Key to the Science of Theology

by Parley P. Pratt

No individual or combined human action could obtain or restore again these keys—this science.

A mighty angel held the keys of this science for the last days. A mighty angel was to restore the keys of the ancient Priesthood, Apostleship, power and blessings. A voice from heaven was to reveal the time, and send forth the cry—"Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities."

All the darkness of the middle ages; all the priestcraft or kingcraft of every age, since the slaughter of the Apostles; all the oppressions, persecutions, or abuses of power; all the extravagancies and idleness on the one hand, and all the sufferings and miseries of the toiling millions for want of the comforts of life, on the other; all the ignorance, superstitions, errors, divisions and contentions which have transpired in the name of "Christianity" down to the present time; have been the results of the decline, and loss of the keys and powers, of the science of Theology, or for want of attention to them when existing on the earth.

Nor will the "Christian" world ever attain to any considerable degree of knowledge, power, or union in religious progress, until they discover their loss of this science, become sensible of the need of its restoration, and humble themselves as in the dust, and welcome a messenger who comes in the name of the Lord, with a commission from heaven, and with keys committed by the Angels of God—a new Apostolic commission, a restoration of the Kingdom and Church, and power and gifts of God; a new dispensation, universally proclaimed in all the world, with power and signs following; and the whole consummated by the glorious restoration of Israel and Judah to their own land and nationality, and to the true fold of God; together with the second advent of Messiah and all his Saints with him, to overthrow "Mystery Babylon," and reign on the earth.

Such are the events, such is the remedy for the past and present evils.

CHAPTER IV.

RISE, PROGRESS, DECLINE, AND LOSS OF THE SCIENCE OF THEOLOGY ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE, AS BROUGHT TO LIGHT BY THE LATE DISCOVERY OF ANCIENT AMERICAN RECORDS.

The spirit world is moved, the silence broken,
The ancient Seers from out the ground have spoken.
The appointed years on time's fleet wings have fled.
And voices whisper from the ancient dead.
Volumes of truth the sacred archives yield.
The past, the glorious future, stand revealed.

We are now, of necessity, carried back in our research to the cradle of nations, the Tower of Babel, in order to trace the history of this wonderful science, from the first emigration of a colony to the western hemisphere, till its final decline and overthrow, for the knowledge of which we are indebted to many ancient records, written by the fathers, or ancient students and professors of this science, on the western hemisphere.

Among these we will make honourable mention of the Prophets Jared, Ether, Lehi, Nephi, Mosiah, Alma, Abinadi, Mormon, and Moroni, who wrote and prophesied in the western hemisphere, during the several ages intervening between the time of the dispersion at Babel, and the fifth century of the Christian era.