Article 5.—We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel, and administer in the ordinances thereof.
MEN CALLED OF GOD.
1. Scriptural Examples.—It is not less agreeable to the dictates of human reason, than it is conformable to the plan of perfect organization which characterizes the Church of Christ, that all who minister in the ordinances of the Gospel should be called and commissioned for their sacred duties by the authority of heaven. The scriptures sustain this view most thoroughly; they present to us an array of men whose Divine callings are specially attested, and whose mighty works declare a power greater than that of man. On the other hand, not an instance is set down in holy writ of anyone taking to himself the authority to officiate in sacred ordinances, and being acknowledged of the Lord in such administration.
2. Consider the case of Noah, who "found grace in the eyes of the Lord"[533] in the midst of a wicked world. Unto him the Lord spake, announcing His displeasure with the wicked inhabitants of earth, and the Divine intention concerning the deluge; and instructed him in the manner of building and stocking the ark. That Noah declared the word of God unto his perverse contemporaries is shown in Peter's declaration of Christ's mission in the spirit world,—that the Savior preached to those who had been disobedient during the period of God's long suffering in the days of Noah, and who had in consequence endured the privations of the prison house in the interval.[534] Surely none can question the Divine source of Noah's authority, nor the justice of the retributive punishment following the wilful rejection of his teachings, for his words were the words of God.
3. So also with Abraham, the father of the faithful; the Lord called him[535] and made covenant with him for all the generations of his posterity. Isaac[536] was similarly distinguished; likewise Jacob,[537] to whom, as he rested upon his pillow of stones in the desert, the Lord appeared. Unto Moses[538] came the voice of God amidst the fierceness of fire, calling and commissioning the man to go into Egypt and deliver therefrom the people whose cries had come up with such effect before the throne of heaven. In this great work Aaron[539] was called to assist his brother; and later, Aaron and his sons[540] were chosen by Divine direction from the midst of the children of Israel to minister in the priest's office. When Moses[541] saw that his days were numbered, he solicited the Lord to appoint a successor in his holy station; and by special command, Joshua, the son of Nun, was so selected.
4. Samuel, who became so great a prophet in Israel, commissioned to consecrate, command, and rebuke kings, to direct armies, and to serve as the oracle of God unto the people, was chosen while yet a boy, and called by the voice of the Lord.[542] And such was the power that followed this call, that all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established a prophet of the Lord.[543] Time fails to permit the mention of many other men of might, who received their power from God, whose histories portray the honor with which the Lord regarded His chosen ministers. Think of the heavenly vision by which Isaiah was called and directed in the duties of his prophetic office;[544] of Jeremiah, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah;[545] of the priest Ezekiel, who first received the Divine message in the land of the Chaldeans,[546] and subsequently on other occasions; of Hosea,[547] and all the rest of the prophets to Zechariah[548] and Malachi.[549]
5. The apostles of the Lord were called by His own voice in the days of His ministry; and surely the Savior's authority is beyond question, vindicated as it is by the mighty works of the atonement, wrought through pain and the anguish of death, and by the authoritative declaration of the Father at the time of Christ's baptism. Peter, and Andrew his brother, while casting their nets into the sea, were called with the instruction,—"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men;"[550] and soon after, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were similarly called. So with all of the chosen Twelve who ministered with the Master; and unto the Eleven who had remained faithful, He appeared after His resurrection, giving them special commissions for the work of the kingdom.[551] Christ specifically declares that He had chosen His apostles, and that He had ordained them in their exalted stations.[552]
6. In the period immediately following that of Christ's earthly mission, the ministers of the Gospel were all designated and set apart by unquestionable authority. Even Saul of Tarsus, afterward Paul the Apostle, who was converted with marvelous signs and wondrous manifestations,[553] had to be formally commissioned for the labor which the Lord desired him to perform; and we are told that the Holy Ghost spake to the prophets and teachers of the Church at Antioch, while they fasted before the Lord, saying, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them."[554]
7. The Ordination of Men to the Ministry, as sanctioned by scriptural precedent, and established by direct revelation of God's will, is to be effected through the gift of prophecy, and by the imposition of hands by those who are in authority. By prophecy is meant the right to receive, and the power to interpret, manifestations of the Divine will. That the laying on of hands is usual as a part of the ceremony is seen in several of the instances already cited; nevertheless the scriptures record numerous ordinations to the offices of the priesthood, with no specific statement concerning the imposition of hands, nor indeed any other details of the ceremony. Such instances do not warrant the conclusion that the laying on of hands was not actually performed; and indeed in the light of modern revelation it is clear that the imposition of hands was a usual accompaniment of ordination, as it was also a part of the ceremony of confirming blessings,[555] and of bestowing the Holy Ghost.[556]