Ultimately, an individual is either for God or against Him; either traveling the strait and narrow path or traveling some counterfeit route. Similarly, a church is organized either according to divine principles as inspired by the Lord or according to the precepts of men as inspired by the devil. God Almighty defined the threshold between the two possibilities in unmistakable terms on the occasion of the First Vision when Joseph Smith was commanded to join none of the creeds then extant, for “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof” (JS—H 1:19). Outward allegiance without inner conviction lacks vitality. The angel explains to Nephi that forces antithetical to the Church of God will rise in contours of shallow greatness but eventually collapse under the weight of lifeless principles.