Does God Speak?

WHO CAN SPEAK FOR GOD?  (Taken the writings of Joseph Fielding McConkie and his book, 50 Truths The Devil Doesn’t Want You to Know), Page 27.

“The historical Christian world knows nothing of priesthood and its operations in the salvation of man.  The Bible, as we now have it, neither defines nor explains priesthood.  True it is that there are biblical passages that evidence the priesthood but they can only be seen and understood by those who already know and understand the functioning of the priesthood.  Without the light of the Restoration we could not see them.

When Martin Luther broke with the Roman Church, those he criticized revoked the authority by which he acted and claimed him to be without priesthood authority.  His response was not a claim to such authority but rather that no such authority was needed.  All, he argued, have within themselves the authority to do whatever is required of God.  Such authority rested within the individual, not an organization.  This is known as the ‘priesthood of all believers’ and has become a fundamental doctrine of the Protestant faith.

While the Catholic faith professes a succession of the keys promised by Christ to Peter, no such conferral of keys takes place in practice.  When the College of Cardinals meets to choose a new pope, he is chosen from among their number.  The man he succeeds made no personal conveyance of keys to him.  His authority comes from the vote of his fellow cardinals, none of whom have any claim that such keys were ever given to them.  Thus they are called on to give what they do not have.

Theological dictionaries and encyclopedias can be searched in vain for a Catholic definition of priesthood.  It is popular sport in the Evangelic world to point an accusing finger at Mormonism and make a great flap and fuss over the fact that we as Latter-day Saints did not give the priesthood to black members until 1978.  What has not been asked is when they gave the priesthood to black individuals?  The answer is that they have not.

They, like Luther, (abstain from) the necessity of authority and deny the need for any rites or ordinances.  This is hypocrisy at its best.

Surely it evidences no concern for black Church members to argue that we have discriminated against them by not giving to them what those with pointed fingers (avoid) themselves.  Do you show interest in a friend by arguing that someone give them something you believe to be evil and that will only lead to their destruction?

What then do we understand the priesthood to be?  It is the power and authority by which all the blessings of the Atonement are administered.  Our revelation declares the high and holy priesthood to be the authority to administer the gospel (D&C 84:19). ‘(It) is,’ said Joseph Smith, ‘the channel through which all knowledge, doctrine, the plan of salvation and every important matter is revealed from heaven’ (TPJS, pg. 167).

If God’s house is a house of order it cannot be governed by laws of someone else's making; it will not honor offerings made to other gods nor will ordinances performed without its permission or authority be accepted.  Laws evidence the existence of God.  The first command in the creation was, ‘Let there be light’ (Genesis 1:3).  That light is the gospel, which is administered by the priesthood.  Only those who possess the priesthood have the right to speak for God.”

A Fire That Removed Hesitation

Christian Benevolence

The following is from the Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, page 106:

…”I was instructed to prepare for a mission in the coming spring, in connection with my brethren of the quorum (of the Twelve Apostles).  I now returned home …and began to make preparations for my mission, but the state of my affairs was such that it seemed almost impossible for me to leave…, my wife was sick, my aged mother had come to live with me and looked to me for support, age and infirmity having rendered my father unable to do for himself or family.  I was also engaged in building a house and in other business, while at the same time I was somewhat in debt and in want of most of the necessaries of life.

Under these embarrassed circumstances, I hesitated for a while whether to attempt to perform the mission assigned me or stay at home and finish my building and mechanical work.  While I pondered these things, with my mind unsettled,  I continued my work, with a feeling of hesitation whether it was a duty to sacrifice all the labor and expense to which I had been in my preparations and unfinished work or whither it was a duty to stay and complete it, I was called suddenly to administer to a brother by the name of Matthews, who was taken… dangerously ill…I knelled down to pray, but in the midst of my prayers we were interrupted by the cry of fire! Fire!

We sprang from our knees and ran towards my house, which was all in a blaze, being an unfinished, two story frame building, open to the fresh breeze and full of shavings, lumber, shingles and so forth, while a family occupied a small apartment of the same and no water near.

 

Our utmost exertions barely accomplished the removal of the family and their goods; the building, tools, boards, shingles, & building materials all were consumed in a few moments.  Thus closed all my hesitation; my works of that nature were now all completed and myself ready to fill my mission.  One gave me a coat; another a hat; a third, house room;  a fourth, provisions; while a fifth forgave me the debts due to them and a sixth bade me God speed to hasten on my mission.

Taking an affectionate leave of my family and friends in New Portage, I repaired to Kirtland, ready to accompany my brethren.  While they made ready I paid a visit to an adjoining township called Mentor; and visiting from house to house, I attempted to preach to them; but they were full of lying and prejudice and would not hear the Word.

I then appointed a meeting in the open air, on the steps of a meeting house owned by a people called “Campbellites,” one Mr. Alexander Campbell being their leader, they having refused to open the house to me.  Some came to hear and some to disturb the meeting and one Mr. Newel soon appeared at the head of a mob of some fifty men and a band of music. 

They formed in order of battle and marched round several times near where I stood, drowning my voice with the noise of their drums and other instruments.  I suspended my discourse several times as they passed and then resumed.  At length, finding that no disturbance of this kind would prevent the attempt to discharge my duty, they rushed upon me with one accord at a given signal, every man throwing an egg at my person. 

My forehead, bosom and most of my body were completely covered with broken eggs.  At this I departed and walked slowly away, being insulted and followed by this rabble for some distance.  I soon arrived in Kirtland and was assisted by my kind friends in cleansing myself and clothes from the effects of this Christian benevolence.”