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“Always only one generation away from extinction”

“Always only one generation away from extinction”

Last updated on: January 14, 2025 at 11:21 am by Dan Peterson

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“Always only one generation away from extinction” 2025-01-14T11:21:24-07:00 Dan Peterson

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A public domain depiction of Lehi’s vision of the Tree of Life (1 Nephi 8) at the 2011 Hill Cumorah Pageant (Photo by Eustress, Wikimedia Commons) But the “great and spacious building” is nearby.

A dominant (and gleefully received) narrative among some critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that the Church is in severe long-term demographic decline and, in particular, that it is hemorrhaging its youth. In this brief interview Elders D. Todd Christofferson and Clark G. Gilbert suggest that that dominant narrative cannot be sustained: “Video: Elder Christofferson challenges narrative, says Spirit working in youth: In new video, Elder D. Todd Christofferson and Elder Clark G. Gilbert discuss the increasing numbers of youth and young adults enrolling in the Church’s academic institutions”

Although the critics are often armed with the awesome power of anecdote, and although (sadly) it’s all too common for faithful Latter-day Saints to have friends, neighbors, and family members who have rejected the Restoration and separated themselves from fellowship with the Saints, I’ve wondered whether that experience isn’t more an artifact of faithful Saints and wandering Saints simply growing older, with all of the entropic vicissitudes that accompany the passage of time, than of widespread demographic change. Is the situation today really any worse (or even substantially different) than the Church’s experience in the early twentieth century, when a generation came of age after Joseph Smith and after the conclusion of the pioneer era, and many left the Church? They hadn’t experienced the miracles of the early Restoration and didn’t seem to have understood (let alone to have inherited) their parents’ testimonies.

A group of relatively prominent poets and writers from the 1930s through the 1970s, with Latter-day Saint roots but no living faith, has sometimes been termed “Mormonism’s lost generation.” Today’s intellectually disaffected apostates are, sadly, not the first such generation.

Still, failures to pass the faith on from one generation to the next are always sad.

Now it came to pass that there were many of the rising generation that could not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did not believe the tradition of their fathers.

They did not believe what had been said concerning the resurrection of the dead, neither did they believe concerning the coming of Christ. [Mosiah 26:1–2]

In fact, as the Book of Mormon itself tells us, four of those younger-generation unbelievers — Ammon, Aaron, Omner, and Himni — were grandsons of the prophet-king Benjamin himself. Somehow, his message had either not been transmitted or, at least, not received.

I’m reminded in this context of Doctrine and Covenants 68:25, the words of which were prominently displayed on the front wall of the chapel in Southern California in which I grew up:

And again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents.

Obviously, when children reject the teachings of their parents that’s not always indicative of a fault in the parents. Children have agency and can choose for themselves. Laman and Lemuel disdained the teachings of Lehi. Lucifer rebelled against the Father. But parents must make every possible effort to pass righteous teachings on, even after children have left the home. And even, where the occasion arises, on to grandchildren. And they should call on every resource available to help them in doing so.

In a typically thoughtful speech delivered at Brigham Young University’s Campus Education Week in August 1981 while he was serving as BYU’s president, Jeffrey Holland shared with his audience

a simple reminder that this Church is always only one generation away from extinction. That does not change however many decades old we are now. It was true in 1840, it was true in 1891, and is true in 1981. We are always just one generation away from extinction. All we would have to do, I assume, to destroy this work is stop teaching our children for one generation. Just everybody stop, close the books, seal up your heart, keep your mouth shut, and don’t bear a testimony. In one generation it would be 1820 all over again. We could hunt around and find somebody to go out and pray in a grove of trees. With the blessings of the Lord, we could get six people together to organize a church. We could hand Samuel Smith a Book of Mormon and say, “Go knock on the door and see if we can start somewhere.” That could happen. It won’t happen. It mustn’t happen. It won’t happen in 1981 or 1991, but it could if we ceased to accept the obligation upon us, always upon those who have known and believed the truth, to teach it, especially to their children.

Joe Carlson portrayed Sidney Rigdon in both “Witnesses” (2021) and “Six Days in August” (2024)

President Holland’s reminder serves as an excellent transition to my next topic: As an initial part of its effort to support this year’s Come, Follow Me curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Interpreter Foundation is reintroducing the series of short features that we produced in connection with its Witnesses film project. We’re hoping that you will find these both interesting and useful resources — and, if you do, that you will recommend them to, or even share them with, others who might benefit from them. Here is Episode 6: Sidney Rigdon and the Witnesses:

Sidney Rigdon was a fiery orator, a defender of the faith, and Joseph’s Smith’s right hand for many years, who also experienced shared revelations with the prophet. And yet, after the death of Joseph, he left the Church, founding one of his own. Who was this former minister from Ohio?

This is Episode 6 of a series compiled from the many interviews conducted during the course of the Witnesses film project. . . These additional resources are hosted by Camrey Bagley Fox, who played Emma Smith in Witnesses, as she introduces and visits with a variety of experts. These individuals answer questions or address accusations against the witnesses, also helping viewers understand the context of the times in which the witnesses lived. This week we feature Gerrit Dirkmaat, Associate Professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University.

For more information, go to https://witnessesofthebookofmormon.org/. Learn about the documentary movie Undaunted—Witnesses of the Book of Mormon at https://witnessesundaunted.com/.

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