Despite having thirteen Articles of Faith and two Declarations to study, the overall theme this week boils down to “we believe in revelation.”
How the past coped with revelation
When I sat and pondered over how the principle of receiving revelation affected the ancient church, my thoughts expanded to other things that helped them fit into the cultures of their day. Those who sought power over the people had to both please those outside the church while at the same time keeping the support of those inside the church. It was a delicate balance making Christianity acceptable to the rulers in the ancient world. One of the most important doctrines that had to change was the one we call “modern day revelation.”
Speaking of ancient church members, what happens when your church leaders no longer receive answers to their prayers, just as you are no longer receiving the answers to your prayers? Isn’t the church supposed to be led by those who are in touch with heavenly sources of knowledge and wisdom? Isn’t that what sets the church apart from all the sources of the knowledge from the world? When the Spirit no longer is given as a priesthood gift to every member upon their baptism then the source of the priesthood power in the church evaporates. With the death of the Apostles, and the loss of the keys of authority they possessed, the leadership of the church was left to carry on without the ability to bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost. That was a huge loss to everyone.
Spiritual keys are the rights of administration that God recognizes as authoritative. When the last Apostle died, taking the keys of spiritual power with him, all the leaders in the Christian world were left with congregations cast adrift in the world, with no one to lead them by way of revelation. As it was there was a spirit of apostasy in the church that sought to change the doctrines as the Apostles had taught them. So the primary changes were ripe for making. They started to teach the people that God had finished His work on the earth and had turned over the running of God’s church to His chosen leaders. They traced their priesthood lineage back to Peter to show people that their leadership had legitimacy. What they didn’t teach the people was that spiritually speaking the church had become a ship without a sail or rudder, and they had lost their captain. The equivalent of the gally cook was now in charge and only original member of the crew left to guide those still in the boat.
The church no longer felt the need to lead by revelation, since no one received it any more. This opened the way for those who saw opportunities for power to step in and become the pastors of the people the people craved. The basic need to believe in something greater than themselves became their new pastors’ tool for control, fame, and fortune. It was much like those who go into the ministry are today who see an opportunity to become rich preaching to those who will listen to them. This is how the Christian world has been run for the last fifteen hundred plus years. And this is why, when the Reformation movement began, people felt no problem with starting their own churches based on how they felt their religion ought to be governed. After all, that is what they had been taught for many a generation prior to their turn at bat.
The Restoration
The initial defining difference between standard Christianity and what Joseph Smith, Jr. taught, was that Joseph taught that the heavens were once again open, and that God was once again speaking to His children. Those who were comfortable with how the world was running their religion scoffed at such a notion, something their forefathers would have fallen to their knees in gratitude for. But there were many who were seeking the kind of reassurance and comfort that heavenly directives could give them. They had searched for this very thing all their lives. They chose to believe Joseph’s assertions. They were baptized and the church began to grow.
But nothing has changed, has it? Anciently people stopped believing, so the Spirit withdrew from among the people and left them to their own devices. This was the apostasy we talk about. Today, isn’t the church still built on belief? We believe in many things, but all of them hinge on our belief that God can and does speak to us through the Holy Spirit. Without this one core belief there is no church. Without the core belief that God speaks to us and can lead us in our daily lives then all of our doctrines are but fables. We are the only church on earth who teaches, as a core doctrine, the foundation for all other beliefs, that God speaks to every single member of the church and can do so on a daily basis.
Revelation, the act of God communicating with mankind, was taught for centuries that it only happened for the leaders of His church, if at all. No one has been taught to believe in personal revelation for so long that it no longer enters people’s minds to try to make it happen. It isn’t even a consideration, a possibility. Yet here we are, teaching that God’s church doesn’t exist without it. We teach that because the priesthood keys have been given back to the people to use – by God, Himself, that the gift of the Holy Ghost can, and is, given to every member of the church upon being baptized. Their baptism isn’t valid until they have the gift of the Holy Ghost to go with their ordinance of baptism. This is what confirms them as a member of the church, the Church of Jesus Christ. If we don’t believe in the necessity of personal revelation to guide us in our daily life then what is there to set God’s church apart from all the other Christian sects out there?
The Articles of Faith
I don’t know if Joseph Smith had each of these articles revealed to him separately or whether all the other revelations he had received made this list seem obvious to him. I’ll probably never know. It doesn’t matter. Each of the Articles of Faith are based on the principle of believing in personal revelation through priesthood authority, because God gave the keys (rights) to use His power in His church to Joseph Smith and others. We also trace our priesthood lineage back to Christ, but we go through Joseph Smith and then to the original Apostles, and then to Christ, where the Apostles first received their authority to act in God’s name. Do you believe this? Everything we do in the church starts with what we choose to believe today.
Apostasy
This is an aside about how apostasy happens. Sometimes well-meaning people are tricked into believing false doctrines. This belief leads them astray and away from the Spirit and from following the Lord’s chosen leaders, the Apostles (the Prophet is the chief or senior Apostle). Sometimes we stop doing those things that invite the Spirit to be with us on a daily basis and begin to accept the teachings and influences of the world. This acceptance hardens our hearts against the promptings of the Spirit, which in the end leads to us wandering away from God’s church.
Think of some of the popular members of the church who for years were held up as good examples of how to be Latter-day Saints and still be in the world. But over time they began to listen to the teachings of the world, and little by little they separated themselves from the Lord’s church, until finally they left the church altogether and embraced the teachings of the world. I can think of a couple of popular singers and performers who have done this in recent times. It is sad, and so disappointing to see them lose their way. But this is what happens when we don’t continue to choose to believe in the Lord’s way of doing things.
We must always remember that belief is a choice. It is a choice we must make every hour of every day. The act of choosing to believe and live according to what we have chosen to believe is what it means to endure to the end. The first time we choose to accept a teaching of the world over the teaching of God, that is when we have first put our foot on shaky ground. The longer we remain there, the more slippery that ground becomes, and we start to slowly move away from being grounded firmly in Christ, for apostasy always takes us away from Christ.
The two declarations
Have you noticed that the two declarations in the Doctrine and Covenants are opposites of each other? The first one ended the practice of polygamy. So many members of the church gave their lives defending and accepting this difficult doctrine, and for so many years, that it was difficult to give it up. It had been around for a couple of generations, and had become a part of the identity of the church membership, even though only a few within the church practiced it. The difficulty with belief came in giving up what God had commanded them to do, and they had done in the face of great adversity for so many years.
The second declaration was to extend the blessings of the priesthood to all worthy male members of the church, regardless of race or color. This required the members of the church to accept a new practice that had been banned since the early years of the church, more than a hundred years earlier. No one knows why the restriction was put into place, or even who did it. We only know that once done, for whatever reason, no one felt they had a right to change it until the Lord told them it was supposed to happen. The prophets had prayed for guidance on this subject for many years before the Lord finally revealed that it was time for the change to be made. But even then the membership of the church had to face all their worldly-planted doubts and accept through belief that the will of the Lord was actually being done. Belief, once again, is at the center of accepting any revelation.
Belief
Choosing to believe something then living what you have chosen to believe requires commitment. It is what defines our character. Every act, every intention, every conversation and silent thought we have influences what we choose to believe and how it will affect our behavior from hour to hour. Being committed to obeying the commandments is not something that is locked into place one day (magically) and never changes. Choosing to obey over and over again, despite changing circumstances and shifting feelings is what teaches us unfaltering loyalty to God and His commandments. We must learn to have humility and pray for the influence of the Holy Ghost to teach us, to soften our heart, to help us find ways to obey and feel good about it, even when the world tells us we should feel guilty for not doing things their way.
These Articles of Faith and the two declarations we studied this week are all based on what we choose to believe. Our faithfulness to our choice to believe is what defines our testimony, that witness from the Spirit that what we have learned about is correct. Do we take that witness and commit to it, and live by it? Or do we choose to do something else with what we have been taught by the Spirit? The choice is always ours, for belief always has been and always will be a choice of our choosing.
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This is one of the deepest and through article you have written. It should be shared on all platforms!! Mama