What’s in a Name? He is! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints- Evidences

This video discusses President Nelson’s recent focus on using the proper name of the Church and how the name of Jesus Christ is not found in the title of any other major religious organization. Also discussed is the original organization of Christ’s Church in the New Testament which included apostles and seventies, just as found today in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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So on this video in the Evidences Series I’m going to talk about the name of the Church and about the organization that leads the church, the structural aspects of that. First of all, this was inspired from the October 2018 conference where President Nelson came out and said he felt God directing him to reemphasize the original name of the Church rather than the nickname that we’ve come to be known by, the Mormon Church, but rather The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That name of the Church was given by a revelation in 1838 in Far West, Missouri. D&C 115 verse four says, “For thus shall my church be called in the last days, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.”

I did think it was interesting to look and see the, if there were any major Christian denominations with the name of Jesus Christ in their title, and if you look on the screen here, this is the last published list from the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches and this was 2012. It shows the largest 25 Christian denominations. It looks like it took about a million members to make this list. You can see that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is number four on this list, but take a minute and look at the names of all of these churches and see if anywhere you see the name Jesus Christ.

You’ll see the name Christ a couple of times, but not one of these has named their church after the Savior’s formal name of Jesus Christ. It’s interesting, and it brings to mind the scripture 3 Nephi 27, verses seven and eight, that Jesus Christ told the Nephites visiting America after His Resurrection, He said, “Therefore, whatsoever you shall do, you shall do it in my name; therefore you shall call the church in my name … And how be it my church save it be called in my name? For if a church be called in Moses’ name than it be Moses’ church; or if it be called in the name of a man then it be the church of a man; but if it be called in my name then it is my church, if so be they are built upon my gospel.”

I thought that was interesting to point out there. The other thing I wanted to point out was the leadership of the Church and I was curious about any of these major Christian denominations, if any of them have a group of 12 apostles leading the church? None of them do except for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This was how the Lord, when He was on the Earth, established His church and He specifically… In Luke 6:13 it says, “And when it was day he called unto him his disciples, and of them he chose 12 whom also he named apostles.” Then John 15:16, it says, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you.” Matthias was selected by the apostles to replace Judas, so there was this formality of having 12 apostles.

As time went on the apostles were martyred, the Church had to go almost underground. In the time of Nero in particular it was very, very dangerous. It was tough for them to even get together and communicate, and the Church fell into apostasy during this time, and there was not a body of 12 apostles going forward. That was part of the Restoration. There was also another body called the seventy. In Luke 10 verse one it says “After these things, the Lord appointed other seventy also and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.” I thought this was interesting, and when you look at, and that’s how the the restored Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, how they are set up and structured, as well as having a Quorum of the Seventy.

In Ephesians 4 it talks about the importance of having these apostles and prophets on the earth. “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; [which are missionaries, we’ll talk about that in another video], and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”

So it was interesting that this structure that was set up was to help to bring us into the unity of the faith, which we’re far from that today, and also to help with the doctrine, to keep the doctrine pure. That’s it for this video.

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Resources:

Talk:

President Nelson’s Oct 2018 General Conference Talk: The Correct Name of the Church: https://www.lds.org/general-conferenc…

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Latter-day Saints’ Q&A is a video series not produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but by me, an ordinary member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an independent voice, with a passion for studying Church history and defending the faith. In this series, I provide evidences for the restoration, and address tough questions posed by critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, offering faithful answers based on accurate research and historical references which will be posted at the end of each video.