One True Church - Latter Day Saints

Latter Day Saints

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) or "Mormons" believe that Joseph Smith, Jr. was chosen to restore the original organization established by Jesus, now "in its fullness", rather than to reform the Catholic church.

As Allen and Hughes put it, "o group used the language of 'restoration' more consistently and more effectively than did the ... early Mormons seemed obsessed with restoring the ancient church of God."

Some among the Churches of Christ have attributed the restorationist character of the Latter Day Saints movement to the influence of a preacher, Sidney Rigdon, who was associated with the Campbell movement in Ohio but left it and became a close friend of Joseph Smith. Neither the Mormons nor the early Restoration Movement leaders invented the idea of "restoration"; it was a popular theme of the time that had developed independently of both, and Mormonism and the Restoration Movement represent different expressions of that common theme. The two groups had very different approaches to the restoration ideal. The Campbell movement combined it with Enlightenment rationalism, "precluding emotionalism, spiritualism, or any other phenomena that could not be sustained by rational appeals to the biblical text." The Latter Day Saints combined it with "the spirit of nineteenth-century Romanticism" and, as a result, "never sought to recover the forms and structures of the ancient church as ends in themselves" but "sought to restore the golden age, recorded in both Old Testament and New Testament, when God broke into human history and communed directly with humankind."

One of these divine communication is an account of when God the Father and Jesus appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith and instructed him that the creeds of the churches of the day "were an abomination in his sight" and that through him, God would restore (or re-establish) the true church. Smith taught that the Great Apostasy was complete and required a full restoration of the original church. This included the Aaronic priesthood, the Melchizedek priesthood, and the full church structure consisting of prophets, apostles, evangelists and teachers. Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1830, serving as the first prophet believed to be appointed by Jesus in the latter days.

The Prophet Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon, which translated by the Prophet from ancient records as directed by the angel Moroni. The Book of Mormon contains a record of the original church of Jesus in the Americas between about 600 BC and AD 421. In addition, the Prophet Joseph Smith received the true authority or priesthood directly from those who held it anciently, namely John the Baptist, who returned as an angel and gave him and Oliver Cowdery the authority to baptize. Saint Peter, Saint James and Saint John, the Apostles, returned as angels and gave the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery the authority to lead the church just as they had done anciently.

The church was organized on April 6, 1830 in New York State. Originally the church was unofficially called the "Church of Jesus Christ". Four years later, in April 1834 it was also called the "Church of Latter-day Saints" to differentiate the church of this era from that of the New Testament. Then, in April 1838, the full name was officially declared as the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". The LDS Belief that theirs is the one true church is codified in LDS canonical scripture, "And also those to whom these commandments were given, might have power to lay the foundation of this church, and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness, the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased, speaking unto the church collectively and not individually-".

Some have attributed Joseph Smith's understanding of restorationism to Sidney Rigdon, who was associated with the Campbell movement in Ohio but left it and became a close friend of Smith. Neither the Mormons nor the early Campbell movement's leaders invented the idea of "restoration"; it was a popular theme of the time that had developed independently of both, and Mormonism and the Restoration Movement represent different expressions of that common theme. The two groups had very different approaches to the restoration ideal. The Campbell movement combined it with Enlightenment rationalism, "precluding emotionalism, spiritualism, or any other phenomena that could not be sustained by rational appeals to the biblical text." The Latter Day Saints combined it with "the spirit of nineteenth-century Romanticism" and, as a result, "never sought to recover the forms and structures of the ancient church as ends in themselves" but "sought to restore the golden age, recorded in both Old Testament and New Testament, when God broke into human history and communed directly with humankind."