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EspañolHISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST
'The Church of Jesus Christ' originated in upstate New York under the leadership of Joseph Smith, Jr. With the important assistance of Oliver Cowdery and Sidney Rigdon, Smith dictated and published works of scripture, claimed he was visited by angels, and formed a new church. In part because of the rapid growth of the movement, and in part because of its distinct doctrines and practices, the early Latter Day Saints encountered opposition wherever they gathered in numbers. In the first decades of their history, they gathered to and were driven from Kirtland, Ohio; Independence, Missouri; Far West, Missouri; and Nauvoo, Illinois. Finally, on July 26, 1844, their founding prophet was assassinated in a jail at Carthage, Illinois.
After the death of Smith, The Church of Jesus Christ followed the leadership of Rigdon and William Bickerton.
The Church of Jesus Christ claims to be a continuation of the Church of Christ, which was the original church organization established by Joseph Smith, Jr. Organized informally in 1829 and then as a legal entity on April 6 1830 in northwestern New York state.
On April 6, 1830, Joseph Smith, Jr., Oliver Cowdery, and a group of approximately 30 believers met to formally organize the Church of Christ into a legal institution. Traditionally, this is said to have occurred at the home of Peter Whitmer, Sr. in Fayette, New York, but early accounts place it in Manchester. Soon after this formal organization, small branches were formally established in Fayette, Manchester, and Colesville.
Smith and his associates intended that the Church of Christ would be a restoration of the 1st century Christian church, which Smith taught had fallen from God's favor and authority because of a Great Apostasy.
In late 1830, Smith envisioned a "city of Zion" in Native American lands near Independence, Missouri. In October 1830 he sent his second-in-command Oliver Cowdery and others on a mission to the area.[1] Passing through Kirtland, Ohio, the missionaries converted a congregation of Disciples of Christ led by Sidney Rigdon, and in 1831, Smith decided to temporarily move his followers to Kirtland until the Missouri area could be colonized. The church headquarters remained in Kirtland from 1831 to 1838.
Many of Smith's followers attempted to colonize Missouri throughout the 1830s, and Smith himself moved there in 1838, the church faced political and military opposition by other Missouri settlers. After a series of crisis, the church then established its new headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois, a city they built on drained swampland by the Mississippi River, where Joseph Smith Jr. served as mayor. There, the church thrived until Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed by a mob in 1844. They were awaiting trial for crimes today still unproven. Joseph Smith Jr., at the time, was a minor candidate for President of the United States with Sidney Rigdon as his running mate.
After the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, the history of The Church of Jesus Christ becomes independent from the other Latter Day Saint organizations. There was a large amount of confusion about who should succeed their fallen prophet. After the martyrdom, Sidney Rigdon claimed the right to lead the church as the senior surviving member of the church's highest ruling body, the First Presidency. The Quorum of Twelve Apostles, led by Brigham Young, also claimed the right to lead the church. The Quorum of the Twelve's claim was derived from a revelation of Joseph Smith allowing them to stand equal to the First Presidency in attending to natural matters of the church.[2]
Prior to the death of Joseph Smith, the First Presidency had made nearly all the major decisions and led the Church of Christ both naturally and spiritually. On June 1, 1841, Sidney Rigdon had been ordained by Joseph Smith as a "Prophet, Seer and Revelator"[3]—which were some of the same ecclesiastical titles held by Smith. The Church of Jesus Christ maintains that as First Counselor to Smith, Rigdon should naturally have been the leader of the church after Smith's death.[4] With this understanding, The Church of Jesus Christ actively opposes the opinion that the Quorum of Twelve had the right to lead the church. The position of The Church of Jesus Christ is that Rigdon should have been allowed to be what he claimed to be—a "guardian" over the church until proper proceedings could decide the next church President. The Church of Jesus Christ maintains the proceedings which decided Brigham Young to lead the church were a violation of proper proceedings of the church.
On December 27, 1847, when Young organized a new First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve only had seven of its twelve members present to represent a council to decide the Presidency.[5] William Smith, John E. Page, and Lyman Wight had previously denounced the proceedings and were not present. John Taylor and Parley P. Pratt were in the Salt Lake Valley and could not have known of the proceedings. This left just seven present, a majority of one meaning Young would have to vote for himself in order to gain a majority quorum vote in favor of his leadership. Young chose two of the other apostles, Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards, as his counselors in the First Presidency. This left only four members of the Quorum of the Twelve present to vote in favor of creation of the new First Presidency: Orson Hyde, Wilford Woodruff, George A. Smith, and Orson Pratt. The Church of Jesus Christ views this action as a violation of church law compromising the authority of Sidney Rigdon without a majority quorum vote.[6]
The Latter Day Saints who followed Rigdon separated themselves from the followers of Young. While the group led by Young remained in Nauvoo, Illinois and eventually settled in Utah, Rigdon and his followers settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On April 6, 1845, Rigdon presided over a conference of the Church of Christ, which he claimed was the rightful continuation of the church founded by Smith. (Historians often refer to Rigdon's church as the ''Church of Christ (Rigdonite)'' and its adherents as ''Rigdonites'', ''Pennsylvania Latter Day Saints'', or ''Pennsylvania Mormons''.) William Bickerton was converted by the preaching of Rigdon and was baptized at Pittsburgh in 1845. Later that same year Bickerton was ordained an Elder and shortly after an Evangelist in the church.[7]
At a general conference of the church held that fall in Philadelphia, Rigdon announced that the church would re-establish a communitarian society on what was named "Adventure Farm" near Greencastle, Pennsylvania. Many of Rigdon's followers, including Bickerton, opposed moving the headquarters of the church. By 1847, disagreement among the Rigdonites had led to the virtual disintegration of Rigdon's church. Several prominent members, including William E. M'Lellin and Benjamin Winchester, separated from the church and established a rival organization centered around the leadership of David Whitmer. However, some followers of Rigdon, including Bickerton, refused to join the dissenters.
William Bickerton remained in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, and never moved to Greencastle with Rigdon. By April 1847, the Adventure Farm community had collapsed and Rigdon had abandoned his followers. Bickerton described his situation upon the collapse of the Rigdonite church:
By May 1851 a branch of the church was organized under the leadership of Bickerton in West Elizabeth, Pennsylvania. Other ministers were ordained and branches were established in Allegheny, Rock Run, Green Oak, and Pine Run, Pennsylvania, as well as Wheeling, West Virginia. Many visitors inquired of this organization's position concerning Latter Day Saints who followed Brigham Young. The following statement was officially recorded in 1855:
At a conference in Green Oak, Pennsylvania in July of 1862, leaders of several branches in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia came together and formally organized what they called "The Church of Jesus Christ". William Bickerton presided over the conference. Bickerton's two counselors in the newly organized First Presidency were George Barnes and Charles Brown who were ordained apostles. The members of the Quorum of the Twelve of that organization (ordered by seniority) were Arthur Bickerton, Thomas Bickerton, Alexander Bickerton, James Brown, Cummings Cherry, Benjamin Meadowcroft, Joseph Astin, Joseph Knox, William Cadman, James Nichols, John Neish and John Dixon. At the conference George Barnes reported receiving the "word of the Lord," which he related:
The church was incorporated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in June of 1865 with the legal name, "Church of Jesus Christ of Green Oak, Pennsylvania." In 1875, William Bickerton accompanied by approximately thirty-five to forty families moved to Kansas to found the Zion Valley Colony, which later became the town of St. John, Kansas. Zion Valley: The Mormon Origins of St. John, Kansas, , Gary R., Entz, Kansas History 24, Summer 2001, In 1880, William Cadman succeeded Bickerton as president of the church. On 5 April, 1941, they were granted the title of "The Church of Jesus Christ" by Washington County Pennsylvania.[10]The church today is legally registered as "The Church of Jesus Christ."
William Bickerton led The Church of Jesus Christ until 1880, when William Cadman succeeded Bickerton as president of the church. At this time the church had many organized branches in two major locations, Kansas and Pennsylvania. There appears also to have been a chapel in West Virginia. The church was organized under the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. During this later time period, the First Presidency appears to have taken on a lesser role within the church. Because of geographic location, William Cadman was president of the eastern section of the church in 1876. Cadman was also President of the Quorum of Twelve at the time. Eli Kendall was set aside by Bickerton through laying on of hands in 1880 as President of The Church of Jesus Christ in the West. Shortly after this Cadman was sustained as President over the General Church.
1.
2. Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, , Richard Lyman, Bushman, Alfred A Knoff, 2006,
3. Earlier, on March 27, 1836, at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, Joseph Smith had asked the members of the church to accept the members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve as "prophets, seers, and revelators": see B.H. Roberts (ed), ''History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'' '2':417; see also ''Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate'' '2':277.
4. A History of The Church of Jesus Christ: Volume 2, , , The Church of Jesus Christ, The Church of Jesus Christ, 2002,
5. Nine members of the Quorum were in attendance, but only seven of the individuals were members of the Quorum on June 27, 1844, when Joseph Smith had died. Two members of the Quorum—Amasa M. Lyman and Ezra T. Benson—had been added by Young since Smith's death.
6. The LDS Church maintains that Rigdon was validly excommunicated from the church by the Common Council of the Church on September 8, 1844: see ''History of the Church'' '7':268-69. The LDS Church further maintains that William Smith had been disfellowshipped and replaced in the Quorum by Amasa M. Lyman and that John E. Page had been excommunicated and replaced in the Quorum by Ezra T. Benson. Because Lyman and Benson were present at the 1847 reorganization, the LDS Church claims that nine of the nine present members of the Quorum voted in favor of reorganizing Young's First Presidency, which constituted a three-quarters majority vote of the Quorum.
7. William Bickerton's Testimony, , William, Bickerton, The Church of Jesus Christ, 1975,
8. Bickerton, William, ''The Ensign'', Pittsburgh: W. Bickerton, 1863, p. 10, quoted in ''History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'', 1890, '3':74.
9. A History of the Church of Jesus Christ, , W. H., Cadman, The Church of Jesus Christ, 1945,
10. A History of the Church of Jesus Christ, , W. H., Cadman, The Church of Jesus Christ, 1945,
★ Cadman, W. H. (1945). ''A History of the Church of Jesus Christ''. Monongahela, PA: The Church of Jesus Christ.
★ Entz, Gary R. "The Bickertonites: Schism and Reunion in a Restoration Church, 1880-1905," ''Journal of Mormon History'' 32 (fall 2006): 1-44.
★ Entz, Gary R. "Zion Valley: The Mormon Origins of St. John, Kansas," ''Kansas History'' 24 (summer 2001), 98-117.
After the death of Smith, The Church of Jesus Christ followed the leadership of Rigdon and William Bickerton.
| Contents |
| History |
| Early History (1829-1844) |
| Sidney Rigdon (1844-1847) |
| William Bickerton (1847-1880) |
| Transition of leadership |
| Notes |
| References |
History
Early History (1829-1844)
The Church of Jesus Christ claims to be a continuation of the Church of Christ, which was the original church organization established by Joseph Smith, Jr. Organized informally in 1829 and then as a legal entity on April 6 1830 in northwestern New York state.
On April 6, 1830, Joseph Smith, Jr., Oliver Cowdery, and a group of approximately 30 believers met to formally organize the Church of Christ into a legal institution. Traditionally, this is said to have occurred at the home of Peter Whitmer, Sr. in Fayette, New York, but early accounts place it in Manchester. Soon after this formal organization, small branches were formally established in Fayette, Manchester, and Colesville.
Smith and his associates intended that the Church of Christ would be a restoration of the 1st century Christian church, which Smith taught had fallen from God's favor and authority because of a Great Apostasy.
In late 1830, Smith envisioned a "city of Zion" in Native American lands near Independence, Missouri. In October 1830 he sent his second-in-command Oliver Cowdery and others on a mission to the area.[1] Passing through Kirtland, Ohio, the missionaries converted a congregation of Disciples of Christ led by Sidney Rigdon, and in 1831, Smith decided to temporarily move his followers to Kirtland until the Missouri area could be colonized. The church headquarters remained in Kirtland from 1831 to 1838.
Many of Smith's followers attempted to colonize Missouri throughout the 1830s, and Smith himself moved there in 1838, the church faced political and military opposition by other Missouri settlers. After a series of crisis, the church then established its new headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois, a city they built on drained swampland by the Mississippi River, where Joseph Smith Jr. served as mayor. There, the church thrived until Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed by a mob in 1844. They were awaiting trial for crimes today still unproven. Joseph Smith Jr., at the time, was a minor candidate for President of the United States with Sidney Rigdon as his running mate.
Sidney Rigdon (1844-1847)
Sidney Rigdon
After the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, the history of The Church of Jesus Christ becomes independent from the other Latter Day Saint organizations. There was a large amount of confusion about who should succeed their fallen prophet. After the martyrdom, Sidney Rigdon claimed the right to lead the church as the senior surviving member of the church's highest ruling body, the First Presidency. The Quorum of Twelve Apostles, led by Brigham Young, also claimed the right to lead the church. The Quorum of the Twelve's claim was derived from a revelation of Joseph Smith allowing them to stand equal to the First Presidency in attending to natural matters of the church.[2]
Prior to the death of Joseph Smith, the First Presidency had made nearly all the major decisions and led the Church of Christ both naturally and spiritually. On June 1, 1841, Sidney Rigdon had been ordained by Joseph Smith as a "Prophet, Seer and Revelator"[3]—which were some of the same ecclesiastical titles held by Smith. The Church of Jesus Christ maintains that as First Counselor to Smith, Rigdon should naturally have been the leader of the church after Smith's death.[4] With this understanding, The Church of Jesus Christ actively opposes the opinion that the Quorum of Twelve had the right to lead the church. The position of The Church of Jesus Christ is that Rigdon should have been allowed to be what he claimed to be—a "guardian" over the church until proper proceedings could decide the next church President. The Church of Jesus Christ maintains the proceedings which decided Brigham Young to lead the church were a violation of proper proceedings of the church.
On December 27, 1847, when Young organized a new First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve only had seven of its twelve members present to represent a council to decide the Presidency.[5] William Smith, John E. Page, and Lyman Wight had previously denounced the proceedings and were not present. John Taylor and Parley P. Pratt were in the Salt Lake Valley and could not have known of the proceedings. This left just seven present, a majority of one meaning Young would have to vote for himself in order to gain a majority quorum vote in favor of his leadership. Young chose two of the other apostles, Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards, as his counselors in the First Presidency. This left only four members of the Quorum of the Twelve present to vote in favor of creation of the new First Presidency: Orson Hyde, Wilford Woodruff, George A. Smith, and Orson Pratt. The Church of Jesus Christ views this action as a violation of church law compromising the authority of Sidney Rigdon without a majority quorum vote.[6]
The Latter Day Saints who followed Rigdon separated themselves from the followers of Young. While the group led by Young remained in Nauvoo, Illinois and eventually settled in Utah, Rigdon and his followers settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On April 6, 1845, Rigdon presided over a conference of the Church of Christ, which he claimed was the rightful continuation of the church founded by Smith. (Historians often refer to Rigdon's church as the ''Church of Christ (Rigdonite)'' and its adherents as ''Rigdonites'', ''Pennsylvania Latter Day Saints'', or ''Pennsylvania Mormons''.) William Bickerton was converted by the preaching of Rigdon and was baptized at Pittsburgh in 1845. Later that same year Bickerton was ordained an Elder and shortly after an Evangelist in the church.[7]
At a general conference of the church held that fall in Philadelphia, Rigdon announced that the church would re-establish a communitarian society on what was named "Adventure Farm" near Greencastle, Pennsylvania. Many of Rigdon's followers, including Bickerton, opposed moving the headquarters of the church. By 1847, disagreement among the Rigdonites had led to the virtual disintegration of Rigdon's church. Several prominent members, including William E. M'Lellin and Benjamin Winchester, separated from the church and established a rival organization centered around the leadership of David Whitmer. However, some followers of Rigdon, including Bickerton, refused to join the dissenters.
William Bickerton (1847-1880)
William Bickerton remained in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, and never moved to Greencastle with Rigdon. By April 1847, the Adventure Farm community had collapsed and Rigdon had abandoned his followers. Bickerton described his situation upon the collapse of the Rigdonite church:
''"... The Church [had become] disorganized. Here I was left to myself. I paused to know what course to pursue. I knew my calling was from Heaven, and I also knew that a man cannot build up the Church of Christ without divine commandment from the Lord, for it would only be sectarianism, and man's authority. But the Lord did not leave me; no, he showed me a vision, and in the vision I was on the highest mountain on the earth; and he told me that if I did not preach the gospel I would fall into a dreadful chasm below, the sight thereof was awful. I moved with fear, having the Holy Spirit with me. Here I was, none to assist me, and without learning, popular opinion against me, and the Salt Lake Mormons stood in the way. I could not turn back unto Methodism again. No, I knew they had not the gospel. I stood in contemplation. The chasm was before me, no other alternative but to do my duty to God and man. I went ahead preaching repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Some believed my testimony and were baptized, and we met together [and] the Lord met with us ...."''[8]
By May 1851 a branch of the church was organized under the leadership of Bickerton in West Elizabeth, Pennsylvania. Other ministers were ordained and branches were established in Allegheny, Rock Run, Green Oak, and Pine Run, Pennsylvania, as well as Wheeling, West Virginia. Many visitors inquired of this organization's position concerning Latter Day Saints who followed Brigham Young. The following statement was officially recorded in 1855:
''"As some individuals have been inclining to the people of Salt Lake and their doctrines, we have felt it our duty while sitting in Council before the Lord, that all who hold such doctrines, after due examination before witnesses, shall be cut off from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as the spirit may direct and shall have no fellowship with the Saints."''[9]
At a conference in Green Oak, Pennsylvania in July of 1862, leaders of several branches in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia came together and formally organized what they called "The Church of Jesus Christ". William Bickerton presided over the conference. Bickerton's two counselors in the newly organized First Presidency were George Barnes and Charles Brown who were ordained apostles. The members of the Quorum of the Twelve of that organization (ordered by seniority) were Arthur Bickerton, Thomas Bickerton, Alexander Bickerton, James Brown, Cummings Cherry, Benjamin Meadowcroft, Joseph Astin, Joseph Knox, William Cadman, James Nichols, John Neish and John Dixon. At the conference George Barnes reported receiving the "word of the Lord," which he related:
The church was incorporated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in June of 1865 with the legal name, "Church of Jesus Christ of Green Oak, Pennsylvania." In 1875, William Bickerton accompanied by approximately thirty-five to forty families moved to Kansas to found the Zion Valley Colony, which later became the town of St. John, Kansas. Zion Valley: The Mormon Origins of St. John, Kansas, , Gary R., Entz, Kansas History 24, Summer 2001, In 1880, William Cadman succeeded Bickerton as president of the church. On 5 April, 1941, they were granted the title of "The Church of Jesus Christ" by Washington County Pennsylvania.[10]The church today is legally registered as "The Church of Jesus Christ."
Transition of leadership
William Bickerton led The Church of Jesus Christ until 1880, when William Cadman succeeded Bickerton as president of the church. At this time the church had many organized branches in two major locations, Kansas and Pennsylvania. There appears also to have been a chapel in West Virginia. The church was organized under the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. During this later time period, the First Presidency appears to have taken on a lesser role within the church. Because of geographic location, William Cadman was president of the eastern section of the church in 1876. Cadman was also President of the Quorum of Twelve at the time. Eli Kendall was set aside by Bickerton through laying on of hands in 1880 as President of The Church of Jesus Christ in the West. Shortly after this Cadman was sustained as President over the General Church.
Notes
1.
2. Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, , Richard Lyman, Bushman, Alfred A Knoff, 2006,
3. Earlier, on March 27, 1836, at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, Joseph Smith had asked the members of the church to accept the members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve as "prophets, seers, and revelators": see B.H. Roberts (ed), ''History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'' '2':417; see also ''Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate'' '2':277.
4. A History of The Church of Jesus Christ: Volume 2, , , The Church of Jesus Christ, The Church of Jesus Christ, 2002,
5. Nine members of the Quorum were in attendance, but only seven of the individuals were members of the Quorum on June 27, 1844, when Joseph Smith had died. Two members of the Quorum—Amasa M. Lyman and Ezra T. Benson—had been added by Young since Smith's death.
6. The LDS Church maintains that Rigdon was validly excommunicated from the church by the Common Council of the Church on September 8, 1844: see ''History of the Church'' '7':268-69. The LDS Church further maintains that William Smith had been disfellowshipped and replaced in the Quorum by Amasa M. Lyman and that John E. Page had been excommunicated and replaced in the Quorum by Ezra T. Benson. Because Lyman and Benson were present at the 1847 reorganization, the LDS Church claims that nine of the nine present members of the Quorum voted in favor of reorganizing Young's First Presidency, which constituted a three-quarters majority vote of the Quorum.
7. William Bickerton's Testimony, , William, Bickerton, The Church of Jesus Christ, 1975,
8. Bickerton, William, ''The Ensign'', Pittsburgh: W. Bickerton, 1863, p. 10, quoted in ''History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'', 1890, '3':74.
9. A History of the Church of Jesus Christ, , W. H., Cadman, The Church of Jesus Christ, 1945,
10. A History of the Church of Jesus Christ, , W. H., Cadman, The Church of Jesus Christ, 1945,
References
★ Cadman, W. H. (1945). ''A History of the Church of Jesus Christ''. Monongahela, PA: The Church of Jesus Christ.
★ Entz, Gary R. "The Bickertonites: Schism and Reunion in a Restoration Church, 1880-1905," ''Journal of Mormon History'' 32 (fall 2006): 1-44.
★ Entz, Gary R. "Zion Valley: The Mormon Origins of St. John, Kansas," ''Kansas History'' 24 (summer 2001), 98-117.
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