Alexander Campbell, a religious reformer of the American Restoration movement, observed the modern nature of the Book of Mormon in 1832. Campbell said: “This prophet Smith, through his stone spectacles, wrote on the plates of Nephi, in his Book of Mormon, every error and almost every truth discussed in New York for the last ten years.

Today, Sydney Rigdon’s church in Pennsylvania has become The Church of Christ (Bickertonite).

“Sidney's skill and fame as a religious orator provided ready audiences throughout northern Ohio.” Hundreds of Rigdon’s congregants and those curious in his new religious ideals would end up joining the Mormon Movement in Ohio. Thanks to Rigdon and his associates “The Mormon Movement struck the entire Western Reserve like a roaring storm.”

The idea of restoration to the New Testament church or “primitive church” was familiar and meaningful to seekers of the second great awakening, including Sydney Rigdon and the large number of Campbellite converts he brought to the Mormon movement or “The Church of Christ'' as originally named in 1830.