The Covenant Path Part 1

Viewpoint on Mormonism, the program that examines the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a Biblical perspective. Viewpoint on Mormonism is sponsored by Mormonism Research Ministry. Since 1979, Mormonism Research Ministry has been dedicated to equipping the body of Christ with answers regarding the Christian faith in a manner that expresses gentleness and respect. And now your host for today's Viewpoint on Mormonism. Welcome to this edition of Viewpoint on Mormonism. I'm your host, Bill McKeever, founder and director of Mormonism Research Ministry, and with me today is Eric Johnson, my colleague at MRM.

The General Conference edition of the Liahona magazine is the May 2021 edition that we're going to be referring to today. We find that there was a talk given by Elder D. Todd Christofferson. He is the author of the book, and the author of the book, and the author of the book, and the author of the book, and the author of the book, and the author of the book, and the author of the book, and the author of the book. He is a part of the LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. That's a very prestigious position within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

His talk was titled, Why the Covenant Path, with a subtitle, The Difference of the Covenant Path is Uniquely and Eternally Significant. Now, why do we want to talk about this message that this leader in the LDS Church gave at General Conference back in April of 2021? It's because we often hear well-meaning Christians tell us that the LDS Church is changing course and becoming more and more in line with a New Testament message. We've heard this from a lot of people. We've heard it from lay Christians on the street.

We've heard it in emails that have been written to us. I've taken phone calls from people who believe that. We've even seen some Christian scholars intimate that the LDS Church is switching gears and moving more towards a Christian consensus as we understand it. First of all, think about that and try to convey that message to a Latter-day Saint. For instance, saying something to them like, Well, I'm glad to see that you're coming closer to our position. Do you really think a Latter-day Saint is going to agree with you on that?

Probably not. They believe that they are the only true church, they represent what they feel are restored doctrines that have been lost, and they also hold to the position that you belong to a church which is a part of what they term to be the Great Apostasy. So they would not see themselves coming in our direction unless they want to agree that they are coming more towards the position of apostate Christendom, which I don't think many Latter-day Saints are going to agree to that. D. Todd Christofferson, in this talk that he gave in General Conference, is going to cite 17th President Russell M. Nelson.

And before we get into what he says, Eric, I want to ask you this question. Have you noticed in recent years more and more pain of quote-unquote homage to the current president of the church than we have noticed in times past? I think we certainly have. I think it may have started with Gordon B. Hinckley. We started to hear more of the speakers at General Conference refer to Hinckley, thank him for being the prophet, and even citing him.

And we saw that even increase, I think, with Thomas S. Monson, who in the 16th President was in failing health, and it seemed like the longer he lived, the more acclaim that he received and more citations from his previous talks. But Bill, I don't know if we've ever seen as many citations from this General Conference especially of Russell M. Nelson, the 17th President. It seems like they're always pointing to Russell M. Nelson because, of course, they want to get the thought across that Russell M. Nelson, by the providence of God, if you will, has been placed as the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which they, of course, as I mentioned, believe is the only true church on earth. But I think they're trying to get across, this guy is the guy, and we better not take Russell M. Nelson lightly. I don't think Russell M. Nelson takes himself lightly, and I've said publicly before, I think what makes Russell M. Nelson probably more dangerous than most prophets, seers, and revelators of the LDS past is he really thinks he is a prophet.

Because you hear these stories how he gets up in the middle of the night and he writes these things down. Now, has he really said anything that's all that significant? I think most people would say the big thing they remember about Russell M. Nelson is he told Latter-day Saints to quit calling themselves Mormons and quit calling the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the Mormon Church.

That's no big deal. It certainly upset a lot of people's apple carts, you might say, because it was a little odd given the fact that the church itself was using the term Mormon often in films that they had produced and making reference to themselves, and even Gordon B. Hinckley saying he didn't have a problem with the word Mormon. He even promoted this idea that Mormon means more good. I'm sure Russell M. Nelson was aware of that sermon because he was alive at the time. He was an apostle when Hinckley said that. But what has Nelson really done that's all that different and significant that hasn't fallen in line with what past leaders have done and said? Not a whole lot. Perhaps, though, we could say he's the biggest temple builder of all the prophets before him, including Gordon B. Hinckley, and in the April 2021 General Conference announced 20 new temples, an incredible amount.

The previous record was one that he set in 2018 when he named 12. So he is very much a temple building president. And this goes back to what I was speaking of earlier in this program. When you have people say that the LDS Church is coming around and coming more to a Christian consensus, I would rebut that premise by saying the mere fact that they are placing so much emphasis on temples and temple building and temple ceremonies tells me that they are not coming to a Christian consensus at all. Even though they may argue that what they do in the temple is a restoration of what they think happened in first century Christianity, folks, there is no evidence to support that whatsoever. In fact, there's no evidence to support the notion that much of what Mormon doctrine teaches is something that was believed and practiced by the first century church. And as I was telling you off air, Eric, the more I study this religion, the more I am convinced that the biggest lie that this church tells its people and the general public is that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a restored church. That could only be true if you can demonstrate from history that the Christians believed in practice like Latter-day Saints.

And the LDS Church in some cases try to make that case, but I don't think they make a very good case when they attempt that. You really have to rely on the loss of plain and precious truths, which is part of the great apostasy and part of the reason why we need a restoration. If you don't have that loss, you really don't have the Bible supporting LDS doctrine the way that it's taught by the church today. And this is why, Christian, you need to listen very carefully when your LDS acquaintance uses expressions like, well, the restored gospel teaches or Latter-day revelation says. Those are buzzwords that are telling us, if you listen carefully, that you're not going to find these doctrines in the Bible. We need Latter-day revelation to help us with this understanding or the restored message of the gospel.

That's where they go. They don't go to the New Testament. Not that they don't have their pet proof text. They most certainly do have pet proof text, and you'll hear them often when you're talking with LDS missionaries and such.

But again, you need to look at those verses carefully, put them in their proper context, and when you do, I will guarantee you it will not be saying what they think those verses are saying. Getting back to this talk that Kristofferson gave at General Conference and in the article titled, Why the Covenant Path, it begins on page 116 in the May 2021 Liahona magazine. Kristofferson says, President of the Church, this is what Kristofferson cites from Russell M. Nelson. And just before I read that, notice the accolade that is given by Kristofferson. So there is this admiration that is publicly given, again, I think, to boost up what the prophet means to this church.

And this is what Nelson said. So here we have that expression, the covenant path, and notice the emphasis is placed on attending the temple. As I mentioned earlier, we don't see that kind of emphasis in the early Christian church. You don't see anywhere in the epistles of Paul, for instance, where he emphasizes, as Russell M. Nelson has emphasized here, the need for believers to keep covenants by going to the temple. Or the ordinances of the temple and the covenants you make there are key to strengthening your life, your marriage and family. That's a message that is completely foreign to what we see in the New Testament. So going back to what I said earlier, how do you see a comparison between the two when the New Testament says nothing like this, but yet this is a major teaching, doctrine, understanding within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Now, in the next paragraph, D. Todd Christofferson is going to explain what the covenant path is, and when you see his definition, I hope you're going to see some problems. He says it is the one path that leads to the celestial kingdom of God. And that's from 2 Nephi 31-20.

He says, Now think about that. If what goes on in the temple, including this covenant path, is going to get you to the celestial kingdom of God, isn't it odd that the emphasis on temple worship is something we don't find in the New Testament? If that's what we need to get the best God has to offer, wasn't Paul a bit derelict in his duty for not telling us about this?

Wasn't John derelict in his duty for not telling about this? Peter, Jude, for instance, none of them mention this, and yet as we see here so far, this idea of keeping temple covenants is absolutely essential if you hope to receive salvation and exaltation. And those two terms, I feel, are synonymous here because it can't be talking about just resurrection from the dead because that takes place for everybody regardless of what you believe and regardless of what you've done according to Mormonism. In tomorrow's show, we're going to continue looking at why it is so important for Latter-day Saints to keep this covenant path. Thank you for listening. If you would like more information regarding Mormonism Research Ministry, we encourage you to visit our website at www.mrm.org where you can request our free newsletter, Mormonism Researched. We hope you will join us again as we look at another viewpoint on Mormonism.