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Salvation Comes Through The Mormon Church?

I was searching on lds.org about a couple of topics and I found this interesting talk and I would like to know what are your thoughts about it: Salvation comes through the Church or through Christ?. I personally think it comes through Jesus Christ of course and the Church is obviously needed but I do not think is the factor that we obtain salvation, we obtain it through the Savior. What are your thoughts?.

Just a couple pf quotes from the talk:

"When the Savior established his church during his mortal ministry, and as it was further developed by the twelve apostles of that day, one important fact became conspicuously clear, which is: that salvation comes through the Church.

It does not come through any separate organization or splinter group nor to any private party as an individual. It comes only through the Church itself as the Lord established it.

If persons separate themselves from the Lord's church, they thereby separate themselves from his means of salvation, for salvation is through the Church."

https://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Mag...he%20church.htm

Church Mormon Through Salvation

Although salvation is a personal matter the ordinances and revelation that comes from the Priesthood keys are necessary to our salvation, they being of Christ of course.

However, the Church is a *part* of the gospel and many things in it are for our support and aren't strictly necessary (such as Sunday School). A faithful person must join and remain in the Church *where possible* - and by that I mean he must have a very good reason not to be in it (such as was the case with Moroni son of Mormon who of course was alone!).

We do need, however, to be careful not to become Church-centered. The cause of Zion is not, in my view, the building up of the Church alone; it is about the whole gospel and I think this a matter often misunderstood where I see active members focusing on the Church to the exclusion of all else. It's more a matter of attitude than action; most of us need to be more active in the Church. We just need to remember that being active in the gospel is the whole picture

All in my humble view of course.

Dubhdara..

Salvation Comes Through The Mormon Church? Studies Doctrine Mormon

I think Dubhdara did an excellent job of explaining why in a sense salvation does come through the Church. I sum it up this way, can I attain exaltation if I never join the Church and accept baptisim, in this life or the next, simply because I believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ?

Edited: tenaheff on 15th Oct, 2004 - 12:00pm

Church Mormon Through Salvation

Interesting article, but I think a few things were stretched to make some points. It also helps to have a little understanding of the author.

Does excommunication by duly authorized leaders within the Church always mean that the person has lost all of his/her blessings? I don't believe that it does. When I was excommunicant, I certainly did not have access to the Priesthood, nor to certain special blessings. But what about the young men in Germany, who fought against the Nazis, were excommunicated by their bishop/branch president, and were eventually executed by the state? Had they actually lost their blessings? According to Elder Peterson, they certainly did.

Now, lets imagine another scenario. Jack is a faithful member of the Church. He is a High Priest, does his home teaching, goes to the temple on a regular basis, and is normally an inspiration to his ward. However, he has a past. Several years ago, he was married, and there was a very bitter divorce. The ex-wife holds a terrible grudge against him. She makes some accusations that he can't completely counter, so he is prosecuted and convicted of a felony. He is innocent, but that she is able to set against him wins the case. He is excommunicated because of this crime, although he proclaims his innocence.

Is he apostate? Does the Lord recognize that he no longer has the Priesthood? The Church certainly does, and won't allow him to pay tithing, participate in any meetings, give blessings, etc.

Here is another scenario. Remember that both of these are scenarios. I don't know that either of them have ever actually happened, although I suspect that perhaps they have.

Ken is also a faithful member. He is an Elder, works as a mechanic in a garage, and does a good job of meeting his church obligations. He is not always 100% in his home teaching, but pretty close.

Ken, while reading some old conference addresses, notices what Brigham Young said about Adam being our God. He found that kind of strange, so he started researching it. Eventually, he found that Brigham Young and other early Church Leaders certainly did teach this doctrine. But he also learned that Spencer W. Kimball taught that this was false doctrine. Now he has a huge question. Which one of these men taught false doctrine? If a Prophet, acting as a Prophet, declares something to be doctrine (or false), and is wrong in this important subject, how do we deal with the dilemma?

He goes to the Lord, asking for specific direction in this. He feels that he lacks wisdom. After much fasting and prayer, he gets what he feels is a clear, unambiguous answer, that Brigham Young was right.

What changes in his life is that he is now more conscientious in performing his obligations. He gets his temple recommend renewed after a 5 year lapse and starts attending on a regular basis. He almost never talks about his experience, but it does weaken his trust and faith in the Church structure. He supports President Hinckley as the Prophet and President of the Church, but takes everything with a little grain of salt, and does a lot of praying about every subject.

Is Ken apostate? By the definition of Elder Peterson, he is.

Now, about Elder Peterson. I was always impressed by him. I like the way he wrote and spoke. I have several books by him. However, Elder Mark E. Peterson is the individual who coined the term "Mormon Fundamentalist" that is now in disfavor with the church leadership. He actively sought the excommunication of anyone who appeared to believe that plural marriage was a true, eternal principle, even if they fully supported the Church in all ways. He wrote his book, Adam, Who Is He?, specifically to discredit the Adam/God doctrine, but was very slanted in the references he used, and how he used them.

Now, I am not supporting any particular doctrine. I just use this one since I happen to have studied it a bit, and have read the stories of some people who believe it whole-heartedly.

Now, what does this have to do with the original question of this topic? It seems to me that the topic has followed the idea that if a person is considered apostate by the Church, then that person will lose his salvation, as the salvation comes through the Church. I certainly agree with LDS_forever that salvation comes through Jesus Christ, and that the ordinances of salvation are available through the Church and through no other organization. But, do the actions of some people in the Church, which are not right, affect the salvation of individuals? In the scenario of Ken, for example, does the fact that by the definition of the Church he is apostate affect his salvation?

Obviously, I am not talking about the same type of apostate that Brigham Young referred to, which Elder Peterson quoted. In fact, under Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, differences of belief did NOT count as apostasy. To them, an apostate was someone like Ed Decker, a former member who spends his entire life trying to tear down and destroy the Church and the Priesthood. If you look at the history of the Church at that time, you will be able to find many instances where Brigham Young referred by name to apostates, and they were this type of person.

One last example. Emma Smith decided to stay in Illinois when the Saints fled westward. She didn't like Brigham Young. She was tired, depressed, and had just lost her husband. So, she was cut off from the Church. Considering all that we know about her, was she apostate? Did she lose her salvation? If she was alive today, she would certainly fit right in with the rest of the Church, as her biggest problem with the Church at that time was plural marriage. Yet Brigham considered her apostate.

As you can probably tell, I think this argument is far more complex than Elder Peterson made it.

Church Mormon Through Salvation

That's the exact impression I got when I read the talk, I was not very keen when I read the title itself, I don't know what you all think but it doesn't sounds good. We know we need the Church to obtain the ordinances for Salvation but isn't a bit too much to say that Salvation comes from the Church?. I mean, I think they should have put it 'Salvation comes through Jesus Christ' and may be then explain the important role the Church has on it.

Salvation Comes Through The Mormon Church?

I agree, and really appreciate the great posts folks -- thank you so much. I can't add anything of value, you've covered it very well.

Roz

Salvation Through Mormon Church

Salvation comes through Christ only. However, when he has set up his Church, even the government of his kingdom on earth, and we know that this church was organized by his power and is still under his direction, we have no excuse to seek the path to salvation anywhere else. Either you accept the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as true and living (meaning its doctrines may be clarified or old laws superseded by new ones, only by the prophet under the direction of the Lord), or you believe that the church has fallen from its original truth and authority, and that there is no true church. For those with testimonies of the Restoration, these are the only two choices.

As far as balance and slant, Elder Peterson is in no way obligated to provide a balanced outlook on false doctrine. That is like saying the apostles should spend equal time extolling the benefits of sin in general conference if they are going to discuss things as they really are. This is, of course, ridiculous. We must be biased against falsehood and sin. We must be biased against Satan. We cannot afford to ponder his point of view. There is no time for that.

I testify that the Church is the instrumentality through which the Lord intends us to achieve salvation by the atonement of Christ. It is every bit as true today as when Christ commanded the prophet Joseph to organize it. If we let anything drive a wedge between our individual souls and the Lord's Church, we will answer to the Lord who organized it. There is an answer to every question. I hope we do not withhold any part of our devotion to the Church because of petty differences or hypothetical questions. This is not an accusation of anyone here; I have just seen enough of that effect in my own contact with Church members.

Salvation Through Mormon Church Mormon Doctrine Studies

I feel that our salvation comes through Jesus Christ. The church just lets us know the things we need to do to prepare for the next life.