1978 Statement of the First Presidency regarding God's Love for All Mankind

The First Presidency: President Spencer W. Kimball, N. Eldon Tanner (First Counselor), Marion G. Romney (Second Counselor)

        When The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was restored to the earth in 1830, there were approximately one billion people living on the earth. By 1978, over four billion people inhabited the world. In 1830, people mostly traveled long distances by carriages and wagons drawn by horses, oxen, and mules, or by watercraft. By 1978, there were 39,412 miles of interstate highways, over 90% of the current infrastructure.¹ In the same year, 274,719 Americans traveled 226,781,368 miles in airplanes.² Even the moon had been visited by astronauts from earth on July 20, 1969.³ Increased mobility rates meant that people all over the world were traveling to other countries and cultures and interacting with political, economic, and religious worldviews different from their own. With this dramatic shift in the “shrinking of the world” and the cross-cultural exchanges that inevitably accompanied this phenomenon, many people became increasingly interested in studying the religions of the world. Universities and colleges in the United States began to establish departments for religious studies in the 1950s and 1960s.⁴

        By the end of 1977, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had 3,966,000 members worldwide⁵ and was experiencing an era of accelerated growth.⁶ An increasing number of these individuals and families had come from religiously and culturally diverse backgrounds. As the Church was growing rapidly in other countries, President Spencer W. Kimball inaugurated a global ministry for himself and his counselors unequaled by any previous First Presidency. From 1975-1981, sixty area conferences were held around the world with each conference being presided over by a member of the First Presidency, consisting of President Kimball, N. Eldon Tanner (1st Counselor), and Marion G. Romney (2nd Counselor).⁷ The First Presidency dated this statement February 15, 1978, and it was sent to select mission presidents around the world, particularly those working in countries where Christianity was not a prominent or majority faith.⁸ Although not immediately available in any Church publications, it was published as the frontispiece in Spencer J. Palmer’s The Expanding Church, published by Deseret Book Company later in 1978.⁹

        Current research has uncovered little about the direct background and reasons for the 1978 Statement. Edward Kimball, son and biographer of Spencer W. Kimball, suggested that this Statement may have been issued because “Church members sometimes use the scripture phrase ‘the only true and living church’ (D&C 1:30) to justify their disapproval of other religions.”¹⁰ From the time that the Prophet Joseph Smith announced that the Lord told him in his inaugural theophany that the creeds of other Christian denominations “were an abomination in his sight,”¹¹ some members of the Restored Church have sometimes misused this and other scriptural passages to errantly declare that other religions are void of any truth.¹² However, other scriptural passages--sometimes in the same revelations¹³--show that a loving Heavenly Father gives light and truth to all people. The First Presidency clarified in this 1978 Statement that, “The great religious leaders of the world...received a portion of God’s light. Moral truths were given to them by God to enlighten whole nations and bring a higher level of understanding to individuals” (Statement, p. 1).

        Similarly, Edward Kimball also posited that at a time when the Church was continually expanding into new areas of the world, this Statement “positioned the Church to establish more cordial relations with the Islamic and Far Eastern worlds.”¹⁴ This Statement begins with the declaration that “all men and women are brothers and sisters...by blood relationship from common mortal progenitors…[and] literal spirit children of an Eternal Father” (Statement, p. 1). It also concludes by positively affirming that “regardless of religious belief, race, or nationality... we are truly brothers and sisters because we are sons and daughters of the same Eternal Father” (Ibid.). Additionally, as the Church continued to face allegations of bigotry and racism due to the policy of withholding priesthood ordination and temple ordinances from individuals of African descent, this statement also declared that God was at the helm, and that He “has given and will give to all peoples sufficient knowledge to help them on their way to eternal salvation” (Ibid.). Interestingly, this Statement came just four months before the First Presidency announced that the priesthood restriction was lifted.¹⁵

        Finally, this Statement also reinforced a long-standing belief of Latter-day Saints that the duration of one’s mortal life did not necessarily conclude one’s opportunity to receive all the truth necessary to receive a fulness of salvation, or exaltation. While this life is a critical time “to prepare to meet God,”¹⁶ Latter-day Saints also believe that people who did not have a fair and just opportunity to receive the fulness of the Gospel in this life, for reasons beyond their control, have the assurance that such opportunities will be afforded them in the after life.¹⁷ Thus, ultimately God will provide each of His children with the opportunity to receive exaltation “either in this life or in the life to come” (Statement, p. 1).

        As the Church entered a remarkable era of expansion and growth around the world, this Statement from the First Presidency served to bolster Latter-day Saints’ affinity for all mankind as their brothers and sisters in the family of our Heavenly Father. Those who see God as “the Great Parent of the universe”¹⁸ will be able to see evidence of God’s loving guidance among all of His children suited to their capacities and circumstances¹⁹ and rejoice in His wonderfully inclusive plan for the salvation of all His children.

1. See “USA Interstate Highway System: Miles/Kilometers Opened by Year,” Urban Transport Fact Book, http://www.publicpurpose.com/hwy-intmiles.htm , accessed July 2, 2021.
2. See Kloster, Linda, ed., “Air Transport 1979,” Air Transport Association of America, https://airlines.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/1979.pdf accessed July 2, 2021. Later in 1978, airline travel would become more common and more economical with the passage of the Airline Deregulation Act--see “Deregulation: A watershed event,” Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/america-by-air/online/jetage/jetage08.cfm , accessed July 2, 2021.
3. See “1969 Moon Landing,” History, https://www.history.com/topics/space-exploration/moon-landing-1969 , accessed July 6, 2021.
4. See Religious Studies, “The Academic Study of Religion,” The University of Colorado Boulder, https://www.colorado.edu/rlst/about-us/academic-study-religion , accessed July 2, 2021; Womack, Deanna Ferree (2018), “From the History of Religions to Interfaith Studies: A theological educator’s exercise in adaptation,” in Interreligious/Interfaith Studies, Patel, Eboo, Peace, Jennifer H., and Silverman, Noah J., eds., pp. 19-20; and Prothero, Stephen (2010), God is Not One: The eight rival religions that run the world, pp. 1-7.
5. Conference Report, April 1978, p. 25.
6. See Kimball, Edward L. (2005), Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball, pp. 265-273; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (2003), “The Church Lengthens Its Stride,” Church History in the Fulness of Times Institute Manual, https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/church-history-in-the-fulness-of-times/chapter-forty-four?lang=eng , accessed July 2, 2021; and “1945-1990 International Growth,” History of Mormonism, https://historyofmormonism.com/mormon-history/international_growth_period/ , accessed July 2, 2021.
7. Gordon B. Hinckley joined the First Presidency in July 1981.
8. Personal communication with Church History Library, July 6, 2021.
9. The “Commentary and Impact” section for this document includes notes about where this article has appeared in official Church publications after its initial issuance.
10. Kimball, Lengthen Your Stride, p. 97.
11. Joseph Smith--History 1:19
12. For example, see Doctrine and Covenants 1:15-16; 33:4; 84:49-53.
13. For example, in Doctrine and Covenants 33:4 the Lord says, “...my vineyard has become corrupted every whit; and there is none which doeth good save it be a few” (emphasis added). God also affirms in Doctrine and Covenants 84:45-46, “For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light...And the Spirit giveth light to every man that cometh into the world.” Other passages assert that people outside of the Restored Church can have light and truth as they are striving to follow God--see Doctrine and Covenants 35:4-5; 49:2; 88:6-13. And in Doctrine and Covenants the Lord affirmed that there are some things “that are true” in non-canonical texts, such as the Apocrypha.
14. Ibid., p. 452. See also The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (2003), Church History in the Fulness of Times Student Manual, especially the section entitled, “Reaching Out Worldwide,” pp. 582-584, https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/church-history-in-the-fulness-of-times/chapter-forty-four?lang=eng , accessed July 6, 2021.
15. See The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Official Declaration--2, https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/od/2?lang=eng , accessed July 5, 2021; and “Race and the Priesthood,” Gospel Topics Essay, https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng , accessed July 5, 2021.
16. See Alma 34:32-34
17. See Doctrine and Covenants 137 & 138; also The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Baptism for the Dead,” Church History Topics, https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/baptism-for-the-dead?lang=eng , accessed July 5, 2021; and Tait, Lisa O., “Susa Young Gates and the Vision of the Redemption of the Dead,” Revelations in Context, https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/revelations-in-context/susa-young-gates-and-the-vision-of-the-redemption-of-the-dead?lang=eng , accessed July 5, 2021.
18. Joseph Smith, “Times and Seasons, 15 April 1842,” p. 759, The Joseph Smith Papers, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/times-and-seasons-15-april-1842/9 , accessed July 5, 2021; see also Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), p. 39, https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-joseph-smith/chapter-2?lang=eng , accessed July 5, 2021.
19. Elder Neal A. Maxwell, of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, taught: “Latter-day Saints are therefore unsurprised but instead are enriched whenever discoveries are made which show how the Lord grants ‘unto all nations’ to teach a portion of ‘his word’ (Alma 29:8)” (“‘My Servant Joseph,’” April 1992 General Conference, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1992/04/my-servant-joseph?lang=enghttps://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1992/04/my-servant-joseph?lang=eng , accessed July 6, 2021.

[Featured Version] Statement of the First Presidency regarding God's love for all mankind [Salt Lake City]: [The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], 1978,