Faith & Reason | LDS Covenantal Apologetics
Historical reader’s note: This response is written retrospectively within the doctrinal and scholarly horizon of October 1, 2010. It is a newly prepared examination, not a claim that this article was published on that date. Its supporting teachings and scholarship were available by that cutoff; present-day hyperlinks provide access to those earlier sources. Biblical quotations use the King James Version.
Source correction: Marion G. Romney delivered the address considered here on Sunday afternoon, April 9, 1961, not April 10. It appears without a topical title in the Conference Report, pages 116–20; the disputed passage is on page 119. His opening reference to “The Book of Mormon—The Keystone of Our Religion” identifies a prepared talk in his pocket, not a supplied title for the address printed here. See the original conference report.
A quotation can be accurate while the conclusion drawn from it is misleading. That is the central issue in Life After Ministry’s use of Marion G. Romney’s April 1961 conference address. Romney really did apply the words “the way, the truth, and the life” to the Church. The question is whether that sentence, read alongside the rest of his sermon, teaches that an institution replaces Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world.
That question deserves more than an indignant dismissal from either side. Christians are right to protect the unique place of Jesus Christ, and Latter-day Saints should welcome careful examination of language that might appear to blur it. But careful examination must include what Romney said immediately before and after the disputed passage, what John 14:6 actually teaches, and what Latter-day Saint scripture says about the source of salvation. Those sources support a substantial response without requiring us to pretend that Romney’s wording could not have been clearer.
