Jesse Ventura

The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Joseph Smith in the late 1820s.

Collectively, these churches have over 17 million nominal members, including over 17 million belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), 250,000 in Community of Christ, and several other denominations with memberships generally ranging in the thousands of members. The predominant theology of the churches in the movement is Mormonism, which sees itself as restoring again on Earth the early Christian church; their members are most commonly known as Mormons. An additional doctrine of the church allows for prophets to receive and publish modern-day revelations.

A minority of Latter Day Saint adherents, such as members of Community of Christ, have been influenced by Protestant theologies while maintaining certain distinctive beliefs and practices including continuing revelation, an open canon of scripture and building temples. Other groups include the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which supports lineal succession of leadership from Smith's descendants, and the more controversial Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which defends the practice of polygamy. One source estimated over 400 denominations have sprung from founder Joseph Smith's original movement. (Full article...)

The White Horse Prophecy is an influential, disputed version of a statement on the future of the Latter Day Saint movement and the United States by movement founder Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1843. It was written down by one of Smith's adherents Edwin Rushton in an undated document, possibly ten years after. One source from the LDS Church's largest university Brigham Young University believes the document was written after 1890.

According to Rushton's retelling of the prophecy, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) would "go to the Rocky Mountains and... be a great and mighty people," associated in the prophecy's figurative language, with one of the biblical four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelation. Rushton's record of Smith's original statement predicts that the US Constitution will one day "hang like a thread" but be saved by Latter-day Saints, "by the efforts of the White Horse." (Full article...)

The Yearning for Zion Ranch, or the YFZ Ranch, was a 1,700-acre (690-hectare) Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) cult community of as many as 700 people, located near Eldorado in Schleicher County, Texas, United States. In April 2014, the State of Texas took physical and legal possession of the property. As of 2019, the property was in the process of being sold to the Dallas-based firm ETG Properties LLC, who were already leasing it for use as a military and law enforcement training facility. (Full article...)

Church of Christ "With the Elijah Message" meetinghouse in Independence, Missouri

The Church of Christ with the Elijah Message is the name of three related church groups and a denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement, headquartered in Independence, Missouri. It split from the Church of Christ (informally referred to as the "Fettingites") in 1943 in a dispute over claimed revelations given to its founder William A. Draves. Draves, an elder in the Fettingite group, claimed to be receiving messages from an angelic being who identified himself as John the Baptist—the same person who had allegedly appeared to Fettingite founder Otto Fetting, a former apostle of the Temple Lot Church of Christ. While many Fettingites accepted these new missives, some did not, leading Draves to form his own church. His adherents claim it to be the sole legitimate continuation of Fetting's organization, as well as that of the Temple Lot church. As of 1987, the church had approximately 12,500 adherents spread between Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. (Full article...)

• Outline of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Outline of the Book of Mormon
• Outline of Joseph Smith

Martin Harris (May 18, 1783 – July 10, 1875) was an early convert to the Latter Day Saint movement who financially guaranteed the first printing of the Book of Mormon and also served as one of Three Witnesses who testified that they had seen the golden plates from which Joseph Smith said the Book of Mormon had been translated. (Full article...)

• ... that it is debated whether or not Nephites used minted coins?
• ... that a book about Mormon polygamy claims that polygamy was an early form of feminism?
• ... that the name Zenock is misspelled in almost every published edition of the Book of Mormon?
• ... that Songs and Flowers of the Wasatch represented a shift in Mormon history toward a "socially-accepted American cultural and religious heritage", according to historian Jennifer Reeder?
• ... that No, Ma'am, That's Not History, Hugh Nibley's rebuttal to Fawn Brodie's divisive biography of Joseph Smith, started a trend of polemics in Mormon apologetics?
• ... that an unnamed abuse survivor risks her life to become a spy in "one of the bravest actions in all of the Book of Mormon"?

• June 1829: Peter, James and John The Angels bestow the Melchizedek Priesthood upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.
• 28 June 1829: The Three Witnesses received a vision.
• 9 June 1830: The first General conference was held.
• 27 June 1844: Joseph and Hyrum Smith murdered in Carthage Jail, in Carthage, Illinois (pictured).
• 3 June 2011: In LDS Cinema, the film 17 Miracles was released.