Over the past several years there has been a public dissension in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Triggered especially by Doctrine and Covenants 156…, many congregations have lost large numbers of their members to independent branches, and in those stakes and congregations that have not suffered an outright split there has been much disharmony and contention.
Basing its claim on World Conference votes, the hierarchy has said that the number of critics is actually quite small. But let’s consider a moment. Those who form independent branches, though they usually retain their RLDS membership, are not allowed to register as delegates to World Conferences. Others have despaired of ever having a real impact on the leadership’s doctrines and policies and have quit trying. And in situations like this there are always closet doubters—people who don’t agree but who through fear of consequences or a desire not to rock the boat simply do not speak their honest mind, and thus are counted as loyal. It is to this last group that I now wish to speak.
Are you a closet doubter? Are you secretly troubled by the changes brought into the Reorganization over the past 20 or 30 years? Can you see for yourself that the doctrines and practices of today are much more liberal and much less distinctively “restoration” than they used to be? Do you wonder in your heart what the church is coming to?
I have an incredibly liberating and healing alternative to closet doubt. I am not talking about the “restoration branch” movement. Rather than an organization or a movement or a philosophy, I am talking about a Person. I am talking about Jesus Christ.
I have found in my personal experience the truth of Jesus’ words, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:29 IV). I have found it to be true that “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37 IV). I have tested Paul’s admonition to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and I have been saved (Acts 16:31). I could not find peace, rest, salvation, wholeness, or any other good thing in an organization or in a philosophy, but I found all these things in the Person of Jesus.
Why not turn from a church which has betrayed its heritage and its members, and come to Jesus? Why not turn from the unsatisfying liberal vagueness of the institutional church, not to the independent branches, but to Jesus Himself? Can you do better than Jesus? Is any church superior to Him? Doesn’t He deserve our total and exclusive trust and devotion?
Robert McKay