page_title: The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite) / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of Sidney Rigdon (19 February 1793 – 14 July 1876)
context_page_description: The Church of Jesus Christ is an international and independent Christian religious denomination headquartered in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, United States. The Church of Jesus Christ is a Christian Restorationist church, the 3rd largest church to believe in the Book of Mormon as scripture, and is historically part of the Latter Day Saint movement. The church considers itself the Gospel Restored, or the original church and good news as established by Jesus Christ in the New Testament, restored upon the earth. It also claims to be the spiritual successor to the Church of Christ, organized by Joseph Smith on April 6, 1830. The church sees Sidney Rigdon as Smith's rightful successor following the assassination of Smith because Rigdon was Smith's first counselor in the First Presidency. The church is not officially affiliated with any other church, organization or denomination.
  As of July 2018, members are located throughout the world including North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa—for a membership total of 23,197. The Church of Jesus Christ is considered "the third largest Restoration church to have resulted from the 1844 succession crisis".
context_section_description: The Church of Jesus Christ sees itself as a continuation of the Church of Christ, which was the original church organization established by Joseph Smith informally in 1829 and then as a legal entity on April 6, 1830 in northwestern New York.  On April 6, 1830, Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and a group of approximately 30 believers met to formally organize the Church of Christ into a legal institution. Traditionally, this is said to have occurred at the home of Peter Whitmer, Sr. in Fayette, New York, but some early accounts place it in Manchester. Soon after this formal organization, small branches were formally established in Fayette, Manchester and Colesville.
  Smith and his associates intended that the Church of Christ would be a restoration of the 1st-century Christian church, which Smith taught had fallen from God's favor and authority because of a Great Apostasy. In late 1830, Smith envisioned a "city of Zion" in Native American lands near Independence, Missouri. In October 1830, he sent his second-in-command Oliver Cowdery and others on a mission to the area. Passing through Kirtland, Ohio, the missionaries converted a congregation of Disciples of Christ led by Sidney Rigdon, and in 1831, Smith decided to temporarily move his followers to Kirtland until the Missouri area could be colonized. The church headquarters remained in Kirtland from 1831 to 1838.
  Many of Smith's followers attempted to colonize Missouri throughout the 1830s, and Smith himself moved there in 1838. The church faced political and military opposition by other Missouri settlers. After a series of crises, the church then established its new headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois, a city they built on drained swampland by the Mississippi River, where Smith served as mayor. There, the church thrived until Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed by a mob in 1844. They were in prison awaiting trial for crimes related to the destruction of the printing press of the Nauvoo Expositor. At the time, Smith was a minor candidate for President of the United States with Rigdon as his running mate.
  After Smith was killed in 1844, there was confusion about who should succeed him in leading the church. Many of the leaders of the church were absent from Nauvoo at the time of his death, serving as missionaries or working on Smith's presidential campaign. Rigdon was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when he heard of Smith's death, and hurried back to Nauvoo, becoming one of the first church leaders to return. He quickly announced that he had the right to lead the church as its "guardian" until proper proceedings could decide the next church president, and that the Quorum of the Twelve did not have the right to lead the church. Rigdon, like the Twelve, had been ordained by Smith as a "prophet, seer, and revelator".
  The Church of Jesus Christ maintains that the First Presidency had made nearly all the major decisions and led the Church of Christ prior to Smith's death, and as first counselor to Smith at the time of Smith's death, Rigdon should naturally have been the leader of the church after Smith's death.
  The Latter Day Saints who followed Rigdon separated themselves from the majority of the members, who followed Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve. Rigdon and his followers settled in Monongahela, Pennsylvania. On April 6, 1845, Rigdon presided over a conference of the Church of Christ, which he saw as the rightful continuation of the church founded by Smith. William Bickerton was among those converted by Rigdon's preaching, and was baptized at Monongahela in 1845. Later that same year, Bickerton was ordained an elder and shortly after an evangelist in the church. Rigdon’s organization disbanded shortly afterwards.
  Bickerton continued to preach and by May 1851 a branch of the church was organized under Bickerton's leadership in West Elizabeth, Pennsylvania. At a conference on July 9, 1861, it was recorded that twelve of their number were chosen and called by the Holy Spirit to be apostles. The church was incorporated in Pittsburgh in June 1865 with the legal name, "Church of J
caption: Sidney Rigdon
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