Summary of movement
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), popularly referred to as the Mormon Church, is a non-Trinitarian restorationist branch of Christianity. It was founded in New York State by Joseph Smith (1805-1844) after he had received a series of visions in the 1820s and an angel had directed him to a buried book of golden plates inscribed with the Judeo-Christian history of an ancient American civilization. The English translation of these plates is known as The Book of Mormon, which, together with the Bible, is regarded as Divine Scripture. The Church is restorationist in that it sees itself as restoring the early Apostolic Church in a new form; and it is millenarian in that it anticipates the imminent, physical Second Coming of Jesus Christ. By returning to the early Church as described in the New Testament Gospels, Mormons seek to prepare for and create the Kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth.
The full text of this article has been moved to CenSAMM's open access Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements.
It is available at: https://www.cdamm.org/articles/church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter
