The idea of "The truth Church"

After God told me that God had done, is doing and will do a work through the Church of Jesus Christ. Some time passed and I made some mistakes in my reasoning. I blame my own arrogance and pride. In blue is what God taught me. In red, are the foolish and mistaken conclusions that I later came to. 

1. God is with me. Therefore He is not with those of other religions.

2. God works through me. Therefore He does not work through people of other religions.

3. God is in my church. Therefore He is not in yours.

If I had opened my heart, I might have learned from a leader of the Church of Jesus Christ, (Gordon B. Hinkley) words when he said  that there are many people of other religions who are inspired by God and serve Him. 

I might have also learned from Peter when he said: 

Acts 10:34-35

Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: (does not show favoritism) But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.

Or from Isaiah when he said: 

Isaiah 54:5

The LORD of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.

Or from Nephi in 2 Ne 29 when he said 

Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?

Okay, okay... I get it. So he loves everyone and hears and answers everyone's prayers... Then my mind says:

"...BUT..."

Some churches/religions have people in them that think that there is more than one God, or they believe strange and false things about the nature of God.. 

Some churches/religions have people in them that think that God is done speaking and so they deny revelation from God just as the Jews did in the days of Christ... 

Some churches/religions have people in them that teach their members to focus on things that are not good or right and cause them to sin or to take their focus off of God...

Some churches/religions have people in them that become fanatical and do bad things... 

I can some all of this up by saying:

People who belong to other religions/churches are wrong about some things. 

Then my foolish and arrogant mind, accepts a straw man fallacy:

If there are any mistakes by anyone (or everyone) who belongs to that other religion, then the whole thing is wrong and God is not with them and never has been, and never will be.

But when I think about it, I know that this is not right... God doesn't reject and refuse to hear and love His children because they are confused about aspects of their Creator and the Universe. He does not reject them because they use different noises when they address their Creator. 

My mind generalizes the whole group based on a few ideas that they may have wrong. 

In truth we all have such a limited knowledge of God, such that we are all more than 99% ignorant of Gods Glory and wondrous works. 

...This is all well and good, 

...but ...

surely, God did not orchestrate or inspire the organization of these other religions, the same as he did the Church of Jesus Christ.

This is what I supposed-- there were some good people that attended these churches, but the churches themselves were  generally not good. They persuaded people to reject the Holy Ghost when it told them of other things that God was doing among His children. Because of the doctrines and bias of these teachers and professors of the various religions, they rejected and in some cases, even murdered a prophet of God when called. They taught the people that God was done speaking today and that there would be no more revelation from Heaven. Thus they trapped the people in the same state that the Jews were in when they rejected Jesus, Peter, and Paul-- thinking that nothing more would be said or done, but that which was said and done from Moses to Malachi. 

This is about where my reasoning was when I went on my mission. I was hoping to liberate people from the idea that God was done speaking. To help them see that God the same yesterday, today and forever. To help them know that God was active in the world and was in the process of fulfilling the promises which he had mad anciently to gather scattered Israel in and to establish the kingdom "which shall not be destroyed" spoken of in Daniel 2:44-45, which is the kingdom of God on the Earth-- the same Kingdom which Christ had established during his earthly ministry, which Paul said would suffer from a "falling away" which would occur prior to Christs second coming, spoke of in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.  To share the exciting news that God had revealed more of His word-- what exciting news! And the most exciting thing about it, was that God had revealed to me, by His Holy Spirit that it was of Him!

I knocked on thousands of doors and invited thousands of people to hear this incredibly Good news about what Jesus was doing in the world in our day. 

What was most disturbing to me was that most people had absolutely no interest in even hearing any part of the message-- not even to examine it for themselves. Their religious teachers had already told them that they were right and that everyone else was wrong.

People would proclaim "false prophet" to me, as if God had declared it to them-- without any revelation from God on their own (merely the word of their religious leader, who also received no such revelation). Christ truly warned to beware of "false prophets" who would come and deceive people. Christ went on to teach us how to identify a true prophet would be "by their fruits". And here these people rejected the message without any examination of fruits-- only by the declaration of their "prophet" (someone claiming to speak in the name of the Lord), whom I now understood to be "false" as they did not receive this information from God but spoke as if they had. I wondered if they attacked the church mostly because they recieved their income from those in their flock and so feared to lose the monetary gain.  And then told all of the members of their congregation lies about the church to keep people from even hearing the message.

Jeremiah 26 

"To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened;"

Christ had talked about people who would not accept the word of the kingdom. 

Matthew 13

“When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.”

And they will not bear fruit, Neither will they examine the fruit of others to know whether it be of God or of man.

Not only did these false prophets teach people to reject the truth of what I knew that God was doing, but they also prevented others from hearing it. So, instead of hearing of what God was doing in the world today they only listened to their teachers. During my mission, I started attending as many different religions as I could so that I could understand what these churches. One of the local churches in particular was extremely angtagonistic against the Church of Jesus Christ-- speaking all kinds of lies against the Church. I was one day invited to attend this church and their head pastor sat me down and explained to me that one should always reject any knowledge received by any way or method except what the interpretation and doctrine that the pastor taught as being the correct understanding of the scriptures. Essentially teaching that someone should reject the Holy Ghost. 

The teacher had "a form of Godliness, in that he said "Lord, Lord" repeatedly, but in more or less words, he then instructed people to deny the Holy Ghost.

Pauls letter to Timothy warned against this:

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;”

"5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,

7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

An in fact, these teachers taught about Jesus, saying "Lord, Lord"; saying I have God "this is enough", going on to teach hypocrisy as their primary doctrines. That one can proclaim to follow Jesus, but then not actually follow Christs teachings, thus to say one thing and do another-- being the definition itself of hypocrisy, teaching from but wresting (twisting/distorting) the scriptures unto their own destruction as Peter warned the early Saints. in 2 Peter 3:16

But Christ Declared in Matthew

"not everyone that saith unto me 'Lord, Lord' shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father which is in Heaven" -- Matthew 7

And he also declared that you would identify a true prophet by their fruits. And here I was trying to get people to examine the fruits... Because of the lies spread by these teachers, approximately 1 in 100 people would even listen to what I had to say at all-- and out of those, also only 1 in 100 would actually make it a matter of serious prayer, seeking to receive from God by revelation for their answer. Yet every time that someone would EARNESTLY read and examine the fruits (read the book of Mormon) and seek and ask God if it was of Him, God would reveal it and the individual would know by the Spirit of Christ that it was truly of Him.

I felt somewhat confident that this was the only REAL major work that was directly of God... then I knocked on someones door God taught me something new. I was mistaken.

Two men sat together in a room. They invited me to come in and join their meeting. One of the men had apparently, by surrendering to Christ, gained the strength in God to repent and turn away from alcoholism. He had become a mentor to the other man and helping him to also submit to God. It was an alcoholics anonymous meeting. As I listened to them speak, the Holy Spirit filled me and taught me that God had been instrumental in formation of this organization. It was in response to countless prayers of individuals seeking aid from the vice of alcohol addiction.

Matthew 21:22 took on new meaning to me when He said: 

"Where two or more are gathered together in my name, there I am also."

"And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."

Christ heard the prayers of alcoholics and answered them. How many other prayers had God answered? God had been instrumental in this organization. There were other organizations which were of God-- not just individuals. 

I want to make a final point here to reiterate a point I made earlier:

Christ organized the kingdom of Israel-- and it became corrupted; teaching falsehoods and focusing on things that were wrong. 

On top of this, its earthly king, King David, committed adultery and murder. This does not mean that God did not orchestrate its organization. This does not mean that God never did a work through it. It also does not mean that God will not fulfill His word when he said that he would gather in scattered Israel again. 

Isaiah 2:2

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

So-- do you need to join the church to be "saved" from hell? Nope. Just as Christ told the rich young man who asked "what Good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life"-- Christ answered "if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments: Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, 19Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

This is exercising living faith in Christ. Because of Christ, if we sin and, we can repent (stop sinning) and Christ will forgive us and we will be clean. CHRIST WILL SAVE US, on conditions of faith and repentance. 

I dont think you dont need to join the Church of Jesus Christ, even though it is of God-- and  I believe that Christ will still save you as you have faith in him and repent (same as everyone else). 

I would like to be a part of everything that God is a part of. Is God working through the members of your church? If so, then tell me about it so that I can learn more of Christ is doing in the world so that I can be a part of it. I want all of Christs people to be One in Christ. 

Is there anything taught by any of the members of the church which you think is contrary to the teachings of Christ? If so, please make it known to me, so that I can be aligned with the doctrine of Christ. 

If I have said anything in error, please make it known to me so that I can be corrected. I often make mistakes and welcome the guidance. I want know the truth EVER SO MUCH MORE than I want to "be right". 

May God guide and be with us all. In His name, Jesus Christ, amen.