“The True and Living Church,” New Era, June 2008, 39
What Joseph Taught
The True and Living Church
Joseph Smith understood the destiny of the Lord’s Church and each member’s role in it.
After the Book of Mormon was translated and the priesthood authority restored, the Lord commanded the Prophet Joseph Smith to organize His Church on April 6, 1830 (see D&C 20). In the years that followed, the Church saw many miracles and blessings, as well as severe hardships and persecutions. Throughout it all, the Prophet understood the Church’s destiny and the importance of each member’s contribution in realizing that destiny. Here are some of his teachings about the true and living Church.*
God’s Work Cannot Be Stopped
“The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”
Building Up Zion Is Everyone’s Concern
“The cause of God is one common cause, in which the Saints are alike all interested; we are all members of the one common body, and all partake of the same spirit, and are baptized into one baptism and possess alike the same glorious hope. The advancement of the cause of God and the building up of Zion is as much one man’s business as another’s. The only difference is, that one is called to fulfill one duty, and another another duty; … party feelings, separate interests, exclusive designs should be lost sight of in the one common cause, in the interest of the whole.”
We All Must Work
“Brethren and sisters, be faithful, be diligent, contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints [see Jude 1:3]; let every man, woman and child realize the importance of the work, and act as if success depended on his individual exertion alone.”
The Church of Jesus Christ Is Organized, 1830, by Joseph Brickey