Footnotes
In the Book of Mormon, the resurrected Christ instructed leaders of his church that the church must bear his name, and “they who were baptized in the name of Jesus were called the church of Christ.” In 1830, JS dictated revelations that similarly stated that the church would be called the Church of Christ. (Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 507 [3 Nephi 26:21; 27:5–8]; Articles and Covenants, ca. Apr. 1830 [D&C 20:1]; Revelation, 6 Apr. 1830 [D&C 21:3, 11].)
“The Saints.—Again,” The Evening and the Morning Star, June 1834, 164.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
Harrell, Quest for a Christian America, 5; Foster et al., Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement, 125. Before converting to the church, many Saints in Ohio had belonged to Campbell’s movement. (Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, 209–215.)
Harrell, David Edwin, Jr. Quest for Christian America: The Disciples of Christ and American Society to 1866. Nashville, TN: Disciples of Christ Historical Society, 1966.
Foster, Douglas A., Anthony L. Dunnavant, Paul M. Blowers, and D. Newell Williams, eds. The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2004.
Hayden, Amos Sutton. Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio; with Biographical Sketches of the Principal Agents in Their Religious Movement. Cincinnati: Chase and Hall, 1875.
“The Saints.—Again,” The Evening and the Morning Star June 1834, 164.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
“The Saints,” The Evening and the Morning Star, May 1834, 158–159; Underwood, Millenarian World of Early Mormonism, 24–25.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
Underwood, Grant. The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.
Minutes, 11 Sept. 1833; Letter to the Church, ca. Apr. 1834; see also Editorial, The Evening and the Morning Star, Apr. 1834, 150. Revelations dictated prior to 3 May 1834 also referred to church members as Saints.a. But it is possible that the April edition of The Evening and the Morning Star was not published until after the 3 May conference was held. The issue contains a reference to the Philadelphia Saturday Courier of 19 April 1834, indicating that the issue was not published until at least late April.b
(aSee, for example, Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57:1]; Revelation, 12 Aug. 1831 [D&C 61:29]; and Revelation, 26 Apr. 1832 [D&C 82:13] bEditorial, The Evening and the Morning Star, Apr. 1834, 151.)The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
Many outside the church referred to members as Mormonites, but Cowdery’s editorial declared that the church did “not accept the . . . title,” nor would its members “wear it as [their] name.” (“The Saints.—Again,” The Evening and the Morning Star, June 1834, 164.)
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
See, for example, Deed from John and Alice Jacobs Johnson, 5 May 1834; Minute Book 1, 28 Dec. 1834 and 6–7 June 1835; “Latter Day Saints,” Catholic Telegraph (Cincinnati), 26 Sept. 1834, 351; Minutes, 11 Aug. 1834; and Doctrine and Covenants, 1835 ed., title page.
Catholic Telegraph. Cincinnati, OH. 1831–.
Revelation, 26 Apr. 1838 [D&C 115:3–4].
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David Whitmer, who was living in Missouri in 1834, later said that changing the church’s name came solely at Sidney Rigdon’s instigation. Because the minutes capture none of the discussion surrounding the change, the extent of Rigdon’s and others’ advocacy for the change is unknown. (Whitmer, Address to All Believers in Christ, 73.)
Whitmer, David. An Address to All Believers in Christ. Richmond, MO: By the author, 1887.
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