“I Am the Lord\'s”

George Reynolds, Janne M. Sjodahl

Nephi hears the various churches boasting of being the Lord's church. Some people may sincerely believe that if they make an organization of believers with a creed in imitation of Biblical doctrines and a corps of officers with Biblical names, or titles, they have a church of Christ. But that is a mistake. A church of Christ must be founded by Divine authority. A number of American citizens could not go abroad and organize an embassy, that would be recognized as such, without authority from the government in Washington, no matter how honest and able they might be. Nor can any man, or any number of men, without authority from the Lord, build a church which he will recognize as his. What the psalmist says of the material creation is applicable to the spiritual existences also: "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it," (Ps. 24:1-2). The Church, we may say, is his, only if he is the founder of it. No painter, no matter how much of an artist he is, can make a genuine Rembrandt.

Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 1

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