CES Letter Answers

Appearance

Names of the Church ​

The claim:

After revealing "Church of Jesus Christ" on April 6, 1830, Joseph Smith made the decision on May 3, 1834 to change the name of the Church to "The Church of the Latter Day Saints." Why did Joseph take the name of "Jesus Christ" out of the very name of His restored Church? ... Four years later on April 26, 1838, the Church name was changed to "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."[1]

The CES Letter presents three dates and three names — and asks why a church guided by continuous revelation would need multiple attempts to get its own name right. (Note: the CES Letter says the 1830 name was "Church of Jesus Christ." It was actually "Church of Christ." The "Jesus Christ" element didn't appear until 1838.)

Is a name change evidence of failure, or is it exactly how ongoing revelation works?

The actual timeline ​

DateNameHow it happened
April 6, 1830Church of ChristFounding Articles and Covenants (D&C 20)[2]
May 3, 1834Church of the Latter Day SaintsVote at a priesthood conference in Kirtland[3]
April 26, 1838Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day SaintsRevelation (D&C 115:4)[4]
1851The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsIncorporation formalized the article "The" and British-style hyphenation[5]

That's the full sequence.[6] The CES Letter presents the dates accurately. Where the argument breaks down is in what it implies — that each change was arbitrary, that Christ's name was carelessly discarded, and that the 1838 revelation came "suspiciously late."

Why "Church of Christ" became a problem ​

In 1830, "Church of Christ" was a natural choice. The Book of Mormon itself established the principle: "they were called the church of God, or the church of Christ, from that time forward" (Mosiah 18:17).[7]

But the early Saints weren't the only restorationists in America. Alexander Campbell's Disciples of Christ movement — which had deep roots in the same region — used "Church of Christ" for its local congregations.[8] Sidney Rigdon, a former Campbellite preacher who joined the Church in 1830, was well aware of the confusion.[9]

By the early 1830s, "Church of Christ" described dozens of congregations across the frontier, most of them unrelated to Joseph Smith. Add the derisive nicknames "Mormon" and "Mormonite" that outsiders applied, and the Saints faced a practical identity problem.[10]

The 1834 change was administrative, not revelatory. A priesthood conference in Kirtland voted to adopt "Church of the Latter Day Saints" to distinguish the Church from the Campbellite congregations.[3:1] The CES Letter frames this as Joseph Smith unilaterally "removing" Christ's name. The historical record shows a conference vote addressing a real-world naming conflict.

Was it a good decision? Some early Saints didn't think so. David Whitmer later called it "a shame" and pointed to 3 Nephi 27:8 as proof the name should never have changed.[11] The 1837 Kirtland dissenters specifically invoked the original "Church of Christ" name to distinguish themselves from what they considered apostasy.[12] The 1834 decision was genuinely controversial — which is exactly why the Lord settled the matter by revelation four years later.

Christ's name wasn't gone from daily use ​

The 1834 resolution changed the official designation. It did not erase Christ from how members talked about their church.

An 1835 Church publication referred to "the rise and progress of the church of Christ of Latter Day Saints" — a hybrid that shows the transition was informal and incomplete.[13] Members continued to use "Church of Christ" in personal correspondence and local records throughout the 1834-1838 period.[14]

The name on the letterhead changed. The identity didn't.

What D&C 115 actually resolved ​

On April 26, 1838, in Far West, Missouri, Joseph Smith received a revelation that settled the question:

"For thus shall my church be called in the last days, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." (D&C 115:4)[4:1]

The CES Letter asks why this came "suspiciously late" — eight years after the Church was organized. But the timing makes more sense when you see what the revelation was responding to. It wasn't resolving a crisis of faith. It was doing what revelation often does: providing a definitive answer after the Saints had worked through the question themselves.

The 1838 name combined both earlier designations. "Church of Jesus Christ" from the original name. "Latter Day Saints" from the 1834 name. The revelation didn't discard the earlier attempts — it completed them.

The Book of Mormon set the standard ​

3 Nephi 27 records the resurrected Christ addressing exactly this kind of dispute among his disciples:

"Have they not read the scriptures, which say ye must take upon you the name of Christ, which is my name? For by this name shall ye be called at the last day." (3 Nephi 27:5)[15]

And then the key verse:

"And how be it my church save it be called in my name? For if a church be called in Moses' name then it be Moses' church; or if it be called in the name of a man then it be the church of a man; but if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel." (3 Nephi 27:8)[16]

The Book of Mormon had been in print for eight years before D&C 115 was received. The scriptural standard — that the church must bear Christ's name — was already published. The 1838 revelation fulfilled what the Saints' own scripture had taught from the beginning.

Organizations refine their names ​

The CES Letter treats name changes as inherently suspicious. But name evolution is routine for growing institutions — including nations.

The United States went through its own naming process:

DateName
1775"United Colonies"[17]
July 1776"United States of America" (Declaration of Independence)[18]
1777"The United States of America" (Articles of Confederation, Article I)[19]
1789Same name retained under the Constitution

Nobody argues the United States wasn't a real nation because it took fourteen years and multiple documents to settle on a name. The early Christian church went through a similar process — believers were called "the Way" (Acts 9:2) before the term "Christian" was applied at Antioch (Acts 11:26).[20] A young organization working out its institutional identity is normal, not disqualifying.

Revelation, not rebranding ​

The CES Letter implies the name was a human invention that kept changing. The sequence tells a different story.

The Saints started with a scriptural name — "Church of Christ" — drawn from their own Book of Mormon (Mosiah 18:17). When practical confusion forced a change, they chose a name that described their identity — "Latter Day Saints." When the Lord settled the matter through revelation, the result combined both elements into a name that carried the Savior's identity and the Saints' distinctive mission.

That's not a failure of revelation. It's what ongoing revelation looks like. Questions arise, people work through them, and God speaks when the time is right.

President Russell M. Nelson underscored this in October 2018 when he called for a renewed emphasis on the Church's full name:

"Jesus Christ directed us to call the Church by His name because it is His Church, filled with His power."[21]

He cited 3 Nephi 27:7-8 and D&C 115:4 — anchoring the name in revelation, not committee decision.[21:1]

A minor criticism that proves a larger point ​

The CES Letter devotes roughly one page to this topic. Three name changes over eight years, the last one by revelation, for an organization that was simultaneously building temples, publishing scripture, and growing from six members to thousands.

The criticism assumes God would hand a new church its final institutional name on day one, with no room for growth or clarification. Even the 1834 name change — the most vulnerable point in the timeline — was driven by a legitimate practical problem, not theological carelessness. And the resolution came exactly the way the Church claims things work: through revelation.

Bottom line: The Church went through three names in eight years. The final name came by revelation, combined both earlier designations, and fulfilled the standard set in 3 Nephi 27. Name evolution is normal for young organizations. Getting it right through revelation is exactly how ongoing revelation is supposed to work.

  1. Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Other Concerns," p. 119. ↩︎

  2. "Articles and Covenants, circa April 1830 [D&C 20]," Joseph Smith Papers. https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/articles-and-covenants-circa-april-1830-dc-20/1. The document refers to "the Church of Christ" throughout. ↩︎

  3. "Name of the Church," Church History Topics, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/name-of-the-church. The conference voted on May 3, 1834, to adopt "the Church of the Latter Day Saints" to distinguish the organization from other groups using "Church of Christ." See also The Evening and the Morning Star (Kirtland, OH), May 1834. ↩︎ ↩︎

  4. Doctrine and Covenants 115:4. Revelation received April 26, 1838, at Far West, Missouri. See also "Revelation, 26 April 1838 [D&C 115]," Joseph Smith Papers. https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-26-april-1838-dc-115/1 ↩︎ ↩︎

  5. The Church was formally incorporated in the Territory of Utah in 1851, adopting British-style hyphenation ("Latter-day") and capitalizing the definite article "The." The 1921 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants standardized the modern format. See Susan Easton Black, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," in Latter-day Saint Essentials (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, BYU). https://rsc.byu.edu/latter-day-saint-essentials/church-jesus-christ-latter-day-saints ↩︎

  6. Richard Lloyd Anderson, "What Changes Have Been Made in the Name of the Church?" Ensign, January 1979. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1979/01/i-have-a-question/what-changes-have-been-made-in-the-name-of-the-church-its-full-designation-does-not-appear-in-the-revelations-until-1838-d-and-c-115-4 ↩︎

  7. Mosiah 18:17. ↩︎

  8. Alexander Campbell's Disciples of Christ (Stone-Campbell Movement) used "Church of Christ" for local congregations throughout the 1820s and 1830s. The movement had particular influence in western New York and Ohio — the same regions where the early Latter-day Saints operated. See Nathan O. Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989). ↩︎

  9. Sidney Rigdon was a Reformed Baptist minister closely associated with Alexander Campbell's movement before his 1830 conversion. David Whitmer later attributed the 1834 name change to Rigdon's influence. See David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ (Richmond, MO: David Whitmer, 1887). ↩︎

  10. "Name of the Church," Church History Topics, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/name-of-the-church ↩︎

  11. David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ (Richmond, MO: David Whitmer, 1887), 73. Whitmer wrote that removing Christ's name was "nothing short of trifling with a strict commandment of Almighty God" and argued the change fulfilled Isaiah 65:15's prophecy about leaving "your name for a curse." ↩︎

  12. Christopher James Blythe, "Ye Shall Call the Church in My Name," Maxwell Institute, BYU. https://mi.byu.edu/blythe-church-names/. Blythe traces how dissenting factions used the 1834 name change as evidence of apostasy, demonstrating the theological significance attached to naming from the earliest period. ↩︎

  13. Messenger and Advocate (Kirtland, OH), February 1836. The publication referenced "the church of Christ of Latter Day Saints," showing the transitional usage during the 1834-1838 period. See also Richard Lloyd Anderson, "What Changes Have Been Made in the Name of the Church?" Ensign, January 1979. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1979/01/i-have-a-question/what-changes-have-been-made-in-the-name-of-the-church-its-full-designation-does-not-appear-in-the-revelations-until-1838-d-and-c-115-4 ↩︎

  14. "Changes in the Name of the Church," FAIR. https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Mormonism_and_church_organization/Changes_in_the_name_of_the_Church ↩︎

  15. 3 Nephi 27:5-6. ↩︎

  16. 3 Nephi 27:8. ↩︎

  17. On June 19, 1775, the Second Continental Congress referred to themselves as "delegates of the United Colonies." The Lee Resolution of July 2, 1776, still used "United Colonies." See "United Colonies," National Constitution Center. https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/today-the-name-united-states-of-america-becomes-offici ↩︎

  18. Thomas Jefferson used "United States of America" in his draft of the Declaration of Independence (June-July 1776). The Continental Congress formally adopted the name on September 9, 1776. ↩︎

  19. Articles of Confederation, Article I (1777): "The Stile of this confederacy shall be 'The United States of America.'" See "Articles of Confederation (1777)," National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/articles-of-confederation ↩︎

  20. Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22. The early Christian movement was known as "the Way" before the term "Christian" was first applied at Antioch (Acts 11:26). ↩︎

  21. Russell M. Nelson, "The Correct Name of the Church," General Conference, October 2018. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2018/10/the-correct-name-of-the-church. President Nelson stated: "The Lord has impressed upon my mind the importance of the name He has revealed for His Church." ↩︎ ↩︎

A faith-promoting resource for Latter-day Saints.

Copyright 2025-present