During the April 1918 General Conference, President Joseph F. Smith, as part a talk, presented the following declaration concerning the Church being the only true Church (cf. D&C 1:30):
AN AUTHORITATIVE DECLARATION.
The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is no partisan Church. It is not a
sect. It is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is the only one
today existing in the world that can and does legitimately bear the name of
Jesus Christ and his divine authority. I make this declaration in all
simplicity and honesty before you and before all the world, bitter as the truth
may seem to those who are opposed and who have no reason for that opposition.
It is nevertheless true and will remain true until He who has a right to rule
among the nations of the earth and among the individual children of God
throughout the world shall come and take the reins of government and receive
the bride that shall be prepared for the coming of the Bridegroom.
Many
of our great writers have recently been querying and wondering where the divine
authority exists today to command in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Ghost, so that it will be in effect and acceptable at the throne of
the Eternal Father. I will announce here and now, presumptuous as it may seem
to be to those who know not the truth, that the divine authority of Almighty
God, to speak in the name of the Father and of the Son, is here in the midst of
these everlasting hills, in the midst of this intermountain region, and it will
abide and will continue, for God is its source and God is the power by which it
has been maintained against all opposition in the world up to the present, and
by which it will continue to progress and grow and increase on the earth until
it shall cover the earth from sea to sea. This is my testimony to you, my
brethren and sisters, and I have a fulness of joy and of satisfaction in being
able to declare this without regard to or fear of all the adversaries of the
truth. (Joseph F. Smith, April 6, 1918, in Conference
Report, April 1918, 52-53)
