The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian, Christian restorationist church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in the United States in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. According to the church, it has over 16.5 million members and 67,000 full-time volunteer missionaries. In 2012, the National Council of Churches ranked the church as the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States, with over 6.5 million members there as of January 2018. It is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the early 19th century period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening.
The Latter Day Saint movement is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Joseph Smith in the late 1820s.
The Church of Christ was the original name of the Latter Day Saint church founded by Joseph Smith. Organized informally in 1829 in New York and then formally on April 6, 1830, it was the first organization to implement the principles found in Smith's newly published Book of Mormon, and thus represents the formal beginning of the Latter Day Saint movement. Later names for this organization included the Church of the Latter Day Saints, the Church of Jesus Christ, the Church of God, the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
In orthodox Mormonism, the term God generally refers to the biblical God the Father, whom Latter Day Saints sometimes call Elohim, and the term Godhead refers to a council of three distinct divine persons consisting of God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost. Latter Day Saints believe that the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost are three distinct beings, and that the Father and Jesus have perfected, glorified, physical bodies, while the Holy Ghost is a spirit without a physical body. Latter Day Saints also believe that there are other gods and goddesses outside the Godhead, such as a Heavenly Mother—who is the wife of God the Father—and that faithful Latter-day Saints may attain godhood in the afterlife. Joseph Smith taught that God was once a man on another planet before being exalted to Godhood.
The Ensign of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly shortened to Ensign, was an official periodical of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1971 to 2020. The magazine was first issued in January 1971, along with the correlated New Era and the Friend. Each of these magazines replaced the older church publications The Improvement Era, Relief Society Magazine, The Instructor, and the Millennial Star. Unlike some of its predecessors, the Ensign contained no advertisements.
Melvin Russell Ballard Jr. is an American businessman and religious leader who is currently the Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has been a member of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles since 1985. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Ballard is accepted by church members as a prophet, seer, and revelator. Currently, he is the third most senior apostle in the church.
James Esdras Faust was an American religious leader, lawyer, and politician. Faust was Second Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1995 until his death, an LDS Church apostle for 29 years, and a general authority of the church for 35 years.
The São Paulo Brazil Temple is the 19th constructed and 17th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Located in the Brazilian city of São Paulo, it was the first LDS temple built in South America, and also the first temple to use the single story, single spire design. The spire is 101 feet tall.
The Atlanta Georgia Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the first temple built by the church in the Southeastern United States and the second temple east of the Mississippi River since 1846. Members of the church consider it a literal "house of God" comparable to the ancient Israelite temple where, as recorded in Bible, God spoke with Samuel. Emphasizing this belief, the building's façade bears the inscription "Holiness to the Lord – The House of the Lord."
Below is a chronological list of temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with sortable columns. In the LDS Church, a temple is a building dedicated to be a House of the Lord, and considered by church members to be the most sacred structures on earth. Upon completion, temples are usually open to the public for a short period of time, and then each is dedicated as a "House of the Lord," after which only members in good standing are permitted to enter. Thus, they are not churches or meetinghouses, but rather specialized places of worship. There are 168 dedicated temples, 35 under construction, and 28 announced, for a total of 231. Within temples, members of the church make covenants, receive instructions, and perform rituals and ordinances. Additionally, members consider the temple a place to commune with God, seek God’s aid, understand His will, and receive personal revelation.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other adherents of Mormonism believe that there will be a Second Coming of Jesus Christ to the earth sometime in the future. The LDS Church and its leaders do not make predictions of the actual date of the Second Coming.
Danilo Talanskas is the managing director of Otis Elevator Company.
Moroni Bing Torgan is a Brazilian politician, probably the highest ranking Latter-day Saint politician in Brazil. A member of the National Chamber of Deputies, Torgan is known for having a rhetoric that spins around the fighting of crime and corruption. As of 2001 he was the only Latter-day Saint serving in Brazil's congress.
The Church Administration Building (CAB) is an administrative office building in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States serving as the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States. Completed in 1917, the building is adjacent to Temple Square, between the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and the Lion House, on South Temple Drive. It differs from the Church Office Building in that it is much smaller and furnishes offices for the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It also houses offices for other general authorities and their personal staff.
Islam and Latter-Day Saints have been compared to one another ever since the earliest origins of the latter in the nineteenth century, often by detractors of one religion or the other—or both. For instance, Joseph Smith, the latter-day prophet prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, was referred to as "the modern Mahomet" by the New York Herald, shortly after his murder in June 1844. This epithet repeated a comparison that had been made from Smith's earliest career, one that was not intended at the time to be complimentary. Comparison of the Mormon and Muslim prophets still occurs today, sometimes for derogatory or polemical reasons but also for more scholarly and neutral purposes. While Mormonism and Islam certainly have many similarities, there are also significant, fundamental differences between the two religions. Mormon–Muslim relations have historically been cordial; recent years have seen increasing dialogue between adherents of the two faiths, and cooperation in charitable endeavors. In terms of a mainstream Islamic as well as Christian perspective, Mormons are sometimes compared to Ahmadiyya in that they are sometimes not accepted as belonging within mainstream Christianity and Islam, respectively.
Jay Atwell Parry is an American author. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his LDS nonfiction and his books about George Washington.
The name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is derived from an 1838 revelation church founder Joseph Smith said he received. Church leaders have long emphasized the church's full name, and have resisted the application of informal or shortened names, especially those which omit "Jesus Christ". These informal and shortened names include the "Mormon Church", the "LDS Church", and the "Church of the Latter-day Saints".
