This is an age of multitudinous sects, cults, and religious societies in general, and the number increases year by year. Strictly speaking a sect is a branch or offshoot of a primary institution, and in this sense numerous sects have arisen and others may arise, all professing something in common though differing in particulars ofttimes to the point of antagonism.
Most of the existing sects designate themselves as "churches" with a distinctive forename to each. As the term "church" in its ordinary and broad usage is a common possession, unprotected by letters patent or other guaranty of exclusiveness, its general employment as an alternative for "sects" or cognate nouns is no breach of law, order or custom.
Narrowing our consideration to that of churches professing Christianity, we meet the question as to whether there can be two or more diverse sects, opposed to each other in essentials of belief and practise, and both or all be in reality the Church of Jesus Christ. Can a church that is divided against itself, or a multitude of sects with discordant doctrines and conflicting claims to priestly authority, be one and all the same church, and that the Church of God?
The question has been answered by the churches themselves; and their emphatic reply in the negative is expressed in the names by which these organizations have chosen to be known. Some have elected to be called after the names of their founders or eminent promoters, as Lutherans, Calvinists, Wesleyans, Campbellites. Others proclaim by their self-chosen titles a preference for appellations denoting some descriptive feature of their plan of organization or governmental system, as Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregational. Yet others attach so great significance to distinctive points of doctrine as to make that the mark of identity, such as Unitarian, Trinitarian, Universalist, Baptist.
None of us can consistently challenge the vested right of religious associations to choose their own names. Moreover, the designations of existing sects, with few exceptions, are self-explanatory, significantly expressive, and eminently appropriate. In general the names tell, as explicitly as any brief title could do, just what the respective sect, society or church professes to be.
Organizations planned and operated for individual and social betterment, whether known as churches or otherwise, are commendable institutions. Inasmuch as membership therein is a matter of personal choice, no objection should be raised against rules established by common consent or majority decision for the admission of new applicants or for the discipline of members, provided, of course, that such rules be administered without infringement upon the rights of outsiders.
But can any association of men, conceived and effected on human initiative, be anything other than an earthly institution, even though its aims be lofty and its activities the most praiseworthy?
The Church of Jesus Christ, as an institution both earthly and heavenly, that is to say having vital relation to mortal life and to eternity, cannot have been originated at human instance. That church is not the fruitage of man's planting, neither the offshoot of other and older institutions. The Church of Jesus Christ, therefore, is not, nor can it be, a sect.
The Book of Mormon affirms that the Lord Jesus Christ, shortly after His ascension in Judea, visited the early inhabitants of the Western Continent and established His Church amongst them. As He had done in Galilee, so in America. He chose and ordained Twelve Disciples, to whom He gave authority to administer the ordinances of the Gospel, which, as the Lord taught, are essential to salvation. He very clearly set forth that His Church was to be rightly named, as the following record attests.
The Twelve, whom He had commissioned to build up the Church, prayed for instruction, saying: "Lord, we will that thou wouldst tell us the name whereby we shall call this Church; for there are disputations among the people concerning this matter." And the Resurrected Lord, there present in visible Person, answered them in this wise: