My Church and My Gospel

I hear people speak of the church and the gospel as if they are the same thing. According to Jesus, my church and my gospel are not synonymous. Listen to what the Lord said in the American continent in response to His disciples asking what the name of the church should be, “if it [the church] be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel” (3 Nephi 27:8). So, it appears to me that this is the great challenge, to make the church and the gospel synonymous. It was the same challenge in the new and old worlds after Jesus spent time with them. Both groups had a church established by Jesus only to see it eventually apostatize from the true gospel. 

In 3 Nephi Jesus gives us many details about what His church is and what His gospel is:

My Church:

Must be called in His name (3 Nephi 27:7-8)

Must be built upon His gospel (3 Nephi 27:8)

If the church is built upon His gospel then the Father will show forth His own works in it (3 Nephi 27:10)

NOT my church if built upon the works of men or of the devil (3 Nephi 27:11-12)

Do the works they have seen Jesus do (3 Nephi 27:21)

My Gospel:

He came into the world to do the will of Father (3 Nephi 27:13) 

Jesus being raised up on the cross that all men might be drawn unto Him (3 Nephi 27:14-15)

Men lifted up by the Father to be judged according to their works (3 Nephi 27:14)

Repent, be baptized in Jesus’ name and endure to the end that one may be found guiltless when Jesus stands to judge the world (3 Nephi 27:16)

Be clean and enter into His rest by washing garments in the blood of Jesus through faith, repentance of all sin, and faithfulness unto the end (3 Nephi 27:19)

Repent, come unto Jesus, be baptized in His name, become sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost that ye may be spotless before Jesus at the last day (3 Nephi 27:20)

Do the works you have seen Jesus do (3 Nephi 27:21)

The Lord gave us a very interesting definition of His church in the Doctrine and Covenants, “Behold, this is my doctrine—whosoever repenteth and cometh unto me, the same is my church.
68 Whosoever declareth more or less than this, the same is not of me, but is against me; therefore he is not of my church.
69 And now, behold, whosoever is of my church, and endureth of my church to the end, him will I establish upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.
70 And now, remember the words of him who is the life and light of the world, your Redeemer, your Lord and your God. Amen” (Doctrine and Covenants 10:67-70).