Noah--His Sacrifice--God's Covenant with Him--Melchizedek--His
Priesthood--Its Powers--Instances thereof Recorded in the Bible, in
the Book of Mormon and in Latter-days--All Power of the Priesthood
the Result of Faith in Christ and Impossible without the
Atonement--The Power of the Priesthood the Power of God--The Glory
of God in the Immortality of Man--Christ the Word, the Creator.
After the waters of the flood had subsided, we are told, Noah and his
family came forth out of the ark:
"And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean
beast and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the
altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his
heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for
the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I
again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the
earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer
and winter, and day and night, shall not cease."--Gen., viii, 20-22.
The details of this act are given us somewhat differently in the
inspired translation: it is there written:
"And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean
beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the
altar; and gave thanks unto the Lord, and rejoiced in his heart. And
the Lord spake unto Noah, and he blessed him. And Noah smelt a sweet
savour, and he said in his heart, I will call on the name of the Lord,
that he will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for
the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; and that he
will not smite any more every thing living, as he hath done, while the
earth remaineth; and that seed time and harvest, and cold and heat,
and summer and winter, and day and night may not cease with man."
Thus, we discover that the first act after the destruction of the
world by a flood was a recognition of the great expiatory principle of
the atonement, which was to be made by the Only Begotten Son of God,
as revealed by the angel to Adam. And as God recognized Adam's and
Abel's offerings, so He also recognized that of Noah: and as a result,
the Patriarch obtained great promises, in which the people of all
ages, then to come, would be interested. For "God spake unto Noah, and
to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I will establish my
covenant with you, which I made unto your father Enoch, concerning
your seed after you. And it shall come to pass, that every living
creature that is with you, of the fowl, and of the cattle, and of the
beast of the earth that is with you, which shall go out of the ark,
shall not altogether perish: neither shall all flesh be cut off any
more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood
to destroy the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you, which
I made unto Enoch, concerning the remnants of your posterity. And God
made a covenant with Noah, and said, This shall be the token of the
covenant I make between me and you, and for every living creature with
you, for perpetual generations, I will set my bow in the cloud; and it
shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it
shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow
shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember my covenant, which I
have made between me and you, for every living creature of all flesh.
And the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And
the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may
remember the everlasting covenant, which I made unto thy father Enoch;
that, when men should keep all my commandments, Zion should again come
on the earth, the city of Enoch, which I have caught up unto myself.
And this is mine everlasting covenant, that when thy posterity shall
embrace the truth, and look upward, then shall Zion look downward, and
all the heavens shall shake with gladness, and the earth shall tremble
with joy; and the general assembly of the Church of the First-born
shall come down out of heaven and possess the earth, and shall have
place until the end come. And this is mine everlasting covenant, which
I made with thy father Enoch. And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I
will establish my covenant unto thee, which I have made between me and
thee, for every living creature of all flesh that shall be upon the
earth."--Inspired Translation, Gen., ix, 15-24.
We will now turn to Melchizedek, of whom it is written in King James'
translation:
"And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine: and he
was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said,
Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:
and blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies
into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all."--Gen., xiv, 18-20.
This passage is given with greater completeness in the inspired
translation, where it appears as follows: "And Melchizedek, King of
Salem, brought forth bread and wine; and he brake bread and blessed
it; and he blessed the wine, he being the priest of the Most High God;
and he gave to Abram, and he blessed him, and said, Blessed Abram,
thou art a man of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and of earth;
and blessed is the name of the Most High God, which hath delivered
thine enemies into thine hand. And Abram gave him tithes of all he had
taken."
In this action of Melchizedek, in administering the bread and wine, by
virtue of his priestly office, is there not a representation of the
body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as also indicated
by the Messiah Himself when He partook of the passover with His
disciples? For Melchizedek was a great High Priest, of the same order
and like Priesthood as was held by the Son of God. So great, indeed,
that "before his day it was called the Holy Priesthood, after the
order of the Son of God; but out of respect or reverence to the name
of the Supreme Being, to avoid the too frequent repetition of his
name, they, the church, in ancient days, called that Priesthood after
Melchizedek, or the Melchizedek Priesthood."--Doc. and Cov., Sec. 107,
Par. 3, 4, p. 383.
Paul, also, in reasoning on this subject in his epistle to the
Hebrews, chapter vii, writes:
"For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who
met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed
him; to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by
interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of
Salem, which is, King of peace; without father, without mother,
without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life;
but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. Now
consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham
gave the tenth of the spoils. And verily they that are of the sons of
Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to
take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their
brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham: but he whose
descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and
blessed him that had the promises. And without all contradiction the
less is blessed of the better."
To make the matter still plainer we transcribe the third verse from
the inspired translation:
"For this Melchizedek was ordained a priest after the order of the Son
of God, which order was without father, without mother, without
descent, having neither beginning of, days nor end of life. And all
those who are ordained unto this priesthood are made like unto the Son
of God, abiding a priest continually."
In Genesis, inspired translation, chapter xiv, it is also stated
regarding Melchizedek:
"Thus, having been approved of God, he was ordained an high priest
after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch, it being
after the order of the Son of God; which order came, not by man, nor
the will of man; neither by father, nor mother; neither by beginning
of days, nor end of years; but of God. And it was delivered unto men
by the calling of his own voice, according to his own will, unto as
many as believed on his name. For God having sworn unto Enoch and unto
his seed with an oath by himself, that every one being ordained after
this order and calling should have power, by faith, to break
mountains, to divide the seas, to dry up waters, to turn them out of
their course, to put at defiance the armies of nations, to divide the
earth, to break every band, to stand in the presence of God; to do all
things according to his will, according to his command, subdue
principalities and powers; and this by the will of the Son of God,
which was from before the foundation of the world. And men having this
faith, coming up unto this order of God, were translated and taken up
into heaven. And now, Melchizedek was a priest of this order;
therefore he obtained peace in Salem, and was called the Prince of
peace, and his people wrought righteousness, and obtained heaven, and
sought for the city of Enoch which God had before taken; separating it
from the earth, having reserved it unto the latter-days, or the end of
the world, and hath said, and sworn with an oath, that the heavens and
the earth should come together; and the sons of God should be tried so
as by fire. And this Melchizedek, having thus established
righteousness, was called the king of heaven by his people, or, in
other words, the King of peace."
From the above it would seem that this people possessed the power of
Translation, and that they "obtained heaven, and sought for the city
of Enoch which God had before taken," or which was before translated.
The principle of power also over the varied creations of God, above
spoken of, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood after the order of the
Son of God, has, by faith, been manifested to the world in the lives
and actions of numbers of the servants of the Most High. The power of
Enoch, wherein he caused the earth to tremble, whilst mountains fled
at his command, and rivers were turned out of their course, has
already been referred to. By this power, exercised in mighty faith,
Melchizedek stopped the mouths of lions and quenched the violence of
fire;[A] by it the waters of the Red Sea were divided by Moses, and
the children of Israel passed through dry shod;[B] by it Elijah[C] and
Elisha[D] smote the waters of the Jordan and crossed on dry land; by
it Daniel escaped the ferocity of the lions,[E] and the three Hebrew
children were delivered from the fiery furnace.[F]
[Footnote A: Inspired Trans. Gen., xiv, 26.]
[Footnote B: Exodus, xiv, 21.]
[Footnote C: 2 Kings, ii, 7, 8.]
[Footnote D: 2 Kings, ii, 14.]
[Footnote E: Daniel, vi, 16-23.]
[Footnote F: Daniel, iii, 19-27.]
By this same power in the Messianic dispensation the Apostles were
delivered from bonds and imprisonment; by it Paul shook off the viper
that had fastened upon his hand;[A] by it Philip[B] was caught away by
the Spirit of the Lord after he had baptized the Ethiopian eunuch; by
it John was preserved when he was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil,
that it did not hurt him; by it the dead were raised, the lepers
cleansed, the sick healed, devils cast out, and other mighty works
performed by Jesus and His disciples; and by it Christ broke the bands
of death and became the resurrection and the life, the first fruits of
them that slept, the conqueror of death, the Savior of the world and
Redeemer of mankind.
[Footnote A: Acts, xxviii, 3-6.]
[Footnote B: Acts, viii, 39.]
Again, on this continent, one of the Nephite Prophets, Jacob, the son
of Lehi, records: "We truly can command in the name of Jesus, and the
very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea."
(Jacob, iv, 6.) By faith the brother of Jared, who held this power,
said unto the mountain Zerin, Remove; and it was removed;[A] by it
Alma and Amulek caused the walls of the prison in Ammonihah to tumble
to the ground;[B] by it Nephi and Lehi wrought the surpassing change
upon the Lamanites that they were baptized with fire and the Holy
Ghost;[C] by it Amnion and his brethren wrought so great a miracle in
the conversion of the Lamanites;[D] and by it also the disciples of
Jesus who tarried amongst the Nephites showed forth the power spoken
of in the following passage:
[Footnote A: Ether, xii, 30]
[Footnote B: Alma, xiv, 26-29.]
[Footnote C: Helaman, v, 43-49.]
[Footnote D: Alma, xvii-xxvii.]
"Therefore they did exercise power and authority over the disciples of
Jesus who did tarry with them, and they did cast them into prison: but
by the power of the word of God, which was in them, the prisons were
rent in twain, and they went forth doing mighty miracles among them.
Nevertheless, and notwithstanding all these miracles, the people did
harden their hearts, and did seek to kill them, even as the Jews at
Jerusalem sought to kill Jesus, according to his word; and they did
cast them into furnaces of fire, and they came forth receiving no
harm; and they also cast them into dens of wild beasts, and they did
play with the wild beasts even as a child with a lamb; and they did
come forth from among them, receiving no harm."--4 Nephi, i, 30-33.
This same power has also been abundantly manifested in these latter
days in the midst of the Saints of God, in deliverances from evil, in
escapes from enemies, in the quelling of mobs, in the stilling of the
angry waves of the sea, in the healing of the sick, in the casting out
of unclean spirits, and in many other miraculous manifestations of the
power and goodness of God, and of the authority with which He has
invested His servants who are endowed and clothed upon with the
Priesthood, which is endless and after the order of the Son of God.
Thus, through the atonement of Jesus, and the salvation and redemption
brought about by that atonement these wonderful manifestations and
deliverances have been accomplished by faith in God; and the
Priesthood being after the order of the Son of God, and proceeding
from Him, through the atonement, those who held this Priesthood
possessed, according to their faith, the above mentioned powers; and
without that atonement this power never could have existed, for men
without that sacrifice could not have been brought into that
relationship to God, by which they would have the right, the power and
authority to act in His name, or to be His representatives to fallen
humanity.
In fact, the power manifested by the Priesthood is simply the power of
God, for He is the head of the Priesthood, with Jesus as our President
and great High Priest; and it is upon this principle that all the
works of God have been accomplished, whether on the earth or in the
heavens; and any manifestation of power through the Priesthood on the
earth is simply a delegated power from the Priesthood in the heavens,
and the more the Priesthood on the earth becomes assimilated with and
subject to the Priesthood in the heavens the more of this power shall
we possess. Hence Paul, in speaking on this subject, says:
"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word
of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do
appear."--Heb., xi, 3.
The work of God and the glory of God is to bring to pass the
immortality and eternal life of man; as it is written: "For this is my
work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life
of man." (Pearl of Great Price.) The creation of man and the
multiplication of man was one thing, the immortality and eternal life
of man and his exaltation is another thing; and in the organization of
the world, and in the calculations of the Almighty pertaining to this
immortality and eternal life, it would seem that it was decreed that
the Only Begotten Son was provided for the purpose of accomplishing
this object; and hence Christ was the Lamb slain, according to the
eternal purposes of God, before the foundation of the world.
In relation to the creation of the worlds, as above referred to by
Paul, John, in the commencement of his Gospel, somewhat after the
manner of a preface or introduction, writes: "In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in
the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him
was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was
the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness
comprehended it not." (John, i, 1-5.) Or to give the passage, in the
wording of the inspired translation: "In the beginning was the Gospel
preached through the Son. And the Gospel was the word, and the word
was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God.
The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him;
and without him was not anything made which was made. In him was the
Gospel, and the Gospel was the life, and the life was the light of
men; and the light shineth in the world, and the world perceiveth it
not." From the testimony of John, as given in the Book of Doctrine and
Covenants, we also extract the following:
"And he bore record, saying, I saw his glory that he was in the
beginning before the world was; therefore in the beginning the Word
was, for he was the Word, even the messenger of salvation, the light
and the Redeemer of the world; the Spirit of truth, who came into the
world, because the world was made by him, and in him was the life of
men and the light of men. The worlds were made by him: men were made
by him: all things were made by him, and through him, and of him. And
I, John, bear record that I beheld his glory, as the glory of the Only
Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even the Spirit of
truth, which came and dwelt in the flesh, and dwelt among us."--Sec.
xciii, 7-11, p. 329.
Paul, likewise, in his Epistles, more than once directs attention to
this great truth. In writing to the Colossians he says:
"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are
in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or
dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by
him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things
consist."--Col., i, 16, 17.
And to the Hebrews he writes, that God "hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom
also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and
the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word
of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high."--Heb., i, 2, 3.
God revealed these things unto Moses; but his words in relation
thereto are among the precious things that have been taken from the
Scriptures by the iniquity of man; amongst those restored to us by
modern revelation are the following words of God to that Patriarch
with regard to the creation:
"And by the word of my power have I created them, which is mine Only
Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth. And worlds without
number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose;
and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten. And the
first man of all men have I called Adam, which is many. But only an
account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you.
For behold, there are many worlds which have passed away by the word
of my power. And there are many also which now stand, and numberless
are they unto man, but all things are numbered unto me, for they are
mine and I know them."--Pearl of Great Price.