Latter-day Saints, often called Mormons, follow Joseph Smith and read the Book of Mormon alongside the Bible.
Restorationist & other movements1830arose within Evangelical revivals
Joseph Smith organised the Church of Christ in upstate New York on 6 April 1830, in the ferment of the Second Great Awakening, on the strength of the Book of Mormon and what he described as restored priesthood authority. Its members, driven west, built Utah. It calls itself the restored Church of Jesus Christ; many other Christian bodies do not accept its teachings as consistent with historic creedal Christianity. The tree describes these differences without deciding who may identify as Christian.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are called Latter-day Saints and whom others have long called Mormons, began in upstate New York in 1830. Its members hold that it is the church Jesus founded, restored after centuries of absence. Latter-day Saints identify as Christians. Their teachings differ from Nicene Christianity, including on the Godhead and the scope of scripture; the page explains those differences without deciding whose religious identity is valid 4,7.
Joseph Smith was a farm boy in the religious ferment of western New York. He said that in 1820, confused by the competing preachers around him and reading the promise in James that anyone lacking wisdom should ask of God, he prayed in a grove of trees and saw the Father and the Son, who told him to join none of the churches then contending 8,7. He later said that an angel named Moroni directed him to buried golden plates, which he translated and published in 1830 as the Book of Mormon, an account of peoples in the ancient Americas visited by the risen Christ 9,7. On 6 April 1830, with a small group of believers in a log cabin, he organised the church 2,7.
What followed was twenty years of being moved on. The Saints gathered in Ohio, then Missouri, where the governor issued an order in 1838 that they be driven from the state, then Illinois, where they built the city of Nauvoo. On 27 June 1844 Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed by a mob at the jail in Carthage 8,7. Brigham Young led the main body west across the plains, and they entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and began establishing settlements in the Salt Lake Valley 10,7.
The church has twice added a document to its own scripture to record a change. Official Declaration 1, issued by Wilford Woodruff in 1890, ended the practice of plural marriage, which had been taught since the 1840s; a second statement in 1904 closed it completely, and members who continued it were cut off 5,7,13. Official Declaration 2, in 1978, ended the exclusion of Black members of African descent from the priesthood, which had been in place since 1852, and opened ordination to men of every race 6,7. Both declarations are printed in the Doctrine and Covenants, which is to say the church put them in its scripture rather than in an archive.
The clearest short statement is the church's own. Joseph Smith wrote thirteen Articles of Faith in 1842, and they are printed in the Pearl of Great Price. The first is that we believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost, whom Latter-day Saints understand as three distinct beings united in purpose rather than one being in three persons, which is where they part from the historic creeds 4.
The fourth Article names the first principles and ordinances: 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 4. The fifth holds that a man must be called of God and ordained by those in authority, which is the doctrine of priesthood the whole church runs on. The sixth looks for the same organisation that existed in the primitive church, apostles and prophets included, and the ninth says that we believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and that He will yet reveal many great and important things, which is the doctrine of continuing revelation 4.
The church is led by a President, sustained as prophet, seer and revelator, with two counsellors and a Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; Dallin H. Oaks became the eighteenth President in 2025 14,7. Latter-day Saints also keep the Word of Wisdom, a health code that rules out alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea, and they tithe. Congregations are led by a bishop who serves unpaid alongside his ordinary job, and there is no professional clergy.
Worship and practice
Sunday is at a meetinghouse and is plain: hymns, prayers, the sacrament of bread and water passed by teenage boys holding the Aaronic priesthood, and talks given by ordinary members rather than a sermon by a minister. A second hour alternates between Sunday School and meetings of the Relief Society for women and the priesthood quorums for men. Anyone may attend.
Temples are different, and the difference matters. They are not for Sunday worship but for ordinances a member prepares for: the endowment, marriage sealed for eternity rather than until death, and baptisms performed by proxy for people who died without them, which is why Latter-day Saints do so much genealogy. Temples are open to the public before dedication and afterwards only to members in good standing, which is a matter of holiness rather than secrecy as the church explains it 2,1. The church reports 211 operating temples and 6,463 family history centres in 155 countries 2.
Scripture and Bible translations
Latter-day Saints read the King James Version, in an edition the church publishes with its own footnotes, chapter headings and cross-references to its other scripture. The eighth Article of Faith gives the church's position exactly: we believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God 4.
There are four books of scripture, called the standard works: the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, which collects revelations given to Joseph Smith and his successors and includes the two Official Declarations, and the Pearl of Great Price, which contains the Articles of Faith and Joseph Smith's own account of his early visions 1,4. Members are encouraged to read them daily and to study them as a family, and the church runs seminary for teenagers and institute for young adults, with a combined enrolment it reports at over nine hundred thousand 2. The verses below are given in the King James Version.
In church
The King James Version is the church's preferred English Bible for classes and meetings and has appeared in a church-published study edition since 1979. Its Spanish edition, published in 2009, is a revision of the Reina-Valera.
At home
In December 2025 the church added guidance recognising other translations for personal study, naming the ESV and NRSV for readers 14 and up, the NIV, NLT and NKJV for ages 11 to 13, and the NIrV for younger children, while keeping the KJV for classes and meetings.
These passages illustrate themes discussed in this profile; they are not a survey of members' favorite verses. Each is quoted from the King James (Authorized) Version and links to its chapter. You can explore the text for study or personal reflection; memorization is optional.
And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
The times of restitution of all things. The word restoration in this church's self-understanding comes from Peter's sermon here.
¶ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Turn the heart of the fathers to the children. Read here as the reason for genealogy and for marriages sealed beyond death.
People
Joseph Smith1805 to 1844 Founder and first President, who published the Book of Mormon at twenty-four, organised the church at twenty-four, wrote the Articles of Faith, and was killed by a mob at Carthage jail in Illinois at thirty-eight.8
Emma Hale Smith1804 to 1879 Joseph Smith's wife, scribe for part of the translation, and first president of the Relief Society. She compiled the church's first hymnal in 1835 and did not go west with Brigham Young.11
Brigham Young1801 to 1877 Led the migration across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, directed the settlement of hundreds of towns across the Great Basin, and served as second President for thirty years.10
Eliza R. Snow1804 to 1887 Poet, hymn writer and the second general president of the Relief Society, who organised the women of the church across the territory and wrote some of its best known hymns.12
Wilford Woodruff1807 to 1898 Fourth President, who issued the 1890 declaration ending plural marriage, a document now printed in the church's own scripture.13
Dallin H. Oaksborn 1932 A judge on the Utah Supreme Court before he was called as an apostle in 1984, and the eighteenth President of the Church from 2025.14
Today
The church counts itself and publishes the figures. It reports 17,887,212 members in 32,046 congregations, with 78,596 missionaries serving in 451 missions 2. Most of those missionaries are young, serve for eighteen months or two years, pay their own way and are assigned rather than choosing where they go, and this missionary work is part of the church's worldwide presence. More members now live outside the United States than inside it, with the largest numbers in Latin America 7,15.
Alongside the congregations sits a large welfare and humanitarian operation, which the church reports as having reached 175 countries since 1985 2. It runs four universities and colleges, and its family history work, built for its own temple ordinances, has become the largest genealogical resource in the world and is used by people with no connection to the church at all 2,1.
Words to know
ordinance
In Baptist and many other free churches, the word used for baptism and the Lord’ Supper: acts Christ commanded his people to keep, understood as obedience and remembrance. Churches that call them sacraments understand them as means through which God gives grace.
creed
A short statement of belief said together in worship. The Nicene Creed is shared by nearly every Christian tradition.
canon
The list of books a community counts as Scripture. Jewish, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox canons overlap almost entirely and differ at the edges.
prophet
In the Bible, someone who speaks God's message to the people, often calling them back to justice and faithfulness. Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos were prophets.
sacrament
A sacred act Christians believe carries God's grace, such as baptism and communion. Traditions count and understand them differently.
bishop
The leader of the Christians of a city or region, who ordains priests and teaches the faith. Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and some Lutheran and Methodist churches keep bishops.
covenant
A solemn agreement that binds two parties. In the Bible, God's covenant with Israel at Sinai, and later covenants, shape the whole story.
justification
How a person is made right with God. Luther's teaching that this happens by faith alone, as a gift, was the heart of the Reformation.
Questions people ask
What should this church be called?
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the official name, given by revelation to Joseph Smith in 1838. The church asks that the full name be used first and that the Church or the Church of Jesus Christ be used afterwards, and that members be called Latter-day Saints. It discourages Mormon Church, LDS Church and Mormons as names for itself and its people, while Mormon remains correct in proper names like the Book of Mormon 3. This page follows that guidance and gives the common nickname once, because readers search for it.
Are Latter-day Saints Christian?
Latter-day Saints identify as Christians, worship Jesus Christ, and hold him to be the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. Churches that define Christianity through the Nicene creeds differ with Latter-day Saint teachings about the Godhead; the recognition of additional scripture is another significant difference. This page distinguishes self-identification from those theological disagreements 4,7.
What is the Book of Mormon?
A volume of scripture that Latter-day Saints hold to be an ancient record of peoples in the Americas, written on golden plates, delivered to Joseph Smith by an angel and translated by him by the gift of God, published in 1830 9,4. Its subtitle is Another Testament of Jesus Christ, and its climax is an appearance of the risen Christ in the Americas. It is read alongside the Bible, not instead of it.
Do Latter-day Saints practise polygamy?
No. Plural marriage was taught and practised from the 1840s, and it was ended by Official Declaration 1 in 1890 and closed completely in 1904, after which members who continued it were cut off from the church 5,7. Groups that broke away to keep the practice are separate bodies and are not part of this church, which says so plainly.
What happens inside a temple?
Ordinances rather than Sunday services: the endowment, which is instruction and covenant; marriages sealed for eternity; and baptisms and other ordinances performed by proxy on behalf of people who died without them, which members regard as an offering to the dead rather than a claim on them. Temples are open to anyone during the public tours before dedication, and afterwards to members holding a current recommend. The church describes this as holiness rather than secrecy 2,1.
Sources
Numbered references link the account above to its sources. These include the tradition's own documents and outside reference works. The review status below distinguishes source checking from completed member and scholarly review.
BibleVerse. “Latter-day Saints: where they came from, what they hold, and the Bible they read.” bibleverse.site, version 2026-09-09, https://bibleverse.site/denominations/lds/
Awaiting review by a member of the tradition. First published 2026-09-07; last changed 2026-09-09. Years before the common era are written BC, and later years plainly, as the site's Christian pages do.
Found something wrong? Send it through the contact page. A correction checked against two sources is made within a week and logged in this page's change history.
