The Latter-day Saint Church and Other Churches That Trace Their Origins to Joseph Smith

This page covers the churches that trace their origins to Joseph Smith, and how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is organized. The History page tells how it began and moved west.

What other churches trace their origins to Joseph Smith?

J. Gordon Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions says Smith's death split the movement he founded into at least four groups. Over the years they produced more than 50 further bodies. It adds that the great majority of present-day members belong to the Latter-day Saint church.¹

The figures below come from different sources and count different things: churches' own reports, a reference work's entries from 1989, 1991, and 2001, and one historian's 1998 estimate. No source cited here gives a combined share, so this page gives none. Apart from the Strangite church's own account, the smaller churches' rows come from the reference work or that historian, not the churches.

Church or group	Reported size	Based in	What sets it apart
Latter-day Saint church	17,887,212 members of record, 31 December 202523	Salt Lake City, Utah1	Holds that the Twelve already held the priesthood keys and led the church under Brigham Young after 1844; ordains men to its priesthood45
Community of Christ	About 250,000 members in more than 60 nations, undated6	Independence, Missouri7	Holds that Joseph Smith III was called to lead in 1860; ordains women and men to its priesthood; affirms the Trinity8910
Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite)	2,707 members in 198911	Monongahela, Pennsylvania11	Organized by William Bickerton in 1862; practices a weekly Lord's Supper, washing of feet, and the holy kiss11
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)	Not reported11	Voree, Wisconsin, and Artesia, New Mexico11	Holds that Smith named James Strang his successor by letter12
Church of Christ (Temple Lot)	2,600 members in 20019	Independence, Missouri9	Considers itself a true remnant of the church organized in 1830, never reorganized; holds the land dedicated for a temple9
Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite)	Not reported11	Independence, Missouri11	Follows the authority of Alpheus Cutler; the reference work says it holds there is to be no preaching to those who did not accept Smith's message unless called by revelation, and that it performs temple rites11
Restoration Branches Movement	Not reported; a 1991 directory listed 72 congregations and groups in the United States9	No central address9	Formed in the 1980s inside the Reorganized Church, now Community of Christ, by conservative members after years of dissent and its 1984 revelation on women's ordination9
Fundamentalist groups that practice plural marriage	About 21,000 fundamentalists, about 90 percent in organized groups and not all in plural marriages (one historian's 1998 estimate)13	Western United States, northern Mexico, and southern Canada13	Hold plural marriage to be a divine commandment for today, with authority apart from the Latter-day Saint church13

How did the movement divide after 1844?

At Smith's death there was no undisputed successor, and several people sought the role. Each body that came out of the crisis gives its own account.⁴

The Latter-day Saint church's history says an 1835 instruction made the Twelve Apostles a quorum equal in authority to the First Presidency. It says several apostles later said Smith told them privately he was placing the burden of leading the church on them. On 8 August 1844 the assembled church members voted overwhelmingly to sustain the Twelve, and most followed them west.⁴

Community of Christ says the church was left without a clear leader and, over the next 16 years, fractured into many factions, with plural marriage especially divisive. It says Joseph Smith III, Smith's son, who had stayed apart from every faction, felt God's calling after prayerful soul searching and was ordained president at Amboy, Illinois, on 6 April 1860.⁸

Sidney Rigdon, Smith's former counselor, held that his office made him the successor. Some followers went with him to Pennsylvania, and disagreements in the fall of 1846 led to the disintegration of his church. William Bickerton, who had joined it, organized a new church in July 1862, saying he acted in obedience to a revelation.¹¹

James Strang presented a letter he said Smith wrote in June 1844 naming him successor. The Strangite church holds that the letter is genuine and carries an authentic Nauvoo postmark. The Encyclopedia of American Religions says historians including Dale Morgan and Lawrence Foster argue that Strang forged it, a charge the Strangite church does not accept. The encyclopedia also says the Twelve excommunicated Strang. The Strangite church says Strang was never given notice or a trial, and that Brigham Young was the one excommunicated, on 6 April 1846.¹²¹¹

What does Community of Christ teach?

Community of Christ describes itself as an international faith movement with Jesus at the center of its faith.⁶¹⁰ Its Basic Beliefs say it affirms the Trinity, God who is a community of three persons, and that Jesus is fully human and fully divine. They list eight sacraments, among them baptism and the Lord's Supper, which is open to all who believe in Christ.¹⁰ Its enduring principles include continuing revelation, the worth of all persons, and the pursuit of peace.⁶

How do the Latter-day Saint church and Community of Christ differ?

The Latter-day Saint church and Community of Christ differ on the nature of God, scripture, leadership, temples, priesthood, and plural marriage.

• God. The Latter-day Saint church teaches that the Godhead is three separate beings, with the Father and the Son having bodies of flesh and bones, who are one in purpose. Community of Christ affirms the Trinity.¹⁴¹⁰
• Scripture. The Latter-day Saint church names four standard works: the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Community of Christ names the Bible as its foundational scripture and uses the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants because they confirm the Bible's message about Jesus. Melton's reference says the two churches' Doctrine and Covenants now differ.¹⁵¹⁰¹
• Leadership. The Latter-day Saint church is led by a president, its most senior apostle, and teaches that Jesus leads it through living prophets and apostles.¹⁶¹⁷ Community of Christ is led by a prophet-president, and its presidents came from Smith's family until 1996.⁸
• Temples. The Latter-day Saint church performs in its temples the endowment, a ceremony of instruction and covenants; sealings, which join families for eternity; and proxy baptisms for the dead.¹⁸¹⁹²⁰ Community of Christ says its Independence Temple, dedicated in 1994 to the pursuit of peace, reconciliation, and spiritual healing, is a place of worship, learning, and administration.⁸ The Encyclopedia of American Religions says Community of Christ does not practice sealing marriages for eternity or proxy marriage for the dead; its entry does not mention baptism for the dead.⁹
• Priesthood. The Latter-day Saint church ordains men to its priesthood; Community of Christ ordains women and men.⁵⁸⁹
• Plural marriage. The Latter-day Saint church practiced it openly from 1852 to 1890 and now prohibits it.²¹ Reference works say Community of Christ, formerly the Reorganized Church, and the Bickertonites rejected it.⁷⁹¹¹

Which groups practice plural marriage?

Several fundamentalist groups outside the Latter-day Saint church practice plural marriage. D. Michael Quinn, a historian whom the church excommunicated in 1993, was a professor at Brigham Young University, which the church founded, supports, and guides.²²²³ In a 1998 article drawing mostly on interviews and reports from 1989 and 1990, he estimated about 21,000 fundamentalists, about 90 percent of them in organized groups, many in monogamous marriages. About 7,200 belong to the Apostolic United Brethren. The others include the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, the Kingston group, and churches tracing authority to the LeBaron family.¹³

As Quinn describes them, fundamentalists hold that plural marriage is a divine commandment for today and that the Latter-day Saint church has strayed from its divinely instituted path. Nearly all outside the LeBaron churches still regard the church as divinely instituted, though out of order. More than 90 percent trace their authority to Lorin Woolley, who said that John Taylor, then church president, authorized him in 1886 to continue plural marriages. Melton's reference says the Latter-day Saint church holds that the 1886 meeting never occurred.¹³¹ This section relies on a historian and a reference work; no fundamentalist group's own account is cited.

The church's newsroom says polygamist groups have no affiliation whatsoever with it and quotes Gordon B. Hinckley, then the church's president, in October 1998: this Church has nothing whatever to do with those practicing polygamy²⁴. Members found practicing plural marriage are excommunicated.²⁴ In Pew Research Center's 2011 survey of Latter-day Saints in the United States, published in 2012, 86 percent called polygamy morally wrong. Another 11 percent said it is not a moral issue, and 2 percent called it morally acceptable.²⁵

How are the Latter-day Saint church and Community of Christ organized?

The Latter-day Saint church describes itself as led by 15 apostles, and the Newsroom says members regard all of them as special witnesses of Jesus Christ.¹⁶ The most senior, the president, chooses two others as counselors, and the three form the First Presidency, the highest governing body. The other twelve form the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. General authorities also include the General Authority Seventies, who serve full-time, and the Presiding Bishopric.¹⁶²⁶²⁷ Locally, a bishop leads a ward, and a group of wards forms a stake under a stake president. Both are unsalaried.¹⁶²⁸

Community of Christ is led by a prophet-president. Its history says that when W. Grant McMurray resigned in 2004 without naming a successor, the church prayerfully discerned together whom God would call, and Stephen Veazey was ordained in 2005. Veazey widened the World Church Leadership Council to include more of the church's voices. Stassi Cramm, ordained on 1 June 2025, is the first woman to hold the office. The church says it seeks agreement or common consent in important matters.⁸⁶