Splinter Group Bickertonites Part 3

Viewpoint on Mormonism, the program that examines the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a biblical perspective. Viewpoint on Mormonism is sponsored by Mormonism Research Ministry. Since 1979, Mormonism Research Ministry has been dedicated to equipping the body of Christ with answers regarding the Christian faith in a manner that expresses gentleness and respect. And now, your host for today's Viewpoint on Mormonism. Welcome to this edition of Viewpoint on Mormonism.

I'm your host, Bill McKeever, founder and director of Mormonism Research Ministry, and with me today is Eric Johnson, my colleague at MRM, the Church of Jesus Christ Bickertonites. It is a part of the Restoration Movement, which claims Joseph Smith to be not only its founder, but one of its presidents. As we've been mentioning regarding this group, it can trace its history back to Sidney Rigdon, who was really Joseph Smith's right-hand man in the early years of the LDS Church. Rigdon felt that he should be the rightful successor after Joseph Smith Jr. was killed at Carthage Jail. But as the followers of this church believe, it was Brigham Young who basically stole that from Sidney Rigdon. So Sidney Rigdon leaves Illinois, goes back to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, starts the Church of Christ. His followers are known as Rigdonites.

Later, a man by the name of William Bickerton is involved. Bickerton ends up starting his own group in 1862, and this is the group that we are talking about now, the Church of Jesus Christ Bickertonite Movement. Most of their numbers are outside of the United States, but as I mentioned, they do claim Joseph Smith to be very much a part of their group and what they represent and what they believe. And they do believe that they are the one true church. In fact, when you say the Church of Jesus Christ Bickertonite, they get the name of their church out of Matthew 18, 20 and Colossians 3, 17. These are two verses that are used by Latter-day Saints to say that a true church is going to be named after Jesus. Well, you have two churches here at least, and there are others as well that have named themselves after Christ, who both claim Joseph Smith to be the founder of their church. They do believe in the same kinds of things, and yet they're different from each other. They both can't be the one true church if the other one is true. So I just find that to be interesting.

You have so many similarities between them and yet so many differences. Well, yesterday we began looking at what they call the 12 Articles of Faith, and in yesterday's show, we talked about what they believe regarding the Godhead. And today we want to look at Article Number 2 that says, We believe the Church, as established by Jesus Christ, has ordained officers consistent with the Scriptures, that believers possess the signs promised to them, and that this Church slash Kingdom will remain upon the earth until the end of time. A lot of these groups claim that their group will remain on earth until the end of time, that they cannot fall into a state of apostasy. The LDS Church has a similar doctrine, but yet the very church that Christ himself, they say, established, did have the potential to fall into false doctrine and apostasy, and did so, making it necessary for Joseph Smith to be called and to restore the true church and the true gospel back to the earth. Some of the unique teachings of this church include feed washing.

They do this on a regular basis. They believe that's following the example of Jesus in John chapter 13. They are charismatic, if you will. They believe in the gift of tongues, and they do have interpretation as well.

Quote unquote on their website, The message from God is generally in the form of instruction, admonishment, or encouragement to his servants. Members of this church are supposed to address each other as brother and sister. You'll find a lot of Latter-day Saints using those terms as well. They use that because of Matthew chapter 12 and Mark chapter 3, where Jesus called his followers the same.

On their website, it basically says that salvation requires faith and belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Now, would this be Son of God in the way that the Mormons believe Son of God? Because Mormon leaders have taught that he is literal the Son of God in the flesh, and Mormon leaders of the past actually went on record to say that God the Father was the literal Father of Jesus. And some even went so far to say that it was God the Father who impregnated Mary that resulted in the incarnation of the literal Son of God, Jesus Christ. Now, they wouldn't hold to a position that radical, do they?

No, I don't believe they do. As far as the founder of this religion, Joseph Smith Jr., but it's interesting. The second president would be Sidney Rigdon, and the third, William Bickerton.

Again, we go back to Joseph Smith as being the founder, but then they split off here because of the disagreement between Rigdon and Young as to who was supposed to succeed Joseph Smith after his death. Now, as of 2020, the leader currently is a man by the name of Joel, and I don't know if I'm pronouncing this right, but it's either Geli or Gailey. I'm not quite sure. It's G-E-H-L-Y. He has two counselors, Peter Scolaro and Frank Natoli.

We were talking yesterday about the fact that a lot of these leaders have Italian names, and I wonder if there's any connection as to why they're prominent in the country of Italy. It could be. I'm not sure. They have this president and first presidency, if you will, and they also have apostles. Now right now, they only have 10.

Two recently died. They have not replaced them yet, so they have 10 apostles, but they can have as many as 12. And then they have 70 male evangelists who go around the world, and none of them—they make a big deal about this—none of them are paid or get compensated in any way.

Well, wait a minute. Doesn't the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints still say that even though we know for a fact that their leaders are compensated? Do they really not get compensated, or do they just say they're not compensated? Did you find anything in your research regarding that?

No. From what I understand, they make a big point. Nobody gets a dollar.

Well, you have to understand, only 2,700 people are in the United States and Canada, which is where more money would be found, and they're in countries that are very poor, so they don't have the ability to support the leaders. The third article of Faith Bill, we believe the Bible and the Book of Mormon to be holy scripture telling of God's relationship with the human family. These two scriptures convey God's dealings and plan for mankind. So when it comes to the Bible, they do believe in the King James Version, but when it comes to the Book of Mormon, they follow its own version of the Book of Mormon that goes back to the 1860s, and among other things, they reject plural marriage. That's a big thing with this group, and this is one of the reasons why Bickerton himself ended up leaving the Mormon Church in 1852, because Brigham Young was saying you had to be teaching polygamy, and notice they go to Jacob chapter 2 to admonish the practice.

Jacob 2 hasn't changed. In the 19th century, when Young was propagating such a belief, Jacob 2 says that you're only supposed to have polygamy when you're trying to raise up seed. Of course, we know from history that there's no evidence that Joseph Smith even did that. There's no known offspring of Joseph Smith through his polygamous relationships. So if that's the case, according to Jacob 2, then it would seem that Joseph Smith violated what it says in Jacob 2.

They're very clear. They believe in a literal Book of Mormon, that it really took place. But where did it take place?

Not in North America. They would hold to what many BYU professors hold to, that it must have taken place in Central America, and they point to the archaeological evidence. And even that is not good, because archaeological evidence does not support there were Lamanites in Central America. There were Aztecs and Mayans, and we have those ruins, but there's no evidence whatsoever that you can trace to Central America as being a place where the Book of Mormon events took place.

I think you're correct. I think either theory that is held among many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as this group is pretty flimsy. You have to have a pretty large imagination to make either theory fit what the Book of Mormon actually says about the geography. The fourth article of faith says we believe that divine inspiration is an indispensable qualification for the preaching of the gospel. And they do believe in divine revelation in modern times. They believe in dreams, visions, signs, gifts, and that God can give His Word to whomever He chooses.

So very much a believer in the signs and gifts for the 21st century. The fifth article of faith, we believe that the Church of Jesus Christ is patterned exactly as it is represented in the scriptures, and they have these following ordinances and practices, including baptism by immersion, laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Spirit. Of course, the LDS Church teaches the same, but listen to what they do with the Lord's Supper.

They use bread and wine. This ordinance is done regularly to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, that His body was broken and His blood spilt to atone for our sins and give us the opportunity to gain eternal life with God. Now they don't use the Doctrine and Covenants as part of their scriptures, but yet section 89 that speaks of the Word of Wisdom does specifically mention that the Latter-day Saints were supposed to use bread and wine in the Lord's Supper.

So it's interesting that even though this group, the Bickertonites, don't use the Doctrine and Covenants, they seem to be following section 89 more closely than even modern Latter-day Saints who use bread and water in their sacrament service. It's Sixth Article of Faith. We believe obedience to the gospel is necessary to obtain salvation by taking the following actions. You have to believe and have faith that Jesus Christ is the risen Savior of the world. Repent of your sins with the desire to sin no more. Be baptized by immersion in water for remission of sins.

Receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. You're hearing a lot of the same kinds of ideas that the LDS Church teaches. And live righteously, remain faithful, and endure to the end of your life. But doesn't it also say that all must obey the gospel to be saved? How is that interpreted? Because if I talk to a Latter-day Saint and I use that same kind of language, they would probably agree with the wording of this statement.

But how do they define it? How do they interpret that? Because a Latter-day Saint, when you say, well, you must obey the gospel to be saved, that means you must repent of all your sins, confess and forsake, never to repeat them again. And then you must keep all of the commandments. Does this organization have a strict understanding of that wording the same as the Latter-day Saints would? Well, as long as you're doing your best and you're trying hard, that's what's most important because I actually asked one of the leaders of the church what it meant to live righteously. And I was told that keeping the general commandments of the Bible in the Book of Mormon allows a person to enter into heaven. And then I wrote an email asking for a further explanation and they said, living righteously entails adhering to the commands and teachings of Jesus Christ. It is ensuring that there is congruence between our values and our behavior. So what this means is that everybody who's good, whatever that means, gets to go to heaven.

I was told by another leader that as long as I was trying hard and doing my best, that that was enough and only bad people are going to end up going to help. Most people are going to end up in heaven, even if you belong to another religion. And they do not hold to three kingdoms of glory as the LDS church does.

They just believe there's one heaven. So in essence, you can join this church or not join this church, but as long as you're a good person, you're going to be okay. So according to their teachings, you have to obey the gospel in order to be saved. But according to the LDS church headquartered in Salt Lake City, you need to belong to the only true church on earth, which they claim they are, and you must be baptized by someone with authority within the LDS church. This group is not so strict.

I mean, it's a guideline. It's a recommendation that you belong to this organization, but it's not absolutely essential if you hope to get into heaven. And they don't believe that families are together forever. They kind of believe in the same kind of heaven we would believe in, that you're with Jesus forever, but not in the family relationship. The Church of Jesus Christ, known as the Bickertonites, you probably will not come in contact with any of these members. However, they do believe that they more closely represent the church that Joseph Smith restored than any other organization that claims Joseph Smith as a founder.