6 April 1830 is a date well-known to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On that date, in New York State, Joseph Smith Jr organised the Church of Christ. When Joseph later began collecting revelations he had received into what would become the Book of Commandments (the predecessor to the Doctrine and Covenants), the Lord then dictated to Joseph the preface for that book – what is now known as Section 1 of the Doctrine and Covenants.
In that section, we read the God had given, ‘… power to lay the foundation of this church, and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness, the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased, speaking unto the church collectively and not individually …’ (D&C 1:30)
I recall referencing this scripture extensively when a full-time missionary for the church in Chile many years ago. ‘See,’ I would say, ‘God Himself says this is the only true church.’
Another thing we would do is when people would pray about whether the Book of Mormon is true and felt God answered them in the affirmative, we would tell them that if the Book of Mormon is true, then that means Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and if Joseph Smith was a true prophet then the church he organised is the true church and they should join it.
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