Latter-day Saint

A Latter Day Saint is a person who identifies with the Latter Day Saint movement, and is a follower of Mormonism. Latter Day Saints trace their religious heritage through Joseph Smith, Jr., and teach that he restored the original "Church of Christ", which had disappeared from the earth after a period of apostasy. Latter Day Saints consider themselves to be "saints" in the earliest Christian sense of the word, meaning members of the original church which they believe Jesus organized before his death in the First Century, AD.

Related Topics:
Latter Day Saint movement - Mormonism - Joseph Smith, Jr. - Restored - Church of Christ - Apostasy - Saint - Christian - Jesus - First Century

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Often, the term is used to refer specifically to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which is the largest Latter Day Saint denomination. However, since 1851, that particular denomination has hyphenated the word and does not capitalize the D in Day. See Latter-day Saint. Because of the widespread use of the hyphenated form, many Latter-day Saints view the original term Latter Day Saint as a misspelling, although the term is rarely hyphenated when referring to members of other, smaller denominations.

Related Topics:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - 1851 - Latter-day Saint

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Because the LDS Church is by far the largest and most well-known Latter Day Saint denomination, a number of denominations who consider themselves Latter Day Saints prefer more informal terms to refer to their members, in order to avoid confusion. For example, the denomination that is officially named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints refers to itself informally as the Strangites. In addition, the Community of Christ, the second largest Latter Day Saint denomination, recently changed its name from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, partly to avoid this type of confusion.

Related Topics:
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - Community of Christ

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Latter Day Saints are sometimes also referred to as Mormons (a nickname taken from the title of the Book of Mormon). The size and prominence of the LDS Church, however, has led to the terms Mormon and Mormonism being generally understood as applying only to the LDS Church and its polygamous 20th century offshoots, who generally are happy to call themselves Mormons or Latter Day Saints. The desire of the LDS Church to disassociate itself with these polygamous denominations has led to a campaign by that Church to convince journalists to use the terms Latter-day Saint and Mormon only in reference to the LDS Church. (See LDS Style Guide). Many other denominations, however, do not agree, and few news organizations have adopted the LDS Church's position.

Related Topics:
Mormon - Book of Mormon - Mormonism - Polygamous - 20th century

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