A Voice of Warning, Parley P. Pratt [classic books for 11 year olds txt] 📗

is not called by revelation, and inspired, as in days of old. But, "O!" says the reader, "you startle me, for the whole train of modern divines profess no revelation later than the Bible, and no direct inspiration or supernatural gift of the Spirit. Do you cast them all off, and say that they have no authority?" I reply, No, for the Bible does it, and I only humbly acquiesce in the decision, as they are nowhere known in the Scripture, except as teachers whom the people have heaped to themselves (the word heap does not mean a few, but many). But to prove more fully that God will give revelations in order to bring about this glorious work, we will refer you to Ezekiel xx, 33-38. It reads: "As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you; and I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God, And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant, and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me; I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord."

You discover that this promise begins with a double assurance: first, with an oath, as I live; second, with an assurance, surely, with a mighty hand, etc. And, in the close of the same chapter, lest the people should possibly misunderstand him, he exclaims: "O Lord, they say of me, doth he not speak in parables?" Here we have the children of Israel brought from among all nations, with a mighty hand and a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out (O ye nations who oppose these things, beware, remember Pharaoh, and learn wisdom), we see them brought into the wilderness of the people; and there the Lord is to plead with them, face to face, just as he did with their fathers in the wilderness of Egypt. This pleading face to face can never be done without revelation, and a personal manifestation, as much so as in old times. Now I ask, were all His manifestations to Israel in the wilderness mere fables not to be understood literally? If so, this will be so too; for one will be precisely like the other, no parable, but a glorious reality. He will cause them to pass under the rod, and bring them into the bond of the covenant.

This brings to mind the new covenant so often promised in the Scriptures, to be made with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, just in time to gather them from their long dispersion. Some may suppose that the new covenant which was to gather Israel made its appearance in the days of Christ and his Apostles. But Paul tells us it was yet future in his day. So, in his eleventh chapter to the Romans, he says, "that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." From this we learn that Paul placed that covenant in the future, even down to the restoration of Israel, in the last days, when the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled. Then there should come a Deliverer for Israel, and not before, seeing that they had rejected the first coming of that Deliverer. And he himself said to the Jews: "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate; for I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Then, and not until then, should the covenant be renewed with Israel. And even when the Apostles inquired, saying, "Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" the Savior made answer, that it was not for them to know the times and seasons which the Father had put in His own power; but they were to receive power, and bear witness of Him, etc.; as much as to say, that work is not for you Apostles to accomplish, but shall be done in the Lord's own time, by whom He will; but go ye and do the work I have commanded you.

Again, Isaiah, lxi, 8, 9, in speaking of this covenant, tells us that it should make their seed known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people; and should cause all that see them to acknowledge them that they are the seed that the Lord hath blessed. Now, we know that it is a question which can only be decided by revelation, whether the aborigines of America are the seed of Jacob or not. Again, it is a matter of uncertainty where the ten tribes are, or who they are; but the new covenant, whenever it makes its appearance, will reveal these things, and will leave the matter no longer in suspense; we shall then know their seed among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people. But, O! how different was the effect of the covenant made eighteen hundred years ago in its effects upon Israel; it cast them off in unbelief, and caused all that have seen them or heard of them ever since to acknowledge that they are the seed that the Lord hath cursed. When the covenant is renewed in the last days, the Lord will bring them into the bond of the covenant, by manifesting Himself to them face to face. Let me inquire, How does God make a covenant with the people in any age? The answer is, By communicating His will to them by actual revelation; for, without this, it would be impossible to make a covenant between two parties. In order to illustrate this subject, let us bring an example. We see how we make covenants with each other. For instance, a young man wishes to enter into a covenant of matrimony with a young lady; but deprive him of the privilege of revealing his mind to her, cut off all direct communication between them, and a covenant could never be made; and so it is with the Almighty. He never did enter into a covenant with His creatures, without revelations; and He never can do it. In short, whenever He made a covenant with the people, where a whole people were concerned, He included in the covenant the priesthood, offices, and authorities, together with the ordinances and blessings which pertain to His covenant; and so will He do at this time. Whenever the new covenant is established, it will organize the kingdom of God with all its offices, ordinances, gifts, and blessings as in the days of old; but more of this when we come to treat of the kingdom of God.

"But," says the inquirer, "what need have we of the renewal of a covenant which has never been broken? If the Lord made a covenant in the days of the Apostles, called a new covenant, why should that covenant still be renewed again, seeing it is in full force, until it is broken by one party or the other?" This is an important inquiry, involving the fate of all Christendom in its decision; we must therefore be very careful to make the decision perfectly plain, and the proof easy to be understood. That there was a covenant made between God and the people in the days of Christ and His Apostles, none will attempt to deny, and if that covenant never has been broken, it must be of force to the present day, and consequently there is no need of a new one. It therefore remains for us to prove that that covenant has been broken, completely broken, so that it is not in force, either among Jews or Gentiles, having lost its offices, authorities, powers, and blessings, insomuch that they are nowhere to be found among men. In order to do this, we must examine what were its offices, authorities, powers, and blessings, and then see whether they are still known among men.

We read that its offices consisted of Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers, all inspired and set in the Church, by the Lord Himself, for the edifying of the saints, for the work of the ministry, etc. And they were to continue in the Church, wherever it was found, until they all came to the unity of the faith, and unto the measure of the stature of a man in Christ.

Secondly, the gifts of the Spirit, which some call supernatural, were the powers and blessings which pertained to that covenant, wherever it existed, among the Jews or the Gentiles, so long as the covenant was of force. Now, I would ask the world of Christendom, or either of its sects or parties, if they have Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers inspired from on high, together with all the gifts and blessings of the Holy Spirit, which pertained to the Gospel covenant? If not, then the offices and powers of that covenant have been lost. And it must be through the breaking of that covenant that they were lost, for in this way the Jews lost these privileges, when they were handed to the Gentiles. And Paul told the Gentiles, in his eleventh chapter to the Romans, that if they did not abide in the goodness of God, they would fall, as the Jews had done before them.

But in order to prove, by further demonstration, that the Gospel covenant has been broken, by Jew and Gentile, and all people, so as to be no longer in force, I shall quote Isaiah, xxiv, 1-6: "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word. The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; BECAUSE THEY HAVE TRANSGRESSED THE LAWS, CHANGED THE ORDINANCE, BROKEN THE EVERLASTING COVENANT. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left." In these few verses, we discover a like calamity awaiting priests and people, rich and poor, bond and free, insomuch that they are all to be burned up but a few; and the complaint is that the earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, and broken the everlasting covenant. Now this could not be speaking of any other than the covenant, ordinance, and laws of the Gospel, made with the people in the days of the Apostles; because, however any former covenant may have been broken, yet the inhabitants of the earth have never been destroyed by fire, all but a few, for having broken any previous covenant. But this destruction is to come by fire, as literally as the flood in the days of Noah; and it will consume both priests and people from the earth, and that, too, for having broken the covenant of the Gospel, with its laws and its ordinances; or else we must get a new edition of the Bible, leaving out the twenty-fourth of Isaiah.

Now, having settled this question, I trust the reader will see the need of a new covenant, in order to save the few that are not to be burned. We will therefore drop this subject for the present, and turn again to the subject of the gathering of Israel. You will please turn and read the thirty-sixth, thirty-seventh, thirty-eighth, and thirty-ninth chapters of Ezekiel. In the thirty-sixth chapter you