Has the Lord established a kingdom on earth?

This is an interesting problem to work with. I don’t have the direct references but Van Hale on Mormon Miscellaneous has lots of stuff for it, on the fact that Joseph Smith as long as he was alive tried valiently to make sure that as a Church we never came up with a “creed” for our faith. He was very committed to ongoing revelation for the Church and ongoing revelation for the members, creeds would tend to “freeze” the religion into a set of Pharisitical rules (I know that might be a bit overboard BUT it is a danger for our Church).

So I think we have to insure that we engage our religion and our faith in an honest and questing way, and not let the social mores that have built up around church membership straight jacket us into a sterile “churchness”. I am not sure how to avoid it, mind you, and in all honesty very few members of my ward would even suspect that I am deeply conflicted about how the “organization” of the church is managing the whole project. Speaking up has proven to be a major mistake.

Great comment and insight, Ray!

Sometimes I’m hopeful for the next generation of leaders, sometimes not so much.

I like to think it is less about following rules, and more about the experience you go through that provides benefit. My 6-yr old just learned to ride his 2-wheeler. You can’t explain to him how to do it, you just have to do it until you have the experience of balance and what things help when getting off balance. He’s got it now, because he tried, and fell, but tried again. Now he just has a feel for it.

Specifically for the Kingdom of God on the earth…I think it is also an experience. If we are a part of building up something, it keeps us busy, for one (the devil has work for idle hands), and secondly, it also helps us understand it by being a part of building it up. I also think God withholds things so that we have to work it out together when building it up. Joseph did this in Kirtland, Jackson County, and Nauvoo…gave the saints a goal and something to build and be a part of…and people flocked to it from all around the country and the world, because having a purpose and being a part of building something grand is very motivating.

So are you suggesting perhaps the Church of the Firstborn is growing? Rolling forth, if you will?

By the way, this is another plus for Mormonism. Such a thing as the Church of the Firstborn.

I believe it is commonly understood that any brick and mortar organization that takes upon itself the name “Church of the Firstborn” within Mormonism is NOT what is referred to by the general usage of the term. Rather, it is an inspirational term in Mormonism intended to send shivers up and down your spine and turn your gaze upward and onward above and beyond setting the heart upon the things of the world and aspiring to the honors of men.

I will quote from the Greater Things web site. Despise not the source, but rather appreciate what he gets right here:

CHURCH OF THE FIRSTBORN

Even of God, The Holiest of All,

Through Jesus Christ His Son

Those who penetrate the veil and come into communion with God and his holy angels and are called after the holy order of God.

The Church of the Firstborn is not an earthly denomination but an ecumenical general assembly of believers who attain communion through the veil with Almighty God and the holy angelic hosts. It consists of humble men and women who have sought God diligently to the point of coming into his(&her) very presence and being called after the holy order of God, that they might be princes of peace, preachers of righteousness in carry forth God’s work on the earth.

Not a bad definition. I will generally stick with it for our purposes. And I will share his passages too. The Church of the Firstborn refers to the following passages (This is good stuff. Worth reading. Even for a heretic like me.):

Doctrine and Covenants 107

3 Wherefore, I now send upon you another Comforter, even upon you my friends, that it may abide in your hearts, even the Holy Spirit of promise; which other Comforter is the same that I promised unto my disciples, as is recorded in the testimony of John.

4 This Comforter is the promise which I give unto you of eternal life, even the glory of the celestial kingdom;

5 Which glory is that of the church of the Firstborn, even of God, the holiest of all, through Jesus Christ his Son–

Doctrine and Covenants 93:19-33

19 I give unto you these sayings that you may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness.

20 For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace.

21 And now, verily I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn;

22 And all those who are begotten through me are partakers of the glory of the same, and are the church of the Firstborn.

Doctrine and Covenants 76:51-70; 92-95; 102

51 They are they who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on his name and were baptized after the manner of his burial, being buried in the water in his name, and this according to the commandment which he has given–

52 That by keeping the commandments they might be washed and cleansed from all their sins, and receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the hands of him who is ordained and sealed unto this power;

53 And who overcome by faith, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds forth upon all those who are just and true.

54 They are they who are the church of the Firstborn.

Hebrews 12:22,23

22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect….

No, No, No. The Church of the Firstborn is not an earthly denomination (though there are earthly churches with that name). It’s a spiritual brotherhood with many names and with no name, with many members and with no members. What Greater Things is expressing is simply a long-standing Mormon terminology. Though it is presented by fundamentalists, avoid the temptation to associate it strictly with them.

There are two things I love about the Church of the Firstborn:

1. Only you identify when you become a member. Other members may know, but they will very most likely not tell. Ambition and envy have thus no place. Like prophesy, it is a gift you can safely covet.

2. You can’t excommunicate anybody. Membership is inclusive by nature, not exclusive. That’s my kind of a church!

I brought up the topic. Tom is describing what I meant. He knows the term. I had no idea that there were groups out there that actually called themselves the “Church of the Firstborn.” Any denomination that calls themselves by that name, to me, is automatically not the Church of the Firstborn. That would be like a group that calls themselves the “public hidden conspiracy” and recruits through television and radio commercials — an oxymoron.

I was talking about a state of consciousness, grace and connection to God. It is personal and private. In my mind, the Church of the Firstborn is a way of talking about all the people that “get it” while still in this life. They could be from any denomination or none at all. Like it said in the D&C quoted by Tom, these are people who receive a second comforter or Holy Spirit of Promise. I suppose it could also be understood through the symbolism and metaphor of the Second Anointing, that we unfortunately no longer openly practice in the LDS Church.

So to be very clear, I was not talking about any existing sect or organized denomination. Tom’s quotes where not to point at a particular group. They were just handy references that talked about the idea (probably by a group that does not “get it”).