Joseph Smith and "The Only True and Living Church"
Robert R. Millet
1. It does not mean that men and women of other Christian faiths are not sincere believers in truth and genuine followers of the Christ.
2. It does not mean that they are worshiping “a different Jesus,” as many in the Christian world often say of the Latter-day Saints.
3. It does not mean we believe that most of the doctrines in Catholic or Protestant Christianity are false or that the leaders of the various branches of Christianity have improper motives.
4. It does not mean that the Bible has been so corrupted that it cannot be relied upon to teach us sound doctrine and provide an example of how to live.
5. It does not mean that God disapproves of or rejects all that devoted Christians are teaching or doing, where their heart is, and what they hope to accomplish in the religious world.
6. It does not mean that God-fearing Christians who are not Latter-day Saints will not go to heaven.
7. Our belief that we are “the only true and living church” does not mean that Latter-day Saints desire to “do their own thing” or face social challenges on their own.
What the "only true church" does mean:
1. “The word only,” Elder Neal A. Maxwell wrote, “asserts a uniqueness and singularity about [the Church] as the exclusive ecclesiastical, authority-bearing agent for our Father in heaven in this dispensation.”
The word true is derived from the Old English word treowe, meaning honest, upright, virtuous, straightforward, loyal, faithful, steady and steadfast, constant, fitting, proper, consistent with fact, conforming with reality, conforming to a standard or pattern, accurately positioned, germane, correctly balanced or aligned, precise, and secure. It is related closely to such words as trust, truce, and betrothed. Thus, to refer to the restored Church as “the only true church” is to speak of it as being the most steady, sure, and solid institution on earth, the closest to the pattern of the primitive Christian Church, in terms of dispensing the mind and will of God and enjoying His complete approbation. It does not suggest that other churches are mostly false or that their teachings are completely corrupt.
2. “The only true and living church” means that doctrinal finality rests with apostles and prophets, not theologians or scholars.
3. It means that while God will bless and strengthen and lead any person who follows the divine light within (see John 1:9), each man or woman is responsible to be true to that light which leads unto all truth, to seek, search, weigh, and prove all things.
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