One of the more controversial aspects of Nephi\u2019s vision of the tree of life is the great and abominable church or church of the devil.\u00a0 In his record, Nephi states that \u201cthere are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil\u201d (1 Nephi 14:10).\u00a0 At times, Church leaders and members have associated \u201cthe church of the devil\u201d with specific organizations, such as the Roman Catholic Church, while at others, they have tried to use it as a metaphor for any organization that promotes evil.\u00a0 In recent history, the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have stressed the latter.\u00a0 Yet, there is also a Church of the Lamb of God that is spoken of by Nephi that is also worth discussing as an opposite counterpart of the church of the devil.<\/p>\n
In his vision, Nephi reports seeing \u201cthe formation of a church which is most abominable above all other churches\u201d that was founded by the devil and that \u201cthey have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away\u201d (1 Nephi 13:5, 26).\u00a0 What this church of the devil was and how it participated in the Great Apostasy has been a matter of discussion over the years. Most famously, Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught that the Roman Catholic Church was this great and abominable church.\u00a0 This is what I was taught growing up in the post-McConkie era, to the point that I when a Catholic classmate at elementary school told me he was Catholic, I (unfortunately) responded: \u201cOh\u2014that\u2019s the great and abominable church, right?\u201d, which left him very upset.\u00a0 The idea didn\u2019t start with Elder McConkie, though.\u00a0 Many early Church members converted from Protestant backgrounds in the generally anti-Catholic environment of the early United States. \u00a0At least as early as 1854, Elder Orson Pratt made the connection when wrote that the Roman Catholic Church was founded by \u201cthe Devil, through the medium of Apostates.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 By 1906, Elder B. H. Roberts of the Seventy reported being asked \u201cIs the Catholic church the church here referred to\u2014the church of the devil?\u201d while visiting outlying stakes of the Church.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 It is unfortunate and unfair to call the Roman Catholic Church the church of the devil or the great and abominable church\u2014while there have been a lot of terrible things done in the name of that church, it has still been a force for good in the world and has played an important role in preserving the flame of Christianity throughout the centuries.<\/p>\n In recognition of the good that the Catholic Church does and our ongoing efforts to partner with them over moral issues, our Church has suggested alternative definitions of the great and abominable church.\u00a0 For example, in the \u201cCome, Follow Me\u201d curriculum this year, President Dallin H. Oaks is quoted as stating that the church in Nephi\u2019s vision is \u201cany philosophy or organization that opposes belief in God.\u00a0 And the \u2018captivity\u2019 into which this \u2018church\u2019 seeks to bring the saints will not be so much physical confinement as the captivity of false ideas.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Likewise, the Institute manual for the Book of Mormon cites a later explanation offered by Elder Bruce R. McConkie that calls the church of the devil all organizations that \u201care designed to take men on a course that leads away from God and his laws and thus from salvation in the kingdom of God.\u201d\u00a0 That manual also cites a longer quote from Stephen E. Robinson that points out that \u201cno single known historical church, denomination, or set of believers meets all the requirements for the great and abominable church.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0 The official stance of the Church today seems to be that the church of the devil includes any group that leads people away from God and to performing evil.<\/p>\n One of my favorite discussions about the churches from Nephi\u2019s vision of the tree of life, however, comes from Elder B. H. Roberts.\u00a0 Elder Roberts was an influential general authority at the turn of the 20th<\/sup> century who was a prolific author on gospel topics and a well-respected orator.\u00a0 His writing and sermons had a strong impact on the Church, enough that they are part of our intellectual DNA today.<\/p>\n One topic on which this is true (and also relevant to the topic at hand) is the Great Apostasy.\u00a0 Roberts was among the first to publish a volume-length historical study of the Great Apostasy in the form of the 1893 Outlines of Ecclesiastical History<\/em>.\u00a0 He continued to reiterate and develop his views in subsequent writings, including The<\/em> Seventy\u2019s Course in Theology <\/em>and The Falling Away<\/em>.\u00a0 As one scholar put it: \u201cMore than any Mormon scholar\u2019s, Roberts\u2019s ideas and approach effectively set the parameters and pattern for all subsequent discussions of apostasy.\u201d\u00a0 That pattern, according to Eric R. Dursteler, was that there were innumerable \u201cplain and precious truths\u201d lost in the first Christian centuries, with the following Dark Age being the fullest expression of the effects of apostasy.\u00a0 The Renaissance, however, revived light and learning in the world, setting the stage for the Protestant Reformation, \u201cwhich, in turn, acted as a prelude to the Restoration.\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0 Other important authors working in the same era, like Elder James E. Talmage and Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, built on the work of B. H. Roberts to describe the Great Apostasy, and the writings of all three of these general authorities continue to shape our discussion of the topic today.<\/p>\n It should be noted before moving on that Elder Roberts rejected all Christian churches outside of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as apostate and corrupted shadows of the true church of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 While he describes the failings of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the late classical and Medieval periods in detail, he states his opinion that the Protestant reformers \u201cleft more truth in the Catholic church than they brought out with them, or found in their speculations after leaving that church.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 On another occasion, he stated that \u201cso far as the Catholic church is concerned, I believe that there is just as much truth, nay, personally I believe that it has retained even more truth than other divisions of so-called Christendom.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 The benefit of the Protestant Reformation was not that it restored truth or moved people closer to it, but that \u201cit did overthrow the power of the Catholic Church in a great part of Western Europe, gave larger liberty to the people, and thus prepared the way for the greater work which followed it\u2014the introduction of the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times.\u201d[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Both Roman Catholic and Protestant churches were spoken of as being apostate organizations in Elder Roberts\u2019s writings.<\/p>\n In 1906 at the spring general conference, Roberts focused a significant portion of his talk around the question \u201cIs the Catholic church the church here referred to [in 1 Nephi 14]\u2014the church of the devil?\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0 Given how he focused on the failings of the Medieval Catholic Church in his book on the Great Apostasy, one might wonder if he would have responded that the church of the devil was indeed the Catholic Church. \u00a0He did not, however, feel like that was a good answer.\u00a0 His answer was that: \u201cI would not like to take that position, because it would leave me with a lot of churches on my hands that I might not then be able to classify.\u201d\u00a0 He went on to say: \u201cI would not like \u2026 to designate the Catholic church as the church of the devil.\u00a0 Neither would I like to designate any one or all\u201d of the various faiths and religions found around the world.\u00a0 Instead, he felt that Nephi \u201chas in mind no particular church, no particular division of Christendom, but he has in mind \u2026 the whole empire of Satan; and perhaps the thought of the passage would be more neatly expressed if we use the term \u2018the kingdom of evil\u2019 as constituting the church of the devil.\u201d\u00a0 This church of the devil, then, is summed up by Elder Roberts as \u201cevil \u2026 untruth \u2026 [and] all combinations of wicked men.\u201d [10]<\/a><\/p>\n While Elder Roberts was known to emphasize the idea that all other faiths and religions are apostate, he still acknowledged that they had portions of the truth and righteous individuals.\u00a0 In his 1906 general conference address, he stated that \u201cthey have retained fragments of Christian truth \u2026 and it would be poor policy for us to contend against them without discrimination.”[11]<\/a>\u00a0 Elsewhere, he wrote that, \u201cjust as when the sun goes down, there still remains light in the sky\u2014 so, too, notwithstanding this apostasy from the Church, there still were left fragments of truth among the children of men. \u2026 The light of truth burned in the bosom of good men.\u201d[12]<\/a>\u00a0 This understanding of other churches informed how he interpreted the counterpart of the church of the devil, the \u201cChurch of the Lamb of God\u201d that Nephi spoke of in 1 Nephi 14.<\/p>\n Elder Roberts defined the church of the Lamb of God as being the opposite of the church of the devil.\u00a0 He said: \u201cAll that makes for untruth, for unrighteousness constitutes the kingdom of evil\u2014the church of the devil. All that makes for truth, for righteousness, is of God; it constitutes the kingdom of righteousness\u2014the empire of Jehovah; and, in a certain sense at least, constitutes the Church of Christ.\u201d\u00a0 As such, the Church of the Lamb of God is larger than just the membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and includes all who \u201care seeking to know God and to keep His commandments.\u201d \u00a0With this understanding in mind, Elder Roberts encouraged his audience to \u201cseek to enlarge this kingdom of righteousness both by recognizing such truths as it possesses and seeking the friendship and co-operation of the righteous men and women who constitute its membership.\u201d[13]<\/a>\u00a0 B. H. Roberts felt that God-fearing individuals throughout the world were a part of the Church of the Lamb of God, not only members of our church.<\/p>\n There are parallels to Elder Roberts\u2019s understanding of the Church of the Lamb of God in the writings of other Latter-day Saints.\u00a0 Terryl L. Givens, for example, has drawn on the writings of Protestant authors who spoke of the true church of Christ fleeing into the wilderness like the woman in Revelation 12 and rendered \u201cinvisible, protected, nourished, and preserved.\u201d\u00a0 This invisible church continued to exist throughout the apostasy \u201cwhere righteous individuals, their spiritual gifts, and godly principles and practices persisted.\u201d\u00a0 In his writings, Givens points to people spoken of in a revelation to Joseph Smith as \u201cthose which I have reserved unto myself, holy men that ye know not of\u201d (D&C 49:8) as members of this invisible church. Givens, in a manner similar to Elder Roberts, suggests that this idea of an invisible Church of righteous individuals is an important part of \u201creconsidering the meaning of \u2026 the Church of the Lamb of God.\u201d[14]<\/a><\/p>\n Thus, when reading 1 Nephi 13-14, both churches spoken of can be broadened out considerably from narrow interpretations of specific organizations.\u00a0 Elder B. H. Roberts understood that when Nephi writes that \u201cthere are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil\u201d (1 Nephi 14:10), one cannot assign only one specific organization to each of those churches, since it would \u201cwould leave me with a lot of churches on my hands that I might not then be able to classify.\u201d\u00a0 Instead of fighting specific organized religions, he felt that, \u201cthe servants of God have a right to contend against that which is evil, let it appear where it will, in Catholic or in Protestant Christendom, among the philosophical societies of deists and atheists, and even within the Church of Christ, if, unhappily, it should make its appearance there\u201d and to embrace those who \u201care seeking to know God and to keep His commandments\u201d as members of the Church of the Lamb of God.[15]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Footnotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Orson Pratt,\u00a0The Seer<\/em>\u00a0(Washington D.C., April 1854), https:\/\/archive.org\/stream\/seereditedbyorso01unse\/seereditedbyorso01unse_djvu.txt<\/a>.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> B. H. Roberts, CR, April 1906, 14-15. See https:\/\/prophetsseersandrevelators.wordpress.com\/2014\/02\/26\/b-h-roberts-the-church-of-the-lamb-and-the-church-of-the-devil\/<\/a> or The Essential B.H. Roberts<\/em>, ed. Brigham D. Madsen (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1999), 175-182 for other locations to access the full text of the talk.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Cited in Come, Follow Me\u2014For Individuals and Families, Book of Mormon 2020<\/em>, p. 15.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n [4]<\/a> See chapter 4 of the Book of Mormon Student Manual <\/em>(SLC: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2009) at https:\/\/www.churchofjesuschrist.org\/study\/manual\/book-of-mormon-student-manual\/chapter-4-1-nephi-12-15?lang=eng<\/a>.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Eric R. Dursteler, \u201cInheriting the \u2018Great Apostasy\u2019: The Evolution of Mormon Views on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,\u201d Journal of Mormon History <\/em>23 (Fall 2002): 23-59, https:\/\/mormonhistoryassociation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Journal-of-Mormon-History-Vol.-28-Issue-2-2002.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> B. H. Roberts, Outlines of Ecclesiastical History<\/em> (Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon & Sons Company, 1893), 249.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> B. H. Roberts, CR, April 1906, 15.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Outlines of Ecclesiastical History, <\/em>iii.<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> CR, April 1906, 14-15.<\/p>\n [10]<\/a> CR, April 1906, 15.<\/p>\n [11]<\/a> CR, April 1906, 15.<\/p>\n [12]<\/a> B. H. Roberts, Defense of the Faith and the Saints<\/em>, 2 vol (Salt Lake City: Deseret News: 1907- 1912), 2:303-304.<\/p>\n [13]<\/a> CR, April 1906, 15-16.<\/p>\n [14]<\/a> Terryl Givens, \u201c\u2018We Have Only the Old Thing\u2019: Rethinking Mormon Restoration\u201d, Apostasy and Restoration Conference, Brigham Young University, 3 March 2012, https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/597de9b0914e6bed5fd41726\/t\/59da963ab1ffb6b10397a455\/1507497532644\/We+have+only+the+Old+Thing+Final+version.pdf<\/a>.\u00a0 He also speaks of the idea of an invisible church or a church without walls in an address at Notre Dame that took place on 5 December 2013: \u201cThe Woman in the Wilderness: Mormonism, Catholicism, and Inspired Syncretism,\u201d https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/597de9b0914e6bed5fd41726\/t\/59da905203596eb5954d0bb9\/1507496023651\/Notre+Dame+Woman+in+Wilderness.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n