Church and state

We can’t afford to forget that even when the authority of God is vested in an organization that doesn’t prevent that organization from becoming wicked – if it did there could have been no apostasy. Alma lived to see a time when the people of the church we leading unbelievers on to increasing wickedness. The same can happen again today if we let it. Even if it does happen that doesn’t change the fact that the authority is vested in this church. The only way for that to change is for God to reject the organization but we are promised that in this generation that won’t happen. Even if the people of the church become prideful we stick with the church and be examples of the humble followers of Christ.

I wonder if part of the cause of the pride in the church was that the leader of the church was leading the government and they may have expected that the government would treat members of the church favorably. That may have been another reason for Alma to give up the judgement seat and make it clear that the church and government were not extensions of each other.