Revelation after Joseph Smith

From FAIRMormon

This article is a draft. FAIRwiki editors are currently editing it. We welcome your suggestions on improving the content.

Contents 1 Criticism 1.1 Source(s) of the criticism 2 Response 3 Endnotes 4 Further reading 4.1 FAIR wiki articles 4.2 FAIR web site 4.3 External links 4.4 Printed material

Criticism

If every President of the Church is a prophet, seer, and revelator, why have so few revelations after Joseph Smith been added to the Doctrine and Covenants?

Source(s) of the criticism

• Jerald and Sandra Tanner, The Changing World of Mormonism (Moody Press, 1979), Chapter 15. ( Index of claims )

Response

The Doctrine and Covenants contains foundations revelations establishing core doctrines, the organization of the Church and the priesthood, and the manner of ordinances. Prophets after Joseph Smith have and continue to receive revelation, but only in a few circumstances have these revelations been foundational enough to necessitate them being added to the LDS canon.

This pattern is reflected in the Bible as well. Moses, the founding prophet of that dispensation, produced five books of scripture, which were the basis of religious instruction for the next several centuries. The books that followed Moses for the next couple centuries were mostly historical accounts (Joshua, Judges, Ruth), with only occasional revelations recorded by subsequent prophets.

Joseph himself stopped receiving so many revelations as the government of the church was established. At this point in his life he said that the Lord should not be petitioned for every little thing, especially if revelations on the same subject had already been given or information "about the things the knowledge of which men ought to obtain in all cencerity before God for themselves." After the 12 apostles were organized the number of revelations that Joseph received decreased dramatically. Around 1835 Joseph stopped receiving revelations as people remember him to have done, nine years before his martyrdom.^[1]

Endnotes

1. [back]  Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 257. ISBN 1400042704

Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

• Open canon vs. closed canon

Prophecy wiki articles

• Joseph Smith prophecies
  • Can't be killed within 5 years of August 1843
  • David Patten to serve a mission?
  • Independence temple to be built "in this generation"
  • Prophetic inerrancy?
  • Prophetic test in Deuteronomy
  • Second Coming in 1890 (56 years)
• Official doctrine: what is it?
• LDS prophets don't prophesy?
• Revelation after Joseph Smith ^{[needs work]}

FAIR web site

Prophecy FAIR articles

• FAIR Topical Guide: Prophets FAIR link
  
• FAIR Topical Guide: Failed prophecies? FAIR link
  
• FAIR Topical Guide: Miraculous events in early Church history FAIR link
  
• FAIR Topical Guide: Nature of Prophets and Prophecy FAIR link
  
• FAIR Topical Guide: Prophetic calling of Joseph Smith FAIR link
  
• FAIR Topical Guide: Prophetic infallibility FAIR link
  
• John A. Tvedtnes, "The Nature of Prophets and Prophecy." FAIR link

External links

• Spencer W. Kimball, "Gospel Forum: The official revelations to the Church apparently ended with the 1890 Manifesto issued by President Wilford Woodruff. What is the position of the Church on continuous revelation?”," Ensign (February 1971): 20. off-site Note that this article pre-dates the 1978 revelation on priesthood to President Kimball.

Prophecy on-line articles

• "Approaching Mormon Doctrine", news release from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4 May 2007. off-site
• Alma Allred, "Coin of the Realm: Beware of Specious Specie (Review of: "Scripture," In The Counterfeit Gospel of Momonism)," FARMS Review of Books 12/1 (2000): 137–174. off-site PDF link
• Shirley D. Christensen, "The Clarion Call of Prophets," Ensign (November 2003): 32. off-site
• Jeffrey R. Holland, "Prophets in the Land Again," Ensign (November 2006): 104–107. off-site
• Malin L. Jacobs, "The Alleged Fifty-Six-Year Second-Coming Prophecy of Joseph Smith: An Analysis," (City Unknown: SHIELDS, 13-Jul-97) off-site
• Bruce R. McConkie, "Are the General Authorities Human?", address at the LDS Institute of Religion at the University of Utah, 28 October 1966. PDF link
• Robert L. Millet, "What Is Our Doctrine?" The Religious Educator 4/3 (2003): 15–33. PDF link
• Boyd K. Packer, "On Zion's Hill," Ensign (November 2005): 23. off-site
• Daniel C. Peterson, "Review of Decker's Complete Handbook on Mormonism by Ed Decker," FARMS Review of Books 7/2 (1995): 38–105. off-site PDF link
• W. John Walsh, Joseph Fielding McConkie, and Jeff Lindsay, "Are Prophets Infallible?" off-site

Printed material

Prophecy printed materials