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.”