In stating that there are save two churches only-the church of The Lamb of God and the church of the devil-the Lord is not categorically condemning all who are not members of the Church. Nor is he, for that matter, ensuring an exaltation to all those who have received the fulness of the gospel.
The Lord has said that he is pleased with the Church collectively and not necessarily individually (D&C 1:30); we are neither baptized nor judged as congregations. Similarly, when the Lord speaks of the destruction of the church of the devil, it was not intended to be understood as a collective condemnation. Of those who have not yet embraced the true Church, Joseph Smith wrote:
“For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it” (D&C 123:12).
“There Are Save Two Churches Only”
Elder Bruce R. McConkie has written:
“There is only light and darkness; there is no dusky twilight zone [in regard to the fulness of salvation]. Either men walk in the light or they cannot be saved. Anything less than salvation is not salvation. It may be better to walk in the twilight or to glimpse the first few rays of a distant dawn than to be enveloped in total darkness, but salvation itself is only for those who step forth into the blazing light of the noonday sun.”
(The Millennial Messiah, p. 54.)
In a day yet future to our own, the polarization between the forces of good and evil will be more acute (see 2 Nephi 30:10; D&C 63:54).
Nephi saw in vision that the condescension of God was twofold-the condescension of God the Father and the condescension of God the Son (1 Nephi 11). He likewise witnessed the great and abominable church in two separate time periods: the period following the New Testament era, wherein the mother of harlots would essentially be apostate Christianity; and its rise in the last days to global status.
After the restoration of the gospel in its fulness, Lucifer’s forces-social, economic political fraternal, and religious-would become rampant in defiance of the church of the Lamb of God.