Part 3

"And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron." (Heb. 5:4).

Aaron was called and set apart to the priestly office by revelation from God through Moses, and retributive punishment fell upon all who essayed to minister without authority in the priest's office. Consider the awful fate of Korah and his associates (Num. 16), the instance of Uzziah king of Judah (2 Chron. 26), and, in New Testament times, that of Sceva's sons (Acts 19), all of whom brought upon themselves condign penalty for blasphemously arrogating the right to officiate in the name of the Lord.

How great a lesson is writ for warning and guidance in the history of Saul, king of Israel. He had received his anointing under the hand of Samuel the prophet. On the eve of battle, when Samuel delayed his coming to offer sacrifices for victory, Saul presumptuously officiated at the altar, failing to realize that, king though he was, his royal authority did not empower him to serve even as a deacon in the household of God. His sacrilege was one of the principal causes that led to his rejection by the Lord.

While in the flesh Christ chose His Apostles and ordained them, bestowing upon them specific authority. Those who were afterward called through revelation, e. g., Matthias, Saul of Tarsus who came to be known as Paul the Apostle, Barnabas, and others, were ordained by those previously invested with the Holy Priesthood.

Elders, priests, bishops, teachers and deacons in the Primitive Church on the Eastern hemisphere were all similarly ordained; and so a succession was maintained until the Church, corrupted and apostate, was no longer worthy to be called the Church of Jesus Christ, because it was not; and the real Church, characterized by investiture of the Holy Priesthood, was lost to mankind.

When the Resurrected Lord established His Church on the Western Continent, He called and personally commissioned Twelve Disciples; and later, others were with equal definiteness and certainty called and ordained to priestly functions by revelation through those in authority; and this order continued in the West until, through transgression, the people became apostate and succession in the priesthood no longer obtained. See Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11 and later chapters.

There is but one church on the earth today claiming authority in the Holy Priesthood by direct succession from the Primitive Church; and surely none can consistently assert priestly powers by spontaneous origination. The rational interpretation of history reveals the literal fulfilment of ancient prophecy in the absolute loss of sacerdotal authority during the early centuries of the Christian Era; so that present-day claim to the Priesthood through unbroken succession from the Apostles of old rests upon arbitrary assertion only.

If a mother church be devoid of Divine commission in the Holy Priesthood, definitely and authoritatively vested, no sect springing from that parent institution can inherit the Priesthood.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints positively avers that it lays claim to no priestly authority through mortal succession reaching back to the Primitive Church of the East, nor by descent from the Nephite Church of Christ as established on the Western Continent.

To the contrary, this Church affirms the complete cessation of Divine commission in churchly organizations, and the consequent necessity of a restoration--a new dispensation from the heavens.

This Church disavows any and all derivation of appointment or commission, direct or implied, from other organizations, Catholic or Protestant, "established" or dissenting churches sects or parties. It defends the rights of all men, whether church members or not, to worship as they severally choose to do, and to believe in and advocate the genuineness of any sect or church to which they elect to belong; and, by the same principle of liberty, it claims the right to set forth its own professions and doctrines, the while bespeaking for these a dispassionate and prayerful consideration.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints avows that the Holy Priesthood has been restored to earth in the present age, by means and manner strictly in accord with prophecy; and that through direct bestowal from the heavens the authority to administer the ordinances of the Gospel, which are indispensable to individual salvation, is operative today in preparation for the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is near, as hath been predicted by the mouths of holy prophets and by the coming Lord Himself.

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DIVINE COMMAND AND HUMAN AGENCY

The Church a Democracy

THE compound character of the name-title--The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--has elicited inquiries from many thoughtful readers. Does the organization profess to be The Church of Jesus Christ, or The Church of the Latter-day Saints?

The answer is--both.

As we have already seen, our Lord designated the Church established by Himself in the meridian of time as "My Church," that is to say, His Church--The Church of Jesus Christ. And, as also shown, when the Savior ministered in the resurrected state to the ancient inhabitants of America, He established His Church amongst them, and particularly directed that the institution be called by His name as the only properly descriptive title. See Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 27.

When the Church was reestablished upon earth through the instrumentality of Joseph Smith the prophet, in 1830, it was provisionally called the Church of Jesus Christ, in harmony with the principle and practise established by the Savior among the Nephites, and to express the Lord's specific designation of the latter-day body as "My Church."

The early revelations given to the Church contain frequent mention of common consent or the voice of the members, as essential in matters of administration. The following excerpts are illustrative:

"No person is to be ordained to any office in this church, where there is a regularly organized branch of the same, without the vote of that church."

"And all things shall be done by common consent in the church, by much prayer and faith, for all things you shall receive by faith. Amen." (D&C 20 and 26.)

After the people had been trained through the revealed word and by actual experience in the affairs of Church government, when they had learned the basal lesson that upon every member rests a measure of responsibility, and that in consistency and justice each is entitled to part and voice in the activities of the organized body, the Lord specified in the following manner the expanded and complete name by which the institution was to be known. He spoke by revelation directed to the High Council and "unto all the elders and people of my Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, scattered abroad in all the world. For thus shall my Church be called in the last days, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (115:3-4).

The name thus conferred is a self-explanatory and exclusive title of distinction and authority. It is an epitome of the cardinal truths and of the philosophical basis of the system commonly called "Mormonism." Every prayer that is offered, every ordinance administered, every doctrine proclaimed by the Church, is voiced in the name of Him whose Church it is.

Nevertheless, as an association of human membership, as a working body having relation with the secular law, as a religious society claiming the rights of recognition and privilege common to all, it is the people's institution, for the operation of which, so far as such is dependent upon them, they are answerable to themselves, to the organization as a unit, and to God.

The plan of organization and government of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that of a theodemocracy, whose organic constitution has been revealed from heaven and is accepted by the members as their guide in faith, doctrine and practise.

The Church receives commandments through revelation, and when such are promulgated the assembled body takes action, voting to accept and to obey the same so far as the Divine direction calls for service.

Such a conception as that of the Church rejecting a Divine revelation is extreme, and suggests an improbable contingency. Nevertheless, individuals having membership in the Church may ignore or reject the commandments of God, and so exhibit the spirit of apostasy in a degree proportionate to their disaffection; but such declension by the Church in its entirety is neither to be supposed nor feared.

Adam had his agency, and chose to use it in disobeying the Lord's injunction. Of the commandment and the alternative we read: "And I, the Lord God, commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; thou shalt not eat of it. Nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Pearl of Great Price, pp. 13-14.)

The same principle applies to persons and to the Church as a whole today. God has not established His Church to make of its members irresponsible automatons, nor to exact from them blind obedience. Albeit, blessed is the man who, while unable to fathom or comprehend in full the Divine purpose underlying commandment and law, has such faith as to obey. So did Adam in offering sacrifice, yet, when questioned as to the significance of his service, he answered with faith and assurance worthy the patriarch of the race: "I know not, save the Lord commanded me."

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THE HOLY TRINITY

Unity of the Godhead

"WE believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost."

So runs the first of the "Articles of Faith" of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A similar asseveration of belief has place in most creeds or churches called Christian. The Scriptures affirm the existence of the Supreme Trinity, constituting the Godhead, the governing Council of the heavens and the earth.

The very name "Trinity" which is commonly current in the literature of Christian theology, connotes three distinct entities, and such we believe to be the scriptural signification and therefore expressive of the actual constitution of the Godhead. Three Personages are comprised, each designated by the exalted title "God", and each of whom has separately and individually revealed Himself to mankind; these are (1) God the Eternal Father, (2) God the Son, or Jesus Christ, and (3) God the Holy Ghost.

That the three are individually separate and distinct Personages is evidenced by such Scriptures as the following. As our Lord Jesus Christ emerged from the baptismal waters of Jordan, John, the officiating priest, recognized the visible sign of the Holy Ghost, while he saw before him the Christ with a tangible body of flesh and bones, and heard the voice of the Eternal Father saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matt. 3:16, 17). The three Personages were there present, each manifesting Himself in a different manner to mortal sense, and plainly, each distinct from the others.

Again, in that last solemn interview with His apostles on the night of the betrayal, the Lord Jesus thus cheered with sublime assurance their sorrowful despair: "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." (John 15:26.) Could the members of the Trinity be more definitely segregated? That the Comforter is the Holy Ghost is expressly set forth in the preceding chapter (John 14:26), and in that passage also the Father and the Son are as separately specified.

That the Eternal Father and His Son Jesus Christ are individual Personages is clear from the very fact of the relationship expressed, for no being can be his own father or his own son. The numerous Scriptures in which Christ is shown as praying to His Father abundantly testify of Their distinct personality; and, furthermore, amidst the indescribable glory of our Lord's transfiguration, from out of the cloud came the voice of the Father, avowing again: "This is my beloved Son."

The individual members of the Holy Trinity are united in purpose, plan, and method. To conceive of disagreement, differences, or dissension among them would be to regard them as lacking in the attributes of perfection that characterize Godhood. But that this unity involves any merging of personality is nowhere attested in Scripture, and the mind is incapable of apprehending such a union.

In the course of His soulful High-Priestly prayer, Christ supplicated the Father in behalf of the Apostles, asking "that they may be one" as He and the Father were one (John 17:11). Surely the Lord did not intimate that He would have the Apostles lose their individuality and become one person; and indeed, He had long before assured them that at a time which is even yet future they "shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (Matt. 19:28.)

Human knowledge concerning the attributes of God and the nature of the Godhead is such as has been revealed from the heavens. Divine revelation is the ultimate source of all we know of the being and personality of the Deity. Through revelation in ancient days God was made known to man--to Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the prophets. And in the present age, after mankind had in great measure come to reject the plain and simple truths of a personal God and His actual Son Jesus Christ, such as the Scriptures affirm, the Father and the Son have revealed Themselves anew.

Joseph Smith has given us his solemn testimony that in the early spring of 1820, while engaged in solitary prayer, to which he had been impelled by scriptural admonition (James 1:5), he was visited by the Eternal Father and His Son Jesus Christ, and that the Father, pointing to the Christ, spake, saying: "This is my beloved Son, hear Him."

In this wise was ushered in the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times, foretold by the Apostle of old (Eph. 1:10). In 1820 there was on earth one mortal who knew beyond all question that the human conception of Deity, as an incorporeal essence of something possessing neither form nor substance, is as devoid of truth in respect to both the Father and the Son as its statement in formulated creeds is incomprehensible.

Joseph Smith has proclaimed anew to the world the simple truth that the Eternal Father and His glorified Son Jesus Christ are in form and stature perfect Men; and that in Their physical likeness mankind has been created in the flesh.

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ORIGINAL SIN

Are All to Suffer from it Eternally?

"WE believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgressions."

Belief in original sin, with its dread incubus as a burden from which none can escape, has for ages cast its depressing shadow over the human heart and mind. Accepting as fact the account outlined in Genesis concerning the transgression of the parents of the race, every thoughtful reader must have wondered as to whether he is to suffer throughout this life and beyond for a deed in which he had no part, and for which, according to his natural conception of justice and right, he was not even indirectly responsible. If he assumes an affirmative answer to his honest query, he must have stood aghast at the seeming injustice of it all.

The Scriptures proclaim in definite terms the fact of individual responsibility, and as an indispensable consequence, the Free Agency of Man. Freedom to choose or reject and accountability for the choice go hand in hand. The word of Divine revelation made the matter plain very early in the history of mankind. To evil-hearted Cain the Lord said: "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." (Gen. 4:7.)

A knowledge of good and evil is essential to progress, and the school of experience in mortality has been provided for the acquirement of such knowledge. The Divine purpose was thus enunciated by an ancient Hebrew prophet:

"Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore man could not act for himself, save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other. . .. Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great mediation of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself." (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 2:16 and 27.)

And a later prophet voiced the eternal truth as addressed to his wayward fellows:

"And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free." (Book of Mormon, Helaman 14:30.)

But, many have asked how can man be regarded as free to choose right or wrong when he is predisposed to evil through the heritage of original sin bequeathed to him by Adam? Heredity at most is but tendency, not compulsion; and we have no warrant for doubt in the light of revealed truth concerning the inherent justice and mercy of God that every element of cause or inflicted tendency will be taken into righteous account in the judgment of each and every soul. The man who can intelligently ask or consider the question framed above shows his capability of distinguishing between good and evil, and can not consistently excuse himself for wilful wrongdoing.

Our first parents disobeyed the command of God by indulging in food unsuited to their condition; and, as a natural consequence, they suffered physical degeneracy, whereby bodily weakness, disease, and death came into the world. Their posterity have inherited the resultant ills, to all of which we now say flesh is heir; and it is true that these human imperfections came through disobedience, and are therefore the fruits of sin. But as to accountability for Adam's transgression, in all justice Adam alone must answer. The present fallen status of mankind, as expressed in our mortal condition, was inaugurated by Adam and Eve; but Divine justice forbids that we be accounted sinners solely because our parents transgressed.

Though the privations, the vicissitudes, and the unrelenting toil enforced by the state of mortal existence be part of our heritage from Adam, we are enriched thereby; for in just such conditions do we find opportunity to develop the powers of soul that shall enable us to overcome evil, to choose the good, and to win salvation and exaltation in the mansions of our Father.

If the expression "original sin" has any definite signification it must be taken to mean the transgression of our parents in Eden. We were not participators in that offense. We are not inheritors of original sin, though we be subjects of the consequences. The millions who have been slaughtered or have otherwise met death because of the greatest war in history, and those other and more millions of helpless dependents who have endured such agonies as to make of death a blessed relief, are all involved in the frightful results of the precipitation of war by their respective rulers; yet who can doubt that when a just accounting is called, those who brought about the carnage and the suffering shall be made to answer, not the irresponsible victims? And to everyone who has suffered blamelessly, He who notes even the sparrow's fall shall give full meed of recompense.

Why waste time and effort in bewailing what Adam did? Better is it to face like men the actual conditions of our existence and to meet the requirements of righteous living. From the effects of Adam's transgression full redemption is assured through the atonement wrought by Jesus Christ our Lord. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Cor. 15:22.)

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THE COOPERATIVE PLAN OF SALVATION

Christ Alone Cannot Save You

"WE believe that through the Atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel."

In earlier articles of this series it has been shown that mortality is divinely provided as a means of schooling and test, whereby the spirit offspring of God may develop their powers and demonstrate their characters. Every one of us has been advanced from the unembodied or preexistent state to our present condition, in which the individual spirit is temporarily united with a body of flesh and bones. Yet this promotion to the mortal state is regarded by many as a degradation; and we are prone to bewail the fallen condition of the race as an unmitigated calamity. The Scriptures make plain the glorious truth that man may rise far above the plane upon which he existed before his birth in the flesh. We have stooped that we may conquer; we have been permitted to descend only that we may attain greater heights.

The transgression of our parents in Eden was foreseen, and the Divine plan provided a means of redemption. The Eternal Father, who is verily the Father of our spirits, well understood the diverse natures and varied capacities of His unembodied children; and it was plain to Him, even from the beginning, that in the school of mortal life some would succeed while others would fail; some would be faithful and others false; some would choose the good, others the evil; some would seek the way of life while others would follow the road to destruction. He foresaw that His commandments would be disobeyed and His law violated; and that men, shut out from His presence and left to themselves would sink rather than rise, would retrograde rather than advance, and would be lost to the heavens. It was plain to Him that death would enter the world, and that the possession of bodies by His children would be of brief individual duration.

A Redeemer was chosen, and that even before the foundation of the world. He, the first-born among all the spirit children of God, was to come to earth, clothed with the attributes of both Godhood and manhood, to teach men the saving principles of the eternal Gospel and so establish on earth the terms and conditions of salvation. In consummation of His mission, Christ gave up His life as a voluntary and vicarious sacrifice for the race. Through the Atonement wrought by Him the power of death has been overcome; for while all men must die, their resurrection is assured. The effect of Christ's Atonement upon the race is twofold:

1. The eventual resurrection of all men, whether righteous or wicked. This constitutes Redemption from the Fall, and, since the Fall came through individual transgression, in all justice relief therefrom must be made universal and unconditional.

2. The providing of a means whereby reparation may be made and forgiveness be obtained for individual sin. This constitutes Salvation, and is made available to all through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

Between redemption from the power of death and salvation in the Kingdom of Heaven there is a vital difference. Man alone cannot save himself; Christ alone cannot save him. The plan of salvation is cooperative. The Atonement effected by the Lord Jesus Christ has opened the way; it is left to every man to enter therein and be saved or to turn aside and forfeit salvation. God will force no man either into heaven or into hell.

Jacob, a Nephite prophet, has given us a masterly summary of the results of our Lord's Atonement, both as to the universal redemption from death, and the conditions upon which individual salvation may be obtained: