“But If It Be Called in My Name Then It Is My Church”

Brant Gardner

The close relationship between essence and name is demonstrated here. We do not know how the disputations had arisen, and perhaps Moses’ church was one of the suggestions since the Nephites had long practiced the Law of Moses looking forward to the Atoning Messiah. They may have understood Jesus very literally when he said that he was not come to destroy but rather to fulfill the law (3 Nephi 12:17), and this would make the church of Moses a nice symbolic combination of the old and the new. What Jesus reminds them is that naming associates essence. Therefore, Christ’s church cannot be other that named Christ’s church. Otherwise, how could it be called by his name in the last name so that it could come to God?

Multidimensional Commentary on the Book of Mormon

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