for the Lord's public ministry.
6. Christ's earthly life, covering about a third of a century,
characterized by beneficent service, by authoritative administration,
and by unexceptionable example.
7. The establishment of His Church with duly ordained Apostles, who,
with other ministers invested with the Holy Priesthood, carried forward
the work of salvation after the Lord's departure.
8. The specific and authentic enunciation of the fundamental principles
and ordinances of the Gospel, by which the way of salvation has been
opened to all, and without which none can abide in the Kingdom of
God, these comprising: (1) Faith in Him as the Son of God and the
Redeemer of the world; (2) Repentance of sin; (3) Baptism by immersion
for the remission of sins; and (4) Bestowal of the Holy Ghost by the
authoritative laying on of hands.
9. The Lord's sacrificial and atoning death.
10. His actual resurrection, whereby His spirit was reunited with the
crucified body and He became a glorified and immortalized Soul.
11. His ministry as a Resurrected Being among men.
12. His exaltation to the place He had won at the right hand of God the
Eternal Father.
13. The general apostasy of mankind from the Gospel of Christ, bringing
about an era of spiritual darkness.
14. The restoration of the Holy Priesthood in the latter days, by
which the Gospel would be again preached in power and its ordinances
administered for the salvation of men.
15. The assurance of our Lord's yet future return to earth, in glory
and judgment, to inaugurate the predicted Millennium of peace and
righteousness.
16. His eternal status as Judge of both quick and dead, and the
eventual Victor over sin and death.
In every particular, even to circumstantial detail, the Scriptures of
the West accord with those of the East in their solemn witness to these
portentous developments of the Divine plan, which has for its purpose
"the immortality and eternal life of man." The voice of the continents,
the independent testimonies of Judah and Ephraim, the Scriptures of the
Jews and those of the Nephites, are heard in tuneful harmony bearing
true witness to the world of the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In vindication of the prophets of both East and West, the Holy
Priesthood has been restored to the earth in this latter age, and
the saving ordinances of the Lord's House are again administered for
the salvation of souls. In this glorious restoration, coupled with
the miraculous bringing forth of the Book of Mormon, is found a rich
fulfilment of ancient prophecy; for verily Truth has sprung out of the
earth, and Righteousness has come down from heaven. (See Psa. 85:11).
Now, in olden times at least two witnesses were required to establish
the truth of any important fact; and thus spake the Lord respecting
the independent testimony of nations concerning Himself: "Wherefore
murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not
that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am
God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak
the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two
nations shall run together, the testimony of the two nations shall run
together also. . . . Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible, ye need
not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that
I have not caused more to be written. . . . For behold, I shall speak
unto the Jews, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto
the Nephites, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the
other tribes of the house of Israel, which I have led away, and they
shall write it; and I shall also speak unto all nations of the earth,
and they shall write it. . . . And it shall come to pass that my people
which are of the house of Israel, shall be gathered home unto the lands
of their possessions; and my word also shall be gathered in one." (2
Nephi 29).
The theme of this unified anthem of Divine ministry is the preparation
of the race for the impending advent of the Lord, who shall stand in
Bodily Presence upon the earth, to subdue wickedness and reign in
righteousness in company with all who shall have become His.
-- 41 --
SHEEP OF ANOTHER FOLD
Shepherds and Sheep-Herders
OUR Lord's likening Himself to a shepherd and His followers to sheep
has been an inspiration to poets, preachers, artists, and devout souls
generally throughout the centuries of our era. While all His discourses
are fraught with a significance that increases with repeated readings,
some of His utterances are of outstanding interest because of their
universal application and personal appeal. The sermon of the Good
Shepherd is prominent in this class. Read John 10.
None other than the Lord Himself has depicted so forcefully and yet
simply the contrast between shepherd and sheep-herder, between owner
and hireling, between him who is ready to defend the sheep because he
loves them, and the other who sees in the flock only so much wool,
hide, and mutton.
Our literature contains no more striking differentiation of devoted
service from money-loving effort than that presented in this brief,
terse, yet comprehensive discourse. Every efficient laborer is worthy
of his hire, or ought to be, be he plowman, artizan or professional,
artist, teacher or preacher. Far from there being discredit in
receiving wage for work, this reciprocal relationship is a fundamental
necessity of community existence. But he whose sole purpose and
interest is the wage, without devotion to the service for its intrinsic
good, is but a hired servant and likely so to remain.
Never has been spoken a stronger arraignment of insincere teachers,
false pastors, self-seeking hirelings--those who teach for pelf and
divine for dollars, robbers who pose as shepherds yet avoid the door to
the fold and climb up "some other way," prophets in the devil's employ
who, to achieve their master's purpose, hesitate not to robe themselves
in assumed sanctity, and appear in sheep's clothing while inwardly they
are ravening wolves. (Matt. 7:15).
In the record of this profound discourse, one verse appears as an
abrupt interpolation, bearing little relation aside from imagery with
preceding or following verses. This reads: "And other sheep I have,
which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear
my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." (John 10:16).
The Bible contains no related passage affording explanation.
Commentators treat this verse as an isolated and unconnected utterance,
and content themselves with the suggestion that the "other sheep" may
be the Gentile nations who are to be brought into the Jewish fold under
the one Shepherd. The Jews who heard the Lord speak so understood Him.
The Book of Mormon, however, illumines our understanding of the quoted
Scripture, and explains the Lord's purpose in speaking as He did and in
leaving the subject without further exposition.
Shortly after His ascension, Christ visited a detached body of
Israelites then existing as a great nation on the Western Continent. To
them He declared Himself to be the slain and resurrected Son of God,
through whom alone salvation was made possible to man. He gave them
precepts and commandments, and chose twelve disciples whom He ordained
to teach the Gospel and to administer in His name the ordinances
thereof. To them He said, referring to the Jews amongst whom He had
lived and died:
"This much did the Father command me, that I should tell unto them:
That other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must
bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and
one shepherd. And now because of stiffneckedness and unbelief, they
understood not my word; therefore I was commanded to say no more of the
Father concerning this thing unto them. . . . And verily, I say unto
you, that ye are they of whom I said: Other sheep I have which are not
of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice;
and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. And they understood me
not, for they supposed it had been the Gentiles; for they understood
not that the Gentiles should be converted through their preaching. And
they understood me not that I said they shall hear my voice; and they
understood me not that the Gentiles should not at any time hear my
voice; that I should not manifest myself unto them, save it were by the
Holy Ghost. But behold, ye have both heard my voice, and seen me; and
ye are my sheep, and ye are numbered among those whom the Father hath
given me." (Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 15:16-24).
It is evident that even the Jewish Apostles had failed to apprehend
the real significance of the Master's words; for they had vaguely
surmised that He would manifest Himself in personal ministry among the
Gentiles, oblivious to the fact that He had been sent to the lost sheep
of the House of Israel; and that only through the ministrations of His
ordained representatives would the Gospel be declared to the Gentile
world.
But, as other parts of the sacred record make plain, the Gospel
is offered freely to the Gentiles of the earth, and they through
acceptance and obedience shall be numbered with Israel and be made
partakers of the blessings assured by covenant to the righteous. See
Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 30:2; 3 Nephi 16:13.
-- 42 --
FROM GOD TO MAN
Divine Communication in the Current Age
WE believe all that God has revealed, 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. (Articles of Faith, No. 9).
Revelation, direct and personal from God to men, is the dominant theme
of Scripture. Expunge from the Bible all record of actual revelation
and reference thereto, and what remains? Nothing more than a variety of
historical sketches, chronicles, genealogical data, some chapters of
ethical value, a few poetical rhapsodies, proverbs, and allegories.
Every believer in the authenticity of the Holy Bible acknowledges that
God literally spake to Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and Moses,
and that specific revelation was given to Israel during the time of
the Judges, and on to David and Solomon, thence to John who was the
immediate forerunner of the Messiah. The actuality of Divine revelation
through duly constituted prophets, seers, and revelators, has been so
generally accepted throughout the ages, and is so abundantly attested,
that by all rules of argument and debate the burden of proof naturally
and properly falls upon him who denies.
Continued revelation of the Divine will and purpose is in harmony with
the spirit of the times. In no phase of human effort and advancement,
save only that of the soul's salvation, do men venture to assert
or even think that we have learned all there is to learn. What of
a college professor in chemistry, geology, or astronomy, who would
confine his students to the conning of books that tell of early
discoveries, with the dictum that nothing remains to be discovered,
instead of guiding them in laboratory and field, and in the searching
of the outer deep with telescope and spectroscope, in the confident
hope of finding new truths?
Revelation is God's means of communication with His children, and we
deny the consistent and unchangeable character of Deity when we say
that God has revealed Himself to man, but cannot or will not do so
again. Is it reasonable to hold that in one age the Church of Christ
was blessed, enlightened, and guided by direct revelation and that at
another time the Church is to be left to itself, sustained only by
the dead letter of earlier days? The living Church must be in vital
communication with its Divine Head.
The Christ Himself was a revelator, through whom the Father's will was
made known to man. Notwithstanding His personal authority as Jehovah,
God though He had been, was, and is, while He lived as a Man among men
Jesus Christ declared His work to be that of One greater than Himself,
from whom He had been sent, and by whom He was instructed and directed.
Note His words: "For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which
sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should
speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever
I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." (John
12:49-50).
The recreant and unbelieving Jews rejected their Lord because He came
to them with a new revelation. Had they not Moses and the prophets?
What more could they need? They openly boasted "We are Moses'
disciples," and added "We know that God spake unto Moses; as for this
fellow, we know not from whence he is." (John 9:28-29). Those who deny
the possibility of present day revelation are not distinguished by
originality; they follow a beaten path, hard trodden by ignoble feet.
The Apostles ministered under the guiding influence of revelation. Paul
writing to the Corinthians said: "But God hath revealed them [Divine
truths] unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things,
yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man,
save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God
knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." (1 Cor. 2:10-12).
The imperative need of continued revelation appears in the fact that
new conditions and unprecedented combinations of circumstances arise
with the passage of time, and Divine direction alone can meet the new
issues.
The Apostle John knew that in the last days, these present days, the
voice of God would be heard calling His people from the Babylon of sin
to the Zion of safety: "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying,
Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and
that ye receive not of her plagues." (Rev. 18:4; see also 14:6).
Nephi, an ancient prophet whose record appears in the Book of Mormon,
addressed himself to the unbelievers of the last days, and thus
predicted the bringing forth of additional Scriptures: "And it shall
come to pass, that the Lord God shall bring forth unto you the words of
a book, and they shall be the words of them which have slumbered. And
behold the book shall be sealed: and in the book shall be a revelation
from God." (2 Nephi, 27: 6-7).
Through the Hebrew prophet Malachi the Lord promised additional
revelation in the last days, by the coming of Elijah with a special
and particular commission. (Mal. 4: 5-6). These prophecies have been
fulfilled to the letter in modern time, the first by the bringing forth
of the Book of Mormon and its publication to the world: the latter by
the inauguration of vicarious work for the dead through the personal
visitation of Elijah, a work now in vigorous prosecution in the Temples
erected and maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.
Not only has the voice of God been heard in modern times, but His
words spell rebuke and reproof unto those who would close His mouth
and estrange Him from His people. Verily hath He spoken, "proving to
the world that the Holy Scriptures are true, and that God does inspire
men and call them to his holy work in this age and generation, as
well as in generations of old, thereby showing that he is the same
God yesterday, to-day, and for ever." (D&C 20:11-12). Of old the Lord
proclaimed: "Wo be unto him that shall say, We have received the word
of God, and we need no more of the word of God, for we have enough"
(Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 28:29); and in this age hath He spoken words
of admonition and warning: "Deny not the Spirit of revelation, nor the
Spirit of prophecy, for wo unto him that denieth these things." (D&C
11:25).
-- 43 --
THE TRAGEDY OF ISRAEL
A Nation Without a Country
WE believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration
of the Ten Tribes, etc. (Articles of Faith, No. 10).
The gathering of Israel is contingent upon the fact of that people's
dispersion. Consideration of the scattering is a necessary preliminary
to a study of the reassembling of Israel's hosts.
God made covenant with Abraham that through him and his posterity
should all nations of the earth be blessed. A rich fulfilment of the
promise is found in the earthly birth of the Christ through the lineage
of Abraham. Further and related fulfilment appears in the effect of
the distribution of Israelites amongst other nations through enforced
dispersion.
Abraham's descendants through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob have
been distinctively known since Jacob's time as Israelites, or the
Children of Israel. As the Old Testament avouches they grew to be
a mighty nation, distinguished in certain respects from all other
peoples. They were particularly characterized as "Jehovah worshipers,"
professing allegiance to the living God, whilst all the rest of the
world was pagan and idolatrous. By their world wide dispersion a
knowledge of the true and living God has been diffused.
So long as the Israelites were true to the Divine covenants made with
Abraham, and reaffirmed severally with Isaac and Jacob, they prospered
in material things as in spiritual power. So far as they became
alienated through pagan practises and unrighteous affiliations, they
suffered both individually and as a nation.
The Lord set before them the alternative of blessed perpetuity incident
to their faithfulness, or disruption and subjugation to alien powers as
the sure result of disobedience to Divine requirement. Both sacred and
secular history make plain that Israel chose the evil part, forfeiting
the promised blessings, reaping the foretold curses.
At the death of Solomon the nation was divided. Approximately two of
the twelve tribes became established as the Kingdom of Judah, and
came in time to be currently known as Jews; the rest of the tribes
retained the title Kingdom of Israel, though known also by the name of
Ephraim. The division led eventually to the eclipse of both kingdoms as
autonomous powers among the known nations of the earth.
The Kingdom of Israel was subdued by the Assyrians about 721 B. C.; the
people were carried into captivity, and later disappeared so completely
from history as to be designated the Lost Tribes. These are the ten
tribes whose restoration is predicted as an event of latter times. The
Kingdom of Judah maintained a precarious and partial independence for
a little more than a century after the Assyrian captivity, and then
fell a prey to the conquering hosts of Nebuchadnezzar. After seventy
years of bondage, the period specified through prophecy by Jeremiah
(25:11, 12; 29:10), a considerable number of the people were permitted
to return to Judea, where they rebuilt the temple, and vainly strove to
reestablish themselves on the scale of their vanished greatness. They
were impoverished by the aggressions of Syria and Egypt, and eventually
became tributary to Rome, in which condition of vassalage they existed
at the time of Christ's earthly ministry amongst them.
From the numerous Biblical prophecies relating to Israel's dispersion
the following are cited as particularly illustrative:
"And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left
few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you."
(Deut. 4:27.)
"And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the
countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee." (Ezek. 22:15).
"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all
nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least
grain fall upon the earth." (Amos 9:9).
"And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away
captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the
Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." (Luke 21:24).
And so, in progressive stages, the covenant people of God have been
scattered. The bringing of a body of Israelites to the Western
Continent six centuries before the birth of Christ, of which the Book
of Mormon bears record, was part of the general dispersion, and was so
recognized by Nephite prophets.
Since the destruction of Jerusalem and the final disruption of the
Jewish nation by the Romans, A. D. 71, the Jews have been largely
wanderers upon the face of the earth, outcasts among the nations, a
people without a country, a nation without a home. Israel has been
sifted "like as corn is sifted in a sieve"; but, be it remembered that
coupled with the dread prediction was the assuring promise "Yet shall
not the least grain fall upon the earth."
The record made by that division of the house of Israel which took its
departure from Jerusalem, and made its way to the Western Hemisphere
about 600 B. C., contains many references to the dispersions that had
already taken place, and to the continuation of the scattering which
was to the writers of the Book of Mormon yet future. In the course of
the journey to the coast, the prophet Lehi, while encamped with his
family and other followers in the valley of Lemuel on the borders of
the Red Sea, declared what he had learned by revelation of the future
"dwindling of the Jews in unbelief," of their crucifying the Messiah,
and of their scattering "upon all the face of the earth." He compared
Israel to an olive tree, the branches of which were to be broken off
and distributed; and he recognized the exodus of his colony, and their
journeying afar, as an incident in the general plan of dispersion.
Nephi, the son of Lehi, also beheld in vision the scattering of the
covenant people of God, and on this point added his testimony to that
of his prophet-father. He saw also that the seed of his brethren,
subsequently known as the Lamanites, were to be chastened for their
unbelief, and that they were destined to become subject to the
Gentiles, and to be scattered before them. Down the prophetic vista of
years, he saw also the bringing forth of sacred records, other than
those then known, "unto the convincing of the Gentiles, and the remnant
of the seed of my brethren, and also the Jews who were scattered upon
all the face of the earth."
After their arrival on the promised land, the colony led by Lehi
received further information regarding the dispersion of Israel. The
prophet Zenos, quoted by Nephi, had predicted the unbelief of the house
of Israel, in consequence of which these covenant ones of God were to
"wander in the flesh, and perish, and become a hiss and a by-word, and
be hated among all nations."
The brothers of Nephi, skeptical in regard to these teachings, asked
whether the things of which he spake were to come to pass in a
spiritual sense, or more literally; and were informed that "the house
of Israel, sooner or later, will be scattered upon all the face of
the earth, and also among all nations"; and further, in reference to
dispersions then already accomplished, that "the more part of all the
tribes have been led away; and they are scattered to and fro upon the
isles of the sea"; and then, by way of prediction concerning further
division and separation, Nephi adds that the Gentiles shall be given
power over the people of Israel, "and by them shall our seed be
scattered."
The day of deliverance for Israel is near at hand; the restoration of
the ancient Kingdom of Judah, and of the remnants of all the tribes
distributed throughout the earth, as well as bringing forth from their
long exile the tribes that have been lost, are particularly specified
as events of the current dispensation, directly precedent to the second
advent of the Christ.
-- 44 --
THE GATHERING OF THE TRIBES
Judah and Israel to Come Into Their Own
WE believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration
of the Ten Tribes, etc. (Articles of Faith, No. 10).