"The most important prophet, so far as we are concerned, is the one who is living in our day and age. This is the prophet who has today’s instructions from God to us. God’s revelation to Adam did not instruct Noah how to build the ark."
A core belief of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is that we have a living prophet on the Earth today through whom God is able to reveal and clarify gospel doctrine. Part 1 of the "Return of the King" series discussed Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness from the pre-mortal life down to Adam and Eve. This post, Part 2, will discuss how God reveals His word to the world at large and what is meant by "The Last Days" or "The Latter-Days". The restoration of the gospel should register in our minds and hearts just how close we are to the upcoming Second Coming of Jesus Christ in a future day. We are truly near the bookend of God's plan and heeding the living prophet is more important than ever.
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PROPHETS
Heavenly Father's work and glory are to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life (Moses 1:39; see also "Eternal Life: As He Is"). He presented a plan whereby we would experience mortality, gain a physical body, and have many experiences that would give us joy and help us develop in divine ways, to become more like Him. But part of mortality's purpose was that we would need to walk by faith in order to grow in faith. This meant that we wouldn't be in God's immediate physical presence for a while and we wouldn't remember our time with God in the pre-mortal life.
But Heavenly Father needed a way to communicate with us, instruct us in the gospel, and make His will known while we were away from His physical presence. This is where prophets are essential (See "Prophets and Callings"). Whereas anybody can receive personal revelation from the Holy Ghost for their own affairs (See "A Still, Small Voice"), according to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the living prophet is the only person in the world who has the priesthood authority to speak for God in all things (See "Priesthood"). In some cases, as God wills it, prophets may even see God and speak face-to-face with Him, although this is more rare than common (See "Theophany: Seeing God"). Sometimes the living apostles are also considered prophets by definition, but there is only one person whom we call the prophet.
The principal role of the Prophet is to receive revelation from God and to share it with the world. We wouldn't have scriptures, such as the Bible, without prophets (See "The Holy Bible: A Testament of Jesus Christ"). Although not perfect or incapable of error, prophets are righteous men whom the Lord Jesus Christ chooses through whom He works and who point us to Him.
There have been prophets since the beginning of the world. The first prophet was Adam whom God taught the gospel of Jesus Christ (Moses 5:4-12) which is the same then as it is today: 1) Faith in Jesus Christ, 2) Repentance, 3) Baptism by Immersion, 4) Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and 5) Enduring to the End. Adam and Eve taught their children and their families to look to the Lord who would one day come and atone for their sins.
But then Satan came deceiving many that they believed not in the Lord and loved Satan more than God (vs.13,18) such as Cain who murdered his brother Abel and was cursed (vs. 36-37,41).
When individuals or groups of people turn away from the principles of the gospel, they are in a state of apostasy (See "Apostasy & Restoration"). When the prophets are rejected, (or historically killed), by the wicked, the Lord withdraws His priesthood authority from the Earth. Without a prophet, the Lord cannot instruct His children. The principles of the gospel are corrupted and unauthorized changes in organization and ordinances occur during this time of apostasy. But because Heavenly Father loves us, at length, He then calls another prophet to instruct the people and to restore that which was lost or corrupted. When this happens, with the end of widespread apostasy and the restoration of priesthood authority and prophets, it is said to be the start of another "Dispensation".
DISPENSATIONS
A dispensation of the gospel is a period of time in which the Lord has at least one authorized servant on the earth who bears the holy priesthood and the keys, and who has a divine commission to dispense the gospel to the inhabitants of the earth. When this occurs, the gospel is revealed anew so that people of that dispensation do not have to depend basically on past dispensations for knowledge of the plan of salvation. There have been many gospel dispensations since the beginning. The Bible suggests at least one dispensation identified with Adam, another with Enoch, another with Noah, and so on with Abraham, Moses, and Jesus with His Apostles. Paul writes of "The dispensation of the fullness of times" in which the Lord will "gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth." (Eph. 1:10; D&C 27:13)
We live in the "Dispensation of the fullness of times" and it is the FINAL dispensation. This dispensation began with the revelation of the gospel to the prophet Joseph Smith after a global apostasy that lasted almost 1800 years soon following the death of the original apostles (See "Apostasy & Restoration" and "Joseph Smith: A Name Had For Good and Evil"). Although we refer to this time as "The Restoration", there are many more things that will be revealed that have not been revealed previously (D&C 121:26-32; 124:41) just as every dispensation is a bit different, like from Mose's time to Jesus' time. What does it mean to be in the final dispensation? That means that never again will there be a global apostasy. From here on out, there will always be a prophet with the priesthood keys to receive revelation from God for the earth. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is here to stay.
The Lord revealed the name of His restored church to be, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" precisely because it is His church and we are in the "latter-days" (D&C 115:4). To be in the "latter-days" or the "last days" refers to the last days before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to rule and reign over the earth. This will be the topic of the next blog post which will introduce: What will happen in the last days before and in preparation for the Second Coming.
I again emphasize that it is important to understand that Heavenly Father speaks to us today through a living prophet on the earth. We do not need to rely solely on ancient scripture. The world in which we live is a very different place than it was thousands of years ago. It's a different place than it was just 10 years ago (See "What Is Truth? Faith and Science"). Because the world is ever-changing, Heavenly needs a living prophet to continue to give us instruction for our day and for the days to come.
In order to best appreciate the rest of this series, you have to appreciate God's ability to speak to us today because the rest of this series will cite heavily the words of modern-day prophets and revelations. Without such modern revelations, I dare say that we'd know very little about the last days yet to come and about the days we now live in.
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