While in a junkyard looking for a part for your car, you find the bones of a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO. You can’t believe it! This is the most expensive car in the world. Only 36 cars were ever produced! The car that won the 1963 Tour de France race set a record auction price at $70 million. Others have sold in the $30 and $40 million range. You check to make sure it’s true. And, sure enough, you have stumbled onto the real thing. You can buy the entire chassis and much of the original car for pocket change, so you buy it. You ask the junkyard about the various parts that have been sold, and who bought them. Over a period of more than a decade the car has been gradually disassembled and the parts taken for various uses on other cars. The front fenders were taken for a teenager’s high school project. The engine was restored and put in a Porsche. Other parts are scattered all over the area. You need to restore everything to its original state for it to have any value, so you want every part for your restoration project.
So, you go to each person who owns a part and make an offer to buy back them back, but many parts are long gone. Moreover, when some find they have a part of an original 250 GTO they want too much money, or they don’t want to give it up. The guy with the engine is especially reticent to sell. He wants his car to have a 250 GTO engine. You increase your offer, but he just won’t sell -- it can’t be bought. Other parts are available, and you buy all you can, but you still cannot get some critical parts. Moreover, many parts are lost, damaged, rusted out, or destroyed. The fenders are cut up. The headlights are gone. The seats are mostly aged and cracked. Since there are so few of these cars, and none are used for parts, there is no way to restore it with original parts. You begin to assemble what you have and have the missing parts custom-made or taken from other cars. All the time and materials already invested is quite expensive, but should be worth it when the car is sold, even though it has no engine. You run out of money, and all you borrowed from everyone you know.
At auction, the car is a beautiful restoration, but when the clientele finds out that it is not original, nobody wants it. It doesn’t have an engine! So, it doesn’t sell for even the amount you invested. Though it has many original parts, it’s not real. It’s not original. It isn’t a true restoration. It’s a fake, a copy. You lost money, and now must pay back all you borrowed!
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When Jesus formed a church, “he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-13) However, when those apostles and prophets died, the church fell into disrepair. Parts were taken and put into pagan churches.
Over the years, people noticed that the church built by Christ was valuable, but with many original parts missing. They saw the bones of the church and decided to try a restoration project. But they didn’t have all the parts. They filled-in the blanks with things of the world, things that they could understand, and that made logical sense to them, but never had the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thus, hundreds of Christian churches were born out of the parts of the original church. They have original parts, but fill-in the missing pieces with their own custom-made parts. The biggest problem is that they could never get the authority to give the gift of the Holy Ghost. It would be like having a 250 GTO without an engine. When the Prophet Joseph Smith visited President Martin Van Buren, the President asked the Prophet what difference there was between the Prophet’s church and the other churches of the world. The Prophet answered: “We have the correct mode of baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands.” Then he added: “We considered that all other considerations were contained in the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
In the case of the church of Jesus Christ, there is only one way to restore it to its original form. The Lord Himself must come and restore it with authority -- apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers – and the gift of the Holy Ghost, according to the original plan. Nobody can just assume he has the authority of God. “And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” (Hebrews 5:4) There is no way to buy this authority, as Simon found out when he asked Peter to sell him the ability to give the Holy Ghost. “But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.” (Acts 8:19-20)
Thus, people have pieces of the church of Christ, but they don’t mean anything. Without the whole thing restored in its proper order as an original with heaven-made parts, it isn’t worth anything. Without the gift of the Holy Ghost there is no power in the church. It can look good, even looking like the original, but it won’t get anyone to heaven without the gift of the Holy Ghost. There can be no parts from the world. It must be original in every aspect to be His church, to be able to bring all to “the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Missing parts just will not do. Having part of the gospel doesn’t bring anyone to the “fulness of Christ.” Without every original part, and all of it together, a church is worthless, and all who invest in it will lose. However, if hands are laid upon my head and I do receive the Holy Ghost, then I know that this is the real thing, the original, the one and only church of Jesus Christ. This is the “Pearl of Great Price” that is worth selling everything of the world to possess! It is priceless, requiring me to sacrifice my all, even my heart, but I get the most valuable thing in the Universe!
For he that receiveth my servants receiveth me; And he that receiveth me receiveth my Father; And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him. (Doctrine and Covenants 84:36-38)
