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The Kingdom . . . Gather to Zion
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Welcome to
http://www.ChurchofJesusChristofLatterDaySaints.org

Site Version January 2011

 

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Membership size

How many members do you have?  This is one of the most frequent questions that we are asked.

Few, but stable in size for 150 years.  First of all, twelve million Mormons did not reject James Strang.  Instead, twelve million Mormons never heard of him, because the information is suppressed, and because they would rather grow than be right.  There are scriptures that predict that the true church would be a small number of Saints.  This does not mean that God wanted it this way, but just that he foresaw it.  Our size does not make us right, but it does mean that we are worth a closer look.  Conversely, though, you can automatically reject any church that boasts about its size:

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D&C 45:28-30: "And when the times of the Gentiles is come in, a light shall break forth among them that sit in darkness, and it shall be the fulness of my gospel; But they receive it not; for they perceive not the light, and they turn their hearts from me because of the precepts of men. And in that generation shall the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

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Jeremiah 17: 5-6: "Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited."

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2 Nephi 28: 31-32: "Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man, or maketh flesh his arm, or shall hearken unto the precepts of men, save their precepts shall be given by the power of the Holy Ghost. Wo be unto the Gentiles, saith the Lord God of Hosts! For notwithstanding I shall lengthen out mine arm unto them from day to day, they will deny me."

Perhaps Joseph Smith’s most astounding prophecy is the one that foretells about the 1847 hymn of William Clayton when he led the Mormons from Nauvoo, which descendants of those Mormons still sing:

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2 Nephi 28:21: "All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell."

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2 Nephi 28:13-14: "They rob the poor because of their fine sanctuaries; they rob the poor because of their fine clothing; and they persecute the meek and the poor in heart, because in their pride they are puffed up. They wear stiff necks and high heads; yea, and because of pride, and wickedness, and abominations, and whoredoms, they have all gone astray save it be a few, who are the humble followers of Christ."

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3 Nephi 14: 13-15: "Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, which leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat; Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."

According to Mormon scriptures, then, false prophets will have "many" and true prophets will have "few."

Even Christ had only 120 members after his resurrection.

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Acts 1:15: "And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty) . . ."

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D&C 6:32:  "Verily, verily, I say unto you, as I said unto my disciples, where two or three are gathered together in my name, as touching one thing, behold, there will I be in the midst of them—even so am I in the midst of you."

There is no scriptural evidence that every prophet would have a successor, or that God would send more than two prophets to the Gentiles or America. We were only promised that Joseph would have one successor, and that the Aaronic priesthood would never again be taken from the earth, or at least not until the Sons of Levi offered a sacrifice again. If Joseph and James were both prophets, then two prophets were killed by this nation. Both killings involved former church members and members of the government. In the case of Joseph, it involved first presidency member William Law, and possibly others, plus the government of Illinois. In the case of James, it involved former elders, plus the federal government.  In that sense, the gospel was rejected by the Gentiles.  Since the gospel includes repentance from sin, and sin is transgression of commandments, the gospel includes the commandments, which have been rejected by this nation.

We believe that in former days the gospel was given first to the Jews who rejected it, and given last to the gentiles who accepted it. In the latter days, the gospel was given first to the gentiles who rejected it, and will be given last to the Jews who will accept it.  There is ample scriptural proof of this, including the allegory of the olive trees in the book of Jacob from the Book of Mormon.  Historically, we have been the friendliest Mormon group to the Native Americans. We believe that Native Americans are Israelites, included with Jews. When Brigham Young was killing them, we were building school houses for them and feeding them on Beaver Island, Michigan, in the 1850s. Our prophet, James Strang, was the chairman of the committee on Indian affairs in Michigan. In this recent century we have had several prominent Indian chiefs join our church, such as Jacob Greensky and Andrew J. Blackbird, both in Michigan. Our church is very small now, but one of our oldest elders, Steve Barany, 86, in St. Petersburg, Florida, is doing missionary work among the Native Americans.

More broadly, Native Americans throughout the Americas have accepted Christianity, and in South America especially the Book of Mormon is being accepted by many of those with native heritage. They have accepted the Bible and Book of Mormon because of the larger Catholic and Mormon churches, which does not mean that either church has the priesthood.

Many Mormons use the scripture below to say that church members will grown in number until the numbers fill the whole earth.  This scripture does not say that at all, it says that the gospel will fill the whole earth.
 
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D&C 65:2: "The keys of the kingdom of God are committed unto man on the earth, and from thence shall the gospel roll forth unto the ends of the earth, as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands shall roll forth, until it has filled the whole earth."

The gospel is contained in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, but printing one hundred million Books of Mormon does not make a particular church any more correct than printing a billion Bibles makes another church correct. Otherwise, this scripture would contradict the scriptures of Joseph Smith quoted at the top of this page.  So the gospel is to fill the earth, but be rejected.  If you reject the scriptures at the top of this page, you demonstrate how this happens.  The gospel is available everywhere, but nobody wants to accept what it says.

 
Continuing Faith

For baptism for the remission
of sins, it is necessary only to have
faith toward God, and to repent of all sin.

To receive baptism by immersion, contact:

 

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Mormon Road and Hwy. 11
Burlington, Wisconsin

(800) 862-5667


 

 

One example of our
concise priesthood lineage

Prophet Joseph Smith, 1829

Ebenezer Page, 1830
(Early Mormon in N.Y., Missouri, brother of John E. Page,
Later an Apostle at Voree, Wis., and Beaver Island)


Elder Wingfield Watson, 1858
(Lived on Beaver Island)

Elder Joseph H. Hickey, 1907
(Son of L.D. Hickey who lived at Palmyra, N.Y., Nauvoo, Ill.,
Voree, Wis., and was an apostle on Beaver Island)


Elder Steve Barany, 1953
(Son-in-law of Joseph H. Hickey, died in 2010 at 95)

Others

 

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© 1996-2011 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  All Rights Reserved.
The First Presidents of this Church were Joseph Smith Jr. 1830-1844, and James J. Strang 1844-1856.
The First Presidency was at Voree, Wisconsin 1844-1850, and St. James (Beaver Island), Michigan 1850-1856.

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