I never realized before that Joseph requested Oliver Cowdery to search through the Book of Mormon and draft articles of organization for the church based on what was in the Book of Mormon. It’s no wonder that so much of it mirrors what is in the book of Moroni – that had a lot of well organized and direct information to answer the request. They compiled what they gleaned from the record and added it in the Doctrine and Covenants (Book of Commandments as it was known at that time). I’m sure that Oliver also looked through the bible to get a sense of what things were important and consistent between chosen groups.
I knew that they started with 6 members in keeping with the laws of the state of New York. I didn’t realize that the law started that they must have between 3 and 9 members – they targeted the exact middle, not the borders of the law.
The gospel can be taught without a church as it was early in history but as it grows there grow to be less and less consistency. It’s like cooking without a recipe we may call a meal by the same name but it’s not truly the same meal. With a recipe there might be small variations because of differences in the individual ingredients but those differences will be minimal and more apparent with a recipe to refer to and measure against.
Sister Larsen said that in preparing for her lesson she gained a testimony of the church – as independent from the gospel. Through her lesson I recognized how those two things are distinct and how a testimony of each is important. Someone can have a testimony of the church as an organization without truly buying into the gospel of salvation. On the other hand, someone can have a testimony of the gospel of Christ and not believe in the organization of the restored church. To be truly strong in testimony and understand the Savior and His plan a person needs to have a testimony of both and how they intersect.
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