Kevin Christensen on the only true and living church

Kevin Christensen is one of my favourite LDS writers. He doesn't blog, but he participates in certain forums. There have been several comment he has made which have made a lasting impression on my perspectives.

This post, on 19th Aug 2013 was particularly resonant:

I've posted on "true and living" and "well pleased" many times in the past. Since D&C 1:6 says that what follows is a formal declaration "mine authority and the authority of my servants," D&C 1 bears close and careful reading. I note that it is expressly non-exclusive with respect to revelation (v18, v34) and virtue, and openly declares the weakness of the LDS and the limitations of their knowledge (v24-27), and the conditions upon which further revelation comes (v26, 28). All of that that rules out a reading of only correct, or only perfect, or only truth, or only virtue. It is simply the only well pleasing gathering, relative to the presence of revelation, priesthood, ordinances and covenants. The Biblical uses of "true vine", true treasure, truth and life, living waters, living bread, "living way...through the veil" (Heb. 10:20), and so forth, all demonstrate that true and living refer to revelation priesthood authority, ordinances, covenants, and temple.
D&C 23 is not a formal statement of authority, but a statement to an individual. What does true church mean?
The report in the 1838 account of Joseph's vision talks about creeds as abominable. It helps to see what Joseph Smith himself said about the problem with creeds. "creeds set up stakes, and say, "Hitherto thou shalt come, and no further'; which I cannot subscribe to." (TPJS, 327).
The issue is not so much with false beliefs, because all of us have them. All of us lack omniscience. All hold false ideas. The issue with whether we will repent. Static creeds bind a person to a static state of knowledge and place them beyond repentance. What could be more abominable than that?
"It dont [sic] prove that a man is not a good man because he believes false doctrine"; Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, The Words of Joseph Smith (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center Monograph, 1980), 183-84.
(Luke 9:)50 And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.
Notice that the context here is doing good. In the superficially contradictory statements, notice that the context is different. In those cases, Jesus is addressing his formally appointed missionaries. His priesthood holders.
Matthew 12:30 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.Luke 11:23 He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.
The "I never knew you" statement has the same context of priesthood authority.
Jesus is the way the truth and the life and no man cometh to Father but by him. Yet, he also says that "All things which have been given of God from the beginning of the world unto man are the typifying of him." (2 Nephi 11:4) That is behind Nephi later statement that "he remembereth the heathen" (2 Nephi 26:33, a wonderful statement in a culture in which "godless heathen" is a common cliche). Joseph Smith often taught that God adapts himself to our capacity to understand. Nephi says "For the Lord God giveth light unto the understanding; for he speaketh unto men according to their understanding." (2 Nephi 31:2). As Alma 29:8 says, "the Lord doth grant unto all nations...all that he seeth fit that they should have."
FWIW
Kevin ChristensenBethel Park, PA

http://www.mormondialogue.org/topic/61567-many-paths-to-christ/