Cowley's Talks on DoctrineCowley, Matthias F. (Matthias Foss)
Religion
Cowley's Talks on Doctrine
Cowley, Matthias F. (Matthias Foss)
Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines
When we come to the subject of personality of God, it will be our
purpose to show that the "God without body, parts, and passions"
is not the God who made the heaven and the earth, and hence the
necessity of just such an injunction as that quoted from the fourteenth
chapter of Revelation being given to the world in the last days. The
specifications of the prophecy are plain. The question which logically
follows is, "Has that angel come?" If he has not, then he must do so,
or the word of God is null and void, and this is impossible. "Not one
jot or tittle shall fall unfulfilled." "Though heaven and earth shall
pass away, my word shall never pass away."
Certainly the angel has not come to any Catholic or Protestant
ministers, for they dispute the necessity of angels. The only claim
to the reception of the heavenly message is made by Joseph Smith, the
Prophet, and his followers, who testify that the angel came to the
young man Joseph. It will not do to dismiss this claim by saying that
"false prophets shall come," for false prophets, counterfeit coin,
and every spurious imitation exists as a counterfeit to the true
article, so that the existence of false prophets is usually a very fair
indication that true prophets are not far away.
Following the coming of the angel having the Gospel to restore was to
be another, urging the Saints to come out of Babylon: "And I heard
another voice from heaven, saying, come out of her, my people, that ye
receive not of her plagues." (Rev. xviii:4.) Thus it is a gathering
dispensation, as stated by Paul in the first chapter of Ephesians. The
Savior, in speaking of the signs associated with His second coming and
the consummation of His Father's work in the last days, says: "And this
Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness
unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matt. xxiv:14. ) This
prophecy was uttered in connection with the stating of other signs
given by the Savior respecting His second advent, and in answer to a
question by the disciples: "Tell us when shall these things be? and
what shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the world?"
"This Gospel of the kingdom;" "The Everlasting Gospel;" The Gospel
of apostles, prophets, revelations, visions, miracles and all the
gifts of the Holy Ghost. This only true Gospel could not be preached
for a witness unto all nations unless restored to earth by modern
revelations, for the religious world, so far as enjoying the true
Gospel is concerned, comes under the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter ix:2:
"For behold darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the
people;" and again, chapter xxiv:5: "The earth also is defiled under
the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws,
changed the ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant," all this
going to prove the necessity of a Gospel restoration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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