Church of Latter Day Saints Day

The Church of Latter Day Saints Day (LDS) or Mormonism has official originated from a religion founded in the United States by Joseph Smith in 1830. Mormon term commonly used for members of this church from the Book of Mormon, published by Smith in 1830; however, the church discourages the use of this term. Now as an international movement, the church’s characteristic is a unique understanding of God, emphasis on family life, belief, desire for regulation and respect for authority and missionary work. Members of the organization practice strict adherence to alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea regulations, without neglecting to promote education and a strong work ethic.

The headquarters of Church of Latter Day Saints Day is Salt Lake City, Utah with over 16 million members in the 21st century. Almost members of the church live in the United States and the rest in Latin America, Canada, Europe, Africa, the Philippines and parts of Oceania.

Another Mormon denomination, Community of Christ (until 2001, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was reorganized), has its headquarters in Independence, Missouri and has approximately 250,000 members at the beginning of the 21st century.

History

In western New York State in 1823, there is a statue of Joseph Smith, with the appearance of an angel named Moroni, Morino told him of engraved gold plates buried on a nearby hill. Moroni had gave a lot of instruction for him and he unearthed the tablets and translated them into English four years later. As a result, an ancient American prophet inspired name for the Book of Mormon. Besides, according to Smith, the text recorded and compiled on the tablets that recounts the history of an Israelite family immigrated to the United States centuries before Jesus Christ and was taught similarly by the prophets to those in the Old Testament. From the powerful frenzy of the Christian revival movements took place in America in the early 19th century, however, it was abandoned immediately after its announcement in a new era, which was born by Smith. Through Smith, God restored the “true church,” that is, the original Christian church, and reaffirmed the true faith from which the various Christian churches had strayed.

The new millennial church believes in the impending return of Jesus Christ and his establishment of a peaceful 1,000-year reign. This belief prompted Smith to create and found the kingdom of God, Zion, at a place in the Western United States. He was recognized not only of theological truth but also provided practical guidance on a daily basis. Early members of the church devised new secular institutions, including collective property (later changed to the decimal system) and polygamy, practiced by Smith himself and by most of the leading Mormons in the early years of the church.

After its establishment, Smith and participants also moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where Sidney Rigdon, a prominent preacher and his followers adopted the faith. In Jackson County, Missouri, where it was revealed that Zion would be founded, Smith formed an Enoch Community Unity Association. But conflict with non-Mormons in the area led to murders and burning of Mormon property. There was appeared conflict among church members and the local slave-owning Missourians. There were about 15,000 believers that was forced to leave Missouri for Illinois in 1839 by armed war, where Smith built a new city, Nauvoo. The commercial success and political power of the newcomers increased quickly once again sparked renewed hostility from their non-Mormon neighbors. Smith's suppression of some dissidents among the Mormons of Nauvoo in 1844 increased the resentment of the non-Mormons and provided the basis for arrest grandfather. Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed while they were being imprisoned in Carthage, near Nauvoo, on June 27^th, 1844.

After Smith's untimely death, the church's administration was left in the hands of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, senior member Brigham Young. Ignoring some who contested church leadership, the majority of its members supported Young, who became the church's second president. However, increasing mob violence made their continued presence in Nauvoo inevitable, and Young thus led a 1,100-mile (1,800 km) mass exodus to Uta’s mh in in 1846–47. They would like to have a commonwealth establishment, where they could practice their religion without persecution. Imaging a new state named Deseret, Young helped to establish more than 300 communities in Utah and surrounding territories. To build up the population, he sent missionaries throughout North America and Europe. The converts were pushed to immigrate to the new land and about 80,000 Mormon pioneers travel by cart, handcart, or on foot arrived in Salt Lake City in 1869, when the arrival of the apparition of the railroads made the journey much easier.

Despite the hardships caused by the desert influence of the Great Basin, the pioneers managed to make steady advances in farming, thanks in part to their innovative irrigation methods. Their request for being statehood in 1849 was denied by the United States government, which instead organized the area as a territory, with Young as its first governor. Future efforts to gain state status were thwarted by the announcement in 1852 of the church's belief in polygamy, a practice that had begun quietly among its leaders during the Nauvoo period. The contradictory between Young and federal officials on the practice and Mormon efforts to establish a theocratic government continuously took place throughout the 1850s. Tensions increased after the Mountain Meadows Massacre. 1857, in which a group of Mormons killed members of a railroad car passing through the area. In response to conflicts with federal officials, the President of the United States. James Buchanan sent a military expedition to Utah to suppress the Mormon "revolt" and impose a non-Mormon governor, Alfred Cummings, on the territory. It was afraid that they expedite in order to suppress their faith, Young called on the Utah militia to prepare to defend the territory. A negotiated agreement was reached in 1858, and Cummings eventually became popular with members of the church. Although the abolition of the military phase, later known as "Buchanan's mistake", aroused widespread public sympathy for the Mormons, it was successful in ending religious control directly to the territorial government of Utah.

After Young’s death in 1877, John Taylor was appointed and become the church’s president, a senior member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles. During being president of Taylor, the US government continuously enhanced its campaign against polygamy. In 1890, Wilford Woodruff, Taylor's successor, announced to the public that the church would eliminate the practices to conform to U.S. law, then, in 1896, the territory of Utah joined in union as a 45th state. However, Woodruff's manifesto, titled "The Manifesto", simply disapproved of polygamy in the United States, and for a decade or so it continued in Mexico and other places outside the jurisdiction of the United States.

In the history, there was more than 150 different independent groups which have formed to follow new prophets, defend polygamy, or continue other practices was rejected by the orthodox church. For example, a significant minority rejected Young's leadership and remained in the Midwest. The largest group which are joined by Smith's widow Emma and his son Joseph Smith III, founded the reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Known as the Community of Christ) in 1852–60. At last, the Church are changed something and settled in Independence, Missouri, where Smith had designated as Zion's site.

Several smaller groups also appeared after Smith's death. One of parties decided to choose Temple Lot, the site chosen by Smith for the new temple. Possession of this valuable property has soured relations with the Reorganization Church, which has its headquarters on the mainland to the south. However, Young's leadership were received the agreement of other parties, which included one led by Sidney Rigdon and another where the Apostle Lyman Wight went to Texas. David Whitmer and Martin Harris, along with Joseph Smith, witnessed that they saw golden plates and the angel Moroni, eventually founded a church in Kirtland, Ohio. In 1847, a polygamous community was founded by James Jesse Strang with about 3,000 participants on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan, whose members became known as the Strangites.

Among the factions of Latter-day Saints that emerged in the 20th century the most important were those that practiced polygamy. Short Creek (now Colorado City) was the first colony, just south of the Utah border in northwestern Arizona, in 1902, shortly after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Christ imposed excommunication as a punishment for entering or performing Mass through a big marriage. Other extra colonies were later established in Mexico and Salt Lake City. Federal authorities and the church have tried to destroy groups that practice polygamy, however, the group claims to have more than 30,000 members.

How about the Structure of LSD?

The “common authorities” of the church are the First President (church president and two councilors), the Council of the Twelve Apostles, the Quorum of the Seventy, the presiding Bishop and two commissioners’ councilors, property managers, and church welfare programs. All were "held in office" by a regular vote of confidence and are now ritualized at the biennial General Assembly, open to all believers and outside observers . Until 2000, conventions were held in the dome-shaped tabernacle on the east side of the temple in Salt Lake City. Built between 1864 and 1867, the tabernacle was unable to accommodate convention attendees and its use was largely replaced by the new LDS Convention Center, which seats nearly 22,000 and is a in the largest theater-style auditoriums in the world.

At the local area, church’s participants are divided into every “stake” with the scale of approximately 4,000 to 5,000 members under stake presidents and into wards, each with several hundred members, under a bishop. The religious life of each member is centered on the ward, through which the religious, economic and social activities, tithing, and activities of the church's elaborate welfare plan are organized.

Community of Christ

The community of Christ, known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reorganized until 2001, held less Book of Mormon than its sister church and rejected the various doctrines, especially baptism for the dead and tithing. It never practiced polygamy or sealed for the afterlife. There will not be any temple ceremonies performed in Kirtland, Ohio or at the temple in Independence, Missouri. After that, the president of the church for many years was changed to the descendants of Joseph Smith III. However, with the end of Wallace B. Smith's presidency in 1996, none of Smith's descendants could take the helm. That year, the World Conference of the Church chose W. Grant McMurray as its new president.