🌄 The True and Living Church — What It Really Means (and What It’s Become)

🪶 I heard a brother the other day say with all his heart, “This is the true and living church.”
And I could tell he meant it.
But something deep inside me stirred and whispered, Is it?

Because the scriptures — both the Book of Mormon and the Nemenhah Records — paint a different picture than what we see today.

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📜 What the Scriptures Actually Say

The Doctrine and Covenants 1:30 says the early Saints might have power to lay the foundation of the only true and living church and bring it forth out of obscurity and darkness.

That word might changes everything.

It doesn’t say did. It doesn’t say would always be. It says might.

It means they were given a chance — a sacred opportunity — to bring the true and living church to life.
But not a guarantee that the organization would stay true and living forever.

And sure enough, less than a year later, in D&C 84, the Lord says the whole church is under condemnation for unbelief and for treating lightly the things they’d already received.

So much for permanence. The “true and living” label can be lost as quickly as it’s given.

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🔥 What the Nemenhah Records Teach

The Nemenhah prophets saw all of this coming. They wrote that the Lord’s people in the last days would build up great institutions and claim divine favor — yet Zion would not be built from the ashes of a fallen church.

“The Peacemaker shall not raise His holy city from among the ruins of pride and priestcraft,
but from among the humble who hear His voice and keep His commandments.”
(Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm 14:63–67, paraphrased)

In other words — you can’t rebuild heaven’s kingdom out of Babylon’s blueprints.

The Lord’s work has to start fresh, one heart at a time.
And that’s the part that gives me hope — because He’s doing exactly that.

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⚖️ Two Churches — Still the Same Choice

The Book of Mormon makes it simple enough for a farmhand to understand:

“There are save two churches only — the church of the Lamb of God, and the church of the devil.” (1 Nephi 14:10)

It doesn’t say two denominations or two organizations.
It says two churches only.

That line is spiritual — it’s drawn right through the middle of our hearts.
You’re either following the Lamb, or you’re following something else.
There’s no “middle church” where all is well in Zion and we keep building temples while the poor go hungry.

That’s why the Book of Mormon condemns that very thing:

“Ye do build up your fine sanctuaries to get gain… and suffer the poor to go hungry and naked.” (Mormon 8:37)

If that verse doesn’t describe our modern religion, I don’t know what does.

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💡 What It Means to Be “True and Living”

So what is the true and living church?

It’s not an institution — it’s a condition.
It’s the living body of Christ made up of living souls who have been born again, who repent, who hear His voice, who walk with Him daily.

That’s what D&C 10:67 teaches plain as day:

“Whosoever repenteth and cometh unto me, the same is my church.”

The Nemenhah say it this way:

“When a man or woman does hearken unto the whispering of the Haymehnay (Holy Spirit), they become the dwelling place of God;
thus are they the living stones of His Temple.”
(Book of Mohrhohnahyah 5:9–10)

You can’t get truer or more living than that.

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🛠️ Rebuilding From the Inside Out

Zion won’t be built by marketing campaigns, social media hashtags, or temple open houses.
It will be built when the sons and daughters of God finally remember who they are —
and start living the covenant of love again.

It will rise from the ashes of humility, not from the ashes of a fallen institution.

When individuals — one by one — choose to come unto Christ and keep His sayings,
the church becomes true again.
It becomes living again.

Because He is life, and wherever He dwells — that’s His church.

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🌿 My Testimony

I still believe Joseph Smith was called of God.
I still believe the Book of Mormon is true.
I even believe the early Saints were given the real chance to bring heaven down.

But somewhere along the way, the light dimmed, and we started worshiping the system instead of the Savior.
And now the Lord is calling once again — through scripture, through conscience, through quiet revelation — for His children to come out of the fog and remember the simplicity of His gospel:

Repent. Be baptized with fire. Receive His Spirit. Hear His voice.

That’s the path back to being the true and living church.

And when enough of us do it — one heart, one home, one humble soul at a time —
then Zion will rise.

Not from marble halls, but from hearts on fire. 🔥

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