Prophets and Apostles Necessary.
By the Late President, George Q. Cannon, in Millennial Star, 1866.
The assertions made by the Latter-day Saints that God has raised up a Prophet and Apostles in these days, who have the authority to teach and instruct men in the principles of His kingdom, and that their teachings and counsels are entitled to consideration and obedience, are statements that are looked upon by many to be little less than blasphemous. Many cannot conceive how individuals, who are apparently so sane and possessed of good judgment on other subjects, should be so visionary, and so wholly absorbed in the strange belief of there being men who hold this power on the earth in these days. They, nevertheless, believe that men clothed with this power have existed upon the earth at various times, who were inspired to speak and write; and they are quite willing to receive the writings, said to be theirs, upon very slight testimony, and rest all their hopes of future and eternal blessedness upon their veracity. They have an idea that it is perfectly reasonable to believe in the words of the Apostles and Prophets who lived thousands of years ago, and they think that, were they alive now, they could place all reliance and confidence in their words as the word of God. Peter, James and John, with their brethren, are looked up to as having been something superior to mortal, and many, forgetting that they were but human, think that it would only be necessary, did they live now, for them to declare this message and state that they were empowered to teach it, and men without the slightest demur would instantly embrace its doctrines. This professed admiration of dead Prophets and Seers, however, is not confined to this generation alone; it was a characteristic of other generations. The Jews, when Jesus was in their midst, would build and adorn the tombs of the Prophets whom their fathers had slain, and say that if they had lived in the days of their fathers they would not have persecuted or killed them, while at the same time they were thirsting for the blood of the Son of God, and they did not rest until He had shared the same fate with the Prophets whom they so ostentatiously honored. But what is there visible at the present time from which we can infer that were any of the ancient Prophets or Apostles in the midst of this generation, they would be any better treated, or their teachings given more heed to, than they were in the generation in which they lived? The present ideas of professing Christians—that the canon of Scripture is full—and that there is no further need of direct revelation—would not admit of their recognizing a Prophet or an Apostle, should they be so fortunate as to have one sent into their midst. They are, in this respect, in a similar situation to the Jews at the time of the advent of the Messiah. They were in possession of the writings of the Prophets, and held them as the present sects of Christendom hold the Bible. Their writings were their oracles, and they indulged in the idea, as the modern sects do about the Bible, that they contained all that was necessary to lead them to salvation, until Shiloh should come, without the aid of any Prophets or Apostles to act as living oracles in their midst. They doubtless imagined that they were warranted in this belief by their sacred Scriptures, in the same manner that many at the present day imagine that the present Scriptures, composed of the writings of the ancient Prophets and Apostles, warrant them in rejecting all further revelation. This misapprehension of the Jews was followed by terrible results; they ceased to have a national existence, and they were scattered and dispersed abroad.
If the Scriptures the Jews had and the Scriptures we at present have are examined, it will be found that there is a greater amount of evidence in our possession in favor of the idea of living oracles, or Prophets and Apostles, being raised up and inspired in these days, than there was among the Jews in the days of the Apostles to support them in believing that they would make their appearance at that time. In fact the Scriptures cannot be fulfilled until these things take place. Prophecy upon prophecy has been uttered and recorded, pointing clearly and definitely to the last days—to the time when God should again set His hand the second time to recover the remnants of His people; when He would send for many fishers and they would fish them, and for many hunters and they would hunt them; when His Kingdom would again be built up, and their judges be restored as at the first, and their counsellors as at the beginning; when many nations would be seized with the desire to go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that they might be taught in His ways and be able to walk in His paths. To fulfill these prophecies—which were, no doubt, given with the expectation of their being as literally accomplished as the prophecies in relation to the Messiah which the Jews misapprehended—men holding power and authority equal with the men of old who were called to perform similar works, have to be raised up; and if they are raised up and inspired, they must have equal power to teach, counsel and direct the children of men, and their teachings, counselings, and directions will be as obligatory upon mankind as the teachings, counselings and directions of the ancients. Since the creation of man and the first revelation of God's will unto him, we have no account of the Lord ever having a people upon the earth, or a system which He recognized as being His, without also having men of this description—men with whom He could communicate, and through whom His mind and will could be made known to the people. They were the living oracles, possessing living Priesthood, through which they could obtain light and intelligence from the Almighty, to expound with authority to the children of men; and their words, whether delivered orally or written, were equally binding upon the people with the words of any preceding servant of God. That this was the case all sacred history bears abundant evidence.
The necessity of inspired men, in order that the prophecies may be fulfilled, must be apparent. Man has always been the instrument which the Lord has used to accomplish His purposes. But apart from the prophecies which set forth in unmistakable language, that the days of revelation and intercourse between the Deity and man will again be restored, there is an abundance of evidence to prove that there cannot be a Church of Christ on the earth without having Prophets and Apostles as its officers. They were not to be confined to the early days of Christianity alone, but were to be continued "until all should come to the unity of the faith, unto the knowledge of the Son of God;" they were to be as necessary "for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ," as evangelists, pastors and teachers are. To assert that Prophets and Apostles are no longer needed would be to assert that evangelists, pastors and teachers are likewise unnecessary. The great head of the Church, in its organization, had a definite object in placing these officers in His Church and that object could not be accomplished except by their perpetuity. When these officers ceased to be recognized then the Church ceased to be the Church of Christ. It would be considered a very great departure from the spirit of the Gospel to assert that pastors and other ministers—such for instance as teachers and evangelists—were no longer needed; and yet the evidence necessary to support their recognition as officers of the Church proves that not only they are necessary, but that Prophets and Apostles also are required. The proofs brought forward to substantiate the idea that Prophets and Apostles are no longer needed will apply with much force to the other officers in the Church; and if the necessity for one or two of the callings in the Church has ceased to be, it can easily be proved that there is no further necessity for the remainder. The belief that these callings are no longer needed has been inculcated in Christendom by both precept and example. A false Christianity has flourished for centuries, and men have been taught to rely upon it as the religion of Jesus, and not seeing these callings filled in it, it has required but little persuasion to cause them to fall into the erroneous belief that they were only designed for the days when Christianity was first preached. If one, more inquiring and penetrating than his fellows, should ascertain by a perusal of the Scriptures, that there was nothing to discountenance the idea of the perpetuity of such callings, and should make inquiries to know why they did not at present exist, his doubts would be removed by pointing him to Christianity as it exists around him, flourishing and yet destitute of these offices; and its existence without them must be received as evidence that the Lord had altered the organization of His Church and deemed these offices unnecessary. Men instead of making their belief conform to the Bible have endeavored to distort it and make it correspond with their ideas and systems; when the plainly written word would not admit of that they have endeavored to hide their errors and the incorrectness of their position, by stating that the Scriptures have a spiritual meaning—and they do not literally mean what their language denotes, but they require to be spiritualized to be understood. Miserable subterfuge! What a cunning device of the adversary of souls and his agents, to entrap and deceive mankind! Impress upon the people that these are no longer necessary, and they will cease to look for them; persuade them to believe that the word of God has a different meaning from the one apparent on its face, and they will see nothing condemnatory of sin and the commission of gross wrong; Satan's victory and triumph will then be easy.
The correctness of the position we have assumed in stating that Prophets and Apostles are as necessary in the Church of Christ now as they ever were, is not at all affected by the truth or falsity of the doctrines we believe in and teach. Because the Latter-day Saints believe in these things does not detract one iota from their truth. These officers would be indispensably necessary, wherever a Church of Christ existed, if we as a people, were extinct. If men believe the Bible they must believe as Latter-day Saints, and if there is a Church of Christ upon the earth there must of necessity be Prophets and Apostles, and if there are Prophets and Apostles, they have the right to teach and instruct mankind in the principles of the Lord's Kingdom, and their teachings and counsels are entitled to consideration and obedience. A great many find considerable fault with the Latter-day Saints because they rely so much upon the words of their Prophets and Apostles. They think it decidedly anti-republican; and some, to give vent to superabundance of their spleen, occasionally call Brigham Young and his brethren hard names, because they, being men, make themselves equal with the Apostles. These individuals, with their present feelings, had they lived in any other generation when Prophets and Apostles were upon the earth, would have taken a precisely similar course to oppose them. It is not the individuals they are warring against—though many of them, no doubt, think that it is—but it is the principle. How much more republican would we be, if we paid no attention to their teachings, than we are at present? Can not we exercise our rights and privileges as republicans, to as full an extent by doing right as by doing wrong—by being obedient to the will of the Almighty as by being disobedient? The Latter-day Saints cannot fail to hearken to and have confidence in the words of their leaders, so long as they believe as they do about the necessity of Prophets and Apostles, and the authority they hold; and while they retain this belief, the only thing that will destroy this confidence is to prove that they do not hold this authority, and are not Apostles and Prophets. So long as we know that men have this authority it makes but little difference to us what their names may be. And the moment the Latter-day Saints became convinced that Joseph and Brigham Young were Apostles of Jesus Christ, they were as willing to believe their testimony and to hearken to their counsel and teachings, as they would have been to have believed and hearkened to those of the ancient Apostles.
"If we could see our heavenly Father, we should see a being similar to our earthly parent, with this difference: our Father in heaven is exalted and glorified. He has received His thrones, His principalities and powers, and He sits as a governor, as a monarch, and overrules kingdoms, thrones and dominions that have been bequeathed to Him, and such as we anticipate receiving. While He was in the flesh, as we are, He was as we are."
—Brigham Young.
"Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason thereof until long after the events transpire."
—Joseph Smith, August 25, 1842.