The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Denomination·Founded 1830 CE·est. ~17 million worldwide

Judaism → Christianity → Catholicism → Protestantism → The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints → 1 branch

Branch
Story of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The First Vision.

A fourteen-year-old asked God directly which church was true — and, Latter-day Saints testify, the Father and the Son answered in a grove of trees.

Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

The First Vision is the founding event: Joseph Smith, a teenager confused by competing revivalist churches, prays in a grove and reports that God and Jesus Christ appeared and told him none of the existing churches was correct. Smith gave several accounts over the years that differ in detail — how many personages, what was said — and the church now publishes and discusses those differences openly, a shift from earlier practice that reflects the internet-era reckoning with its own history.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
The fall on the ice at Lynn. Christian Science (the Church of Christ, Scientist) Read it in full →
The Era of Manifestations — when the dead started sending things. The Shakers (United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing) Read it in full →
Sound rightly spoken has power. Vedic Religion · core tenet Go deeper →
Samadhi — union in stillness. Hinduism · the interior Go deeper →
V Vairocana — the cosmic buddha. Buddhism · figure Meet them →
K Kundakunda. Jainism · figure Meet them →

The conversation

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