Those who know me are aware that I lament how many members of the Church have imbibed the relativism of our times, including religious indifferentism and movements in some quarters towards theological ecumenism. Such has been a factor in the erosion, among many members of the Church, in attitudes about important social and moral issues (e.g., here in Ireland, 50%+ of Church members in Dublin voted in favour of legalising abortion up until the 12th week of gestation).
The following, written in 1959, shows the proper attitude Latter-day Saints should have, one that eschews ecumenism and such indifferentism. The author, Carl H. Jacobs, at the time of writing was the head of the Journalism Department at Ricks College (later BYU-Idaho) and, prior to that, taught in the seminary system of the Church:
[T]here is no neutrality as far as churches are concerned. There is one true Church and the rest are not true, hence—false. This may seem like strong doctrine, but these are the words of an angel:
[1 Nephi 14] 10. And he said unto me: Behold there are two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God; and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.
So, the “great and abominable church” is not just one church; it is all of them save the true Church of Jesus Christ. And one of the most “abominable” things about these churches is that they haven’t remained neutral to let the true Church alone to flourish by itself; rather, they have fought against it.
The angel told Nephi this would happen and would be the reason for people failing to grasp the “great and marvelous work”:
11. And it came to pass that I looked and behold the whore of the earth, and she sat upon many waters; and she had dominion over all the earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people.
12. And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters, nevertheless, I behold that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw.
13. And it came to pass that I beheld the great mother of abominations did gather together multitudes upon the ace of all the earth, among all the nations of the Gentiles, to fight against the Lamb of God.
This is not talking about an actual armed conflict, but rather mainly persecution from the pulpit and through the press—the spreading of misrepresentation and outright lies about the restored Church of Christ. And so, as he said of the religious leaders of old, Jesus could say of these modern rejects of His revelations (Matthew 23):
13. But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye that are entering to go in.
Jesus strongly dislikes hypocrisy. As a man He made a scourge of small cords and drove the hypocrites from the temple. As the Risen Christ and God of this earth, He will scourge modern-day hypocrisy more thoroughly for the neglect of His latter-day word, (D. & C. 84).
95. Wo, I say again, unto that house, or that village or city that rejecteth you, or your words, or your testimony of me;
96. For I, the Almighty, have laid my hands upon the nations, to scourge them for their wickedness.
96. For I, the Almighty, have laid my hands upon the nations, to scourge them for their wickedness.
97. And plagues shall go forth, and they shall not be taken from the earth until I have completed my work, which shall be cut short in righteousness.
These plagues will come on the earth as a consequence of Christianity’s rejection of Christ’s latter-day “marvelous work and a wonder,” which has been by them “esteemed as a thing of nought.” And not the least of these plagues will be war—horrible war with devouring fire . . We must admit that relatively few people in America have heard the real story of Mormonism. Most history texts used in our schools scarcely mention the Mormons. Undoubtedly there are many honest persons who would readily accept the Restored Gospel if they had the chance to learn the truth. Nevertheless (as we pointed out [above])) there is one main reason why more do not receive the marvelous message—the Christian churches, so called, have fought against it from the beginning. (Carl H. Jacob, Superbombs, Saints and Scriptures [Rexburg, Idaho: Monitor Publishing Co., 1959], 16-48, 98; comments in square brackets added for clarification)
