True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days

The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days (TLC) is a breakaway sect of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It is headquartered in Manti, Utah, United States, where it maintains a small and somewhat closed-off membership. The church maintains the Red Brick Store and a meetinghouse in downtown Manti.

Establishment

The church was organized on May 3 1994, in response to a perceived apostasy in the LDS Church. TLC beliefs in a perceived LDS Church apostasy include the idea that Brigham Young (and subsequent presidents of the LDS Church) scattered—rather than gathered—the LDS Church membership, discontinued the practice of plural marriage in aberration of God's early commandments, changed ordinance and temple-related doctrines and principles, and have increasingly moved toward a more "watered-down" approach to church doctrine.

TLC began as an informal study group in the early 1990s, where people from both the LDS Church and Mormon fundamentalist churches met together to discuss doctrine. In 1994, the leader of the group, James Dee Harmston, (born November 1940) claimed to have had a revelation in which the ancient Biblical Patriarchs Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Moses laid their hands on his head and conferred upon him the keys of the Melchizedek priesthood. Following this event, he organized the church and collected his revelations in the "Manti Revelation Book". He formally organized a hierarchy consisting of himself as President of the High Priesthood, a Presiding Patriarch, a First Presidency and a Quorum of Twelve Apostles.

TLC doctrines and teachings

Early in the church organization, Harmston taught a number of semi-private seminars known as "the Models," where he taught about the necessity of following early Mormon doctrines. Besides the doctrines of plural marriage and the Law of Consecration, they also teach a rather obscure doctrine known as "Multiple Mortal Probations", which is a form of reincarnation, though limited to the scope of gender; men return to mortality as men and women as women.

TLC also teaches a doctrine, familiar to early Mormonism, known as "gathering," which is referred to in numerous places in Latter Day Saint scripture. The idea is that all the "elect" of Israel should gather to one place Sanpete County, Utah, primarily in Manti.

While proselytizing was heavily pursued during the infancy of TLC, all missionary work ceased by March 2000. This was in part due to a revelation by James Harmston that Christ would appear on March 25th 2000 & perform the ordinance of deliverance & begin the terrestrial order or Millenium. Since that time the church has undergone a number of difficulties and subsequent changes, including the loss of several members of the First Presidency (Randy Maudsley, Jeff Hanks, Kent Brady, Bart Malstrom & John Harper all either left or were excommunicated) and several members of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. The Quorum of the Twelve in the TLC has since been reorganized, along with a new First Presidency. One of its better proselytizing tools, its website, shut down completely a short time later in response to Harmston declaring the day of the Gentile (which involved preaching to those not of the Kingdom of Israel) had ended. Though an offline CD-ROM version of the TLC website has continued to be mailed out to investigators, the TLC has chosen not to publish this website online.

Harmston's affirmation regarding the day of the Gentile was based on revelations, particularly in the Doctrine and Covenants, that the gospel of Jesus Christ would first go to the Gentiles and then to the Jews, or House of Israel. These assertions have effectively discontinued TLC's policy of open missionary work or attempts at conversion; those seriously seeking knowledge or membership have been directed at times to attend meetings or research further doctrine and other information from the time period of the early Latter Day Saint movement. While TLC has claimed many early LDS Church doctrines as its own, it has been noted by somewho? that TLC itself has changed some of its doctrines since its original information. TLC's response is that, while only its perception of original doctrines have changed, the actual foundational material the LDS Church originally built on remains the same.

While the TLC has decided to remain offline in regards to their public missionary work, discussion forums do exist with former members groups.yahoo.com/groups/Mormon-TLC] . And cached archives of old TLC website material can be found online [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://tlcmanti.org] .

Lawsuit

An early setback for the church occurred in 1998 when two disaffected members accused Harmston of racketeering and fraud when they failed to see Jesus. [ [http://www.rickross.com/reference/tlc/tlc4.html James D. Harmston accused of fraud and racketeering ] ] In 2002, a court granted $300,000 to the two former members. While this suit was overturned, an appeals court in 2005 granted the two former members the right to a new trial.

Media coverage

TLC was heavily profiled in a A&E Network documentary called "Inside Polygamy"; various other documentaries and interviews have been conducted with TLC, its leadership and its membership over the years.

Terminology and relationship within the Latter Day Saint movement

The term "Mormon fundamentalist" appears to have been coined in the 1940s by LDS Church Apostle Mark E. Petersen. [Ken Driggs, "'This Will Someday Be the Head and Not the Tail of the Church': A History of the Mormon Fundamentalists at Short Creek", "Journal of Church and State" 43:49 (2001) at p. 51.] While Mormon fundamentalists, including members of TLC, call themselves "Mormon", [Brooke Adams, [http://www.sltrib.com/faith/ci_9828897 "Fundamentalists: We're Mormon, too"] , "Salt Lake Tribune", 2008-07-09, accessed 2008-07-11.] the LDS Church considers the designation to apply only to its members and not to members of other sects of the Latter Day Saint movement. The LDS Church therefore claims that there is no such thing as a "Mormon fundamentalist", nor that there are any "Mormon sects". The LDS Church suggests that the correct term to describe these splinter groups is "polygamist sects". [" [http://www.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=29db39628b88f010VgnVCM100000176f620aRCRD Church Responds to Questions on HBO's Big Love] ," dated 6 March 2006, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Accessed 8 June 2007.] The LDS Church has repeatedly emphasized that it is not affiliated with Mormon fundamentalists. [ cite news |url= http://www.myfoxutah.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=6286307&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1 |title= LDS Church Reminds Media they don't Practice Polygamy |publisher= KSTU ("Fox 13") |date= 2008-04-11|accessdate= 2008-06-13 ] If members of the LDS Church engage in polygamy, they are excommunicated.

The TLC may also be distinguished from historical Mormon fundamentalism which traces priesthood lineage either through the 1886 Revelation (John W. Woolley line) or those who believe Benjamin F. Johnson's claims (the LeBaron family line). Though the TLC does teach that John Taylor actually did have a meeting with Joseph Smith, Jr. and Jesus Christ (the 1886 revelation is included in the TLC edition of the Doctrine and Covenants), it is not clear how it doctrinally understands the existence of a resurrected Joseph Smith, since James Harmston is believed to be the same person embodied today. TLC is a re-restorationist movement, in that the original keys passed down from Smith went into apostasy at some point, and a second restoration of priesthood keys was believed to be necessary.

The TLC also shares much doctrinal common ground with some of the new religious movements, such as Edgar Cayce, The Summit Lighthouse & others.

Some doctrinal distinctions also exist between Mormon fundamentalism and TLC teachings. For example, while the TLC does claim to offer the original endowment Joseph Smith restored, it is understood that a "living endowment"—or administration of keys not all at the same time, but possibly during separate sessions—is necessary for the living, while endowments for the dead are performed in the same manner the LDS Church and others do for the endowment. It is also claimed that temple ordinances exist beyond what Joseph Smith restored up to 1844 when he was martyred.

The TLC has also reinterpreted the Word of Wisdom in line with a raw foods interpretation, along with some gleanings of the "Eat Right 4 Your Type" books by Dr. Peter D'Adamo.

The TLC at one point had an endowment house in Fairview, Utah, but this was lost when the property owner (also a member of the church's First Presidency) left the TLC. The TLC has since dedicated a temple to perform ordinances. (Historically, a doctrinal distinction in Mormonism has existed in that ordinances for living people could be performed in endowment houses whereas ordinances for the dead required a temple.)

Notes

References

*Becky Johns, "The Manti Mormons: The Rise of the Latest Mormon Church", "Sunstone", June 1996, p. 30.