www.lds.org

Basic History
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is viewed by its more than 11 million members throughout the world as the literal restoration of the organization established by the Savior nearly two millennia ago. Such a restoration was made necessary after the original church was lost from the earth through gradual apostasy.

Joseph Smith was a 14-year-old farm boy in western New York when, in 1820, God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him in response to his prayer about which church he should join. This vision and a subsequent series of divine manifestations over the next ten years led to the formal organization of the Church on April 6, 1830, in Fayette, New York.

Among those divine manifestations were the restoration of priesthood authority and the coming forth of additional scripture to combine with the Holy Bible in testifying of the divinity of Jesus Christ. It was the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, both a religious and secular record of some of the ancient civilizations of the Western Hemisphere, which gave the Church and its members the nickname “Mormon.” Mormon was a fourth-century Christian prophet who abridged the writings of his predecessors. Centuries later these records were revealed to Joseph Smith who translated and published them in English.

Persecution over his beliefs forced the young prophet and his followers to relocate from New York to Ohio, then to Missouri and to Illinois, where in the early 1840s they built the community of Nauvoo from swampland they drained on the eastern banks of the Mississippi River. Nauvoo grew to rival Chicago in size.

Fears sparked by the burgeoning growth of the Church led to renewed persecution and to the assassination of Joseph Smith. His successor, Brigham Young, then led the Latter-day Saints west on an arduous and historic 1,300-mile trek across America's vast central wilderness to a valley on the western side of the Rocky Mountains where they settled in 1847. Salt Lake City, Utah, remains the world headquarters of the Church today. Meanwhile, the practice of “polygamy” was divinely repealed in 1890 and any practice of such by any Latter-day Saints since has resulted in excommunication.

Basic Beliefs
Paramount in a summary of doctrines of the Church is a belief in God the Father, His son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. The three comprise the Godhead and are considered one in purpose, but separate in being. Latter-day Saints believe that God the Father and Jesus Christ have bodies of flesh and bones and that the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit.

Although the Church is Christian, it is neither Catholic nor Protestant. Rather, it is the Restored Church of Jesus Christ. Church members believe that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is literally a restoration of the church originally established by Jesus Christ during his mortal lifetime.

The Church emphasizes the need for priesthood authority, teaching that men must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and administer in the ordinances thereof. The first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost (confirmation).

Baptism follows the biblical example of immersion and is for the remission of one’s sins. Since young children are not capable of committing sin, they are not baptized until the age of eight, which Church members believe is the age of accountability set by Jesus Christ.

Revelation from God continues today through living prophets. The presidents of the Church since it was restored in 1830 have been and are viewed by members as prophets in the same sense as are Abraham, Moses, Peter and other biblical leaders.

The Book of Mormon is divinely inspired scripture, as is the Bible, and they are used side by side in Church curriculum, together with other approved scriptures.

All who have ever lived or ever will live on earth are literal spirit children of God and resided with Him in a pre-mortal existence. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, all will be resurrected and all have the potential for salvation through His atonement coupled with obedience to the laws and ordinances of His gospel.

Church leaders solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children.

The Savior’s law of strict morality is taught and encouraged. The Church teaches honesty, chastity outside of marriage, fidelity within marriage, and is opposed to abortion, pornography, gambling and other societal evils.

“The Word of Wisdom,” a health code divinely revealed in 1833, emphasizes the positive benefits of wise eating habits and physical and spiritual fitness. It forbids the use of tobacco, alcoholic beverages, tea and coffee. The Church interprets the misuse of drugs — illegal, legal, prescription or controlled — as a violation of this health code.

Faithful Latter-day Saints embrace the biblical principle of tithing, which enables the financing of temple and meetinghouse construction and such programs as education, welfare, missionary, curriculum, humanitarian, and other things designed to benefit members.

Leadership
Latter-day Saints view the president of the Church as a prophet of God in the same way they revere the prophets of scripture. Part of the restoration of the church originally established by Jesus Christ during his mortal lifetime includes living prophets.

The First Presidency is the highest presiding body in the government of the Church. It includes the president of the Church and his two counselors.

Next in authority is the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Members of five quorums of the Seventy serve as administrators in various parts of the world, and a three-man Presiding Bishopric oversees temporal affairs.

 

The First Presidency:	Gordon B. Hinckley, President
	Thomas S. Monson, First Counselor
	James E. Faust, Second Counselor

Congregations (wards and branches) and other regional units (stakes, districts and missions) are presided over without pay by lay priesthood leaders who serve for a designated period until honorably released so others can be given that opportunity for service. All members of the Church are given the opportunity to serve in a wide variety of other callings.

Basic Facts
At the recent dawning of the new millennium, world membership was reported to be in excess of 11 million in some 25,000 congregations spread over more than 160 nations and territories.

The Church has more than 60,000 full-time proselytizing missionaries serving throughout the world for periods of 18 months to two years, plus several thousand Church-service missionaries worldwide: doctors, nutritionists, craftsmen, artisans, construction supervisors, agricultural experts and specialists in the areas of education, family history research and leadership training.

Considerable emphasis is placed on the worth of the individual and on family solidarity in this life, and on the potential for eternal family relationships as well. Marriage in the Church’s temples does not end at death but is for eternity, contingent upon individual worthiness. There are more than 100 temples around the world reserved for use by faithful members for marriages, baptisms and other sacred ordinances, not only for the living but, vicariously, for the deceased. The faithful consider personal family history research an obligation and thus provide names for the vicarious temple ordinances. These temples are not to be confused with the thousands of meetinghouses used for Sunday worship and other activities at which the public is welcome.

There are auxiliary organizations for members of all ages: The Primary for the younger children; Young Men and Young Women for teens; Relief Society for the women, and Sunday School for adults and teens.

The welfare program of the Church focuses on principles of self-reliance which help needy members to help themselves. Financing comes through voluntary contributions by members who go without food and drink for two consecutive meals one Sunday each month and donate the value of these two meals for the care of the poor and needy. The Church also has a humanitarian assistance program wherein millions of pounds of goods are shipped annually to needy people around the world. These goods include food, clothing and medical and education supplies which are given without consideration of the recipients’ religious affiliation.

The Church Education System provides religious education for students enrolled in seminaries and institutes of religion adjacent to hundreds of high schools and universities. In addition there are several institutions of higher learning, including Brigham Young University, with the main campus in Provo, Utah, and satellite campuses in Laie, Hawaii; Rexburg, Idaho; Nauvoo, Illinois; and Jerusalem. The Church also operates elementary or secondary schools in Mexico, Kiribati, New Zealand, Tonga, Western Samoa, and Fiji.

Location
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
50 East North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, Utah 84150