One of the things that stood out to me when I was reading 1st Nephi for the first time back in December, was the Church of the Lamb of God
and the church of the devil. I particularly remember this:
1st Nephi chapter 14:10
10 And he said unto me: Behold there are save a
two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the b
other is the church of the c
devil; wherefore, d
whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the e
whore of all the earth.
11 And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the whore of all the earth, and she sat upon many a
waters; and she had dominion over b
all the earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people.
12 And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were a
few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon b
all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw.
What exactly is the church of the devil? Back in December when
I read it, I took the above as - if you are not in the right church (lds)
then you are automatically in the wrong (devil) church. Even if you
don’t' go to church you are automatically in the church of the devil.
That's how I felt after reading it.
What's the correct interpretation of the above verses?