Mormon Dilemma 53

24 August

No Christian Churches on Earth for Centuries?

Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses 18:172; But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be. They say, “We have built chapels unto the name of the Lord; we call our Churches Christian Churches, they are called the Church of Christ, St. John’s Church, St. Paul’s Church, St. Peter’s Church, and after others of the ancient Apostles;” and one who had never studied the pattern which God has given of the Christian Church would almost really believe that they are Christian Churches.” – Salt Lake City, March 26, 1876

Matthew 28:18-20; And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.  19 ¶ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

This passage from the Bible serves as our ticket of authority to go out and preach salvation to mankind.  The Christian church has been here without interruption since Christ instituted it with Peter and the apostles.

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3 Responses to “Mormon Dilemma 53”

  1. youthguyerik August 24, 2011 at 3:02 am #

    Great post. Another verse worth posting in connection to this is the “gates of hell will never prevail against it” passage. Ultimately, the Mormon position becomes pretty untenable when placed against the word. Thanks for the post and for sharing the truth with the world.

    • lifeafterministry August 24, 2011 at 3:06 am #

      Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again! My heart just breaks for the Mormon people. I still can’t believe I used to think there were no real Christians on earth. Praise God He rescued me from the lies!
      Michelle

  2. shematwater August 29, 2011 at 8:29 pm #

    Actually, Matthew 28: 18-20 does not guarantee the continuation of the church, nor does it even claim to teach such a continuation. It is simply a command given by Jesus to the Twelve in relation to the work they were called to.
    If you seek to use verse 20, in which Christ says he is always with them, this is part of the misinterpretation, in that Christ does not say he will be with the Church, but that he will be with the Twelve. Any application to any person or persons who were not one of the twelve is really given to the verse more than taken from it.

    As to the gates of Hell, this particular verse, when translating from the ancient Greek, is speaking about the grave, or physical death. As Christ was resurrected, and thus ensured the resurrection of all me, the gates of Hell (or death) will not prevail against his church, but will be broken down and the captive spirits released.

    As you can see this has no dilemma for the LDS. You would have done better to use this as a reason for excluding the LDS church from the list of Christian denominations. After all, if Orson Pratt claims that all the other Christian churches are not really Christian based on our belief that you are wrong, than you have a better standing to insist on not calling us Christians based on your belief that we are wrong.
    Of course, if you had I would have just pointed out that Brother Pratt was speaking to the concept that no other church is the one that Christ himself organized and therefore has no proper claim to being of Christ, but that we are perfectly willing to let them use the title as much as they wish, and so on the same grounds we can consider ourselves Christians, even though, according to your belief, we have no proper claim to being of Christ.

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