restoration: A History of the Latter Day Saint Movement, Restoration Research, Los Angeles: 1990, pp. 50–51, 102–103.
- David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, Richmond, MO: 1887. See text of the address.
