Today's Maxwell Quote

From Things As They Really Are (1978), 45-46:

The revelation of 1830 in which Christ said that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth" (D&C 1:30.) . . . was, and is, a designation so significant that the key words contained within it must not be passed over lightly.

The word only asserts a uniqueness and singularity about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the exclusive ecclesiastical, authority-bearing agent for our Father in heaven in this dispensation.

Had the Lord said the Church is a true and living church (or if the name given had been A Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), this would have implied there are other fully acceptable alternatives available to man. Thus what was said by the Lord in 1830, not surprisingly, was consistent with the instructions given in the grove to Joseph Smith in 1820; the answer to Joseph's prayer about which church to join was, "Join none of them."