The First Presidency and the 12 Apostles, among other church leaders, speak from the pulpit twice a year at a General Conference of the Church. You can listen to the latest one here.
{For the first time in mrsmithandi history, Mr Smith has written the majority of this post}
P r o p h e t s & A p o s t l e s
Amos 3:7 "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secrets unto his servants the prophets."
We believe our Heavenly Father is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It is not possible to have Faith in a Being that is ever-changing. Since the days of Adam and Eve - and continued until today - God has followed the same pattern of revealing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to righteous men/special witnesses (prophets), and given them the authority to act in his name. This authority is priesthood authority and it comes directly from God to the prophets and from the prophets to the people. Ordination to the priesthood never took place through someone reading the scriptures, receiving a vision, through attending the right schools, or through someone just deciding they wanted to be a minister. God is a God of order. He has told us that we will need apostles and prophets until we "all come in the unity of the faith." The world and its thousands of "Christian" churches that teach different things about the Savior are obviously not currently in a "unity of faith." Living prophets and apostles are still essential to the world "that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine"
Matthew 16:13-19 When Jesus came into the coasts of Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. (revelation comes from GOD) And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock (upon the rock of revelation, not upon a man) I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Hebrews 5:4 We believe when it comes to a man holding the priesthood authority of God "No man taketh this honor upon himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron." Aaron received the priesthood from Moses (the prophet) who received his authority from Jethro, his father-in-law the High Priest of Midian, who received his authority from the patriarchal fathers back to the prophet Adam. Peter in the New Testament later received this priesthood authority and these priesthood keys directly from the hands of the Savior whose work and gospel this is.
The Keys of the priesthood are given to the prophet on the earth and are required to authorize the performance of ordinances (Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, Temple Marriages, priesthood ordinations, etc). Without the priesthood keys AND the priesthood authority, man/women could not receive the necessary ordinances to be saved. As the Savior told Nicodemus, "except a man be born of water (baptism by an authorized priesthood holder) and of the spirit (receiving the gift of the holy ghost by the laying on of hands from an authorized priesthood holder), he cannot enter the kingdom of God"
God calls prophets and gives them authority to preach repentance and the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people. The pattern continues as those who have the gospel fall away from the true teachings (apostatize) and God eventually calls a prophet to command them to repent and teach them the truth about Jesus Christ. Large portions of the scriptures contain records of people (Israelites and others) who have apostatized leading to God sending prophets to command them to repent. It is more difficult to keep the commandments than to live life however you want to live.
What prophet of the Old and New Testament had a formal education from a Divinity School? Although some were of royal lineage, none were given their authority because of their education. Joseph Smith had less than 3 years of formal schooling (close to a 4th grade education), yet today we have the Book of Mormon - 531 pages of inspired history of a people whose record has been assembled and translated for our day "to the convincing of Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ". When it comes to the 15 current latter-day prophets and apostles, if you researched their formal education backgrounds you will discover they come from a variety of backgrounds and in the eyes of the world have been successful in their temporal careers prior to becoming Apostles and Prophets. But none of these men were chosen as Apostles because of their worldly education or the initials after their names. That is not how the Lord has worked in the past, and that is not how he works today. Also, none of these men woke up and decided they would be Apostles/Prophets. The Lord chooses his witnesses not the other way around as the world and all the Divinity Schools want you to believe. I know these are men of God and receive knowledge and wisdom that no amount of wordily study could offer. Truth and knowledge (REVELATION) comes from God. Man cannot come to know God without God revealing himself unto him. No amount of personal study can reveal God, only HE can reveal himself. Those who are set apart and called to be His inspired mouthpieces, like Moses or Joseph Smith, need no worldy education when they are humble servants willing to listen and obey Heavenly Father. God works miracles among righteous men, then and today.
Ephesians 4:11-13 "And 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; That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive"
Yes, many truths still exist across religions, but after Jesus Christ was crucified and his Apostles - and the Keys and priesthood authority - were taken from the earth, the complete truth no longer existed in one body and none held the authority to officiate in the essential ordinances of the gospel until the Restoration of the gospel occurred through the prophet Joseph Smith. The Priesthood Power is essential to uniting truth. When men have only parts of the truth, questions either go unanswered, or worse, are filled in incorrectly leaving people confused and divided. Sometimes these are "stumbling blocks" to later accepting the truth as hearts are hardened and people don't feel the need to seek for additional light and knowledge because they believe God is done speaking, the scriptures are enough, or revelation and miracles no longer take place. You can see that in divisions even among the Protestant sects, can you not? His gospel cannot be corrupted by man before that man would be removed. But when there are no keys or Priesthood power, men are making educated assumptions or voting on what is "truth" or starting their own church based on a general Christian belief. Should we be concerned that congregations are being misled especially when congregation funds pay the minister to hear what they want to hear? They are teaching the philosophies of men mingled with scripture, and as the Savior said are the "blind leaders of the blind"
The Savior taught that "Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. (Matthew 15:13-14)
You don't need a PHD to tell you truth, you can know it for yourself. Every LDS church building teaches the same lessons (out of the mouth of prophets of old and latter-day) each month, so where ever you attend, you will hear the words God wants you to hear, if you are humble and prepared to thirst upon His Word. Everyone is given the opportunity to grow in the gospel. What greater way to learn than to study and teach His gospel through the Holy Ghost.
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