Are we related to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? No. We don’t share a founder or an organization with them, and we don’t read from the same set of scriptures. Here at Christians In Honesdale, we read the Bible and nothing alongside it. Latter-day Saints accept three more books and look to a living prophet, and that difference shapes nearly everything else.
People mix the two up because of a name and a word.
A Name From 1830
When Joseph Smith organized his church in Fayette, New York, on April 6, 1830, it was called the Church of Christ. In 1834 it became the Church of the Latter Day Saints. The present name came in 1838. Its members call themselves Latter-day Saints. Plenty of people still say “Mormons,” but their church discourages that nickname, so we’ll use the name they ask for.
That early name is why a search for “church of Christ” and “Mormon” can land on the same history. A few of the smaller churches that grew out of Joseph Smith’s movement still use the name. The Church of Christ (Temple Lot) in Independence, Missouri, is one. A congregation that reads the Book of Mormon as scripture belongs to Joseph Smith’s movement, whatever its sign says.
There’s one more piece of history worth telling, because it’s ours too. In 1830, a preacher named Sidney Rigdon was leading a congregation in northeast Ohio. He had been working alongside Alexander Campbell, one of the men calling people back to the Bible alone. That fall, missionaries brought Rigdon the Book of Mormon. He read it, accepted it, was baptized in November and became one of Joseph Smith’s closest leaders. Campbell answered in February 1831 with a long review called Delusions, one of the first published critiques of the book. So the two movements did cross paths early. They parted over the very thing this post is about, a book added to the Bible.
We’re one independent congregation, with no headquarters and no denomination above us. We can tell you what’s taught in Honesdale. Others speak for themselves.
It Happened an Hour Up the Road
If you live in Wayne County, this history is closer than you might think. Joseph Smith married Emma Hale of Harmony, Pennsylvania, and the couple lived there from late 1827 to early 1831. Harmony is now Oakland Township, in Susquehanna County, near the borough of Susquehanna, about an hour’s drive north of Honesdale. Latter-day Saints teach that Joseph translated most of the Book of Mormon in that home, and that the priesthood was restored on the banks of the Susquehanna River nearby. Their church rebuilt the Smith and Hale homes and dedicated a visitors’ site there in 2015.
So when missionaries tell the story, some of it happened just up the road in Susquehanna County. That’s a good reason to know what we believe, and why.
What “Restoration” Means on Each Side
Latter-day Saints teach that after Jesus’ apostles died, priesthood authority and the fulness of the gospel were taken from the earth. In the early 1800s, they teach, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ restored both through Joseph Smith. That’s their Restoration, with a capital R.
We mean something different by it. When we speak of going back to New Testament Christianity, we mean opening the Bible and doing what it says, with nothing added. Jesus said, “The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11). Plant that same seed today and it grows the same church it grew in the first century. No new prophet is needed.
One Book or Four
Latter-day Saints accept four books of scripture: the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Their eighth Article of Faith reads, “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.”
We don’t add to the Bible. It’s complete. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Peter says God’s power “has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). And Jude urged believers to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).
A note on the Greek: “Once for all” in Jude 3 is hapax, the same word Hebrews uses for Christ’s sacrifice, offered “once for all” (Hebrews 9:26-28). “Delivered” is paradotheisē, a past-tense passive verb. Jude isn’t describing a faith that’s still arriving in installments. He’s describing one that was handed over, whole, in his own generation. That’s why the faith isn’t waiting on a later book to finish it.
Is God Still Adding Revelation?
Latter-day Saints say He is. Members sustain the President of their church as God’s prophet on the earth today, the one person who receives revelation to guide the whole church. Their ninth Article of Faith says, “We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.”
The letter to the Hebrews opens by saying, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2). Jesus is God’s final word to us. His apostles set that word down in writing, and the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20). A foundation gets laid once. You don’t keep pouring it under a finished house.
A note on the Greek: Hebrews 1:1 describes the old way of speaking as polymerōs kai polytropōs, “in many portions and many ways,” a little at a time. Then verse 2 says God elalēsen, “spoke,” a verb that looks at the speaking as a completed act, en huiō, literally “in Son.” The writer sets the many partial words of the prophets against the one full word in the Son. And he places that word “in these last days,” the age we’re still living in.
We aren’t waiting for another prophet.
An Angel and a Book
The Latter-day Saint story begins with an angel. Joseph Smith said an angel named Moroni showed him where gold plates were buried, and that he translated them into the Book of Mormon.
Paul wrote to the Galatians about exactly that kind of claim: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8).
A note on the Greek: “Angel” is angelos, a messenger, and Paul says ex ouranou, “from heaven,” so he’s picturing a messenger that looks completely genuine. “Accursed” is anathema, something set apart for God’s judgment. Notice who Paul includes: “we or an angel.” Paul put even himself under that warning.
We don’t quote that verse to insult anyone. It’s a test, and it applies to us as much as to anyone. A message isn’t proven true by who brings it, or how bright he shines. It’s tested by whether it matches the gospel the apostles already preached (1 John 4:1).
Did Christ’s Church Ever Disappear?
Latter-day Saints teach that on May 15, 1829, near Harmony, John the Baptist appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and conferred the Aaronic Priesthood. Their Doctrine and Covenants says that priesthood holds the keys “of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins” (Doctrine and Covenants 13). Later, they teach, Peter came with James and John and conferred the Melchizedek Priesthood. Their church teaches that a baptism is valid only when someone holding that priesthood performs it.
They point to Bible passages that warn of a falling away, and those passages are real. Paul told the Ephesian elders, “fierce wolves will come in among you” (Acts 20:29-30), and he wrote that “the rebellion” would come (2 Thessalonians 2:3). But a falling away isn’t the same as the church vanishing. Some would leave. The church itself would stand.
Jesus promised, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Daniel saw a kingdom “that shall never be destroyed” (Daniel 2:44). Paul gave God glory “in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations” (Ephesians 3:21), and Hebrews calls it “a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (Hebrews 12:28). We believe Him. His church never died, so nobody had to bring it back, and Christ is still its only head (Ephesians 1:22-23).
A note on the Greek: “Hell” in Matthew 16:18 is hadēs, the realm of the dead, and “the gates of Hades” (pylai hadou) was a way of speaking about death itself. Jesus is saying that even death won’t overpower His church. It may lose members. It won’t die.
Whose Priesthood?
That changes the priesthood question, too. Under the Law of Moses, the Aaronic priesthood belonged to one family. God told Moses, “you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall guard their priesthood” (Numbers 3:10). When Christ came, that priesthood changed, because “it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests” (Hebrews 7:12-14).
And the Melchizedek priesthood isn’t passed around either. Hebrews says of Jesus, “but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever” (Hebrews 7:24).
A note on the Greek and Hebrew: “Permanently” in Hebrews 7:24 is aparabatos, a word used for something that can’t pass to someone else. The Levitical priests kept dying, so the office passed from father to son (Hebrews 7:23). Jesus never dies, so His priesthood never passes on. Hebrews builds on Psalm 110:4, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” In Hebrew, kōhēn lĕʿôlām, “a priest forever,” is said of one person, the Lord’s Anointed.
He never handed it to anyone. Instead, every Christian is part of “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), every one of us able to come to God through Christ.
Both churches baptize by immersion, which means lowering the person all the way under the water. We teach that baptism is the immersion of a believer for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3-4), and that its power comes from “the powerful working of God,” not from the office held by the person standing in the water with you (Colossians 2:12).
“Saints” and “Elders”
Two words on their name tags and their sign are Bible words, so it’s worth seeing how the Bible uses them.
The first is “Saints.” In the New Testament, every Christian is a saint. Paul wrote “to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (1 Corinthians 1:2), and “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi” (Philippians 1:1).
A note on the Greek: “Saints” is hagioi, “holy ones,” people set apart for God. It isn’t a title for a special class of Christians or a later group. It’s what Paul called ordinary believers in Corinth, a church with plenty of problems. If you belong to Christ, you’re a saint. That was true in the first century, and it’s still true.
The second is “Elder.” The young men who knock on doors are called Elders, often at eighteen or nineteen. In the New Testament, the word is presbyteros, “an older man,” and it names the men who shepherd one congregation (Acts 14:23; 1 Peter 5:1-2). Paul says an elder must be “the husband of one wife,” a man who manages his own household well, with his children under his care (1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9). The word was never a title for a young man away from home.
We hold ourselves to that same pattern, and there’s one place we’re still on the way. We’re a small congregation of fewer than twenty members, and right now none of our men meet the qualifications Paul lays out. So we don’t have elders yet, and we won’t appoint anyone just to fill the title. That isn’t unusual in the New Testament. Paul and Barnabas planted churches and came back later to appoint elders (Acts 14:21-23), and Paul left Titus in Crete to appoint elders where congregations were already meeting (Titus 1:5). Until the Lord raises up qualified men among us, we work together as a congregation under Christ and His word.
Who God Is
This is where we differ most. In Latter-day Saint teaching, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings who are one in purpose. Their Doctrine and Covenants says, “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s” (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22). They also teach that every person is a spirit child of heavenly parents and can become like Heavenly Father.
We believe in one God (Deuteronomy 6:4). Through Isaiah, God said, “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me” (Isaiah 43:10), and “Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any” (Isaiah 44:8).
A note on the Hebrew: The great confession of Israel, the Shema, says YHWH ʾĕlōhênû YHWH ʾeḥād, “the LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). In Isaiah 43:10, God says no god was “formed” (nôṣar) before Him, and none will come after. That rules out a God who was once a man and became God. It also rules out men who will later become gods. And in Isaiah 44:8, God says He doesn’t know of any other.
Moses wrote, “God is not man” (Numbers 23:19), and God said through Hosea, “I am God and not a man” (Hosea 11:9). Talking with a Samaritan woman beside a well, Jesus said, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). After He rose, He told His frightened disciples, “a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39). And John tells us, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18).
The Son did take on flesh. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). That’s the wonder of the incarnation, and it’s His alone. John’s Gospel opens with that same Word, who was God in the beginning, before anything was made (John 1:1-3).
Jesus sent His followers to baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
A note on the Greek: “In the name” is eis to onoma, and onoma, “name,” is singular. Jesus doesn’t say “names.” Father, Son and Holy Spirit share one name, because they are one God, not three gods joined by a common purpose.
So we don’t believe the Father has a body of flesh and bones, and we don’t teach that people can become what God is.
Baptism for the Dead
Many people around here know Latter-day Saints through family history. Their genealogy work is tied to temple ordinances. Members are baptized on behalf of ancestors who died without that baptism. They base it on 1 Corinthians 15:29: “Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?”
We’ll be honest. That’s one of the hardest verses in the New Testament, and Bible students have offered many explanations of it. But a few things are clear.
A note on the Greek: “On behalf of the dead” is hyper tōn nekrōn. Paul’s point in the chapter is the resurrection, not baptism, and he asks about what “people” (hoi baptizomenoi, “those being baptized”) are doing, in the third person. In the very next verse he switches to “we”: “Why are we in danger every hour?” (1 Corinthians 15:30). Paul never says Christians practiced it, never commands it, and no other passage mentions it.
The rest of the Bible speaks plainly. “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). In Jesus’ account of the rich man and Lazarus, Abraham says “a great chasm has been fixed” after death (Luke 16:26). Each person is judged for “what he has done in the body” (2 Corinthians 5:10). Today is the day to obey the gospel, for ourselves (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Ground We Share
We do hold some things in common. Their church carries the name of Jesus Christ. They baptize by immersion, too. They take family seriously, and they take the Bible’s call to holy living seriously. Many of their young people leave home at eighteen to serve as teaching missionaries, the young men for two years and the young women for a year and a half. That’s a long time to be away. We don’t doubt anyone’s sincerity. Still, we can’t accept a book or a prophet the New Testament doesn’t give us, or a priesthood it doesn’t describe, and we’d rather say that kindly than blur it.
Read Hebrews, Jude and John
If missionaries have been knocking, or a friend handed you a Book of Mormon, take your time with it. Read Hebrews 1 and the short letter of Jude, then the first chapter of John and Galatians 1. Do what the people of Berea did when Paul came to town. They “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). Ask anyone who teaches you, us included, to show you where the Bible says it.
Open the Bible With Us
If you’ve been visited by missionaries and you’d like a second pair of eyes on what they left you, we’ll gladly open the Bible with you. Schedule a Bible study, learn who we are, or get in touch with whatever you’re wondering about.
Our week:
Come find us at 416 Main Street in Honesdale, PA 18431, Suite D. Park at the rear of the building. The door’s back there.