The Biggest Lie Satan Tricks Latter-day Saints Into Believing.

The Biggest Lie Satan Tricks Latter-day Saints Into Believing.

When someone decides to stop going to Church, typically it is often because they have been offended or they feel judged by the shame culture. When this happens, it becomes harder and harder to go to church. This is when Satan tricks them into believing that even though they know the gospel is true, they don’t need to actively live it by going to church. They say to themselves “I can believe everything, without going to church.”

Because I have already written about both taking offense and the shame culture, I wanted to address this lie that we can be inactive at Church yet be active in the gospel.

Note, this article is not directed to apostates who have forsaken Christ and His gospel and actively fight against His Kingdom, I am talking to the member who deep down inside still loves Jesus Christ, and knows the restored gospel is true.

You Can’t Be Active In His Gospel And Be Inactive In His Church.

Satan is a liar. He seeks to trick us into believing half-truths and lies. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we love the gospel. But there is a deadly lie that Satan is tricking people into believing. Satan knows he can’t get us to outright forsake the gospel, so he tricks us into thinking that we can go less active at church and still be living the gospel. By so doing he tricks us into forsaking the countless blessings of membership in Christ’s Church.

I have heard this from countless people things like, “I believe everything, and I love and live everything except the going to church part.” Some will say, “I don’t need to go to church to live the gospel and keep your covenants.”  But that is like saying, “I am a runner, I love to get ready to run, I love running shoes, but I don’t actually run.” You can not love Jesus Christ, live His gospel, and keep your covenants while being inactive in His Church!

Remember His stern wisdom, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15. Don’t let Satan trick you into thinking you can be less active at church and at the same time love Christ, live His gospel and keep your covenants.

“No man who comprehends, believes, and lives according to gospel covenants will be inactive in the Church.”
~Marion G. Romney (According to the Covenants, Oct 1975)

The True Gospel Of Jesus Christ Is A Gospel Of Covenants.

The gospel has always been a gospel of covenants. From the beginning of time the followers of God the Father and His Son, Jehovah, have been a covenant making and keeping people. The Bible proves that God always makes covenants with His people. In the Restored gospel, we make and keep sacred covenants just like in days of old. The gospel of Jesus Christ requires a Church led by Prophets, Apostles who hold Priesthood keys. It requires those keys to administer ordinances like Baptism so we can enter into covenants with God. The gospel of Jesus Christ has always required a Church! And being active in the gospel requires being active in His Church!

The gospel of post-apostolic Christianity is not a covenant based gospel. After the death of the apostles, Priesthood keys were lost. Without Priesthood keys man lacked the authority to perform sacred ordinances and enter into covenants. Evil men changed the gospel, as prophesied by Isaiah, when he said, “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant” Isaiah 24:5. They taught a watered-down gospel of teachings void of covenants. This falling away was foretold by Paul in 2 Thes. 2:3. He also was shocked with how quickly Christianity was apostatizing when he said, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel” Gal. 1:6.

The simple truth is that to be a good Protestant you only need to believe Jesus, but to be a good Latter-day Saint you need follow Him.

“Righteous Israel, ancient and modern, has always been a covenant-making people.”
~Elder Joseph Anderson (We Are a Covenant-making People, Oct 1976)

We Follow Christ By Making, Keeping, And Renewing Covenants.

If we are genuinely live the gospel, we must not only make covenants, but we must also keep them. Because we are human and the flesh is weak, we will inevitably break our covenants. But a loving Father has provided a way to repair and renew our broken covenants. The only way to do this is through the Sacrament. I thank God that I have the blessing and chance each week to renew any and all of my covenants. I can’t think of life without the blessing of the Sacrament!

“By partaking of the Sacrament we renew all covenants entered into with the Lord” 
~Delbert L. Stapley (Conference Report, Oct. 1965, 14).

If you are not going to Church and partaking of the Sacrament to renew your covenants you can’t be keeping the gospel. Christ’s Church and Priesthood enable us to live the gospel and enjoy the fullness of the blessing God wants to give us. Don’t believe Satan’s lie that you can live the gospel without going to church to make, keep, and renew covenants! So choose today to follow Christ, decide today to love Him in word and deed.

*If you can not attend due to health, request that the Bishop have someone bring you the sacrament. And if you can’t go weekly due to work, make sure you go when you can. A police officer who works 3/4 weeks which goes that 4th Sunday is active. God judges us off of what we actually can do.

“If you have made covenants, keep them. If you haven’t made them, make them. If you have made them and broken them, repent and repair them.”
~Jeffrey R. Holland (The Laborers in the Vineyard, April 2012)

This article is part of an ongoing series about why people leave the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The number one reason is that they choose to be offended by the actions of others. Click here for the article I wrote about offense. And typically this happens because the shame culture is corrupting Mormon culture and people feel judged. Click here for the article about the shame culture.