The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ was a schismatic sect that was created in 1907 from dissenting members of The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite). Like its parent church, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ was a Rigdonite

Rigdonite

Rigdonite is a name given to members of the Latter Day Saint movement who accept Sidney Rigdon as the successor in the church presidency to movement founder, Joseph Smith, Jr. The early history of the Rigdonite movement is shared with the history of the Latter Day Saint movement, but as of the...

 and Bickertonite organization: it traced the claim of succession to Latter Day Saint movement

Latter Day Saint movement

The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...

 founder Joseph Smith, Jr. through Sidney Rigdon

Sidney Rigdon

Sidney Rigdon was a leader during the early history of the Latter Day Saint movement.-Baptist background:...

 and William Bickerton

William Bickerton

William Bickerton was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement after the 1844 succession crisis. In 1862, Bickerton became the founding president of the church now known as The Church of Jesus Christ , which is one of many churches that claim to be a continuation of the Church of Christ founded...

.

At the conference of The Church of Jesus Christ in 1907, church apostle Allen Wright distributed a pamphlet that expressed a dissenting opinion on the Second Coming

Second Coming

In Christian doctrine, the Second Coming of Christ, the Second Advent, or the Parousia, is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, where he sits at the Right Hand of God, to Earth. This prophecy is found in the canonical gospels and in most Christian and Islamic eschatologies...

 of Jesus and the nature of Christ's millennial

Millennialism

Millennialism , or chiliasm in Greek, is a belief held by some Christian denominations that there will be a Golden Age or Paradise on Earth in which "Christ will reign" for 1000 years prior to the final judgment and future eternal state...

 reign on earth. The conference condemned the publication and passed a resolution that suspended any member who believed Wright's ideas. Wright and five other members of the church's Quorum of Twelve Apostles

Quorum of Twelve Apostles (Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite))

In The Church of Jesus Christ , the Quorum of Twelve Apostles is composed of the chief governing officers of the church. Currently, the president of the church and his two counselors are not separated from the quorum, as the church interprets scriptures as permitting a maximum number of twelve...

 refused to sustain the administrative action of the conference and subsequently were removed from office and excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ. A few months later, the six apostles and their followers organized the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ. Another of the former church apostles, William T. Maxwell, was selected as the church's inaugural president.

The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ eventually merged with the Primitive Church of Jesus Christ

Primitive Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite)

The Primitive Church of Jesus Christ was a schismatic sect that was created in 1914 from dissenting members of The Church of Jesus Christ . Like its parent church, the Primitive Church of Jesus Christ was a Rigdonite and Bickertonite organization: it traced the claim of succession to Latter Day...

, another schismatic Bickertonite sect that was created in 1914. By the 1970s, the combined church had dwindled to a single congregation in Erie, Pennsylvania

Erie, Pennsylvania

Erie is a city located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. Named for the lake and the Native American tribe that resided along its southern shore, Erie is the state's fourth-largest city , with a population of 102,000...

. Today, the church is believed to be defunct, leaving The Church of Jesus Christ headquartered in Monongahela, Pennsylvania

Monongahela, Pennsylvania

Monongahela, colloquially called "Mon City," is a Third Class City in Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States and is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area, located approximately south of the city proper. The population was 4,761 at the 2000 census...

as the only surviving Rigdonite–Bickertonite sect.

Church publications

• J.L. Armburst (1929). Reformation or Restoration, or Which Is the Church? Jesus Christ Established but One Visible Church (N.p.: Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ)
• W.T. Maxwell (1908). A Statement Issued by the Re-Organized Church of Jesus Christ, July 4th, 1908 (Youngwood, Penn.: Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ)