‘The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not see itself as one Christian denomination among many, but rather as God’s latter-day restoration of the fulness of Christian faith and practice. Thus from its earliest days LDS Christians sought to distinguish themselves from Christians of other traditions.’ (Encyclopaedia of Mormonism 1:270)
When LDS leader Brad Wilcox told
the youth, and the assembled adults, that O is for Only True Church, I wonder
what they thought?
Older Mormons perhaps felt like
giving Brad a hearty ‘amen’, after all he was declaring the historical Mormon position
that the LDS church is the only true church. What Brad said clearly lines up
with the Mormon past, with Mormon doctrine and with the Mormon scriptures, but
it doesn’t quite square with what I constantly hear from Missionaries.
Missionaries have often told me
that I am a Christian, but I am missing some pieces of information, namely, the
doctrines and gospel ordinances found only in the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
Aware that his young hearers have
also been taught this, Brad seeks to lessen the blow of this uncomfortable
Mormon truth:
‘We’re
saying “We’re the only true Church” in a spirit of invitation.’
Here we find Brad trying to smooth
the sharp edges of historic, scriptural Mormonism. He knows that Mormonism
believes itself to be the only true church, but the current zeitgeist doesn’t
allow him to press that, so he proceeds, by way of analogy, that the non-LDS
Christians have some truth, but the LDS church has the whole truth:
‘President
Boyd K. Packer used to say “Truth is like a piano keyboard; some churches play
a few notes, some churches play several octaves, but we’re the only church that
has a whole piano.” So when we are saying we’re the only true church, we’re
just inviting people to come and see what we can add to the truths that already
fill their lives. If they think they can play some pretty music now, then we
want them to know that they can play like Jackson[1].
I mean, we want them to know that they can play with the whole piano.
And I
don’t want to lose the whole piano. You walk away from the Church, say goodbye
to the whole piano. Have fun playing Chopsticks the rest of your life. I don’t
want to play Chopsticks the rest of my life. I want to play like Jackson. And to
do that, you have to have the whole piano.’
Not too offensive Brad. According
to this LDS leader, ‘other’ Christians are messing around playing ‘Chopsticks’,
whilst the ‘true’ Christians are seemingly playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto
no.5.
Now, there are two reasons why I
think we need be too insulted by what Brad said. Firstly, we know he is only being
true to Mormon belief, and secondly, what he says is observable nonsense. The melody that the Mormons play on their
piano is completely out of tune with historic, biblical Christianity.
It’s not that the Mormons have all
the right notes, but they are playing them in the wrong order, it is more like
they have added so many false notes that the tune is completely unrecognisable.
Two Churches
To further understand the Mormon
position, we now turn to the Book of Mormon:
‘Behold
there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and
the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the
church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother
of abominations and she is the whore of all the earth.’ (1 Nephi 14:10)
‘Contend
against no church save it be the church of the devil’ (Doctrine and Covenants
18:20)
It should be no surprise to hear
that the Mormons identify themselves as the church of the Lamb of God.
In
a strictly historical sense, the church of the Lamb of God referred to in
Nephi’s vision is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Multiple prophets
and apostles have identified the modern Church as such.[2]
But who do they recognise as the ‘church
of the devil’?
We might think that Mormonism would
identify the ‘church of the devil’ as non-LDS denominations but, like
everything in Mormonism, it’s not that clear-cut.
The Church of the devil
‘It
is incorrect to think that any particular church or denomination is the ‘great
and abominable church’ mentioned by Nephi. Any group of people that follows Satan’s
ways are part of the kingdom of the devil and are enemies of Christ and His
Church (see 2 Nephi 10:16)’[3]
Though they teach that the ‘church
of the devil’ is not ‘any particular church or denomination’ they
certainly believe that churches and denominations are included. Brad’s brother
from another mother, Bruce R. McConkie makes sure we know this:
‘What
is the church of the devil in our day, and where is the seat of her power? If
we accept the angelic word, if we believe as Nephi believed, and if, the Lord
willing, we saw what Nephi saw, then we shall accept without question the
reality around us. The church of the devil is every evil and worldly
organisation on earth. It is all of the systems, both Christian and
non-Christian, that have perverted the pure and perfect gospel… It is
communism; it is Islam; it is Buddhism; it is modern Christianity in all its
parts.’[4]
As a non-Mormon, I get totally
befuddled when I read quotes like this. Questions arise like: When declaring what
they believe, do Mormons ever check what they have previously declared as truth?
For example, the current LDS website speaks very positively about Islam.[5] A
further question I would ask is ‘do they understand irony’? When McConkie says that the ’church of the
devil’ is any ‘that have perverted the pure and perfect gospel’, he clearly
doesn’t realise he is implicating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.
The Apostle Paul writing to the
Galatians (and the Mormon Church) says:
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him
that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but
there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach
any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be
accursed.
As we said before, so say I now again, if any
man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be
accursed. Galatians
1:6-9
Brad teaches that O is for Only True Church, but in reality O is Opposing the True Church, the true Church founded by our Lord Jesus Christ.
[1] Jackson was the young man who played the piano
before Brad spoke.
[2] The_Church_of_the_Lamb_of_God.pdf
(byu.edu)
[3] Book of Mormon Seminary
Student Study Guide, 2004, p.24)
[4] Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial
Messiah: The Second Coming of the Son of Man pp.54-55
[5] Muslims and Latter-day
Saints: Beliefs, Values, and Lifestyles (churchofjesuschrist.org)
Comments