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.

Oh for the comforting certainty of my naive youth!

Now, don’t get me wrong, just because these beliefs were built on logical fallacies doesn’t mean the overall message isn’t true. But my reasoning was wrong, and reasoning is essential when it comes to discerning the truth.

This is important because the Holy Spirit speaks to both our hearts and our minds (D&C 8:2). God reasons with us (Isaiah 1:18, D&C 50:10). Our Father in Heaven loves us, and because He is a loving Being, He isn’t authoritarian. He expected Abraham to argue with Him about saving the city of Sodom (Genesis 18:20-32). He expected Moses to try to change His mind about destroying the children of Israel (Exodus 32:8-14). The Book of Mormon speaks of us having the eye of faith, not blind obedience (Alma 5:15, Alma 32:40, Ether 12:19). Remember, it was Laman and Lemuel who blindly followed the religious leaders of their day all the way to spiritual death – not the Lehi who publicly criticised them and called them to repentance.

Jim Palmer recently said the following, which really resonates with me: 

‘I don’t suspend my autonomy – my reason – in exchange for belonging. I question what I’ve been taught, especially the things I was told not to question. I test ideas against a lived reality. If a belief system requires me to deny my own experience, something is wrong with the belief system.’¹

God loves people who think, who reason, who seek to learn. Yes, we seek to learn by faith, but until our faith is perfect (and I know mine isn’t), we’re also to learn by study, including from all the best books the world has to offer (D&C 88:118). If we truly wish to discern between true and false – between what comes from the true God and what is counterfeit – we must also gain knowledge.

And unfortunately, when we truly seek new knowledge, a couple of things happen. 

One of those is that we risk being deceived. One of the things taught in the LDS temple endowment is that as soon as we ask for further light and knowledge, Satan comes along and offers a counterfeit.² Given the Lord commands us to ask, seek and knock (Matthew 7:7), it becomes essential for us to us develop the gift of discernment, which is why I’m writing this series.

The other thing that happens is that many of the new truths we learn will appear to contradict things we already believe. This is the cause of the cognitive dissonance I’ve also discussed recently. Cognitive dissonance is really unsettling. You feel the ground on which you stand begin to shake. It creates uncertainty. But working our way through these things is what can create a much stronger faith. Sometimes it’s only when we’ve moved to a firmer ground that we can see the place we used to stand was actually quicksand, slowly sucking us in with its comforting falsehoods. At other times, maybe the ground itself was fine, but our strength grows to stand tall upon it.

Take, for example, the formation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We teach within the church that this church is the same one organised on 6 April 1830, and that the statement by the Lord is D&C 1 about it being the ‘only true and living’ church upon the earth remains the case today. But there are two fallacies in that belief.

First, that’s nearly 200 years ago, and that is a long time for us to be certain that God hasn’t changed His mind. After all, in 1832 the Lord placed this same church under condemnation. So the question arises, how can we actually have faith that today’s church curries the same favour with God?

The second issue arises at the death of Joseph Smith. Because it wasn’t clear to church members what succession to the prophet was supposed to be, the church established by Joseph fragmented into many different sects. Brigham Young ended up leading about 40% of the members in Nauvoo west, while the remainder either became members of other splinter groups or joined none at all. 

And when the group led by Brigham had established themselves in the desert mountains of modern day Utah, Brigham established a new church on 8 February 1851 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most Latter-day Saints don’t know this, but it’s a fact of historical record – the original church established by Joseph Smith literally no longer exists.³ None of the hundreds of religions descended from the original Church of Christ established by Joseph are that same church. Indeed, Brigham required every member to be rebaptised in the 1850’s as part of the so-called ‘Mormon Reformation’.

Does this automatically mean that the current Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn’t true or that the Lord doesn’t consider it the ‘only true and living church’ on the earth? No, of course not. But reason forces you to consider the matter. The majority of the religions descending from the Church of Christ established in 1830 believe and follow the Book of Mormon and claim authority from Joseph, so we can’t use the Book of Mormon as evidence alone either. So we must now, like Joseph himself, look at all the competing religions claiming to be the one true church while proclaiming a different gospel and think:

‘In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?’ (JS-H 1:10)

Latter-day Saints will recall that Joseph undertook all the studying he could, including relying upon scripture, when he came across the famous verse:

‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.’ (James 1:5)

In Joseph we see the combination of reason and faith; study and prayer; thinking long and hard, and asking, seeking, and knocking upon the door of heaven.

I recall a church institute lesson⁴, where the teacher discussed agency and explained that in order to have true agency, we must have a true choice. And in order to have a true choice, we must have information about the options available to us. He related this to Adam and Even and their decision to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, saying that because Satan had lied to them, their agency had been limited.

In the apocryphal books of Adam and Eve, after the Fall, Satan continues coming to them appearing as an angel or a person from a distant land, and lying to them again and again, and Adam and Eve keep falling for it. It is only because God loves them and keeps rescuing them at the last minute that they survive.

Remember those Iron Gates of what we think we know from Elder Uchtdorf’s talk I keep referring to? The ones that prevent us from hearing the Lord? You and I are so easily deceived, and it happens from birth. Most parents try to be the very best parents we can be and teach truth as we believe it. But we all get it wrong and end up teaching our children falsehoods. Our society and culture and schools teach us falsehoods. Even our religions teach us falsehoods at times (remember blood atonement, Adam-God theory, or blacks and the Priesthood anyone?).

We simply must not rely upon the arm of the flesh (Jeremiah 17:5; 2 Nephi 4:34; 2 Nephi 28:31; D&C 1:19).

The Holy Spirit is our guide, and he will speak to our hearts and our minds. Study and prayer go hand in hand. In my own life, I have found that God will, indeed, give to us liberally when we have taken time and effort to fully study something and take it to Him in full humility. When we are willing to believe whatever He tells us and do what He asks us to do.

It’s what we all need much more of if we are to truly discern between truth and counterfeit in these troubling days.

© Copyright Jeffrey Collyer 2026

1. From the Jim Palmer Facebook page, 10 March 2026
2. Studying the history of the LDS endowment itself is a disconcerting effort. It is certain and obvious that Brigham Young added things to the endowment not endorsed by Joseph Smith (the most obvious being the oath of vengeance against those involved in killing Joseph). By necessity, that opens the door to the question of how much of the endowment came from Joseph and how much came from Brigham. Regardless of the outcome of that study or what you think about the endowment, there are truths within it, and this principle of possible deception when searching for truth is certainly one of those in my view.
3. Indeed, the revelation giving the name of the church (now canonised at D&C 115) actually stated The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but Brigham was unable to use that name, so placed the hyphen between Latter and Day and amended the revelation accordingly. The original can be seen in the Joseph Smith Papers
4. For the non-LDS, Institute is religious education aimed at 18-30 year old singles. It is often attended simultaneously while undertaking University education.