The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Core Beliefs and Doctrines

Godhead

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe in God the Father, in his Son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost. The three make up the Godhead -- one in purpose but separate in being.

Christian

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christian but is neither Catholic nor Protestant. Rather, it is a restoration of the original church established by Jesus Christ.

Divine Priesthood Authority

The priesthood is the authority to act in God's name. The Church emphasizes that authority to act for God cannot simply be assumed by a person because he or she feels a sense of "call." Joseph Smith, first prophet and president of the Church, taught: "A man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof" (Articles of Faith 1:5).

Principles and Ordinances

As taught by the Church, the first principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ are "first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost" (Articles of Faith 1:4). As in biblical times, baptism is by complete immersion and symbolizes the cleansing of a person from sin. Since young children are incapable of sin, they are not baptized until the age of eight, when they become accountable for their actions.

Continuing Revelation

Church members believe literally in the principle of revelation from God to his children. Individuals are entitled to divine revelation for meeting personal challenges. Parents are entitled to revelation for raising their families. Divine revelation for the direction of the entire Church comes from God to the president of the Church, who is viewed by Latter-day Saints as a prophet in the same sense as are Abraham, Moses, Peter and other biblical leaders.

Scriptures

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ is regarded as divinely inspired scripture, as is the Holy Bible. Both volumes are used by Latter-day Saints side by side. Other writings accepted as scripture are the Doctrine and Covenants, a compilation of revelations and writings given since the restoration of the Church began, and the Pearl of Great Price, a selection from the revelations, translations and writings of Joseph Smith.

Purpose of Life

All people on earth have a physical body and a spirit that together make up their soul. As spirit children of God, all lived with him in a premortal existence. Through God's plan, all also come to earth to receive a physical body, gain experience and prove themselves worthy to return to live with God forever. To Latter-day Saints, life on earth is a probationary state in which men and women are tried and tested, and where they gain experiences obtainable nowhere else.

Family and Marriage

Many churches teach the importance of family as the bedrock of our civilization. Distinctively, the concept of a united family which lives and progresses forever is at the core of Latter-day Saint doctrine. Marriages performed in the Church's temples do not dissolve at death. Rather, marriage and family relationships "sealed" in this way may continue through eternity, contingent upon faithful observance of the teachings of Jesus Christ. In 1995, Church leaders emphasized the importance of marriage and family in an official declaration entitled The Family: A Proclamation to the World.

Morality

The Church embraces the moral standards taught by Jesus Christ, including personal honesty, integrity, obedience to law, chastity outside of marriage and fidelity within marriage. The Church opposes abortion, pornography, gambling and other immoral behavior.

Health Code

A health code revealed by God to Joseph Smith in 1833 cautions against using tobacco, consuming alcohol, tea and coffee and emphasizes the positive benefits of wise eating habits and physical and spiritual fitness. The Church interprets the misuse of drugs -- illegal, legal, prescription or controlled -- as a violation of the health code known in Latter-day Saint scripture as the "Word of Wisdom."

Tithing and Fast Offerings

The Church and its faithful members embrace the biblical principle of tithing, which is contributing one-tenth of one's income for the work of the Church. Faithful members also fast for two meals one day a month and donate the money they would have spent on those meals, or more, to a fund to help the needy. The generous offerings of its members enable the Church to finance the construction, education, welfare, missionary, curriculum, humanitarian and other programs that benefit people worldwide.

Individual Responsibility

The responsibility for one's spiritual and temporal well-being rests upon the individual first, then the family and finally the Church. Church members are expected to be self-reliant and independent to the extent of their ability.

Missionary Work

Missionaries working in pairs can be seen in most major cities of the world and have become one of the most readily identifiable characteristics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church has some 60,000 full-time missionaries serving throughout the world. Most are university-age men and women, but many are retired couples. All have been assigned by Church headquarters to their area of work, which can be in any part of the world where governments allow them to preach. They contribute to their own support for up to two years, frequently learning another language.

Church Service

The Church has no general salaried ministry. Thousands of Latter-day Saint bishops around the world lead their congregations in their spare time for a period of a few years, while they continue their normal employment. Most members of a congregation share the bishop's weight of responsibility by serving as unpaid teachers, counselors, administrators, youth leaders and clerks. In addition, Church members often serve beyond their Church affiliation in their own communities and charitable causes.

History

Joseph Smith

After the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the death of his apostles, and faced with organized persecution and hostility from within the pagan Roman Empire, the church that Christ had established with its simple but beautiful doctrines and authority began rapidly to change. By the fourth century, it bore little resemblance to the original Church of Christ. With the loss of divine approval and authority from the Church, a long period of spiritual darkness followed.

But in the spring of 1820, on the other side of the world, God appeared to a 14-year-old boy named Joseph Smith, setting in motion the events that led to the "restoration" of the ancient Church of Jesus Christ to the earth.

Joseph Smith was born 23 December 1805 in Sharon, Vermont, in the northeastern United States. He later moved with his family to the rural community of Palmyra, New York, where in 1820 a religious revival occurred. Confused by the conflicting claims of the various faiths, Joseph went to the Bible for guidance and there found the challenge to "ask of God" for himself.

In a wooded grove near the family farm, Joseph knelt to pray. There in that secluded place, in the most dramatic revelation since biblical times, God and his Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to the boy and gave him instructions. He was commanded to join none of the existing churches and was told that God would restore to earth the Church originally organized by Jesus Christ, with all of its truths and priesthood authority. Ten years later, after a series of revelations and dramatic visitations to Joseph and others, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was officially organized on 6 April 1830, in Fayette, New York.

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ

In September of 1823, Joseph experienced a visitation from an ancient prophet, a man who had lived and died in the Hemisphere centuries earlier. This resurrected man, who said his name was Moroni, directed Joseph to a hill near Palmyra, where he showed him a religious history of an ancient American civilization engraved on metal plates and buried in the ground. It was four years before Joseph was permitted to take the record and translate it. It is known today as the Book of Mormon, named for one of the ancient prophets who had compiled it. The Book of Mormon was first published in 1830.

The Book of Mormon contains religious writings of civilizations in ancient America between about 2200 B.C. and A.D. 421. It includes an eyewitness account of the ministry of Jesus Christ on the American continent following his resurrection in Jerusalem.

Restoration of Priesthood Authority

Apostles and prophets in all ages have had authority from God to act in his name. The original Twelve Apostles received this priesthood authority under the hands of Jesus Christ himself. But with their passing, the authority of the apostleship disappeared from the earth. An essential component of the restoration, therefore, was the re-establishment of this priesthood authority in 1829.

In May of that year, a resurrected being who identified himself as John the Baptist appeared to Joseph Smith and his associate Oliver Cowdery, laid his hands on their heads, and gave them the Aaronic Priesthood with the authority to baptize and perform other ordinances. Shortly thereafter, three of the original apostles -- Peter, James and John -- appeared to Joseph and Oliver and gave them the authority of the apostleship and the Melchizedek, or higher, Priesthood. With the restoration of priesthood authority, Joseph organized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with six initial members.

Growth and Opposition

Like the ancient Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began as a missionary church. In the mid-nineteenth century, converts were encouraged to gather with the members in America. Swelling ranks of immigrants from Europe and the eastern United States soon provided fuel for growing opposition as well.

To escape the escalating turmoil, Church headquarters moved from New York to Ohio, then to Missouri and later to Illinois. In 1839 the Latter-day Saints established the community of Nauvoo (Illinois) on a tract of inhospitable swampland bordering the Mississippi River. Under the leadership of Joseph Smith, they drained the swamps and began erecting a community of beautiful homes, prosperous farms and businesses. They also built a temple.

By 1844 Nauvoo rivaled Chicago in population. But mounting suspicion and anxiety within neighboring communities fed an atmosphere of extreme agitation and distrust. Newspapers in neighboring towns began to call for the Latter-day Saints' extermination.

At the height of this turmoil, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were shot to death by an armed mob in nearby Carthage, Illinois.

Brigham Young and the Westward Trek

Mobs attacked Latter-day Saint settlements in the region, burning crops, destroying homes and threatening to exterminate the people. Church leaders knew a move was once again at hand. This one would become one of the most visionary and prodigious journeys in American history.

As the senior of the Twelve Apostles, Brigham Young succeeded Joseph Smith as the leader of the Church. In February of 1846, he led the Latter-day Saints across the frozen Mississippi River into unsettled Iowa territory. They struggled across Iowa, eventually establishing a settlement called Winter Quarters near modern-day Omaha, Nebraska. Soon the community expanded to include hundreds of lodgings, many of them just dugouts or sod huts, on both sides of the river.

Pursuing a vision initially articulated by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young prepared his people -- perhaps 17,000 of them by that time -- for a historic trek across the vast wilderness to the Rocky Mountains, 1,300 miles to the west. The first pioneer party departed from Winter Quarters early the next spring and arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake on 24 July 1847.

During the next few years, thousands of other Latter-day Saints struggled across the American Great Plains to the newly found refuge. Some of the pioneers crossed the plains in wagons. Others were equipped with small, lightweight handcarts. Ten handcart companies crossed the American plains in the next four years. Eight made the journey with relative success, but two endured tragedy and saw hundreds perish of hunger, fatigue and exposure.

For years after their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, members of the Church were commissioned by Brigham Young to establish colonies throughout the West. In all, the pioneers settled more than 600 communities in a broad swath stretching 1,350 miles from southern Alberta into Mexico.

Into the Modern Era

When Utah was granted status as the nation's 45th state on 4 January 1896, Church membership totaled a quarter of a million, the majority living in Utah, with a modest number scattered in colonies throughout the western United States, southern Alberta and northern Mexico. By 1930, only about half of the membership lived in Utah, but the remainder was still largely North American. As the Church reached membership milestones throughout the twentieth century -- one million in 1947, two million in 1963, three million in 1971 and four million in 1978 -- the demographic makeup remained primarily United States' residents but was beginning to change markedly. Similarly, the Utah proportion became smaller and smaller.

Membership of the Church was nearing 12 million at the end of 2002. Of that total, approximately one seventh resided in Utah, and less than half in the United States.