10 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.
This verse is more complex than it seems on the surface. Then again, maybe it isn’t. I studied and pondered this one for a couple of weeks before writing this entry. The scripture says there are only two churches: “the church of the Lamb of God,” and the church of the devil. If you don’t belong to one, then you belong to the other by default. I like that. Nice, neat compartments. Either you get baptized with proper authority, or you don’t. If you do, you made the right choice; if you don’t, you made the wrong choice.
Then I started thinking about all the sincere believers of Christ who belong to churches without proper authority. How could they be considered to belong to the church of the devil? I found some interesting scriptures, many of which make this same statement, that you’re either on the right hand or on the left hand of God. But I think there is a lot of evidence to show that belonging to one or another of these churches has less to do with what denomination one belongs to than where he puts his trust.
2 Nephi 10:16 defines those who are the whore of all the earth (church of the devil) are those who fight “against Zion, both Jew and Gentile” without regard for lineage or religious affiliation. This verse ends by saying, “…they who are not for me are against me, saith our God.” The interesting thing about that statement is that Christ taught his disciples that the flip side of that statement is also true. Mark 9:38–40 (also Luke 9:49–50) says that John told Christ they saw a man casting out devils in Christ’s name, but they stopped him because he wasn’t one of His followers. Christ’s response, as recorded in the Mark account was, “Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part.” Lukes’s version is even more straightforward: “…he that is not against us is for us.”
That takes me to D&C 18:20: “Contend against no church, save it be the church of the devil.” Contrary to what Nephi recorded, this makes it sound as if there were more than “two churches only.” How does that fit into the black and white, binary statement previously discussed? It seems to me that they are all true, but they are talking aobut different things. The D&C verse, as well as Mark and Luke possibly, seem to be talking about congregations of sincere believers in Christ, but that don’t have authority to perform the saving ordinances. Nephi seems to refer to actual beliefs and attitude. A person can belong to the right church, but still follow the wrong church. In other words, he could even be baptized with proper authority, but through his actions and pride, belong to the church of the devil. After all, 2 Nephi 10:16 made it very clear that anybody can fight against Zion, both Jew and Gentile. So anyone can belong to the church of the devil, no matter what other church they may belong to. Likewise, I think it may be true that a person can belong to the church of God, no matter what other church they may belong to. Else why would Christ not forbid people from invoking His name in casting out devils, even though they may not follow Him. Moroni 7:16–17 says that “every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ…is of God. But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, …is of the devil…” Again, no mention of any particular church, but here’s that binary again.
I realize the flip side of my argument is stated clearly by Paul in Ephesians 4:4–6, where it talks about “one body [church], one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” But don’t forget the next verse: “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” That tells me that some need more grace and help than others. So I am not saying belonging to the true church is the same as any other church. Everyone needs to accept saving ordinances by proper authority, but that’s a major reason why we have temples. There are a lot of Christians out there who would accept those ordinances if they knew where to find them, or they had not been deceived by those belonging to the church of the devil. I’m not referring to those who will qualify for exaltation. There is a very narrow definition of people who qualify for that. I’m talking about friends of Christ and enemies of Christ.
So I believe 1 Nephi 14:10 is referring to our beliefs, attitudes, and actions instead of any actual church. That’s why everyone belongs to one or the other of these two churches, whether they have joined a church or not.
- Mark 9:38–40
- Revelation 17:15 (5, 15)
- 1 Nephi 13:4 (4–6)
- 1 Nephi 22:23
- 2 Nephi 6:12–13
- 2 Nephi 10:16
- Mosiah 5:7–10
- Alma 5:38–39
- 3 Nephi 27:8–11
- Moroni 7:16–17
- D&C 18:20 (sounds like soncere believers in Christ, even those who are not baptized with authority are not part of the church of the devil)
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