The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: beliefs, history and sources

History & overview

The heavens are open again — restoration, not reformation.

The largest Restorationist church: Joseph Smith's report that God had restored the original church through new scripture and living prophets. An open canon, temples that seal families beyond death, and a missionary corps that knocks on the world's doors.

DeitiesA Godhead of three distinct persons, one in purpose

Founded1830 CE · Upstate New York

FounderJoseph Smith

AfterlifeDegrees of glory — and families sealed forever

TextsBible · Book of Mormon · Doctrine and Covenants

The map

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’s corner of it — solid lines are descent; dotted lines are resemblance only, ideas held in common across unrelated faiths. Click a node to recenter; ✕ returns here. All 171 faiths →

c. 1000 BCE Judaism 30 CE Christianity 1517 CE Protestantism 1830 CE The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1935 CE The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Core Tenets

4 — a sample of the center, never the sum Enter →

The heavens are open — revelation continues. A living prophet leads the church and the canon is not closed: restoration means the line to God carries a signal again. Go deeper — context →

The Book of Mormon is scripture beside the Bible. Another testament — an ancient American record, translated by Joseph Smith from golden plates. Go deeper — context →

Families can be sealed forever. Temple ordinances bind spouses, parents, and children beyond death — heaven, on this account, is organized as kin. Go deeper — context →

Salvation has degrees of glory. Nearly everyone is saved into something; the question is proximity, not admission. held by most Go deeper — context →

Figures

who it looks to — gods, spirits, ancestors; some rooms are empty on principle Enter →

J Joseph Smith — the restorer. A farm boy who asked which church was true and reported that the answer was none of them — restoration, not reformation, followed. Domain The prophet of the restorationStanding Prophet, seer, and revelator — killed by a mob at 38, succeeded by a quorum Meet them — context →

Rites & Ritual

what its people do — and when Enter →

The sacrament meeting. Bread and water in memory of Christ — the weekly renewal of baptismal covenants. When weekly — SundayWho the congregation Go deeper — context →

Missionary service. Name tag, companion, and a distant city: the rite of passage that staffs the faith's growth. When once — commonly two yearsWho young members, and senior couples Go deeper — context →

Where next

the museum exit — every door leads deeper in

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints — Keep the covenant the main church let go. Judaism — 10 shared ideas, a different faith Christianity — 10 shared ideas, a different faith The Bahá'í Faith — 10 shared ideas, a different faith Buddhism — 9 shared ideas, a different faith Branch The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — inherit everything, change what you must The library of ideas — what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shares with every other faith A faith at random — somewhere you have never been