As someone recently wrote on an online bulletin board I frequent, “Everyone thinks their church is the true church.” .
So what sets the LDS Church above all others? How can you, as the youth of this church, explain this question in a way others can easily comprehend?
One of the most fantastic visual lessons I’ve seen that aptly described what happened to the church Christ organized all those years ago, was actually given during a Relief Society lesson, though it truly applies to everyone.
Our teacher, Sister Burwell, had a bunch of plastic cups turned upside down, each with a small portion of what makes up the gospel written on it. One had ‘The Sacrament’. On another was written ‘Baptism by Immersion.’ Others were ‘Missionary Work,’ ‘Revelation,’ ‘Priesthood,’ and so on. Sister Burwell then took the cups and built a tower, with the cup labeled ‘Jesus Christ’ placed on the bottom row right in the middle.
She went on to explain what would happen after Christ and his apostles died by taking the cup labeled ‘Jesus Christ’ out of the tower. As you can imagine all the cups came tumbling down. Once Jesus was taken out of the foundation, the church fell.
This is when a lot of varying churches popped up. Sister Burwell began to take two or three cups at a time to build ‘mini-towers.’
“A lot of the churches would pick certain things about Christ’s gospel and put them together to make their own church. One might include the Priesthood, the Sacrament, and Sunday worship. Another church might have put together the Sacrament, good works, and baptism by immersion.”
All these churches held specific portions of Christ’s original church, so all of them do contain truth. Over the years some of these truths may have been tweaked. For example: baptizing infants with a sprinkling of water on their heads, as opposed to baptism by immersion as Christ himself showed us.
Therein lies the difference between the LDS Church and all other churches. Perhaps, instead of thinking of ourselves as Christ’s true Church, we can think of ourselves as the Church with the whole truth.
In an extraordinary book by noted LDS authors Blaine and Brenton Yorgason called ‘The Greatest Quest,’ we are led on a journey of discovery (based on a true story) with a small group of college friends. This group decided to examine the New Testament, searching for biblical evidences (or actual points) of Christ’s true church. They were compiling quite a list when World War II separated them. Imagine their surprise when, meeting again years later, they discovered all their points (eventually numbering up to forty-two) were met in one particular church: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Throughout your lives you will be met with many other religions who claim to be the true church of Christ. Don’t forget they do in fact hold some of the truths and consequently deserve your respect. Never ever forget, though, that the LDS Church is the only one in the world that contains the whole truth.
