There Are Save Two Churches Only—Part II

And he said unto me: 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)

Let me tell you about a thought experiment I conducted in Gospel Doctrine class one time.

I drew a large circle on a white board at the front of the class. It was the first part of a Venn diagram, and I told the class that the space interior to the circle would be composed of individuals who belonged to the church of the Lamb of God and that the space outside the circle would be composed of individuals who belonged to the church of the devil.

We spent a few moments talking about what characteristics might be found in the individuals of each group, keeping in mind that the Lord looks on the heart of the individual and that, if we want to be able to “see” who constitutes each group, we have to see as the Lord sees. And then I offered a suggestion. I drew a second circle that partially overlapped the first one and labeled it, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” and while facing the whiteboard, I suggested to the class that only part of the membership of the LDS church was actually to be found within the first circle and that there were many (if not, most) members who fell outside the circle.

I wish I could adequately describe the looks I saw on the faces of the people in the class that day as I turned around to face them. They looked totally lost. I’ve never before, nor since, seen so much collective cognitive dissonance at one time. It came as a great surprise to me, even though it shouldn’t have. To address it, I quickly said, “Ok, wait! Hear me out! I bet everyone knows at least one person who holds a temple recommend, whose heart is not right and who, clearly, isn’t worthy of it.” To that, the entire class responded with a collective nod and looks of understanding and agreement, as their minds quickly recalled someone in their life who met that criteria.

Then, a member of the class raised a hand and said, “You could probably do the same thing with any church,” to which, I responded, “That’s right!” and I turned back to the whiteboard and drew several more circles and labeled each of them with the name of another church.

I quickly made the point that other churches were probably similarly constituted and that there were, likely, individuals in other churches who had hearts that qualified them to be counted as members of the church of the Lamb of God. 

And then, a member of the class raised a hand and said, “Wait a minute! If that’s the case, then what’s the point of being a member of our church?”

And I thought to myself, “Ah! That’s the $64,000 question!”

Now, I’m not going to recount what happened during the remainder of that class in this blogpost. Suffice it to say that that question, instead of being a fantastic springboard for a potentially amazing and edifying discussion, turned out to be a little too unsettling for some.

But it’s a great question, don’t you think?

The fact of the matter is that the LDS church gets people to believe that, if they are LDS, they are part of the church of the Lamb of God. However, that simple thought experiment easily demonstrated that that isn’t, necessarily, so. Any honest person could probably take a step back and see that this is actually Satan’s modus operandi—convincing people that their membership in an earthly institution automatically makes them members of a heavenly one—but that’s not how it works.

What is the point of being a member of the LDS church? Is there one?

What is the angel trying to tell Nephi when he says “there are save two churches only?” What is Nephi trying to tell us by including it in his record? Perhaps we should rethink the level of importance we place on earthly institutions.

All throughout scripture, there are invitations and admonitions given to us to “see” things as God sees them—to view things from a spiritual perspective, not just a temporal one.

To do this is of critical importance. Increasingly, the more determined we are to hold to things that are temporal in nature, the more we will find ourselves separated from things that are spiritual (and, consequently, eternal) in nature.

It’s a really big deal.