I devoutly and sincerely hope that we may
have a rich outpouring of the Holy Spirit,
for two reasons: first, so that I may say
what the Lord wants said and what he would
say if he personally were here this night, thus enabling me to say words of truth and light and righteousness;
and secondly,
so that those words will sink into your hearts
and you will know of a surety that they are
eternal verities. If I may so be guided by the Spirit,
I shall take as a subject, “Joseph Smith:
A Revealer of Christ.”
I have chosen as a text statement these words,
prepared and published by the First Presidency
of the Church in 1935 on the occasion of the
one hundredth anniversary of the organization
of the first Quorum of Twelve Apostles in
our dispensation. And they said:
Two great truths must be accepted by mankind
if they shall save themselves: first, that
Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Only
Begotten, the very Son of God, whose atoning
blood and resurrection save us from the physical
and spiritual death brought to us by the fall;
and next, that God has restored to the earth,
in these last days, through the Prophet Joseph
Smith, His holy Priesthood with the fulness
of the everlasting Gospel, for the salvation
of all men on the earth.
Without these truths man may not hope for
the riches of the life hereafter.
We have a great pattern, a revealed pattern
interwoven in all of the revelations that
have been given in all ages, that indicates
how salvation is made available to men on
earth.
As we are all aware, we are here on earth
as the spirit children of God, our Heavenly
Father.
We are here inhabiting bodies—tabernacles
made of clay—to be tried and examined and
tested to see if we will do all things that
the Lord directs and commands for his children
generally and for each of us in particular.
We are here to see if we will believe eternal
truth and if we will conform to the principles
so accepted and so learned.
And if we believe and obey, we manage to do
the things that will enable us, first, to
have peace and joy and happiness in this life,
and secondly, to go on to eternal reward in
our Father’s kingdom.
For every age in which the gospel is given,
for every gospel dispensation, for every time
that a gracious God dispenses the plan of
salvation to his children on earth, he follows
an identical pattern: he reveals two great
truths which apply to the dispensation involved.
One of these truths applies to all dispensations
and the other to the specific dispensation.
The truth of universal application for all
men in all ages from father Adam to the last
man is that salvation is in Christ; that he
is the Redeemer and Savior of men; that in
and through his atoning sacrifice, by the
blood that he shed and the redemption that
he wrought, salvation is available for all
men.
Because of Christ, all men will be raised
in immortality, and those who believe and
obey will then be raised unto eternal life
in our Father’s kingdom.
Immortality, by definition and in its nature,
is to live everlastingly with a body of flesh
and bones; it is to be resurrected; it is
to have body and spirit inseparably connected.
Eternal life, on the other hand, is, for one
thing, to live eternally in the family unit
and, for another thing, to inherit, possess,
and receive the dignity, honor, power, and
glory of God himself.
Anyone for whom the family unit continues
in eternity will have eternal life, and in
process of time he will acquire all the dignity,
honor, glory, power, might, and omnipotence
that the Eternal Father possesses.
Immortality comes because of the Lord Jesus
Christ; it is a free gift for all men.
Eternal life is made available through the
same atoning sacrifice, and it is a gift to
all who obey the law upon which its receipt
is predicated.
The laws of salvation are the same for every
age.
They have never varied, and they will never
vary.
Every man from Adam to the last soul to inhabit
this earth must do precisely and exactly the
same things and obey the same laws in order
to inherit, receive, and possess the same
glory in eternity.
Salvation is in Christ, and in order for men
to believe and obey, the laws of Christ and
the doctrine of Christ—which comprise his
everlasting gospel—must be revealed in whatever
age is involved.
That is a universal, unvarying requirement.
The gospel did not originate in the meridian
of time—it did not start when the Lord Jesus
was upon earth.
It is an everlasting gospel.
It commenced in the beginning, it has come
down in successive periods or dispensations
from the days of Adam to the present, and
it will continue as long as men are on earth;
and always and everlastingly salvation will
be in Christ.
But we need a revealer of the knowledge of
salvation for whatever dispensation is involved.
Our revelation says, “Salvation was, and
is, and is to come, in and through the atoning
blood of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent."
We need make no mistake about that.
Our affection, our interest, our concern,
our love, our devotion—all that we have
and all that we possess is centered in the
Lord Jesus; but, having said that affirmatively
and unequivocally and positively, we come
to the fact that a revealer of the knowledge
of Christ and of salvation is needed for every
age of the earth.
Thus we find such a thing in our revelations
as this: “Joseph Smith, the Prophet and
Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus
only, for the salvation of men in this world,
than any other man that ever lived in it”
(D&C 135:3).
And so, for our dispensation, we link the
names of Christ and of Joseph Smith.
Now I read you these words of Brigham Young:
Who can justly say aught against Joseph Smith?
I was as well acquainted with him, as any
man.
I do not believe that his father and mother
knew him any better than I did.
I do not think that a man lives on the earth
that knew him any better than I did; and I
am bold to say that, Jesus Christ excepted,
no better man ever lived or does live upon
this earth.
I am his witness.
He was persecuted for the same reason that
any other righteous person has been or is
persecuted at the present day.
Let us gain a true vision; let us reason together
and figure out how the Lord operates with
reference to his children.
First of all, we read in the visions of Abraham
about the noble and great in the premortal
life who were foreordained.
Abraham is told that he is one of them.
They are identified as the offspring of the
Father, as spirits, as souls; and then the
account says, “And there stood one among
them that was like unto God.”
This is the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jehovah.
This is the firstborn in the spirit who, through
righteousness and zealousness and obedience,
became “like unto God,” meaning unto the
Father.
And he [that is, Christ] said unto those who
were with him [the host of noble and great
ones, the ones Abraham had seen]: We will
go down [not I, Jehovah, alone, but we, the
noble and great, the mighty and valiant sons
of our Father; we will go down] for there
is space there, and we will take of these
materials, and we will make an earth whereon
these [that is, the spirit hosts of heaven]
may dwell;
And we will prove them herewith, to see if
they will do all things whatsoever the Lord
their God shall command them.
Who is listed and counted in that great council
of eternity, that assemblage of the noble
and great seen by Abraham?
There is not much question in our minds; they
were the people who were foreordained to minister
to men in this world.
We know a little bit about the order of priority,
the precedence, and the rank that is involved.
We know that the Lord Jesus was number one:
mighty, superior, valiant, intelligent above
all others.
We know that a spirit named Michael was number
two, and that he was born into this world
as Adam, the first man.
We know that a spirit named Gabriel stood
third in preeminence, might, and power, and
that he came among us as Noah.
After that we cannot specifically and definitely
categorize the various spirits; but we do
know that the noblest and the greatest and
the mightiest among them were ordained to
be heads of dispensations—to be the individuals
who, for their era and age and dispensation,
would commence the spread of eternal truth
on earth.
We know, for instance, with reference to Moses,
who was the head of one of these dispensations,
that “there arose not another prophet . . . in
Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew
face to face."
That sets us a pattern.
We know of men like Enoch, who so lived that
he perfected his whole city and his whole
people, and they were translated and taken
up into heaven.
We look back at Abraham and consider him to
be the Father of the Faithful and rejoice
that we are born as his seed.
There is a limited number of mighty, noble
spirits who headed the respective dispensations.
How many we do not know; perhaps there were
eight or ten or twenty, but the number does
not matter.
At any rate, we soon have a small group of
select individuals who stand in intelligence
and power and might next to the Lord Jehovah.
In the same sense that he was like unto God,
these chosen and select individuals who were
destined to head his work for these long ages
were like unto Christ.
When sifting out the relative importance of
individuals, without knowing the details,
we can conclude that a man born in modern
times to head this dispensation was like unto
Adam, like unto Moses, like unto Abraham,
like unto Christ—in other words, was one
of the ten or twenty noblest and greatest
spirits who, up to this time, have been born
into mortality.
He and hosts with him performed their labors
and their work in the creative enterprises
that brought this earth rolling into existence,
and he and his associates headed the periods
of time when eternal truth went out to the
sons of men.
That is how we rank and place the prophet
Joseph Smith: he is one of the great dispensation
heads, and a dispensation head is a revealer
for his age and his period of the knowledge
of Christ and of salvation.
Thus, the other prophets of the dispensation
who are associated with him and who come after
him, who sustain his work and bear record
of him, become witnesses that he—the chief
prophet of their age—revealed the Lord Jesus
and hence made salvation available.
This means that in a testimony meeting in
our day we link the name of Joseph Smith with
that of Jesus Christ.
We stand up and say, “I know that Jesus
Christ is the Son of the living God and that
he was crucified for the sins of the world.”
And in the next breath we say, “I know that
Joseph Smith, Junior, was chosen, appointed,
anointed, and called as God’s prophet for
this age in order to reveal Christ and to
reveal salvation.”
We bear witness of Christ, and we bear witness
of Joseph Smith.
That is the way it has been from the beginning.
There have always been testimony meetings.
If we had lived in the days of Adam and had
assembled to worship the Lord, the Spirit
would have rested mightily upon us on occasions
and we would have said, “I know that salvation
is in Christ who shall come, and I know that
Adam, our father, is a legal administrator
who holds keys and powers and authority, and
that he is the revealer of the knowledge of
Christ and of salvation for men on earth.”
If we had lived in the days of Enoch, we would
have arisen in our testimony meetings and
said, “I testify of Christ, and I testify
of Enoch who revealed Christ, and automatically
I believe also in Adam who went before.”
That pattern would also have been followed
in Noah’s day, in Abraham’s day, in Melchizedek’s
day, and in every age when eternal truth has
been revealed.
Always we would have linked the name of Christ
and the name of the dispensation head, and
automatically we would have believed in every
prophet that went before.
We cannot suppose for one minute that it would
be possible for someone who lived in the days
of the Lord Jesus to believe that he was the
son of God and yet to reject the witness of
Peter, James, and John.
That is a philosophical impossibility.
Had we lived in that day it would not have
been possible to say, “Well, I’ll believe
in Christ; but I won’t believe in Peter,
James, and John, his apostles, who have revealed
him to me and who have borne witness of his
divine Sonship.”
The Lord and his prophets always go together.
With that in mind let me read these words
of Brigham Young:
Whosoever confesseth that Joseph Smith was
sent of God to reveal the holy Gospel to the
children of men, and lay the foundation for
gathering Israel, and building up the kingdom
of God on the earth, that spirit is of God;
and every spirit that does not confess that
God has sent Joseph Smith, and revealed the
everlasting Gospel to and through him, is
of Antichrist, no matter whether it is found
in a pulpit or on a throne.
Having these concepts and these expressions
in mind, I am going to read to you some passages
given and spoken by the Lord Jesus, in which
he associates himself with John the Baptist.
Out of these passages we shall have an affirmation
and a reaffirmation of the truth and concept
that Christ and his prophets go together,
that it is not possible to believe in one
without believing in the other, and that by
rejecting the prophets we reject Christ himself.
Jesus said this:
If I bear witness of myself, yet my witness
is true.
For I am not alone, there is another who beareth
witness of me, and I know that the testimony
which he giveth of me is true.
Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness also
unto the truth.
And he received not his testimony of man,
but of God, and ye yourselves say that he
is a prophet, therefore ye ought to receive
his testimony.
John bore as persuasive and powerful a testimony
as we know of or find in any written record.
On those occasions of Christ’s visits to
him near Bethabara, as he baptized in Jordan,
he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world."
That was simply a text statement or a subject
head for long discourses that he obviously
preached about the divine Sonship.
On one occasion John said this—and it is
as blunt and as plain as any witness—”He
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life: and he that believeth not the Son shall
not see life; but the wrath of God abideth
on him."
John said, in effect, “Here is Jesus; he
is the Son of God.”
There was no possible way to believe that
John was a prophet and reject the Lord
Jesus.
To accept one was to accept the other.
Jesus said,
John came unto you in the way of righteousness,
and bore record of me, and ye believed him
not; but the publicans and the harlots believed
him; and ye, afterward, when ye had seen me,
repented not, that ye might believe him.
For he that believed not John concerning me,
cannot believe me, except he first repent.
And except ye repent, the preaching of John
shall condemn you in the day of judgment.
We could recite that over again, paraphrasing
the language, and apply it to Joseph Smith
and his situation in our day.
Here is another passage:
Then said the Pharisees unto him, Why will
ye not receive us with our baptism, seeing
we keep the whole law?
But Jesus said unto them, Ye keep not the
law.
If ye had kept the law, ye would have received
me, for I am he who gave the law.
I receive not you with your baptism, because
it profiteth you nothing.
For when that which is new is come, the old
is ready to be put away.
Following those expressions came the ones
with which we are so familiar, about putting
new wine in old bottles.
In other words, we have new revelation in
our day in a new church, just as the case
was in the meridian dispensation.
Then certain of them came to him, saying,
Good Master, we have Moses and the prophets,
and whosoever shall live by them, shall he
not have life?
And Jesus answered, saying, Ye know not Moses,
neither the prophets; for if ye had known
them, ye would have believed on me; for to
this intent they were written.
For I am sent that ye might have life.
Well, this is a glorious principle.
The principle that the Lord and his prophets
go together is a glorious one.
Here are some words I wrote on this subject
on one occasion.
We be Abraham’s children, the Jews said
to Jove;
We shall follow our Father, inherit his trove.
But from Jesus our Lord, came the stinging
rebuke:
Ye are children of him, whom ye list to obey;
Were ye Abraham’s seed, ye would walk in
his path,
And escape the strong chains of the father
of wrath.
We have Moses the seer, and the prophets of
old;
All their words we shall treasure as silver
and gold.
But from Jesus our Lord, came the sobering
voice;
If to Moses ye turn, then give heed to his
word;
Only then can ye hope for rewards of great
worth,
For he spake of my coming and labors on earth.
We have Peter and Paul, in their steps let
us trod;
So religionists say, as they worship their
God.
But speaks He who is Lord of the living and
dead:
In the hands of those prophets, those teachers
and seers,
Who abide in your day have I given the keys;
Unto them ye must turn, the Eternal to please.
With those principles in mind, let us be vividly
and acutely aware of their application to
Joseph Smith.
One of our revelations says—in the words
of the Lord Jesus, speaking to Joseph Smith—”This
generation shall have my word through you." (The Lord Jesus, speaking to Joseph Smith.)
I think He made that statement, either in
those verbatim words or in thought content,
to every dispensation head there has been.
I think he said it to Enoch, Moses, Abraham,
and in principle to all: “This generation
shall have my word through you.”
Someone has to reveal eternal truth, and these
brethren whom I have mentioned are the ones
to whom the Lord gave that obligation.
Therefore, we find such directives as this,
spoken by the Lord to the Church immediately
following its organization on the sixth day
of April in 1830.
He is talking about Joseph Smith:
Thou [the church] shalt give heed unto all
his words and commandments which he shall
give unto you as he receiveth them, walking
in all holiness before me.
[Now note:] For his word ye shall receive,
as if from mine own mouth, in all patience
and faith.
[This sets a dispensation head apart from
all other prophets.
Here is the subsequent statement about him:]
Behold, I will bless all those who labor in
my vineyard with a mighty blessing, and they
shall believe on his words, which are given
him through me by the Comforter, which manifesteth
that Jesus was crucified by sinful men for
the sins of the world, yea, for the remission
of sins unto the contrite heart."
What is the measure of our discipleship?
How do we measure and test how firmly we are
rooted in the restored faith?
I think one of the great tests is the degree
and the extent, the fervor and sincerity,
the devotion and true belief that we give
to the words that came from the Prophet Joseph
Smith.
Here is a man that, first of all, gave us
the Book of Mormon—the Book of Mormon, which
is an account of God’s dealings with a people
who had the fullness of the gospel, which
bears record of Christ, which recounts in
plainness and in simplicity the basic and
fundamental truths that men must believe to
be saved.
Here is a man who gave a book of incomparable
value—his words, as it were to us, at least,
because it was through his instrumentality
that they came.
Here is a man who gave us the revelations
in the Doctrine and Covenants—revelations
which speak in the first person, with the
Lord Jesus himself being mouth and voice but
the lips being the lips of Joseph Smith—a
volume of revealed truth where God Almighty
speaks through his prophet.
Here are words that the Prophet gave us in
the Pearl of Great Price, the Book of Moses
being taken from the Joseph Smith translation
of the scriptures and the Book of Abraham
being translated from the papyrus.
Here are words in many places in the Joseph
Smith Translation itself, revealed words that
come from God by prophetic power.
Here are sermons—majestic, wondrous, marvelous
sermons which recount the mind and will and
plan and purposes of the Lord to men on earth—for
instance, the King Follet sermon from which
President Kimball quoted copiously at the
funeral sermon of Brother Stapley recently.
We speak about judging a man by his fruits,
and among the great fruits of Joseph Smith
are the words that he spoke, the words that
he wrote, the inspired message that he gave.
I suggest that a measure of discipleship,
a standard of judgment whereby we can tell
how firmly we are anchored in the faith of
the Lord, is how sincerely and completely
we believe the words that have come from the
Prophet Joseph Smith.
Obviously incident to this, we have an obligation
and a need to treasure up these words, to
search out these truths, to learn what they
are, and then to make them a living part of
us.
We bear testimony of Christ, and we do it
with all the fervor and conviction and power
of our whole soul, striving and laboring to
do it by the power of the Holy Ghost; and
as our voices echo and reecho the eternal
verity that Christ is the Lord, we say also
that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, a legal
administrator who had power from God—keys
and authority—so that he could bind on earth
and have it sealed eternally in the heavens.
Here, we say, is Joseph Smith, a revealer
of the knowledge of Christ and of salvation
for our day.
We link the words together in one great testimony
of eternal truth; and the reason we have power
to bear witness of Christ, through whom salvation
comes, is that Joseph Smith, the prophet and
seer of the Lord for our day and in our day,
has received eternal truth, has borne witness,
has given revelation, has laid the foundation.
Brigham Young once said, “I feel like shouting
Hallelujah, all the time, when I think that
I ever knew Joseph Smith;" and that is as
it ought to be, because salvation is in Christ
and salvation is available because Joseph
Smith revealed Christ to the world.
The world either accepts that witness and
believes in the Lord’s prophets or goes
its way and at its peril loses the hope of
eternal salvation.
One must believe in Adam and Christ, if living
in that day; or in Abraham and Christ, if
living in that day; or in Moses and Christ
if living then; or, in our day, in Joseph
Smith and Jesus Christ, crying “Hosanna”
and “Hallelujah” and “Praise the Lord”
whenever their names are mentioned by the
power of the Holy Spirit.
I am grateful beyond any measure of expression
I have that in my soul there rests the absolute,
certain conviction that Jesus is the Lord.
I know that as well as I know anything in
this world.
In that same sense—with unshaken certainty
and absolute, pure, revealed knowledge—I
know that Joseph Smith, Junior, who headed
this dispensation, was the Lord’s prophet
for our day and our time; and that, as he
certified, he saw in the spring of 1820 the
Father and the Son; and that, as he certified,
the revelations and the truths that fell from
his lips are the voice and mind and will and
purposes of the Lord for me and for all men
in our day.
I pray God our Father that we may be valiant
and true, that we may stand affirmatively
and courageously in bearing witness of Christ—because
salvation is in Christ and in none other—and
that we will have the same fervor and the
same devotion in linking the mighty and noble
name of the head of our dispensation with
the name of the Savior himself.
This I do by way of doctrine and by way of
testimony on this occasion in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
