Mormon Church

Personal Response by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is often identified as the Mormon or LDS Church. LDS, in this case, is an acronym for Latter-day Saints, a part of the official name of the LDS Church. When religious bodies use similar names to identify themselves, such as FLDS and LDS, there may be and often is some confusion about the relationship between them.

Just as there are many Christian denominations which believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the long anticipated Jewish Messiah and the Savior of the world, yet disagree upon other significant doctrinal points, including the nature and composition of the Bible, there are individuals and groups who accept the message of the Restoration (the calling of Joseph Smith as a prophet and coming forth of additional scripture, including the Book of Mormon) yet disagree on some rather key doctrines, policies, and practices. (more…)

Personal Response by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel

Although The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) was organized in the United States in 1830, there have been various periods of its history, including some decades in the second half of the nineteenth century, when more Latter-day Saints (Mormons) lived outside the United States than within the United States. Today, with its headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, the message of the Restoration radiates to the four corners of the earth through an increased presence in the world with more than 200 Mormon missions outside the United States, the translated Book of Mormon in over 107 languages, a worldwide educational system, and nearly 80 temples built beyond the confines of the United States. The Mormon Church’s international humanitarian efforts increase each year providing help to people around the world no matter what their religious identity may be. This story is not any different from the history of the first-century Church which began in Judea but eventually spread across the known Mediterranean world by the end of the first century mostly through Jewish-Christian missionaries, most of them born in the Holy Land.

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