{"id":41436,"date":"2021-02-03T19:54:33","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T00:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timesandseasons.org\/?p=41436"},"modified":"2021-02-03T19:54:33","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T00:54:33","slug":"i-will-establish-my-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2021\/02\/i-will-establish-my-church\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI will establish my church\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doctrine and Covenants Section 10 is interesting in its discussion of the Lord\u2019s church because it seems to use the term in two different ways. \u00a0One definition is the institution that we\u2019re most likely to think of when we hear the term\u2014the one we call Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.\u00a0 The second is what has been loosely termed the \u201cchurch without walls\u201d or the \u201cinvisible church\u201d\u2014the collective group of people who are in tune with the Holy Spirit and do God\u2019s work in the world.\u00a0 Both definitions are important to understand and think about in our relationship to the world today.<\/p>\n

The first definition to be brought up is the institutional Church of Christ that would be established in April 1830.\u00a0 The revelation paraphrases an earlier revelation in stating that the Lord had said: \u201cIf this generation harden not their hearts, I will establish my church among them.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 This seems to alluding to either an unknown revelation that we don’t have today or a revelation given to Martin Harris in March 1829 about the Three Witnesses, which proclaimed that they would receive their testimony \u201cin this the beginning of the rising up and the coming forth of my church out of the wilderness\u2014clear as the moon, fair as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners,\u201d and that \u201ctheir testimony shall also go forth unto the condemnation of this generation if they harden their hearts against them.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Whatever the case, together, these two revelations (the March 1829 one that is now Section 5 and the spring 1829 that is now Section 10) are the earliest indication that we have that the a church would be founded, approximately a year before it officially happened.<\/p>\n

It is worth noting that the word choice found in the earlier revelation is interesting.\u00a0 It alludes to both the Song of Solomon\u2014which describes the author\u2019s love as \u201cshe that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners\u201d[3]<\/a>\u2014and the Revelation of St John the Divine, which speaks of seeing \u201ca woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars\u201d who \u201cfled into the wilderness\u201d after \u201cshe brought forth a man child\u201d and was persecuted by the dragon.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Those same texts were brought together and used by the Scottish minister Alexander Frasier in 1795 in his popular work, Key to the Prophecies<\/em>.\u00a0 Frasier interpreted the women in Revelation to be \u201cthe Church of Christ, considered as a community or collective body,\u201d and her fleeing into the wilderness as representing a time when \u201cthe visible church declined from the doctrines and precepts of Christianity, the true Church of Christ gradually retired from the view of men, till at length, … the true church of Christ, considered as a community, wholly disappeared.\u201d\u00a0 While the church of God lost the outward ties of \u201cgovernment, doctrine and ordinances,\u201d an invisible church, or the church in the wilderness, still existed among those who were tied together by \u201cthe Spirit of God, which animates the great Head of the church, and every real member of his mystical body.\u201d\u00a0 This church, he wrote, is \u201cvisible in that state as a community, only to the eyes of \u2026 God.\u201d \u00a0Frasier believed that this invisible or universal church would eventually be brought back into a visible church community when the time of the prophesied years of exile ended.\u00a0 At that time, \u201cthe universal church shall again become visible as a community, extended over the whole earth, \u2018clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners.\u2019\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0 While I’m not sure whether or not Joseph Smith was familiar with Frasier\u2019s work, it seems possible that he drew on its language to communicate that the Restoration would accomplish the work of re-establishing the visible Church of God again, with the proper government, doctrine, and ordinances.<\/p>\n

In any case, Frasier\u2019s invisible church or church in the wilderness seems to be a useful way of understanding the other church mentioned in Section 10.\u00a0 In the revelation, the Lord says that he will not be establishing His church \u201cto destroy my church, but \u2026 to build up my church; therefore whosoever belongeth to my church need not fear, for such shall inherit the kingdom of heaven.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 The church referenced in this quote seems to be separate from the church that is going to be established, since the soon-to-be established institutional church is spoken of in terms of a relationship to this other church, building it up rather than destroying this second, already-existing church.\u00a0 Later on in the section, the Lord defines the church as \u201cwhosoever repenteth and cometh unto me.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 This can be understood as both broadening and constricting the membership of the Lord\u2019s church to include individuals outside of the institutional church who repent and come unto Him and to also exclude members of the institutional church who do not.\u00a0 Thus, the second church referenced in Section 10 seems to be more similar to Frasier\u2019s invisible church than an institutional Church of Christ.<\/p>\n

As a contrast to this invisible church of the Lord, there are also those \u201cthat do wickedly and build up the kingdom of the devil.\u201d \u00a0It is this group that the Lord intends to \u201cdisturb, and cause to tremble and shake to the center,\u201d[8]<\/a> rather than His church.\u00a0 Included in this group are \u201cthey who do not fear me, neither keep my commandments but build up churches unto themselves to get gain.\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0 It is this group that a later revelation to Oliver Cowdery seems to refer to in telling him to \u201ccontend against no church, save it be the church of the devil.\u201d[10]<\/a>\u00a0 Rather than being a specific institution, this kingdom or church of the devil seems to be the evil counterpart to the invisible church of God.<\/p>\n

Now, I discussed Elder B. H. Roberts\u2019s views<\/a> about the Church of the Lamb and the Church of the Devil last year when talking about Nephi\u2019s apocalyptic vision<\/a>, but they are relevant to bring up in this discussion as well.\u00a0 In a 1906 general conference address, he stated that the church of the devil is \u201cno particular church, no particular division of Christendom, but \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 Hence, he understood:<\/p>\n

The injunction to Oliver Cowdery to \u2018contend against no church, save it be the church of the devil,\u2019 to mean that he shall contend against evil, against untruth, against all combinations of wicked men. They constitute the church of the devil, the kingdom of evil, a federation of unrighteousness; and the 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. [11]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This church of the devil, as understood by Elder Roberts, corresponds to those people mentioned in Section 10 \u201cthat do wickedly and build up the kingdom of the devil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likewise, Elder Roberts envisioned a Church of the Lamb of God as embracing a larger group than a single institution.\u00a0 He taught that: \u201cAll 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\u00a0 He also added, as such, that \u201cit would be poor policy for us to contend against [other religions] without discrimination.\u201d[12]<\/a> \u00a0Elder B. H. Roberts felt that God-fearing individuals throughout the world were a part of the Church of the Lamb of God\u2014regardless of whether or not they are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints\u2014and this \u201cempire of Jehovah,\u201d as he termed it, seems to correspond to the Lord\u2019s church that the Lord intended to \u201cbuild up\u201d by establishing the Church of Christ, as stated in Section 10.<\/p>\n

This is a useful way of looking at things as we consider interfaith cooperation and interactions in general, but we need to remember there is also value in the institution of the Church.\u00a0 In the talk referenced above, Elder Roberts referred to the First Vision and noted that: \u201cI rejoice in the plainness and emphasis of this revelation, because from it I am made to realize that there is a very important reason for the existence of the work with which we are identified. \u2026 The Gospel had been corrupted; its ordinances had been changed; its laws transgressed, its truths so far lost to the children of men that it rendered this new dispensation of the Gospel of Christ\u2014miscalled \u2018Mormonism\u2019\u2014necessary.\u201d[13]<\/a> \u00a0In a more recent general conference address, Elder D. Todd Christofferson tried to answer the question: \u201cHow does [God\u2019s] Church accomplish the Lord\u2019s purposes?\u201d\u00a0 He gives several answers, including \u201cto create a community of Saints that will sustain one another,\u201d that uniting with the Church is \u201can important part of taking His [Jesus Christ\u2019s] name upon us,\u201d and that \u201cas the body of Christ, the members of the Church minister to one another in the reality of day-to-day life\u201d in a \u201chands-on\u201d way that tests and shapes us.\u00a0 He also points out that working together as an organization, we can \u201cachieve needful things that cannot be accomplished by individuals or smaller groups,\u201d such as the humanitarian efforts of the Church or the construction and operation of temples.[14]<\/a>\u00a0 In these ways, the institution of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is able to, as the Lord says, \u201cbuild up my church.\u201d[15]<\/a><\/p>\n

Thus, when the early revelations of Joseph Smith speak of the church of the Lord in different ways, there does seem to be an effort to found what we now call the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in order to support a broader group that can also be termed the Church of Christ.\u00a0 The former is able to offer much in doctrine, ordinances, and governing a community of believers while the latter is comprised of those who are united through the Spirit of God and repent and come unto the Lord.\u00a0 Together, both play an important role in the work of God.<\/p>\n

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Further Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n