Editor’s note: The following is an adapted excerpt from Steven C. Harper’s book Wrestling with the Restoration.
Here is what it means to me to say, as I delightedly do, I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. It means that the Restoration is real. Christianity is being restored as we speak. Jesus is the Redeemer and the Restorer. He calls and qualifies flawed people to be prophets and apostles, Primary presidents and bishops, ministers and missionaries.
It is a verifiable fact—regardless of one’s point of view—that some prophets and apostles taught things that all of the Lord’s living prophets and apostles now disavow. I have the power to interpret that fact however I want to, and I want to interpret it in a way that accounts best for all the verifiable facts, not isolated ones. Having considered other options, I have concluded that the best principles I can follow to guide my interpretation are faith, hope, and charity.
That leads me to these conclusions. My conviction that the Savior’s church is true does not mean that I assume it is perfect. Elder J. Devn Cornish taught:
It may seem reasonable to expect that the history of the true Church portray unerring leaders successfully implementing a sequence of revealed directions progressing to a perfect organization that is widely welcomed and embraced. But that is neither what the scriptures describe nor what our history represents, because the perfecting of the Church as an organization was not the Lord’s primary purpose. Nowhere in our scriptures, our doctrine, or the teachings of latter-day apostles and prophets is it taught that the purpose of the Lord is to perfect or to save the Church. Rather, the purpose of the Church is “for the perfecting of the saints … till we all come in the unity of the faith … unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12–13). The Lord’s primary purpose is to perfect His Saints. The Church serves to support that objective.
The True Meaning of “Perfecting”
I do not interpret the word perfecting in that passage as flawless or mistake-free. The Greek word translated as perfecting conveys the idea of equipping or preparing, not flawlessness. The Savior’s church prepares Saints for the work of His ministry so we can all become finished—the meaning of the word translated as perfect in Ephesians 4:13.
I try to remember what the Church is of—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is composed of the perfect Christ along with imperfect Saints working together.
The restored scriptures tell us that we become perfect, finished, or completely created in God’s image by being just and true—meaning obedient to God’s law (including repentance) and faithful to our covenants with God.
Believing What I Know
People who are faithful to their covenants to obey God’s laws are “made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new [or restored] covenant” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:69). I know that is true.
One way I know it is that everything changed for the better for me when I began believing it. I stopped believing the falsehood that I should be perfect so God could love me. I started to live the actual gospel, loving God because He sent His Beloved Son to perfect me—even me.
Having made that mental shift—that conversion—covenants became the most important determinant of my daily life. That is because making and keeping covenants means getting in and staying in the healing and healthy relationship with God whereby He promises to perfect me through Christ.
Faith in Jesus Christ came to life. I discovered the joy of daily repentance. Renewing covenants regularly renewed me.
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Choosing to Seek Christ
The Church of Jesus Christ matters because it is His. He established it. He restored it. He commissioned it to tell the good news equation to all people everywhere. He empowered and authorized it to perform the ordinances in which people can covenant to add their nothingness to His infinite power to repent, His infinite forgiveness, and His infinite grace, giving us infinite opportunities to be redeemed, rescued, healed, helped, loved, and saved (see 2 Corinthians 12:7–10).
We cannot exhaust the Savior’s infinity of fulness. There is enough for all of us to have all of Him. His grace is indeed sufficient. But here’s the thing: That plus sign is up to each of us. And there is only one church in which we can add ourselves to Christ in the way and by the power He provided. If, like Joseph Smith, you want to be right “in matters that involve eternal consequences,” then the Savior’s church matters to you. Depending on your tastes, there are churches with more exciting worship services, more skillful preaching, and other aspects worthy of holy envy.
But only The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the power and the commission—priesthood and keys—to perform the ordinances and make the covenants that endow us with God’s power and seal us to Him and each other. Those covenants restore the relationship we once had. They empower us to regain God’s presence. Moreover, they ensure that our most cherished relationships will transcend death and endure forever. No other church promises that. No other church has been empowered or commissioned to.
When Church Is Hard
Even so, church can be hard. It is painful for many people, and not just because they wish, as I do, that they could express their joy in Jesus accompanied by an electric guitar and a drum set on the Sabbath. Some Saints have been abused by parents, leaders, or others in ways that make it difficult to dissociate the Savior’s Church from their awful experiences at the hands of people who were supposed to be the Savior’s disciples. Some Saints struggle with mixed messages and conflicting signals about how much they belong and are valued. All of that is verifiably true. So how might we choose to interpret it?
We can do what the Savior’s Church is meant to do: We can love. We can minister to the body of Christ until we all come together. We can invite everyone to “join themselves to the Lord” by taking hold of His covenant. We can help “the Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel” (Isaiah 56:8). We can follow the Lord’s prophets. They know The Way. They call us to love rather than judge. They prescribed Jesus Christ as the answer to our problems and charity as the antidote to our ills, saying it “propels us ‘to bear one another’s burdens’ rather than heap burdens upon each other.”
I choose to let the Savior’s imperfect Church, led by flawed but actual, authorized apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, point my fallen and flawed soul to Him. His restored gospel is the greatest good news there is. Covenants have made me and Him infinitely one. I know He can help and heal because He helps and heals me. You can know it too.
More articles for you:
▶ ‘I don’t have a testimony of this’: How a ward responded to teacher’s humble admission
▶ How I finally found relief from decades of religious doubt
▶ ‘After all we can do’: A crucial thing you might misunderstand about this verse
