In 1830, Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon and organized a church in the State of New York. According to the Book of Mormon, the name of that church was a matter of divine selection (3 Nephi 27:3-4, 7-8). Smith’s new church was initially known as the “Church of Christ.” However, in 1834 the name was changed to the “Church of the Latter-Day Saints,” only to be renamed again in 1838 to the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints” (Address to All Believers in Christ 73; History of the Church, 2:63; Doctrine and Covenants, Section 115, the preface and verse 3).
The original name corresponds to the church named in the Book of Mormon. “And they who were baptized in the name of Jesus were called the church of Christ” (3 Nephi 26:21); “…the disciples of Jesus had formed a Church of Christ…” (4 Nephi 1:1). Today, there are two Mormon churches – the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and a smaller, dissenting group, the Re-organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
In the 1820’s, the Restoration Movement was beginning to have an impact on the Western Reserve (northwestern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio). Among other religious issues, the question of what constitutes a biblical or a divine church name was a subject of frequent discussion. Prominent among personages in the Restoration Movement who argued in favor of the name, “Church of Christ,” was Alexander Campbell (The Christian Baptist 2:237).
Sidney Rigdon, formerly associated with the Campbell arm of the Restoration Movement, assisted Joseph Smith in the establishment and early development of the Mormon Church. Consequently, the Mormons adopted some Restoration principles and borrowed the initial name for the Mormon Church – the Church of Christ – from the Restoration Movement.
Further, the Mormon Church enjoyed its heartiest early growth in the Western Reserve among religious people who already subscribed somewhat to the Restoration Plea. The Mormon writer, Ivan J. Barrett, in essence, acknowledges that the Mormon Church sprung forth from soil prepared by the Campbell Restoration Movement. “This work of preparation had been accomplished by a new religious movement known as the Disciples of Christ. …The teachings of the Disciples had certainly opened the way… in northern Ohio… on the Western Reserve thousands had been prepared…” (Supplement to the Remarkable Story of How We Got the Revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants, 1-5).
The rise of the Mormon Church from the tilled fields of the Restoration Movement on the Western Reserve is reminiscent of the Parable of the Tares (Matthew 13:24-30). “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way” (Matthew 13:25). “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn’” (Matthew 13:30 NKJV).
Works Cited
Campbell, Alexander. The Christian Baptist. Vol. 2. 1825.
Doctrine and Covenants, Section 115, the preface and verse 3.
History of the Church, Vol. 2. Provo, Utah: Brigham U.
Supplement to the Remarkable Story of How We Got the Revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants.
Whitmer, David. Address to All Believers in Christ. Richmond, Missouri: David Whitmer, 1887.
