Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7)
The Book of Mormon opens with Nephi telling about his father, Lehi's, call as a prophet by God during the time of King Zedekiah.
At this time in the history of Israel, many prophets had been called to preach to the people and call them to repentance, among them were Jeremiah and Urijah. But the people had gone so far from the teachings of God that they were rejecting and killing His prophets.
Lehi was out and about, praying for his country and people, Lehi experienced an amazing occurrence:
Wherefore it came to pass that my father, Lehi, as he went forth prayed unto the Lord, yea, even with all his heart, in behalf of his people. And it came to pass as he prayed unto the Lord, there came a pillar of fire and dwelt upon a rock before him; and he saw and heard much; and because of the things which he saw and heard he did quake and tremble exceedingly. (1 Nephi 1:5 & 6)
The experience did not end there:
"And it came to pass that he returned to his own house at Jerusalem; and he cast himself upon his bed, being overcome with the Spirit and the things which he had seen. And being thus overcome with the Spirit, he was carried away in a vision, even that he saw the heavens open, and he thought he saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God. And it came to pass that he saw One descending out of the midst of heaven, and he beheld that his luster was above that of the sun at noon-day. And he also saw twelve others following him, and their brightness did exceed that of the stars in the firmament. And they came down and went forth upon the face of the earth; and the first came and stood before my father, and gave unto him a book, and bade him that he should read. And it came to pass that as he read, he was filled with the Spirit of the Lord." (1 Nephi 1:7-12)
Lehi's experience of receiving the book from the Savior mirrors that of other prophets. Ezekiel was given a book to read filled with "lamentations, and mourning, and woe". (Ezekiel 2:9-10) John the Revelator also received his call in this way: "And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, ... And he had in his hand a little book open.... And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings." (Revelations 10:1-2, 8-11)
I did a "little" research and checked out every prophet I could find the information on to see how they were called. The few prophets we actually have background information on in the Old Testament tell of how they were either visited by God or heard His voice, calling them to be his servants.
In the New Testament, John the Baptist was called to be the forerunner of the Messiah long before his birth, his prophetic mission prophesied by Isaiah and Malachi. Obviously this call could only have come from God Himself, since it came before John's birth.
The first prophet and leader of the Church in New Testament times, after the Savior's resurrection and ascension was Peter, called by the Savior through the laying on of hands. The name given to him by the Savior, Cephas, is a form of the word Kefa which is "a small green stone used for divination" (Webster's Online Dictionary), or, in other words, a "seer" stone, meaning that the Lord was calling Peter as a prophet, a seer, and a revelator.
The method God uses to call His prophets is the same in the Book of Mormon - each man is called by God, either during a personal appearance, through a preceding prophet, or by the word of the Lord coming to him in some other fashion.
While reading this chapter in 1 Nephi, I wondered, with all the prophets already in Israel, why did God need another? The answer, or answers, were obvious really: First, the people of Israel were literally killing the prophets because they did not want to hear what they were saying. Second, God intended on spreading Israel throughout all the world. The Ten Tribes had been, or were being, removed by Israel's conquerors and scattered. God wanted a branch of Israel to be saved in another part of His "vineyard" (see Jacob 5).
Many prophets throughout the scriptures were called because there was no one to preach God's word to His children. Samuel was a small boy when he was visited and called by God in the night (1 Samuel 3:10). There had been no prophets in Israel since Joshua, and God needed a servant to lead the people. During the reign of Ahab and his wife Jezebel, the prophets of God were hunted down and killed, there were none left. So God called Elijah the Tishbite to be His servant. (1 Kings 17).
This happened so many times throughout the history of the world. After the Savior's resurrection and ascension, Peter, James, John, and the other apostles of the Lord served, traveling throughout the world as it was then known, preaching the Gospel of Christ and bringing lost souls to salvation. But one by one they were killed, until none were left. Though many believed that the authority to organize and officiate over the Church remained after the Apostles' deaths, it did not. Many believe that the bishop of Rome was Peter's successor, but that can't be true. God id a God of order, and the calling of bishop was much different than prophet and leader of the Church. There were actually many bishops at the time, and none had more authority than another. Unfortunately, the authority to preside over the Savior's kingdom on earth was gone with the Apostles.
That authority was lost for centuries, until a young boy - not much older, perhaps, than Samuel - saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ and received a call to serve as prophet, seer, and revelator in the latter-days. (Joseph Smith's story) Joseph Smith's experience was similar to that of so many other men - and, yes, boys! - who God called to teach His children the Gospel.
Since that day, the world has not been without a prophet, one who receives direction from God for His children and His Church. Of this I can testify to you - I know it as a fact that I have searched out for myself.
And I say this in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment