The Mormon Church

It can be confusing reading news stories or listening to the news. The word "Mormon" is used variously and often inappropriately. Its original modern meaning is to refer to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That is how I use it. Since the Mormon Church was founded in 1830, various groups have attempted to use the name. So there are a variety of organizations that apply the term "Mormon" to themselves and often the media and others have picked up on that and applied the term accordingly. That approach, though, creates incredible confusion. The groups, as evidenced by their separation, have beliefs and teachings that vary widely from that of the Mormon Church.

Originally, the term "Mormon" derived from the book of scripture called The Book of Mormon. The name "Mormon" was the name of the prophet mentioned in The Book of Mormon who edited and compiled the scriptures contained in it. He lived around 400 A.D. People began calling the members of The Church of Jesus Christ "Mormons" after the book (nonsensically and, originally, pejoratively).

Members of the Church today may refer to themselves as "LDS" (for latter-day saint) or Mormon. (In fact, the Church's main website is http://www.lds.org/, but it also has a site called http://www.mormon.org/, which shows how both terms are still used pretty interchangeably.) But, as explained above, many people call themselves "Mormon" who are not members of the Church and who have practices and viewpoints that are at odds with the Church. In fact, many who were once members of the Church (and there are many) have been removed from Church membership because of their false claims and practices. So to confound the term by including those who have divergent beliefs and practices does nothing but create confusion. There are no practicing polygamists, for example, who are members of the Church. To call them Mormon has resulted in many people improperly thinking that Mormons today are polygamists.

My brief search on the internet of groups who call themselves Mormon shows that most if not all have fewer than 10,000 members and some as few as around 100, usually very geographically confined. I don't really know much about those groups and can't say that this information is accurate. I'm personally not aware of ever having met someone belonging to one of these groups. The Mormon Church, on othe other hand, has around 14,000,000 members throughout the world.

The term "latter-day saint" or "LDS" has reference to the Church's name, which was declared by modern scripture to be The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as distinguished from the church established at the time of Christ. A saint is merely a term used in the New Testament to refer to a member of Christ's church. To borrow from the LDS Bible Dictionary: "The word saint is a translation of a Greek word also rendered “holy,” the fundamental idea being that of consecration or separation for a sacred purpose; but since what was set apart for God must be without blemish, the word came to mean 'free from blemish,' whether physical or moral. In the N.T. the saints are all those who by baptism have entered into the Christian covenant (see Acts 9: 13, 32, 41; Rom. 1: 7; 1 Cor. 1: 2; Philip. 1: 1; 1 Pet. 1: 14-15)." "Latter-day" simply refers to these days as opposed to those former days. We believe modern times are a time prophesied since the beginning of the world in which the promises of the Lord are being fulfilled.

I hope this helps dispel some confusion. But, in case it's still confusing, here's my boiled-down explanation:

1. "Mormon" properly refers to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
2. Other religions and groups sometime use the name "Mormon" and that error creates a lot of confusion and is compounded in media reports that fail to distinguish between completely different religions.
3. Mormons more often refer to themselves as "LDS" or simply "members" of the Church.
4. The term "saints" is a New Testament term referring to those members of Christ's church at the time.
5. The term "latter-day" refers to modern times as opposed to biblical (specifically New Testament) times.