Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints)
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The Church of Christ (also called the Church of Latter Day Saints or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) was the original church organization formally organized by Joseph Smith, Jr. and five other men in upstate New York on April 6, 1830. The Latter Day Saint movement, or Mormonism, traces its origin to this event, which is seen by the LDS chruch as the restoration of the original Christian church of the 1st century. Many Latter Day Saint denominations consider themselves to be the sole legitimate continuation of this church, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Community of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite), the Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite), the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) and the Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite).
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[edit] History of the Latter Day Saint concept of a Church of Christ
There isn't a known record of an early Mormon concept of a the Lord's church prior to Smith's translation of the Book of Mormon from April to June of 1829. During the course of this translation, the outlines gradually became apparent for a community of believers, with authority from God, ordinances such as baptism, and ordained clergy. Some time in April 1829, Smith dictated a story of Alma the Elder, the former priest of a wicked king, who baptized himself and his followers by immersion, "having authority from the Almighty God", and called his community of believers the "church of God, or the church of Christ". (Mosiah 18:13-17). The book described the clergy in Alma's church as consisting of priests, who were unpaid and were to "preach nothing save it were repentance and faith in the Lord". (Mosiah 18:20). Alma later established many churches, which were considered "one church" because "there was nothing preached in all the churches except it were repentance and faith in God." (Error on call to Template:Sourcetext. Parameter source must be defined.). In addition to priests, the book mentions that the clergy of these churches also included teachers. (Mosiah 25:21). Later, the book mentioned that the churches had elders. (Alma 4:7).
Nevertheless, in May 1829, a revelation by Smith described the "church" in informal terms: "Behold, this is my doctrine: whosoever repenteth and cometh unto me, the same is my church: whosoever declareth more or less than this, the same is not of me, but is against me: therefore, he is not of my church." (Book of Commandments 9:16). Smith's further dictation of the Book of Mormon also stated that there were "two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil". (1 Nephi 14:10).
As a response to the book's ideas about baptism and the organization of churches, Joseph Smith, Jr. and Oliver Cowdery baptized each other by immersion in May 1829. They also began baptizing dozens of people, as early as June 1829. (History of the Church 1:6, p. 59). These converts, however, did not belong to an actual formal church organization. Nevertheless, this community of believers referred to themselves as "the Church of Christ", and included converts in three New York towns: Fayette, Manchester, and Colesville.
In June 1829, in response to concerns by Oliver Cowdery, Smith dictated a revelation stating that "in [the Book of Mormon] are all things written, concerning my church, my gospel, and my rock. Wherefore if you shall build up my church, and my gospel, and my rock, the gates of hell shall not prevail against you." (Book of Commandments, p. 35, verses 3-4). Some time between June and December of 1829, Oliver Cowdery said he received a revelation about "how he should build up his church & the manner thereof". This revelation was called the "Articles of the Church of Christ", and it indicated that the church should ordain priests and teachers "according to the gifts & callings of God unto men". The church was to meet regularly to partake of bread and wine. Cowdery was described as "an Apostle of Jesus Christ". According to David Whitmer, by April 1830, this informal "Church of Christ" had about six elders and 70 members. (Whitmer, Address to All Believers, 1887, p. 33).
[edit] Organization of the church
On April 6, 1830, Joseph Smith, Jr., Oliver Cowdery, and a group of approximately 30 believers met to formally organize the Church of Christ into a legal institution. Traditionally, this is said to have occurred at the home of Peter Whitmer, Sr. in Fayette, New York, but early accounts place it in Manchester. Soon after this formal organization, small branches were formally established in Fayette, Manchester, and Colesville.
[edit] Location of the organization
Eye-witnesses who said the church was organized in the Smith home include Joseph Smith, Jr. (Smith 1844), William Smith (Smith 1883, p. 14), and Joseph Knight, Sr. (Jessee 1976), and several non-believing Palmyra residents Tucker 1867, p. 58. These witnesses generally assume that the Smith home was located in Manchester, but it was technically located north of the Manchester border in Palmyra (Berge 1985). In his 1838 manuscript history, however, Joseph Smith, Jr. contradicted his other published statements and placed the organization at the Whitmer home in Fayette.[citation needed] In 1887 eye-witness David Whitmer also recollected that the event occurred in his father's home in Fayette (Whitmer 1887, p. 33).
[edit] Events at the organization
By later accounts, the April 6 organizational meeting was a charismatic event, in which members of the congregation had visions, prophesied, spoke in tongues, ecstatically shouted praises to the Lord, and fainted. (Joseph Smith History, 1839 draft). Also, the church formally ordained a lay ministry, with the priesthood offices of deacon, teacher, priest, and elder. Smith and Cowdery, according to their 1831 account, were each ordained as "an apostle of Jesus Christ, an elder of the church". ("Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ", Painesville Telegraph, April 19, 1831). This account was edited in 1835 to state that Smith was ordained the "First Elder", and Oliver Cowdery was ordained the "Second Elder." (LDS D&C 20:2-3).
[edit] The Name of the Church
[edit] Historical background
In the early 1800s, Alexander Campbell and others began to popularize the idea among Christians in the United States that the division among Christian sects had been caused by a Great Apostasy from the original teachings of Jesus, practiced by the primitive Christian church. Campbell and his associates founded the Restoration Movement, arguing that the true practices of Christianity could be achieved by restoring practices described in the New Testament. The Restorationists also intended to eliminate sectarianism, arguing that there should be only one Christian church and that it should be named, the "Church of Christ."
Most historians of religion categorize the Latter Day Saint movement as part of or an off-shoot of the larger Restoration movement, but there are significant differences. While early Latter Day Saints believed in the need to "restore" the "true church of Jesus Christ", they also believed that direct authority from God was essential for the restoration to be valid. Joseph Smith, Jr., the Latter Day Saint movement's founder, claimed to possess that authority as a Prophet who received revelations.
Smith's revelations authorized and commanded the organization of the Church of Christ in 1830, and in many of the revelations Smith claimed to receive, God referred to the church by that name. Smith taught that this church was a restoration of the primitive Christian church established by Jesus in the first century A.D. Moreover, Smith taught that this restoration occurred in the "Latter Days" of the world, i.e., the time immediately prior to the Second Coming of Jesus.
[edit] Early Changes to the Church's Name
The fact that the churches of other Christian Restorationists, including the Campbellites, were also named the "Church of Christ" caused a considerable degree of confusion in the first years of the Latter Day Saint movement. Because of the distinct belief in the Book of Mormon among Smith's followers, people outside the church began to refer them as "Mormonites" or "Mormons." Smith and other church elders considered the name "Mormon" derogatory. (Because members of the primitive Christian movement are often referred to as "Saints" or "early Saints", they reasoned that members of the restored church likewise should be called "Saints", but of the "Latter Days.")
Joseph Smith, Jr., and those loyal to him, founded a new headquarters in Far West, Missouri. At Far West in 1838, Smith announced a revelation naming his organization the "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."
[edit] Later Variations on the Name
After Smith's assassination, competing Latter Day Saint denominations organized under the leadership of a number of successors. The largest of these, led by Brigham Young and now based in Salt Lake City, Utah, continued using Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints until incorporating in 1851, when the church standardized the spelling of its name as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints[1][2]. Followers of James J. Strang use the spelling of the public domain name, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in the name of their church. The name Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was also used for decades by members who coalesced into a "New Organization" of the church under the leadership of Smith's son, Joseph Smith III. For legal reasons, this group changed its corporate name to "Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" at the end of the 19th century and more recently changed their name again to "Community of Christ" — consciously echoing the original "Church of Christ" name.
The Sidney Rigdon branch dwindled until one of its elders, William Bickerton, reorganized in 1862 under the name The Church of Jesus Christ.
Other Latter Day Saint denominations felt strongly about returning to the original name, including the Church of Christ (Temple Lot), the Church of Christ (Cutlerite), and the now-extinct Church of Christ (Whitmerite).
[edit] References
- Berge, Dale L. (1985), "Archaeological Work at the Smith Log House", Ensign 15(8): 24.
- Carmack, John K. (1989), "Fayette: The Place the Church was Organized", Ensign 19(2): 15–19.
- Jessee, Dean (1976), "Joseph Knight's Recollection of Early Mormon History", BYU Studies 17(1): 35.
- Marquardt, H. Michael (1992), "An Appraisal of Manchester as Location for the Organization of the Church", Sunstone 87(2): 49–57.
- Smith, Lucy Mack (1853), Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations, Liverpool: S.W. Richards.
- Smith, William (1883), William Smith on Mormonism: A True Account of the Origin of the Book of Mormon, Lamoni, Iowa: RLDS Church, (ISBN not assigned).
- Tucker, Pomeroy (1867), Origin, Rise and Progress of Mormonism, D. Appleton.
- Whitmer, David (1887), An Address to All Believers in Christ By A Witness to the Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon, Richmond, Missouri: David Whitmer.
