=17.= It was known to the apostles of old that men would seek to arrogate unto themselves the right to officiate in things divine, thus becoming servants of Satan. In addressing a conference of the elders at Ephesus, Paul prophesied of these ill events, and warned the shepherds of the flock to look well to their charge.[579] In an epistle to Timothy, the apostle reiterates this prophecy; encouraging to diligence in preaching the word, he declares, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own l.u.s.ts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."[580] Peter"s declarations on the same subject are no less plain. Addressing himself to the Saints of his time, he refers to the false prophets of old, and adds:--"There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in d.a.m.nable heresies; even denying the Lord that bought them.... And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of."[581]
[579] Acts xx, 28-30.
[580] II Tim. iv, 2-4.
[581] II Pet. ii, 1-3.
=18. Divine Authority in the Present Dispensation.=--The Latter-day Saints claim to possess authority to administer in the name of G.o.d, and that this right has been conferred in this day under the hands of those who held the same power in former dispensations. That the authority of the holy priesthood was to be taken from the earth as the apostles of old were slain, and that it would of necessity have to be restored from heaven before the Church could be re-established, may be shown by scripture. On the 15th day of May, 1829, while Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were engaged in earnest prayer for instruction concerning baptism for the remission of sins, mention of which they had found in the plates from which they were then engaged in translating the Book of Mormon, a messenger from heaven descended in a cloud of light. He announced himself as John, called of old the Baptist, and said he acted under the direction of Peter, James, and John, who held the keys of the higher priesthood. The messenger laid his hands upon the two young men and ordained them to authority, saying, "Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness."[582]
[582] Pearl of Great Price: Extr. Hist. of Joseph Smith, 69. Doc.
and Cov. xiii.
=19.= A short time after this event, Peter, James, and John appeared to Joseph and Oliver, and ordained the two to the higher or Melchizedek priesthood, bestowing upon them the keys of the apostleship, which these heavenly messengers had held and exercised in the former gospel dispensation. This order of priesthood holds authority over all the offices in the Church, and includes power to administer in spiritual things;[583] consequently all the authorities and powers necessary to the establishment of the Church were by this visitation restored to earth.
[583] Doc. and Cov. cvii.
=20.= No one is authorized to officiate in any of the ordinances of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unless he has been ordained to that calling by those holding the power; thus, no man receives the priesthood except under the hand of one who holds that priesthood himself; that one must have obtained it from others previously commissioned; and so every holder of the priesthood to-day can trace his authority to the hands of Joseph the Prophet, who, as already stated, received his ordination under the hands of heavenly messengers clothed with power divine. That men who are called of G.o.d to the authority of the ministry on earth may have been selected for such appointment even before they took mortal bodies is evident from the scriptures. This matter may properly claim attention in the present connection; and its consideration leads us to the subjects which follow.
FORE-ORDINATION AND PRE-EXISTENCE.
=21. Fore-ordination.=--In a wonderful interview with Abraham, the Lord revealed many things ordinarily withheld from mortal eyes. Said the patriarch:--"Now the Lord had shewn unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the n.o.ble and great ones; and G.o.d saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said, These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me, Abraham, thou art one of them, thou wast chosen before thou wast born."[584]
This is one of the many scriptural proofs that the spirits of mankind existed prior to their earthly probation:--a condition in which these intelligences lived and exercised their free agency before they a.s.sumed bodily tabernacles. Surely then the natures, dispositions, and tendencies of men are known to the Father of their spirits, even before these beings are born in mortality; and He needs not to wait till they develop and prove their capacities on earth before they are appointed to special labors in the fulfillment of Divine purposes.
[584] Pearl of Great Price: Abraham iii, 22-23; see also Jer. i, 4-5.
=22.= Evidence is abundant that Christ was chosen and ordained to be the Redeemer of the world, even from the beginning. We read of His foremost position amongst the sons of G.o.d in offering Himself as a sacrifice to carry into effect the will of the Father.[585] He it was, "Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world."[586]
[585] See page 83.
[586] I Peter i, 20. See "Jesus the Christ," ch. ii.
=23.= Paul taught the doctrine of Divine selection and pre-appointment thus:--"For whom he did fore-know, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.... Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called."[587] And again:--"G.o.d hath not cast away his people which he foreknew."[588]
[587] Rom. viii, 29-30.
[588] Rom. xi, 2.
=24.= Alma, the Nephite prophet, spoke of the priests who had been ordained after the order of the Son, and added:--"And this is the manner after which they were ordained: being called and prepared from the foundation of the world, according to the fore-knowledge of G.o.d, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceeding great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such."[589]
[589] Alma xiii, 3; also 10, 11.
=25. Fore-ordination does not Imply Compulsion.=--The doctrine of absolute predestination, resulting in a nullification of man"s free agency, has been advocated with various modifications by different sects. Nevertheless, such teachings are wholly unjustified by both the letter and the spirit of sacred writ. G.o.d"s fore-knowledge concerning the natures and capacities of His children enables Him to see the end of their earthly career even from the first:--"Known unto G.o.d are all his works from the beginning of the world."[590] Many people have been led to regard this fore-knowledge of G.o.d as a sure predestination whereby souls are a.s.signed to glory or condemnation, even before their birth in the flesh, and independently of any merits or demerits of their own. This heretical doctrine seeks to rob Deity of every trait of mercy, of justice, and of pure love; it makes the Father appear capricious and selfish, directing and creating all things for His own glory alone, caring not for the consequent suffering of the victims of His injustice. How dreadful, how inconsistent is such an idea of G.o.d!
It leads to the absurd conclusion that the mere knowledge of coming events must act as a determining influence in bringing about those occurrences. G.o.d"s knowledge of spiritual and of human nature enables Him to conclude with certainty as to the actions of any of His children under given conditions; yet such knowledge has surely no determining effect upon the creature.[591]
[590] Acts xv, 18.
[591] See "Jesus the Christ," pp. 18, 28.
=26.= Doubtless He knows of some spirits that they await only the opportunity of choice between good and evil to choose the latter and to accomplish their own destruction; these are they as spoken of by Jude, "who were before of old ordained to this condemnation."[592] To avert the fate of such, their free agency would have to be taken away; they can be saved by force alone; and compulsion is forbidden by the laws of heaven, for salvation and for condemnation alike. There are others whose integrity and faithfulness have been demonstrated in their pristine state; the Father knows how unreservedly they may be trusted, and many of them are called even in their mortal youth to special and exalted labors as chosen servants of the Most High.
[592] Jude 4.
=27. Pre-existence of Spirits.=--The facts already presented concerning fore-ordination furnish proof that the spirits of mankind pa.s.sed through a stage of existence prior to the earthly probation.
This antemortal period is oft-times spoken of as the stage of "primeval childhood" or "first estate." That these spirits existed as organized intelligences, and exercised their free agency during that primeval stage, is clear from the declaration of the Lord to Abraham:--"And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon, and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads forever and ever."[593]
=28.= No Christian doubts the pre-existence of the Savior, or questions His position as one of the G.o.dhead before He came to earth as Mary"s Son. The common interpretation given to the opening words of John"s Gospel sustains the view of Christ"s primeval G.o.d-ship:--"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with G.o.d, and the Word was G.o.d." We read further, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."[594] The sayings of the Redeemer Himself support this truth. When His disciples dissented concerning His doctrine of Himself, He said, "What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?"[595] On another occasion He spoke in this wise:--"I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world and go to the Father."[596] And His disciples, pleased with this plain declaration confirming the belief which, perchance, they already entertained at heart, rejoined, "Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb ... by this we believe that thou camest forth from G.o.d."[597] To the wicked Jews who boasted of their descent from Abraham, and sought to hide their sins under the protecting mantle of the great patriarch"s name, the Savior declared:--"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am."[598] In a solemn prayer to His Father, the Son implored, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."[599] Yet Christ was born a child among mortals; and it is fair to infer, that if His earthly birth was the union of a pre-existent or antemortal spirit with a mortal body, such also is the birth of every member of the human family.
[593] Pearl of Great Price: Abraham iii, 26.
[594] John i, 1, 14.
[595] John vi, 62.
[596] John xvi, 28.
[597] Verses 29-30.
[598] John viii, 58. See "Jesus the Christ." pp. 37, 411.
[599] John xvii, 5. See also II Nephi ix, 5; xxv, 12; Mos. iii, 5; xiii, 33-34; xv, 1.
=29.= But we are not left to mere inference on a basis of a.n.a.logy only; the scriptures plainly teach that the spirits of mankind are known and numbered unto G.o.d before their earthly advent. In his farewell administration to Israel Moses sang, "Remember the days of old.... When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel."[600] From this we learn that the earth was allotted to the nations, according to the number of the children of Israel; it is evident therefore that the number was known prior to the existence of the Israelitish nation in the flesh; this is most easily explained on the a.s.sumption of a previous existence in which the spirits of the future nation were known.
[600] Deut. x.x.xii, 7-8.
=30.= No chance is possible therefore in the number or extent of the temporal creations of G.o.d.[601] The population of the earth is fixed according to the number of spirits appointed to take tabernacles of flesh upon this sphere; when these have all come forth in the order and time decreed of G.o.d, then, and not till then, shall the end come.
[601] See Note, this page.
NOTES.
=1. Spiritual Creations.=--The pre-existent condition is not characteristic of human souls alone; all things of earth have a spiritual being, of which the temporal structure forms but the counterpart. We read of the creation of "every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew" (Gen. ii, 5). This is set forth with greater fulness in another revelation to Moses:--"These are the generations of the heaven and the earth when they were created, in the day that I, the Lord G.o.d, made the heaven and the earth, and every plant of the earth before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord G.o.d, created all things of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth.... And I, the Lord G.o.d, had created all the children of men, and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air: but I, the Lord G.o.d, spake, and there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And I, the Lord G.o.d, formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul, the first flesh upon the earth, the first man also; nevertheless, all things were before created, but spiritually were they created and made according to my word."--(Pearl of Great Price: Moses iii, 4-7.)
=2. Authority Given of G.o.d.=--"The most comprehensive evidence that Joseph Smith received the authority and power of the Holy Priesthood, is that the works of John the Baptist, of Jesus and His apostles, are being again done on the earth by his administration. To receive the powers of this Priesthood, it is necessary that men should obey the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. The Lord has personally appeared to some men, and covenanted with them as He did with Abraham (see Gen. xii, 1-3; xiii, 14-17). The Lord also personally called and authorized His twelve Jewish apostles. So fully were they authorized to labor for Him, and act in His name, that He said to them: "He that receiveth you receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me" (Matt. x, 40). More generally, it is from the prophets and apostles of Christ that men receive the Priesthood.
Many received it under the hands of the apostles of the first Gospel dispensation. Those who have received it in this latter-day dispensation, have received it from Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery; and, in doing so, have received it through a legitimate channel from G.o.d the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
Those who have received this Priesthood have covenanted with G.o.d the Father, and He with them. This is evidently the view taken of the subject in the above pa.s.sage quoted from Matthew. The doctrine is more fully ill.u.s.trated in Doc. and Cov.: "All they who receive this Priesthood receiveth me, saith the Lord; 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, and this is according to the oath and covenant which belongeth to the Priesthood" (Doc. and Cov. lx.x.xiv, 35-39)."--_Compendium_, F. D. Richards and J. A. Little, p. 67.
=3. Fore-ordination.=--""Known unto G.o.d are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts xv, 18). The knowledge that we have of the beginning of the world is princ.i.p.ally derived from the history of its creation in the Bible Genesis, and in the writings of Moses and of Abraham, as given in the Pearl of Great Price.... These writings make it plain that man existed in a spiritual condition prior to coming here, and also quite as evident that in that pre-existence he exercised his free agency.... G.o.d may have called and chosen men in their first estate, or spiritual existence, but whether they will accept that call and fill it, by repentance and good works in this life, is a matter in which it is their privilege to exercise their free agency.... Men exercised their free agency in the first or spiritual estate, as well as in this. That the character of their works in that estate shaped their destiny in this is evident."--_Compendium_, F. D. Richards and J. A. Little, pp.
138-140.
See also: Acts ii, 23; Romans viii, 29-30; xi, 2, 28; Isaiah xlviii, 12; I Chron. xxix, 1; Book of Mormon: Alma xiii, 3-7; Doc. and Cov. lx.x.xiv, 34, 99.
LECTURE XI.