Conclusion
Though the church was designed to be a tool to help save men, it never was and still isn’t the arbiter of salvation. Christ still employs no servant at the gate of salvation (2 Nephi 9:41). The blessings are available to all who come to him, independent of church status. The danger of assuming his role has been replaced with a church is that, should the church modify the ordinances or mix scripture with the philosophies of men, those who put their trust in the church will be prevented from coming unto Christ.
President Lee once taught:
Much of what we do organizationally, then, is scaffolding, as we seek to build the individual, and we must not mistake the scaffolding for the soul. (Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, Oct. 1967, p. 107.)
When the scaffold builders ignore the architect’s blueprint, and instead design scaffolding according to their own imaginations,1 they will inevitably block the path of the building.2 God is still in control, and still offers every blessing to the faithful who, like Abraham, realize there are greater blessings available for any who will seek God directly.
Almost every aspect of the doctrine of Christ has been replaced, modified, or removed in modern Mormonism. However, institutional deviation from the gospel has never prevented an individual from obeying the doctrine of Christ.3 Our day is no different. Each aspect of the gospel of Jesus Christ existed or has existed outside of an institution.
Because no aspect of the doctrine of Christ is controlled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, no changes to the doctrine of Christ made by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints need prevent a disciple of Christ from obtaining all the blessings available to any of God’s children at any time.
Footnotes
- 1. “But what could I have done more in my vineyard? Have I slackened mine hand, that I have not nourished it? Nay, I have nourished it, and I have digged about it, and I have pruned it, and I have dunged it; and I have stretched forth mine hand almost all the day long, and the end draweth nigh. And it grieveth me that I should hew down all the trees of my vineyard, and cast them into the fire that they should be burned. Who is it that has corrupted my vineyard? And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: Is it not the loftiness of thy vineyard—have not the branches thereof overcome the roots which are good? And because the branches have overcome the roots thereof, behold they grew faster than the strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves. Behold, I say, is not this the cause that the trees of thy vineyard have become corrupted?” (Jacob 5:47-48.) ↩
- 2. As Jesus put it, “Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.” (Luke 11:52.) ↩
- 3. Almost every person who encountered the approval of God in the scriptures did so in an environment where the status quo was in opposition to God. Moses, Joseph Smith, Abraham, and even Jesus Christ were all justified before God despite having been born in a time where no institution was practicing the doctrine of Christ as revealed from heaven. ↩