Church of Jesus Christ: Come Unto Christ

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I was delighted to hear the announcement that the Church’s website will now be ChurchofJesusChrist.org. The companion website for those interested in learning about the Church will now be ComeUntoChrist.org.

I’m also looking forward to General Conference, which I imagine will include at least one (or two) delightful surprises.

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About Meg Stout

Meg Stout has been an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ (of Latter-day Saints) for decades. She lives in the DC area with her husband, Bryan, and several daughters. She is an engineer by vocation and a writer by avocation. Meg is the author of Reluctant Polygamist, laying out the possibility that Joseph taught the acceptability of plural marriage but that Emma was right to assert she had been Joseph's only true wife.

11 thoughts on “Church of Jesus Christ: Come Unto Christ”

  1. But be careful — theChurchofJesusChrist.org is another church with twelve apostles and the Book of Mormon.

    I hope they will keep lds.org as a pointer.

  2. ji,
    You just drew our attention to one of the splinter groups that came out (literally) of the restoration. Could you please tell us which one it is without all of us Millennial Star subscribers having to look it up. Most of us are restored gospel aficionados and have heard of or read about the major splinter groups. If non-member friends visit the wrong website we can quickly tell them who they are without having to scramble. Thank you.

  3. Four significant groups coalesced following the death of Joseph Smith.

    The vast majority of Saints followed Brigham Young, who was the senior of the Twelve Apostles (in terms of time served). This group is now the faith accepted by over 16 million individuals. This is the faith that builds temples in which ordinance work is performed on behalf of deceased individuals. The website for this group is ChurchofJesusChrist.org. This group is sometimes referred to as Mountain Saints.

    Many Saints remained in the mid-west. In 1860 the son of Joseph Smith was convinced to become their leader. This group is now the faith accepted by approximately 250,000 individuals. This group now does business as the Community of Christ. Due to financial difficulties, they agreed to accept financial support from another group of Christians, and they agreed to step away from some restoration beliefs. I think they agreed to step away from accepting the Book of Mormon as scripture, for instance. This group is often referred to as Prairie Saints.

    A number of Saints flocked to the banner of Sidney Rigdon. After Joseph’s death, a man named Bickerton became a leader of this group. This group of Saints is known as Bickertonites and they are the ones with the website TheChurchofJesusChrist.org. They have approximately 20,000 adherents, many of Italian descent due to a happy coincidence of Italians in Pennsylvania learning of the restored gospel and spreading that good word to their families. I like to think of this group as Sylvan Saints.

    Many high-profile individuals flocked to James Strang following the death of Joseph Smith. In a short amount of time, many of these “Strangites” departed the faith due to Strang’s behavior, including secret marriage to a plural wife who cross-dressed as a young man. One of the factors that led to Strang’s murder at the hands of adherents was his insistence that women wear pants. Strang’s “Letter of Appointment” is now widely acknowledged to have been a forgery. This faith now claims a number of adherents that is less than 200, if I recall correctly. But they are happy to tell you they are the real Church of Jesus Christ. Based on my research, several of the high profile individuals who had become Strangites were involved in the conspiracy to kill Joseph and Hyrum Smith, including my ancestor, Austin Cowles.

    There is a Church of Jesus Christ in Washington, DC. They have the website cojc.org. This group has nothing to do with the restoration gospel preached by Joseph Smith. Their website has a cute picture of their pastor and his wife.

    There is a private individual who blogs at cjc.org.

  4. Laurent, According to Wikipedia, that’s the Rigdon/Bickertonite group, as that website is associated with the group described at this wiki page:
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_(Bickertonite)

    Like Meg, I’m looking forward to delightful surprises this coming conference.

  6. When do we set up the conference announcement bingo cards? Are we buying squares? 🙂

  7. I prefer to be delighted, without setting expectations.

    I imagine some folks would be delighted with a rest from change, a conference that “merely” fed our souls.

    Having listened to the entirety of October conference this past Sunday (long drive…), I was struck by the delightful way ministry, Sunday schedule changes, and the shift regarding the name of the Church were addressed. I can’t think of any pre-conference blog post that even came close to capturing the thrilling impact of the conference presentation and clarification.

  8. Of course. 🙂 It really doesn’t matter what anybody tries to predict–the reality will be both more surprising, and cooler, than any speculation. But that doesn’t change the fun of speculating.

  9. So I guess it’s more that I mostly prefer to muse in private. If I’m wrong, no one knows. And if my musing is partially right, it will never be exactly what happens, and will therefore either fall flat or imply criticism if it over-reaches what occurs.

  10. I’m still speculating that the title and sub-title of the Book of Mormon will be reversed. At least in terms of physical placement on the front cover.

  11. That’s a great one. 🙂 Anybody else heard the rumor floating around that very recent received mission calls are listing the term of service as “to be explained at April conference”? My son is looking to put his papers in around June. He’s gotten *keenly* interested in conference this go-round.

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