Verse 10 continues. ” 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.” I suppose some used this verse to suggest that there are only two players – Mormons and everyone else. But that just isn’t so and never has been.  

Verse 12 further identifies who the players are. “I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw.” 

Just as is said, the number of the people in God’s church is few and they are on all the face of the earth. We interpret that as meaning members of God’s Church are all those that seek after Him and seek to have Him guide their lives. They are many good people who abide by and seek to live their lives according to God’s will in whatever light that has been given them. These can be and are people in every religious denomination. The others, members of the Great and Abominable Church, are those who corrupt, persecute, defame, malign and abuse people with whom they disagree and over whom they seek advantage or dominion. They fight against godliness. They seek to destroy and enslave. In short, they seek the things of this world and reject God.  

We believe  the gospel has always been on the earth, But it was only in its fullness for certain periods of time and then only according to how much the people could accept and live. We believe that to hear, know and understand the gospel but not live it, or abide by it, results in condemnation. In many cases, giving the people everything would just set them up to fail. So as an act of a loving father, God only allowed as much as the people could live.  But it would have been available if the people were ready for it. 

The advent of Jesus Christ restored the full gospel to the earth once again. But because of the wickedness of the people, and the Great and Abominable church, it was lost when the last apostle died. The record of the entire gospel – which we know was under attack even during the time of Christ and the Apostles – was further attacked afterward. Eventually, much of the record of the Gospel was removed or distorted and only a part of it remains in the traditional canon today. God had said it would happen but that He would restore it in the end times. The Book of Mormon is that restored Gospel. It was being kept by a separate group of God’s people on the American continent.   

Within the group of people identified in Nephi as those who are not members of the Great and Abominable Church, you find the Mormons. While we were still in our pre-mortal life, we took upon ourselves the obligation to take this message to the rest of the world. We understand and accept that some will find a certain resonance with what we claim and will want to learn more. Others, for various reasons, will not.  That doesn’t make them part of the other group though. They may have hardened their hearts and been swayed by the craftiness of men. It is expected.

All people learn and are ready to receive in their own time. It may mean those who reject the message in this life will learn of the fullness of the gospel after they pass over to the other side where they will be taught by Christ’s missionaries as it says in John 5:25. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.”

So, we Mormons are very much a part of the Church of the Lamb of God just as Methodists, Pentecostals, Baptists, Catholics and Jews and all the other good and godly people of the earth. We also accept that membership in any one church or religious group does not exclude a person from membership in the Great and Abominable Church too. Now I understand some people are going say this is too black and white and that there are many shades of gray. That is true. There are many interpretations of scripture that lead to long and deep discussions. But for a short hand version of who Mormons are and how we see ourselves fitting into the world, this I think works – for now.  I invite others to put a finer point on my comments if they wish to do so. I am coachable. 

So why isn’t it authoritative? The JoD was written and printed in Great Britian between 1854 and 1886.  According to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, a MacMillian publication edited by religion professors at BYU and some others, “It served as the printed word of the LDS Church for members who had no access to the Deseret News in Salt Lake City. It most often published sermons of Church leaders which were not always considered to be official statements of doctrine.”  At best it is an historic resource which often contains authorized doctrine of the times, but not always. 

Former BYU Religion Department Dean Dr. Robert Millet  presented a paper in 2004 to the faculty on Church doctrine. In it he again re-iterated how offical doctrine is determined. In his presentation he said   ”…let me affirm at the outset that I understand implicitly that the right and authority to declare, interpret, and clarify doctrine rest with living apostles and prophets.” Dr. Millet re-affirmned what LDS members have been told for decades and in fact longer than that.  The prophet and the Twelve, when acting in concert, are the sole source of doctrine. Other members have no authority to declare what doctrine is. I should emphasize the living part of his statement.  There are no other authoritative sources. Our recently departed President and prophet, Gorden B. Hinckley said that a living prophet was better than a dead one, and so it is.

Authoritative sources are Church published teaching resources such as manuals and other printed documents, pamphlets, letters from the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve, presentations made at semi annual Conference or statements or proclamations issued by the Church. There are many highly reliable sources to which one can turn to report on Church doctrine such as Church magazines, official Church organ publications and schools such as BYU, presentations by individual General Authorities and other Church leaders. However, unless the message presented originates from one of the sources of authorized doctrine, it cannot be considered authentic. That means personal opinions don’t count even if they come from a high ranking leader. I encourage readers to read Dr. Millet’s paper and read his footnotes as a means of confirming what he said. 

Now, so I don’t mix messages here, counsel from our leaders is important. Guidance from our bishops, stake and branch presidents and others is intended to aid us in understanding gospel principles. We believe in taking their guidance and using it as an aid in our lives. When they provide us with guidance they will refer us to where their guidance comes from. We as members and they as leaders note, or should note,  when we state our opinions or those of others and if our message is not clear we hasten to clarify. Teachers are provided with training and teaching aids and manuals along with authoritative sources, from which their message is taken. In all cases, presenters of the message should have spoken with the aid and presense of The Holy Ghost after sincere prayer and supplication to the Lord. We as receivers of their message are admonished to pray for confirmation by the Holy Ghost of what is  said.

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: That we [henceforth] be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, [and] cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;” (Eph 4:11-14)

Modern Christianity resembles the group of children described above.  They have been tossed to and fro, are confused about authentic Christian doctrine, are all too often ill-mannered and misbehave in many instances. It is appropriate to say they resemble those who have been“carried about with every wind of doctrine”, to the point where they do not undersstand what the Bible actually says.

Today there are 2,000 or so different Christian denominations and dozens of versions of The Bible, all different, yet claiming to be the inerrant word of God. Bart Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why engages  this subject on a level everyone can understand. Ehrman, the chairman of the religious studies department at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, says the modern bible is a product of centuries of  mistakes and intentional alterations. Readers are encouraged to read this work.

The LDS church, on the other hand, is the true Body of Christ. Christ is the head. He guides the body, which is composed of many integral parts, as Paul taught. With Christ as it’s head, it can do anything which is ready evident by the fact that it is sweeping the earth. Without Christ, without His authority, without His guidance, without the Body that  He alone established, none of any of the myriad of illinformed bodies will ever bear the fruits of true Christianity.

Even as the essence of a living body is diversity, nobody would work too well without a brain. If it were all simply hundreds of different and discrete parts, without any divine direction, none would function together in any kind of accord. A hand looks radically different from a liver, yet both are part of the same body and can function together if a brain exists to direct them. Historic Christianity is a body without a brain.

This is historic Christianity. For example, a Baptist church looks different from a Methodist Church. They differ in core doctrine, such as soteriology. The Baptist is Calvinistic and the Methodist Arminian. They both believe in Jesus Christ, but yet are not unified in the “One Faith” that Paul taught was a prerequisite for the “Body of Christ”. To  claim that they both have the same “DNA code, the Holy Spirit would be to make God a liar. They function under the delusion that Jesus Christ is their head, when they deny that a head even exists. There is no divine head of the modern historic Christian church. Only Jesus is the head of His Church.  His formally organized Church that is built on the foundation of apostles and prophets, whose coming Martin Luther, John Wesley, Roger Williams, and many, many others have been waiting for throughout the centuries.

The coments above are taken liberally from www.fairlds.org - often verbatim or edited insignificantly.

Note: I found this article on the FairLDS.com website. I edited some of the descriptive words to make it less pugnacious than what the original author presented. But the sum and substance of the message resonated with me. It says some things that I believe are significant and are worth repeating. The origianl author said them in an artful and comprehensive manner although in a different style than I would have used – hence the editing. No atribution was included.

Doctrine and Covenants 121 says, starting in verse 16:

  16 Cursed are all those that shall lift up the heel against mine anointed, saith the Lord, and cry they have sinned when they have not sinned before me, saith the Lord, but have done that which was meet in mine eyes, and which I commanded them.

  17 But those who cry transgression do it because they are the servants of sin, and are the children of disobedience themselves.

  18 And those who swear falsely against my servants, that they might bring them into bondage and death—

  19 WO unto them; because they have offended my little ones they shall be severed from the ordinances of mine house.

  20 Their basket shall not be full, their houses and their barns shall perish, and they themselves shall be despised by those that flattered them.

  21 They shall not have (the) right to the priesthood nor their posterity after them from generation to generation.

  22 It had been better for them that a millstone had been hanged about their necks, and they drowned in the depth of the sea.

Now some will maintain the LDS Scriptures are a concoction of Joseph Smith and are intended to deceive others. But there are just as many non-Mormons who have read them who are not sure what they read but they doubt the anti-Mormons. Whether these latter day scriptures originated from God as Joseph and the witnesses say, is irrelevant in thisa discussion. Mormons accept them as sacred and we think those that persecute us will be dealt with as you read above. To us it is doctrinal. It is scriptural and comes from God just as assuredly as if one read it in the Bible. It is as much a message from God as if Christ appeared to us in person as spoke it Himself. In fact, we believe He did speak what you read above. These are the words of Jesus Christ. It is our testimony. Differ from us if you will. We expect it. We truly seek to discuss these things with others. We do not believe that having a different opinion is sacrilegious or evil or in any way denigrates our beliefs. Nor does such a different belief automatically and permanatly condemn one to eternal separation from God. What we condemn are the behaviors we see today that continue the hatred, lies, distortions and ill treatment perpetrated against us. It is about behavior not belief.  

So what can anti-Mormons and others who think differently take from what I write? Do I think they have to change their thinking about the Church, its founder or our current leadership to please Mormons or God? No. I would like my words to have an impact on bad behavior but I recognize my opinion has little weight in those matters. Every person has to decide for themselves how to treat people they disagree with. It is an individual choice. We should be able to expect civil treatment and courteous behavior. All too often that does not happen. But it is what our Savior expects from all of us.

None of those defintions fit The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints but that hasn’t stopped the anti-Mormons from making up their own version and using it like a club with which to bash Mormons. Now before all the anti-Mormons swell up with indignation and claim that one of the defintions, strange, fits Mormons, I would like to ask acccording to who? Just how strange are Mormons? In what way? You may take exception to some of our doctrine or maybe our history but those are a long way from strange when you consider what a genuine cult is. Parsing a word or two and then claiming it is enough to brand the group in its entirety is taking the defintion out of context. You will be hard pressed to find anything genuinely strange about Mormons. In fact, there may be no other denomination that fits All-American better.

These less than well educated leaders in the traditional Christian, (read Evangelical) community are the people who created the bulk of anti-Mormon sentiments extant. It takes only a little effort to find out what Mormons actually believe but yet they continue to regurgitate the old, lame, uninformed pap that was thrown at us by their grandfathers. I have said that if these people are bound and determined to hate us anyway they should at least get our theology and practices right. It’s kind of like the cop who tells the father of the perpetrator he arrested that if he is going to sue make sure he gets the name right.

Oddly enough, these same denominations are the churches of the slave owners of the Old South, modern segregationists and supporters of the Ku Klux Klan. They have a visceral reaction to Mormons, Jews, Indians, Catholics and others they perceive as undesirables. The Southern Baptists for example, have a laundry list of churches that are OK to hate. They actually teach this crap from the pulpit. They have an online book store with 26 pages of hate filled derogatory offerings for sale to their adherents.  It is unsettling to me as an American that so many look to these people for leadership. You will notice that none of what I said was theological in nature but rather are comments on officially sanctioned behaviors.

“The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.” Luke 16:16. 

What they don’t tell you is that the John talked about is John The Baptist. Matthew 11:12-13 corrects the critics claims.

“12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. 13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.

The New Centry Version makes it a bit clearer.

“12 Since the time John the Baptist came until now, the kingdom of heaven has been going forward in strength, and people have been trying to take it by force.13 All the prophets and the law of Moses told about what would happen until the time John came.”

So what is The Law and The Prophets talked about in this passage? If our critics are going to use the terms as proof of our falseness they should at least know what the passage says. The Law is a book. Galations 3:10 talks about it.

10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

The Prophets is a book too. Acts 7:42 tells a bit of it.

42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?

The Law and The Prophets are scriptures read in the synagogue.

“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27)

“The Law and The Prophets are two of the three main groups of Jewish scriptures, which over time Christians called the “Old Testament,” and Jews called the “Tanakh” (a.k.a. the Hebrew Bible). The Hebrew Bible is divided into three groups of books: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. During the time of Christ, the third group or division was called “the psalms:  (Raymond Woodworth, www.lightplanet.com)”

“Greg Johnson explained about a time when he and Robert Millet were ready to give their event at an LDS Chapel when the bishop unexpectedly cancelled the event. Greg went to speak with the bishop to ask why he cancelled the event. The bishop began to explain that he served a mission almost 30 year ago and, as Greg explained, he wasn’t treated very well by the Evangelical Christians he had met. The experience had such an effect that he simply didn’t want to expose his congregation, comprised of the youth, to this same experience.  Greg told the bishop that this would not be the same experience. The bishop then agreed.  Greg noted that after the event, the bishop came up to him and thanked him.  Greg remarked that there was healing that was taking place at that moment.” http://summatheologica.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/reading-scriptures-with-new-eyes-a-baptist-and-mormon-converse/

3 Nephi 11: 29-30 sets out the LDS perspective -

29. For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.
 30 Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away.

Such things as Millet and Johnson have taken on require a choice. The choice here is to forgo doctrinal differences in order to accomplish real Christian service. Galatians 5:22-23 says it too. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”