Lessons on Missionary Service
Lesson No. Four
The Lord’s Church is the Greatest Power for Good in the World
Politics is not the way the Lord will make His Church the greatest power for good in the world – In the 2012 Mitt Romney, an active Latter Day Saint, was a candidate for President of the United States. Some people thought he might win and were disappointed when he did not. A friend of mine lamented Romney’s defeat and tied it to the future prospects of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He wrote in part: “But with Mitt's loss, things drift depressingly back to where they were, with stalemated government, and the Church that slips gradually but steadily out of its ‘Mormon moment’ and back toward obscurity.”
The Lord's Church is not going back toward obscurity. The Romney candidacy gave the Church favorable exposure worldwide, but politics is not what the Lord is using to make His Church the greatest power for good in the world.
Missionaries help make the Lord’s Church a great power for good – The contrast between the young missionaries of our Church and large numbers of youth worldwide is noticeable to objective observers.
The Lord said of missionaries: “The weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones….That faith also might increase in the earth; That mine everlasting covenant might be established; The fullness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers. Behold I am God and have spoken it” (D&C 1:19-24).
The Book of Mormon is a tool the Lord uses to make His Church a great power for good – Concerning our dispensation the Lord said, “I will show unto the children of men that I am able to do mine own work….For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles….Therefore, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, yea, a marvelous work and a wonder.” The Book of Mormon is part of the marvelous work and a wonder. The Lord continued: “And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness” (2 Nephi 27:21-29).
“Wherefore, the Lord God will proceed to make bare his arm in the eyes of all nations, in bringing about his covenants and his gospel unto those who are of the house of Israel. Wherefore, he will bring them again out of captivity, and they shall be gathered together to the lands of their inheritance; and they shall be brought out of obscurity and out of darkness; and they shall know that the Lord is their Savior and their Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel” (1 Nephi 22:11).
The rise of the Lord’s Church and its power for good is well expressed in the following metaphor: “On the last night of a play, the whole cast and stage crew stay in the theater until the small, or not so small, hours of the morning striking the old set. If there is to be a new opening soon, as the economy of the theater requires, it is important that the new set should be in place and ready for the opening night; all the while the old set was finishing its usefulness and then being taken down, the new set was rising in splendor to be ready for the drama that would immediately follow. So it is with this world. It is not our business to tear down the old set –the agencies that do that are already hard at work and very efficient – the set is coming down all around us with spectacular effect. Our business is to see to it that the new set is well on the way for what is to come – and that means a different kind of politics, beyond the scope of the tragedy that is now playing its closing night. We are preparing for the establishment of Zion.” (Timely and the Timeless: Essays of Hugh W. Nibley, BYU Religious Studies Center, 1978, p. 302)
The Lord is establishing His Church as the greatest power for good in the world – The play is moving quickly to its final act, and the world is being prepared for a new order. If we stay in the main stream of the Church and contribute, as our circumstances allow, we will have a part in establishing the Lord’s Church as the world’s greatest power for good, all in preparation for His Second Coming.