Gems for the Young Folks: Fourth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-Day Saints.Various
Religion
Gems for the Young Folks: Fourth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-Day Saints.
Various
Latter Day Saints
M. E.--Then the Bible must be a delusion, and it must be that it is
leading many of the people astray, for the Bible teaches the same
doctrine that we teach, namely, new revelation, apostles and prophets.
DR. B.--I deny that it does. "The law and the prophets continued until
John, after which the kingdom of heaven was preached."
M. E.--Would you prove by this quotation that there were to be no more
revelation, nor apostles and prophets after John? Then, indeed, was
Jesus Himself a false prophet, and His apostles were false teachers,
and all that was revealed to the world through Him and them was also
false. Such a conclusion is impossible. What, then, are the facts? The
kingdom of heaven was really preached afterwards, and that, too, by
apostles and prophets, with a continual flow of revelation.
DR. B.--Yes, I will agree that new revelation and apostles and prophets
were necessary till the kingdom was established; but after that time,
they were no longer needed, and were rightly done away. They left us a
perfect pattern in the New Testament, which is all that is needed to
guide the church in all things.
M. E.--And, according to this perfect pattern you allude to, you have
elders, bishops, priests, teachers and deacons in your church, have you?
DR. B.--Yes; to be sure we have. And these officers are in our church
according to the perfect pattern given us in the New Testament.
M. E.--I suppose, then, you have apostles, prophets and seventies in
your church, thus following out the perfect pattern to its completeness.
DR. B.--No; we have no apostles nor prophets; nor have we any
seventies. They are all done away with.
M. E.--Now, can't you see that you are inconsistent? If the New
Testament pattern requires elders and bishops to be organized in the
church, it also requires apostles and prophets just the same. If this
pattern is authority for an elder, it is just as good authority for an
apostle. If authority for a bishop, it is just as surely authority for
a prophet. Your assertion that they are done away with, and no longer
needed, is a palpable contradiction of the plainest truths of the New
Testament pattern.
DR. B.--Does not Paul, in the 8th verse of the 13th chapter of his
first letter to the Corinthians, say, "Whether there be prophecies they
shall fail?"
M. E.--Yes, and in the 10th verse of the same chapter Paul plainly
tells them when prophecy shall fail, that is: "When that which is
perfect is come." Paul, in his 4th chapter to the Ephesians, 11th
to 13th verses, also refers to the apostles and prophets as being
necessary in the church to bring about this perfection, also for the
work of the ministry, and to continue "till we all come in the unity of
the faith."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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