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Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet
Dear Elders and Sisters,
Wow! Is there a really a word or words that can describe the spiritual feast we have been blessed with over the weekend with General Conference? Amazing! Exhilarating! Inspiring! Instructive! Revelatory!...and on and on with the superlatives. What a blessed time we live in when it is becoming so much more obvious the peace a prophet brings to our lives. With every talk I found myself saying: "That was the best talk yet and just for me now"...and then the next and the next were the same. Isn't it such a testament of a Father in Heaven's love for us that these Prophets and Apostles and other inspired men and women of Christ would provide so much of what is needed to a world in need. And to literally sit at the feet of Apostles and Prophets and "hear the pleasing word of God" is just such a blessing in and of itself with what the Lord has provided through technology to spread the gospel to "all nations"! I trust you were more than entertained but rather changed as a result of the spiritual smorgasbord and feast placed before us Saturday and Sunday.
I was reminded of this great teaching from Elder Holland: “In order to establish a church that would continue under His direction even after He was taken from the earth, Jesus "went . . . into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.”
"And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles."
“Later on, Paul would teach that the Savior, knowing the inevitability of His death, had done this to give the Church a "foundation of . . . apostles and prophets."
Why? Among other reasons, so "that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive."
“Thus the apostolic and prophetic foundation of the Church was to bless in all times, but especially in times of adversity or danger, times when we might feel like children, confused or disoriented, perhaps a little fearful, times in which the devious hand of men or the maliciousness of the devil would attempt to unsettle or mislead. Against such times as come in our modern day, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve are commissioned by God and sustained by you as "prophets, seers, and revelators," with the President of the Church sustained as the prophet, seer, and revelator, the senior Apostle, and as such the only man authorized to exercise all of the revelatory … keys for the Church.”
“…the incomparable Ralph Waldo Emerson rocked the very foundations of New England ecclesiastical orthodoxy when he said to the Divinity School at Harvard: "It is my duty to say to you that the need was never greater [for] new revelation than now." "The doctrine of inspiration is lost. . . . Miracles, prophecy, . . . the holy life, exist as ancient history [only]. . . . Men have come to speak of . . . revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead. . . . It is the office of a true teacher," he warned, "to show us that God is, not was; that He speaketh, not spake."
In the very year Mr. Emerson gave his Divinity School address implicitly pleading for such, Elder John Taylor, a young English immigrant to this country, was called to be an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, a prophet, a seer, a revelator. In that calling Elder Taylor once said in sympathy with honest seekers of truth: "Whoever heard of true religion without communication with God? To me the thing is the most absurd that the human mind could conceive of. I do not wonder," said Brother Taylor, "[that] when the people generally reject the principle of present revelation, skepticism and infidelity prevail to such an alarming extent. I do not wonder," he continued, "that so many men treat religion with contempt, and regard it as something not worth the attention of intelligent beings, for without revelation religion is a mockery and a farce. . . . The principle of present revelation . . . is the very foundation of our religion. "
The principle of present revelation? The very foundation of our religion? Let me return from those foundations to the present, the here and now, the 21st century. For one and all—ecclesiastics, historians, and laymen alike—the issue is still the same. Are the heavens open? Does God reveal His will to prophets … as in days of old? That they are and that He does is the unflinching declaration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to all the world.”
“We do ‘thank thee, O God, for a prophet to guide us in these latter days,’ because many of those days will be windblown and tempest-tossed.” (Holland, GC)
I love you and pray for you and for all your investigators. May the Lord bless us as we strive to help 1,000 come to know that God has placed His prophet and His church with Apostles and Prophets here upon the earth in these the latter days.
President Clark
Wow! Is there a really a word or words that can describe the spiritual feast we have been blessed with over the weekend with General Conference? Amazing! Exhilarating! Inspiring! Instructive! Revelatory!...and on and on with the superlatives. What a blessed time we live in when it is becoming so much more obvious the peace a prophet brings to our lives. With every talk I found myself saying: "That was the best talk yet and just for me now"...and then the next and the next were the same. Isn't it such a testament of a Father in Heaven's love for us that these Prophets and Apostles and other inspired men and women of Christ would provide so much of what is needed to a world in need. And to literally sit at the feet of Apostles and Prophets and "hear the pleasing word of God" is just such a blessing in and of itself with what the Lord has provided through technology to spread the gospel to "all nations"! I trust you were more than entertained but rather changed as a result of the spiritual smorgasbord and feast placed before us Saturday and Sunday.
I was reminded of this great teaching from Elder Holland: “In order to establish a church that would continue under His direction even after He was taken from the earth, Jesus "went . . . into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.”
"And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles."
“Later on, Paul would teach that the Savior, knowing the inevitability of His death, had done this to give the Church a "foundation of . . . apostles and prophets."
Why? Among other reasons, so "that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive."
“Thus the apostolic and prophetic foundation of the Church was to bless in all times, but especially in times of adversity or danger, times when we might feel like children, confused or disoriented, perhaps a little fearful, times in which the devious hand of men or the maliciousness of the devil would attempt to unsettle or mislead. Against such times as come in our modern day, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve are commissioned by God and sustained by you as "prophets, seers, and revelators," with the President of the Church sustained as the prophet, seer, and revelator, the senior Apostle, and as such the only man authorized to exercise all of the revelatory … keys for the Church.”
“…the incomparable Ralph Waldo Emerson rocked the very foundations of New England ecclesiastical orthodoxy when he said to the Divinity School at Harvard: "It is my duty to say to you that the need was never greater [for] new revelation than now." "The doctrine of inspiration is lost. . . . Miracles, prophecy, . . . the holy life, exist as ancient history [only]. . . . Men have come to speak of . . . revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead. . . . It is the office of a true teacher," he warned, "to show us that God is, not was; that He speaketh, not spake."
In the very year Mr. Emerson gave his Divinity School address implicitly pleading for such, Elder John Taylor, a young English immigrant to this country, was called to be an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, a prophet, a seer, a revelator. In that calling Elder Taylor once said in sympathy with honest seekers of truth: "Whoever heard of true religion without communication with God? To me the thing is the most absurd that the human mind could conceive of. I do not wonder," said Brother Taylor, "[that] when the people generally reject the principle of present revelation, skepticism and infidelity prevail to such an alarming extent. I do not wonder," he continued, "that so many men treat religion with contempt, and regard it as something not worth the attention of intelligent beings, for without revelation religion is a mockery and a farce. . . . The principle of present revelation . . . is the very foundation of our religion. "
The principle of present revelation? The very foundation of our religion? Let me return from those foundations to the present, the here and now, the 21st century. For one and all—ecclesiastics, historians, and laymen alike—the issue is still the same. Are the heavens open? Does God reveal His will to prophets … as in days of old? That they are and that He does is the unflinching declaration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to all the world.”
“We do ‘thank thee, O God, for a prophet to guide us in these latter days,’ because many of those days will be windblown and tempest-tossed.” (Holland, GC)
I love you and pray for you and for all your investigators. May the Lord bless us as we strive to help 1,000 come to know that God has placed His prophet and His church with Apostles and Prophets here upon the earth in these the latter days.
President Clark
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