The matter is still more plainly set forth in the Doctrine and Covenants. In speaking of the priesthood and the ordinances belonging thereto—through which ordinances "the power of godliness is manifest; and without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh; for without this"—that is without the priesthood and its ordinances—"no man can see the face of God even the Father and live."[L] The Lord says: "Now this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God: but they hardened their hearts, and could not endure his presence, therefore the Lord in his wrath (for his anger was kindled against them) swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fullness of his glory. Therefore he took Moses out of their midst, and the holy priesthood also; and the lesser priesthood continued, which priesthood holdeth the key of the ministering of angels and the preparatory gospel; which gospel is the gospel of repentance and of baptism, and the remission of sins, and the law of carnal commandments, which the Lord in his wrath caused to continue with the house of Aaron among the children of Israel until John."[M]
[Footnote L: Doc. and Cov., sec. lxxxiv: 21, 22.]
[Footnote M: Doc. and Cov., sec. lxxxiv: 19, 27.]
The above is confirmed by the Jewish scriptures also; for it is written in the concluding chapter of Deuteronomy—"There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt."[N]
[Footnote N: Deut. xxxiv: 10-12.]
Of the things we have spoken respecting the gospel being presented to Israel, this is the sum: The Lord gave them the gospel, but because they would not observe its sacred requirements, he took it, that is in its fullness, from among them, and also the higher or Melchisedek Priesthood; but left them the lesser or Aaronic Priesthood, and to the part of the gospel which remained, viz., repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, was added the law of carnal commandments, which was to educate them for the fullness of the gospel when Messiah should come with it. At the appointed time Messiah came and taught the gospel of the kingdom; and though the Jews as a nation rejected him, and their Sanhedrin sentenced him to death, yet a few received his teachings, and among them the Lord Jesus organized His church, established his priesthood and gave to his servants a commandment to go and teach all nations.
They were faithful in discharging their commission, and many received their testimony and obeyed the gospel. Satan, however, working in the hearts of the disobedient, stirred them up to anger against the saints of God, and they were persecuted, imprisoned, and slain. All the apostles, save John, sealed their testimony with their blood, and thousands of their followers were put to death. Edicts the most cruel and heartless were formulated against them by the Roman emperors, and executed with relentless vindictiveness, until the saints of God were well nigh destroyed.[O]
[Footnote O: See Outlines of Ecclesiastical History, part II., "The apostasy.">[
Meantime heresies crept into the churches; false teachers arose teaching perverse doctrines to draw away disciples after them; the Gospel was perverted, the laws thereof were transgressed, the ordinances were changed, the covenant was broken, until scarcely a vestige of the gospel as delivered to men by the Son of God and his authorized servants remained.
After the sword, the prison, the rack, and the flame in the hands of a powerful, pagan government, together with apostate influences and false teachers had done what they could to break down or corrupt the church of Christ, then another evil, more dangerous than all that had gone before was brought to bear upon it. A Roman Emperor, Constantine, was converted to the "Christian religion"—yet by that time, 313 A. D., no more like the religion of Christ than dim, misty twilight is like the glorious light of the noon-day sun. He soon loaded the bishops with new honors, dignities and powers. The churches were made wealthy, and luxurious living succeeded the simplicity in the manner of life characteristic of earlier times among the followers of Christ. This luxury, ever more dangerous than storms or quicksands, poverty or chains, proved more disastrous to the church, more fruitful in its corruptions of the Gospel than the storms of persecution which had beaten upon it from its inception.