Christianity.  Synonymous with Mormonism. As a secondary meaning, it can also refer to other churches that call themselves Christian. Because of the Great Apostasy, Christianity in its full form can be found on the earth since the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sixth President Joseph F. Smith explained, “…for I contend that the Latter-day Saints are the only good and true Christians, that I know anything about in the world. There are a good many people who profess to be Christians, but they are not founded on the foundation that Jesus Christ himself has laid” (November 2, 1891, [Stake conference message], Collected Discourses, 2:305). Tenth President Joseph Fielding Smith told a general conference audience, “However, true Christianity, so far as the latter days are concerned, is very young, less than one hundred years of age, for it has only been since the year 1830 that the Church of Jesus Christ has been organized in the earth, and the gospel restored, containing the gifts and the blessings and the graces that existed in the Church in primitive days, and that Church with its doctrines of the gospel of Christ, shall grow” (Conference Reports, April 1924, p. 41). In another general conference message, Apostle Dallin Oaks said, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has many beliefs in common with other Christian churches. But we have differences, and those differences explain why we send missionaries to other Christians…” (“Apostasy and Restoration,” Ensign (Conference Edition), May 1995, p. 84).

For more information, see “Is This Bigotry? A Response to Latter-day Saints Who Say, ‘We Never Criticize Christian Churches.”

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