There has been a misconception about the real name of the church, where some address it as the Mormon Church, while others refer to it as Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. As one of the authorities of the church, would you set the record straight?
The name of the church was given by a revelation to Father Joseph Smith. Through Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord restored the Christians, truth, light, and knowledge to the earth. He also revealed what the name of the church should be. He said: “My church should be called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” God promised that there would be restoration. By restoration, we mean bringing the church of Christ back to its original state of authority again, part of which was restoring the word of God back to the earth. We believe the Bible as the word of God and we also believe another book, the book of Mormon. As the Bible is a scripture written by the early prophets, the book of Mormon is also another book of scripture written by a prophet Mormon. When he lived, Joseph Smith had this book given to him to build by God and new translated by the gift and power of God. Why it is called the book of Mormon? It is because Mormon was one of the ancient fathers and he was almost the last in that line of prophets in the scriptures. Mormon died on a call to India. In order to give due respect to the man who died all because of the work of God, the book is called the Book of Mormon. Well, because we believe in this other book, people call us Mormon. But we prefer they call us “members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.”
Can you shed light on the church’s new campaign of ‘one takes one’ principle?
In the church, the Lord said: “Every one of you be strong in the spirit, let him keep with him if there is will that he may be edified to find others that he may become stronger. Behold, this is the way.” Our present day prophet father has invited all the church members to focus on reaching out and blessing others to help them come close to Christ to know Him better. Hence, one takes one, one minister takes to one.
The church recently held its annual conference. How would you describe the outcome?
We are blessed with wonderful people. These people have light in their eyes and sun in their eyes. When the gospel reaches people, it brings peace and hope, not just a wish and not just hope and expectation of things to come. Peace of the world is the light, so they come to their neighbours and when people finally come to the church they love it. So, it has been lovely. When we create a new stake, it means the church is growing in strength with the numbers of the people who are adding to the span of the church. The church continues to grow in size and strength. We divide the stakes, which is dividing the congregations and we expect to see many more stakes as many more people see church in the spirit of the Lord.
How would you rate the development of the church so far, what is the population and how many country has it covered?
We have about 16 million members in the church now, so let’s say we are not small and we are not huge. We choose to go that way – other religions are bigger than we are in terms of numbers and there is a prophecy in the book of Mormon that says, speaking of the church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, “The numbers will be few and they will be scarce in all the face of the earth.” We have the members of this church all over the earth. The church is greatly recognised in most nations, but not all nations of the earth.
What is your perception of Christianity in Nigeria?
Christianity is to have a faith and believe in Christ, in the desire to follow Christ. Speaking of Nigeria, I have been to lot of places and my experience is that they have a lot of faith in Christ and I love them. If you look around you, Nigerians are vibrant believers of Christ. I like them.
How do you feel that the Ibadan version of the church is growing in leaps and bound?
To have the gospel of light come to people is joyous to me. I’m impressed that God gave us His son as a gift, because He loved us and all humankind as His children. Everyone, we are all children of God. I have watched what happens to the people coming to the church. In the process of just a very few years, what happens to them improves their lives and their faith increases. The children grew up happier and healthier; they grew up figuring the challenges of life and in turn they grew and develop in faith. They end up blessing our nations and the members of the church as they live the precepts of the gospel in honesty. They are hard working; they are humble and they lead more lives to Christ. And because of who they are, they understand that we are children of God, and when we understand that, it changes the decisions we make in the choices of life. So, that makes me very happy. As the church grows, you see many more goodness, because that’s what the Saviour brings into our lives.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, there are two scriptures the church uses, the scripture and the book of Mormon. Can you clarify this?
We do proclaim that this is a true Church of Jesus Christ and we say, ‘of Latter Day Saints.’ This statement speaks of the members of the church as saints and this is the latter day. We use the Bible and we use the book of Mormon. Many great men have been brought into the kingdom of God. He is a living God. He speaks to the church of today; He didn’t just speak ages ago. We believe literarily there is a living prophet on the earth today. He is a prophet of God. Literarily, the Lord spoke, and He speaks.