Is membership in a specific church really necessary for salvation? — Section 38
Church membership is not critical for salvation. We just need to follow Christ.
Representative of a Christian church:
Why do you spend so much time trying to convert people to join your church? All we need to do to be saved is serve Christ. It really doesn’t matter what church you belong to.
Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
Allow us to politely disagree. Paul taught that we should be “…of the same mind and the same judgement” and that there should be no divisions among us. See 1 Corinthians 1:1-14. Peter taught the same principle when he said in 1 Peter 3:8, “Finally, be ye all of one mind.” Paul also taught, “One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism!”
Representative of a Christian church:
So are you implying that what we are doing in other churches is wrong or ineffective, and only the Mormons will be going to heaven?
Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
We have no doubt of your sincerity and that you are doing great good as ministers in various religions, but let’s look at some other teachings of the Apostle Paul. He answers your question well. In Romans 10:1-3 Paul said, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved, for I bear the record that they had a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” As we have established here today, we are giving two years of our lives to guide people to the truth as revealed by God to modern-day prophets and apostles. Paul counseled Timothy, “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me.” (1 Timothy 1:13) With the same breath, he wrote the Ephesians and said that in his prayer that he “…ceased not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. (Ephesians 1:15-17). Joseph Smith received from God true and direct revelations of the ‘knowledge of God’.
Representative of a Christian church:
In your church you continue to emphasize such mundane issues as baptism by immersion and the use of bread and water in the sacrament. These things are not important — what matters is serving the Lord.
Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
The Greek word for baptism mean to immerse. All the baptisms in the Holy Scriptures were done by immersion, and Paul thought it was so important that he people not change these ordinances that he wrote, “Now I praise you brethren, that ye remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them unto you.” (See 1 Corinthians 11:1-2) In other words, Paul did not want the future leaders of the church to initiate new rules or methods. The form of baptism was and still is immersion. It matters.
Representative of a Christian church:
If your church is true, why are there so few members in it?
Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
Christ himself said, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matthew 7:14)
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