Lesson
42
Continuing
Revelation to Latter-day Prophets
By Scot Facer Proctor
Introduction
I
have crossed over the Missouri River hundreds of times in my
life. I just crossed over it again a few months ago with a tour
bus of Meridian travel participants, and as we were crossing
this enormous bridge I told them all to look up the river and
down. I told them that not far from where we were crossing,
two of the revelations of the Doctrine and Covenants were received
(Sections 61 and 62). I then said to them in a loud voice over
the intercom (this is all while we were still crossing the Missouri):
"What power shall stay the heavens? As well might man stretch
forth his puny arm [I love that] to stop the Missouri river
in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder
the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the
heads of the Latter-day Saints" (D&C 121: 33).
Could
there be any promise more wonderful? And this promise was given
on day 111 of Joseph's imprisonment in the Liberty Jail! What
a great type for the last days, that in the midst of the darkness
of this world and the most difficult of times, the Almighty
will not forget His people. He will continue to pour out knowledge
and revelation upon them.
President
Harold B. Lee
Let
us not fall into a pattern of thinking that unless the Prophet
or Apostles say, "Thus saith the Lord," that what
they give us is not revelation. President Harold B. Lee said
it this way:
If
you want to know what the Lord has for this people at the
present time, I would admonish you to get and read the discourses
that have been delivered at this conference, for what these
brethren have spoken by the power of the Holy Ghost is the
mind of the Lord, the will of the Lord, the voice of the Lord,
and the power of God unto Salvation. (President Harold B.
Lee, April 8, 1973)
President
Lee also said:
As
the Latter-day Saints go home, it would be well if they consider
seriously the importance of taking with them the report of
this conference and let it be the guide to their walk and
talk during the next six months. These are the important
matters the Lord sees fit to reveal to this people in this
day ... (President Harold B. Lee, April 1946, emphasis
added).
As
if President Lee was giving us a theme, let us emphasize his
counsel here:
This
is what has been said, in effect, in this conference: Unless
every member of this Church gains for himself an unshakable
testimony of the divinity of this Church, he will be among
those who will be deceived in this day when the “elect according
to the covenant” are going to be tried and tested. Only those
will survive who have gained for themselves that testimony.
(President Harold B. Lee, October 1950)
Shall
we not give heed to the words of the prophets? Shall we not
be more attentive to these "important matters the Lord
sees fit to reveal to this people in this day"?
President
Joseph Fielding Smith added this wise advice and counsel:
It
is my humble opinion that we are receiving counsel by inspiration,
or revelation, at every general conference of the Church.
Would it not be wise for the members of the Church to pay
more heed to these counsels and prepare ourselves for more
to come? (Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions,
Vol. 2, p. 205).
Believe
What We Believe
Some
years ago I was leading another tour with a busload of people.
We had the opportunity at one point to visit another church
and meet with and ask questions of some of the leaders of that
church. The more we asked questions, the more we could see they
had strayed far from the gospel of Jesus Christ as we understood
it. As we left our meeting, my stake president, who was with
us, said, "Never have I seen so clearly the need for continuing
revelation as what we have just experienced."
"We
believe all that God has revealed," the Prophet Joseph
wrote to Mr. John Wentworth in 1842, "all that he does
now reveal, and we believe that he will yet reveal many great
and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God"
(see 9th Articles of Faith). It has been 159 years
since Joseph wrote those words. Continuing revelation is the
lifeblood of the Church. President Lee once shared this story:
Elder
John A. Widstoe of the Council of the Twelve once told of
a discussion he had with a group of stake officers. In the
course of the discussion someone said to him, “Brother Widstoe,
how long has it been since the Church received a revelation?”
Brother Widstoe rubbed his chin thoroughly and said in reply,
“Oh, probably since last Thursday." (Lee, Harold B. Stand
Ye in Holy Places. Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City:
1974, pp. 132-33.)
President
Ezra Taft Benson once listed "Fourteen Fundamentals in
Following the Prophet." Some of those points underline
the importance of continuing revelation in the Church through
the living prophet of God: Point 2: "The living prophet
is more vital to us that the standard works. Point 3: "The
living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet."
Point 9: "The prophet can receive revelation on any matter,
temporal or spiritual." (Ezra Taft Benson, "Fourteen
Fundamentals in Following the Prophet," Liahona,
June 1981, pp. 1-8.)
President
Spencer W. Kimball testified that the Church continually receives
revelation:
We
testify to the world that revelation continues and that the
vaults and files of the Church contain those revelations which
come month to month and day to day. We testify also that there
is, since 1830 when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints was organized, and will continue to be, so long as
time shall last, a prophet, recognized of God and his people,
who will continue to interpret the mind and will of the Lord.
Expecting
the spectacular, one may not be fully alerted to the constant
flow of revealed communication. I say, in the deepest of humility,
but also by the power and force of a burning testimony in
my soul, that from the prophet of the Restoration to the
prophet of our own year, the communication line is unbroken,
the authority is continuous, a light, brilliant and penetrating,
continues to shine. The sound of the voice of the Lord is
a continuous melody and a thunderous appeal. For nearly
a century and a half there has been no interruption. (Ensign,
May 1977, p. 78, emphasis added.)
Let
us believe the things that we believe. Let us come to know that
the Lord makes His will known to the Prophet and the leaders
of the Church and the kingdom rolls forth accordingly.
Revelation
a Part of the Kingdom of God
The
process of the Lord communicating regularly with His Church
is called continuing revelation. Elder Bruce R. McConkie made
this clear as he wrote:
This
brings us to the great and eternal principle of revelation.
Either God speaks and we hear his voice, or the damning curtain
of ignorance, unbelief, and disobedience will forever shut
us out from his presence. In this sense revelation is the
beginning and the end; it is the first great requisite leading
to salvation, the one principle upon which all others rest,
the rock foundation upon which the whole house of salvation
is built. Without revelation there is no witness; with it
there is light and truth and knowledge and a hope of eternal
life. Revelation is essential to salvation.
Elder
McConkie continues:
Whenever
the Lord has had a people on earth, they have received revelation
from appointed prophets, apostles, and seers. If at any time
they ceased to receive revelation, they ceased to be the Lord's
people. This has been the unvarying course from Adam to the
present moment. The receipt of revelation is one of the chief
identifying characteristics of the true saints; where there
are saints there is revelation, and where there is no revelation
the saints of the Most High cease to exist among men.
Elder
McConkie concludes with this point:
Revelation
is as eternal as God himself; he is the Eternal Revelator.
When he speaks, his words are revelation; they set forth what
is in his heart and mind, and he cannot exist without speaking.
Should revelation cease, God would cease to be God, the purposes
of creation would come to naught, and all things would vanish
away-all of which is beyond the realm of possibility...Revelations
came in days past; revelations come now; and revelations will
continue as long as the earth shall stand. Those saints whose
souls are attuned to the Infinite believe all that God has
revealed; they need only be taught than any particular truth
came by revelation, and they automatically believe it ...
those who are enlightened by the power of the Spirit know
by spiritual instinct, without argument, without persuasion,
without debate, that any authoritatively announced revelation
came from the Divine Source. (McConkie, Bruce R. A New
Witness for the Articles of Faith. Deseret Book, Salt
Lake City, 1985, pp. 475-77; 481.)
Revelation
to President Kimball on the Priesthood
From
the biography of President Boyd K. Packer by Sister Lucille
Tate, we get some insight into the process of revelation, specifically
in relation to President Kimball's receiving the revelation
of the priesthood being extended to all worthy males in the
Church:
At
the same time the LDS edition of the scriptures was being
prepared for publication another matter was weighing heavily
upon the soul of one of the Lord's great watchmen, President
Spencer W. Kimball. Other latter-day prophets had wrestled
with the same dilemma: that of obeying the divine command
to preach the gospel to every kindred, tongue, and people,
while being keenly aware that, because of race, some of those
people were denied the full blessings of the gospel-that is,
denied the priesthood and the temple ordinances. Thus these
prophets had pleaded mightily with the Lord for answers to
the problem, and none of them more intensely than President
Kimball. Yet always the Spirit had indicated that the time
had not yet come.
Now
this prophet, small in physical stature but a spiritual giant,
wrestled again, seeking and pleading in behalf of the faithful
among all priesthood-denied people. Not only did he struggle,
seek, and plead, but his brethren in the highest councils
of the Church did so as well.
One
day, during the Thursday temple meeting with his Counselors
and the Twelve, President Kimball, who was pondering that
matter, discussed it with his brethren. When it was Elder
Packer's turn to speak, he read a scripture: "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, that when I give a commandment to
any of the sons of men to do a work unto my name, and those
sons of men go with all their might and with all they have
to perform that work, and cease not their diligence, and their
enemies come upon them and hinder them from performing that
work, behold, it behooveth me to require that work no more
at the hands of those sons of men, but to accept of their
offerings (D&C 124: 49).
A
few days later President Kimball asked Brother Packer where
he would be the next Saturday. Elder Packer told him he would
be speaking Friday evening at the Dixie College baccalaureate
but would return by plane early on Saturday.
"Will
you come to my office?" the President asked.
"Of
course," Elder Packer responded.
Upon
his return about one o'clock on Saturday, Brother Packer went
directly to the Church Office Building. The security officer
on duty said that the President was at home and wished Elder
Packer to call as soon as he came into the building.
Reaching
President Kimball by phone, Elder Packer offered, "I'll
come right up."
"No,
I'll come down and meet you."
Arriving
shortly after this, the President entered his office. Elder
Packer recalls his saying that he had "this thing"
on his mind and wanted to talk about it. "There was no
need to explain what this thing was," Elder Packer recalled.
"We both knew how it was weighing upon him.
"He
handed me his scriptures and said he'd like me to read to
him from the revelations. So we started with the one from
D&C 124: 49 that I had read in the temple. For a couple
of hours we just moved back and forth through the Doctrine
and Covenants, the Book of Mormon, and the Pearl of Great
Price, and then talked about what we read.
"The
spirit of revelation seemed to be brooding upon the prophet
that day. He asked me, assuming that the revelation was to
come, how it might best be announced to the Church, and asked
that I put something in writing. This I did and handed it
to him a day or two later. He had asked one or two of the
others to do the same."
On
Thursday, 8 June 1978, in the Salt Lake Temple, the revelation
was reaffirmed when the First Presidency and the Twelve approved
the announcement that was to go out to the world. It was further
reaffirmed in the temple on 9 June 1978 by all of the General
Authorities available. They too unanimously approved the announcement.
The
long-sought pronouncement that "all worthy male members
of the Church may be ordained to the priesthood without regard
for race or color" had become official. (Tate, Lucille
C. Boyd K. Packer, A Watchman on the Tower. Bookcraft,
Salt Lake City, 1995, pp. 225-26).
Conclusion
In
a telling question from tough newsman Mike Wallace to President
Gordon B. Hinckley on December 18, 1995, much insight can be
gained into the process of revelation to the Prophet and President
of the Church.
Q.
The Mormons, Mr. President, call you a “living Moses,” a prophet
who literally communicates with Jesus. How do you do that?
A.
I do it in prayer. Let me say first that there is a tremendous
history behind this church, a history of prophecy, a history
of revelation, and a backlog of decisions which set the pattern
of the Church so that there aren't constant recurring problems
that require any special dispensation. But there are occasionally
things that arise where the will of the Lord is sought, and
in those circumstances I think the best way I could describe
the process is to liken it to the experience of Elijah as
set forth in First Kings. Elijah spoke to the Lord and there
was a wind. And there was a tempest, or an earthquake, and
the Lord was not in the earthquake. And there was a fire,
and the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire a still,
small voice, which I describe as the whisperings of the Spirit.
Now let me just say, categorically, that the things of God
are understood by the Spirit of God, and one must have and
seek and cultivate that Spirit, and there comes understanding
that is real. I can give testimony of that. (Dew, Sheri L.
Go Forward with Faith, The Biography of Gordon B. Hinckley.
Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, 1996, pp. 585-86).
Let
us remember and be grateful for the fact that we live in an
age when we have living prophets among us who receive the word
and will of the Lord for us in these tumultuous and troubled
times.
