Journal of Discourses 26:12; “The apostate will have his civil rights under that kingdom. The non-Mormon, or Gentile as he is called, will have his rights under that kingdom. The Chinaman, the negro, and the Indian—each of them will have his rights under that kingdom, and yet not be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A good many of our people confound the Kingdom of God with the Church of God. Now there is a very wide distinction between the two. A man may, in one sense, be a member of the Church of Christ, and not a member of the Kingdom of God. The two organizations are entirely distinct.” – George Q. Cannon, Provo, Utah, November 20, 1881
Ephesians 4:4-5; “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”
Mr. Cannon was confusing the Kingdom of God with the U.S. Government. There’s nothing in the word of God that says everyone in the world will be protected under their civil rights to worship whom or what they want.
Furthermore, the Bible doesn’t teach the believer will go unharmed! Rather the Lord knows full well what will happen as time goes by – it’ll become more and more difficult for believers and our job is to remember who God is and what our role as a believer entails so that we can be an example for Him and worship Him exclusively!
The Lord tells us we can come to His table, rich or poor; all are welcome because of His invitation. We rise and welcome His most precious gift of salvation! We sing of Jesus, speak of Jesus and await His glorious return while God’s Holy Spirit of Promise resides inside the hearts of each and every believer.
Those who are filled with His Presence are concrete members of the Kingdom of God, right here, right now.
Great observation – and I would like to add if I may – that God never made a covenant with America – He made it with Israel. Which nation, according to Mr. Cannon, could never be part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, because of their ethnicity. Neither could Christ, Himself, being Semitic, based on that doctrine.
Amen! I just went to a dr. appt this morning and on the chart it gave my recent DNA results – long story about the dr not worth going into here. Anyway, they asked general questions and then asked to mark the appropriate box for race. The color choices I got to choose from was white, black, Asian or other. It said I could choose only 1 box so I chose other. I wondered what the Lord must think of questions like that. I wish the Church would’ve provided that type of questionnaire for my grandmother. They would’ve rejected the application.