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57-661: The first scriptural use of the term general authority was in minutes of a meeting for the organization of the Presiding High Council in 1834. Though the original minutes did not refer to the term general authorities , the revised minutes, which were included in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants , stated that decisions of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles "can only be called into question by

114-507: A Great Apostasy began in Christianity not long after the ascension of Jesus , marked with the corruption of Christian doctrine by Greek and other philosophies, and followers dividing into different ideological groups. Additionally, Latter Day Saints claim the martyrdom of the apostles led to a loss of priesthood authority to administer the church and its ordinances . According to Latter Day Saint churches, God re-established

171-473: A Rigdon supporter, to assume leadership and the surviving members of Smith's immediate family remained unaffiliated with any larger body until 1860, when they formed the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with Joseph's eldest son Joseph Smith III as prophet. These various groups are sometimes referred to under two geographical headings: "Prairie Saints" (those that remained in

228-521: A center stake that gave direction and guidance and had jurisdiction over other stakes. When quorum leaders in outlying areas needed new officers they sent a list of nominees to the Salt Lake Stake.” Of this arrangement, the manual states that “the function of stake organizations … had not been adequately defined for the maximum strength of the overall Church organization.” Toward the end of his life, Brigham Young began an extensive reformation of

285-412: A complex theological, historical, and sociological relationship. Mormons express the doctrines of Mormonism using standard biblical terminology, and claim to have similar views about the nature of Jesus ' atonement , resurrection , and Second Coming as traditional Christianity . Nevertheless, Mormons agree with non-Mormons that their view of God is significantly different from the trinitarian view of

342-700: A means to salvation. However, beginning with his accounts of the First Vision in the 1830s and 1840s, Smith—who said that Christ had told him not to join any existing church—departed significantly from traditional Christianity, claiming all churches of his day were part of a Great Apostasy that had lost the authority to direct Christ's church. Mormonism does not characterize itself as a Protestant religion, as Smith taught that he had received revelation direct from Christ to restore his original church. Mormons believe that God, through Smith and his successors, restored these truths and doctrinal clarifications, and, initiating

399-646: A new heavenly dispensation, restored the original church and Christianity taught by Jesus. For example, Smith rejected the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity as of one body and substance, with no "body, parts, or passions", and instead taught that the Godhead included God, the Eternal Father, also known as Elohim ; his only-begotten son in the flesh, Jesus Christ, also known as Jehovah , the savior and redeemer of

456-475: A revelation from God that officially changed the name to the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints". In 1844, William Law and several other Latter Day Saints in church leadership positions publicly denounced Smith's secret practice of polygamy in the Nauvoo Expositor , and formed their own church . The city council of Nauvoo, Illinois , led by Smith, subsequently had the printing press of

513-578: Is not considered a stake. Building upon the Book of Isaiah 's imagery of Zion as a tent (Isaiah 54:2), the church leadership is found at the center pole of the tent, with the stakes of Zion providing support and balance to the center place. The standing presiding high council in Zion acts with the First Presidency as a second presidency to the church. The traveling presiding high council acts to govern

570-448: Is that Mormonism is a form of Christianity, but is distinct enough from traditional Christianity so as to form a new religious tradition, much as Christianity has roots in but is a distinct religion from Judaism. The Mormonism that originated with Smith in the 1820s shared strong similarities with some elements of 19th-century Protestant Christianity including the necessity of baptism, emphasis on family, and central doctrine on Christ as

627-505: The Book of Mormon , which he published in 1830 as a complement to the Bible . Based on the teachings of this book and other revelations, Smith founded a Christian primitivist church, called the "Church of Christ ". The Book of Mormon attracted hundreds of early followers, who later became known as " Mormons ", "Latter Day Saints", or just "Saints". In 1831, Smith moved the church headquarters to Kirtland, Ohio , and in 1838 changed its name to

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684-672: The Expositor destroyed. In spite of Smith's later offer to pay damages for destroyed property, critics of Smith and the church considered the destruction heavy-handed. Some called for the Latter Day Saints to be either expelled or destroyed. Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, the Assistant President of the Church , were both killed by a mob while in a Carthage, Illinois jail , and several individuals within

741-625: The LDS movement , LDS restorationist movement , or Smith–Rigdon 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. Collectively, these churches have over 17 million nominal members, including over 17 million belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), 250,000 in Community of Christ , and several other denominations with memberships generally ranging in

798-818: The Midwest United States ); and "Rocky Mountain Saints" (those who followed Young to what would later become the state of Utah). Today, the vast majority (over 98 percent) of Latter Day Saints belong to the LDS Church, which reports over 16 million members worldwide. The second-largest denomination is the Missouri-based Community of Christ, which reports 252,000 members. Small denominations that trace their origins to Rigdon, James Strang , or other associates of Smith's still exist, and several fundamentalist sects which separated from

855-694: The Nicene Creed of the 4th century. Mormons consider the Bible as scripture and have also adopted additional scriptures. These include the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants , and Pearl of Great Price , although not all denominations use all books as part of their scriptures. Mormons not only practice baptism and celebrate the eucharist but also participate in religious rituals not practiced in traditional Christianity. Focusing on differences, some Christians consider Mormonism "non-Christian"; members of

912-551: The Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , which supports lineal succession of leadership from Smith's descendants, and the more controversial Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints , which defends the practice of polygamy . The movement began in western New York during the Second Great Awakening when Smith said that he received visions revealing a new sacred text,

969-668: The Second Quorum of the Seventy are typically called for a period of five to seven years. When members of the Second Quorum are released, they are no longer general authorities of the church. When members of the presiding bishopric are released, they typically become members of the First Quorum of the Seventy and are therefore retained as lifetime general authorities, including later being granted emeritus status. In

1026-591: The sealing power , while general officers and area seventies are not. A person is typically called to be a general authority or general officer by a member of the First Presidency or the Quorum of the Twelve. The president of the church and members of the Quorum of the Twelve are typically called for life, although there have been more than a dozen instances when an apostle has been released from his service in

1083-451: The "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints". After the church in Ohio collapsed due to a financial crisis and dissensions, in 1838, Smith and the body of the church moved to Missouri. However, they were persecuted and the Latter Day Saints fled to Illinois. After Smith was killed in 1844, a succession crisis led to the organization splitting into several groups. The largest of these,

1140-495: The "latter days", before the Second Coming of Christ , and is used to distinguish the members of the church, which considers itself the restoration of the ancient Christian church. Members are therefore often referred to as " Latter-day Saints " or "LDS", and among themselves, "saints". The Latter Day Saint movement classifies itself within Christianity, but as a distinct restored dispensation . Latter Day Saints hold that

1197-490: The LDS Church after it rejected plural marriage in 1890 claim tens of thousands of members. Most members of Latter Day Saint churches are adherents to Mormonism , a theology based on Joseph Smith's later teachings and further developed by Brigham Young, James Strang and others who claimed to be Smith's successors. The term Mormon derives from the Book of Mormon , and most of these adherents refer to themselves as Latter Day Saints or Mormons. Mormonism and Christianity have

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1254-510: The LDS Church, focusing on similarities, are offended at being so characterized. Mormons do not accept non-Mormon baptism. Mormons regularly proselytize individuals actually or nominally within the Christian tradition, and some Christians, especially evangelicals , proselytize Mormons. The LDS Church has a formal missionary program with nearly 70,000 missionaries, with 15 training centers and 407 missions worldwide. A prominent scholarly view

1311-654: The LDS Church, migrated under the leadership of Brigham Young to the Great Basin (now Utah ) and became known for its 19th-century practice of polygamy . The LDS Church officially renounced this practice in 1890 and gradually discontinued it, resulting in Utah Territory becoming a U.S. state . This change resulted in the formation of several small sects that sought to maintain polygamy and other 19th-century doctrines and practices, now referred to as " Mormon fundamentalism ". Other groups originating within

1368-626: The Latter Day Saint movement followed different paths in Missouri , Illinois , Michigan , and Pennsylvania . For the most part, these groups rejected plural marriage and some of Smith's later teachings. The largest of these, Community of Christ (known previously as the "Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints"), was formed in Illinois in 1860 by several groups uniting around Smith's son, Joseph Smith III . The founder of

1425-478: The Latter Day Saint movement was Joseph Smith, and to a lesser extent, during the movement's first two years, Oliver Cowdery . Throughout his life, Smith told of an experience he had as a boy having seen God the Father and Jesus Christ as two separate beings, who told him that the true church of Jesus Christ had been lost and would be restored through him, and that he would be given the authority to organize and lead

1482-462: The Quorum of the Twelve due to disfellowshipment, excommunication, or resignation. As with any calling in the church, general authorities and general officers serve "until they are released". In current church practice, men called to the First Quorum of the Seventy typically remain general authorities for life, but are granted emeritus status in the October following their 70th birthday. Members of

1539-658: The Quorums of the Seventy [will] not serve in the general presidencies of the Sunday School and Young Men." Due to this change, no general organization presidencies are composed of general authority seventies. Rather, the general authorities remain active in general church committees and have less jurisdiction over local stakes . Generally, stake presidents now report to area seventies, who in turn report to area presidencies , which are usually composed of general authority seventies. Typically, general authorities are given

1596-593: The Standing Presiding High Council. Meanwhile, after the 1844 succession crisis , high councils developed differently in the various denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement , with its role often decreasing. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which was composed of those who recognized Brigham Young and the apostles as the rightful successor to Smith, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gained ascendancy and

1653-536: The Twelfth Quorums of the Seventy , who are called area seventies and have responsibilities relating to a limited geographical area , not church-wide authority. Until 2004, general leadership for the Sunday School and Young Men organizations had historically been filled by general authorities. However, in the church's April 2004 general conference , Thomas S. Monson , of the First Presidency, announced that "a recent decision [has been made] that members of

1710-604: The Twelve Apostles. Community of Christ , formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church), has a functioning standing high council. Composed of twelve members, it retains some (but not all) of the duties detailed in Smith's original priesthood structure. One major difference is that its members are not general officers that are equal to the Council of Twelve Apostles . As such,

1767-404: The church claimed to be the senior surviving authority and appointed successors. These various claims resulted in a succession crisis. Many supported Brigham Young, the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles ; others Sidney Rigdon , the senior surviving member of the First Presidency . Emma Hale Smith failed to persuade William Marks , the president of the Presiding High Council and

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1824-449: The church outside of the organized stakes. One of Smith's revelations states that "the high council in Zion form a quorum equal in authority in the affairs of the church, in all their decisions, to the councils of the Twelve at the stakes of Zion." The two presiding high councils, when combined, are equal in authority to the First Presidency . At the same time, both are subject to the First Presidency, which has undivided authority over all

1881-465: The church's organizations , which are sustained as general officers of the church, but are not general authorities, include the general presidencies of the following organizations: The latter three groups are composed of women and represent the only three organizations in which women are given church-wide authority. Also excluded from the definition of general authorities are members of the Third through

1938-526: The church's biannual general conferences, held in April and October, all the general authorities and general officers of the church are presented to the Latter-day Saints for a sustaining vote, in accordance with the church's interpretation of the principle of "common consent" . This is a voluntary indication made by each member (usually by raising the right hand) that the member assents to be led by

1995-511: The church's first high council at church headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio . This body consisted of twelve men and were under the direction of the First Presidency . This high council took on the role of chief judicial and legislative body of the church, except in areas where the church was not organized, and handled such things as excommunication trials and approval of all church spending. When church headquarters moved to Jackson County, Missouri ,

2052-406: The church. In addition to these two presiding councils, each of the several standing high councils in the stakes of Zion, when combined, are deemed to be equal in authority to standing high council in Zion. As such, the combined stake high councils potentially form a third-tier presidency of the church. On February 17, 1834, Joseph Smith , the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement , created

2109-466: The decisions of the High Council of this Stake of Zion, as this High council theirs, both are equal in authority." In 1877, the First Presidency , with Brigham Young as President , sent out a letter to the church for the purpose of "setting in order the quorums of priesthood"; regarding the situation of the Salt Lake Stake having a "center place" supervisory role, the letter stated that “under

2166-400: The direction of the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles the presidency of the various Stakes will have the general supervision of all matters pertaining to the church within the limits of their Stakes." With that, any remaining vestiges of a separate standing presiding high council within the LDS Church disappeared, its role subsumed into the functions of the First Presidency and Quorum of

2223-580: The distinctive theological developments they believe to have been developed later in Mormonism. The beliefs within the LDS Church with regard to saints are similar but not quite the same as the Protestant tradition. In the New Testament , saints are all those who have entered into the Christian covenant of baptism. The qualification "latter-day" refers to the doctrine that members are living in

2280-445: The general authorities and general officers of the church are simply sustained "as presently constituted". This biannual procedure is dictated by church theology, which states that the church shall be governed by the common consent of its membership. Dissenting votes are rare and have even more rarely prevented a person from holding the proposed position. General authorities and general officers are also assigned to deliver sermons during

2337-545: The general authorities of the church in case of transgression." The use of the term general authorities at this time and in this context is generally interpreted to include the First Presidency and the Presiding High Council . By definition, general authorities are members of the church's priesthood . In order of precedence, the general authorities include the members of the following leadership organizations: Not all church leaders with church-wide responsibility are considered general authorities. The general presidencies of

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2394-529: The individuals presented as general authorities and general officers. Members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are always named by name, as are any persons being added or released from a position or any general authority or general officer moving from one organization to another (e.g., a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy being called to the Presidency of the Seventy). Otherwise,

2451-475: The largest Latter Day Saint denominations, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Community of Christ . Both presiding high councils function as second presidencies to the church, the apostles overseeing the mission field, and the standing high council overseeing the stakes of Zion (or areas where the church has been organized into sustained units). Historically, the standing high council had oversight over all other high councils within

2508-463: The most important of which is that Christ is the savior of the world and that he suffered for the world's sins so that the penitent can return to live in heaven. A small fraction of Latter Day Saints, most notably those within Community of Christ, the second largest Latter Day Saint denomination, follow a traditional Protestant theology. Community of Christ views God in trinitarian terms, and reject

2565-526: The new church headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois , where it continued to function as the presiding high council of the church, overseeing appeals from high councils in outlying stakes. The original members of the standing high council in Kirtland were: In 1841, still during Smith's lifetime, the role of Traveling Presiding High Council of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was elevated, apparently above that of

2622-411: The newly formed Missouri high council took on a presiding role as the high council of Zion, and the Kirtland high council became subordinate. Later, when other high councils were established in newly formed stakes of the church, the high council of Zion took on the role of "presiding" over the lesser high councils. For example, cases tried in the high councils of outlying stakes were regularly appealed to

2679-491: The presiding high council. The president of this high council was the President of the Church , who at all relevant times was Smith. Originally, the standing high council, under the direction of the First Presidency , was in a de facto supervisory role over the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles , which was a traveling high council with jurisdiction only outside of Zion or its stakes. For example, in 1838, when vacancies arose in

2736-609: The request of the First Presidency to consider questions of moral and ethical significance, to provide general advice and counsel to the First Presidency, and to consider appeals from courts of field jurisdictions. The Standing High Council may also advice the Presiding Bishopric when requested by the First Presidency. The members of the Standing High Council as of 2012 were: Latter Day Saint movement The Latter Day Saint movement (also called

2793-489: The stakes of Zion and was equal in authority to the Quorum of the Twelve. Because the standing high council oversaw stake high councils, the Quorum of the Twelve had oversight over the Seventy . In the revelations of Joseph Smith , at least three types of high council are mentioned: The standing presiding high council was intended to be located at the "center place" of Zion, or church headquarters. The center place itself

2850-399: The standing high council diminished in authority, eventually disappearing completely. Post- exodus to Utah , the standing high council was established in a limited capacity as part of the central Salt Lake Stake, but it only served as a ratifying body for priesthood quorums in other stakes. An LDS Church Sunday School manual from 1980 states: “The Salt Lake Stake functioned more or less as

2907-494: The standing high council is not part of the World Church Leadership Council . The high council does, however, functions in an advisory role for the First Presidency . Its decisions may be overturned only through action of a World Conference . Major advisory decisions include its 1982 statement on homosexuality. The Church Administrator's Handbook 2005 states: The Standing High Council meets at

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2964-634: The thousands of members. The predominant theology of the churches in the movement is Mormonism , which sees itself as restoring again on Earth the early Christian church ; their members are most commonly known as Mormons . An additional doctrine of the church allows for prophets to receive and publish modern-day revelations . A minority of Latter Day Saint adherents, such as members of Community of Christ, have been influenced by Protestant theologies while maintaining certain distinctive beliefs and practices including continuing revelation , an open canon of scripture and building temples . Other groups include

3021-414: The traveling high council, it was the standing high council at Far West, Missouri , that voted on and filled the vacancies. Later, as the traveling high council evolved and began to be known as the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles , it acquired equal status with the standing high council. When the standing high council was dissolved after church members were expelled from Missouri, the high council organized at

3078-436: The true Church of Christ. The Latter Day Saint church was formed on April 6, 1830, consisting of a community of believers in the western New York towns of Fayette , Manchester , and Colesville . The church was formally organized under the name of the "Church of Christ". By 1834, the church was referred to as the "Church of the Latter Day Saints" in early church publications, and in 1838 Smith announced that he had received

3135-416: The two-day conferences. Presiding High Council In the Latter Day Saint movement , there are two presiding high councils , one said to be "standing," and the other "traveling." The traveling high council is generally known as the Quorum of Twelve Apostles . Both councils, at least in theory, preside over the church, although the apostles have tended to supersede the standing high council in both of

3192-609: The various priesthood quorums, standardizing their jurisdiction and function. Minutes from an October 19, 1876 Bishops Meeting quote Young as saying, "So with the High Councils, their jurisdiction extends only to the Stakes in which they are organized. Some have entertained the idea that the High Council in this Stake of Zion had jurisdiction over all other stakes. This is not so. The High Council of Weber Co[unty], or of any other stake would have just as much right to call in question

3249-532: The world; and the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit, an individual personage of spirit whose influence can be felt in many places at once. Further, Smith taught that the essence of all humans is co-eternal with God and that humans, as the spirit offspring of God the Father, have the potential to become like God. The LDS Church, the largest Mormon denomination, while acknowledging its differences with mainstream Christianity, often focuses on its commonalities, which are many,

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