Outside of this Church, how many Christians believe that the Holy Ghost continues to give revelation, which is direct communication? That has become a crucial question in light of worldly events that are happening and due to happen in these last days on the earth. Biblical prophecy dictates that a storm of evil is forthcoming. War skirmishes, unknown diseases and encomomic collaspe are but a small example of what this world is to suffer, which Christians agree.
Christendom has repeatedly claimed that all we need is the Bible and nothing else. They claim that the Holy Ghost is in them and all revelation they need is in the words read in the Bible. Many other Christians believe that they get all the guidance they need for their life from the Bible, but is this true in all respects? It is true the Bible holds God’s wisdom for the common aliments of life and gives counsel of what we are to do and believe, in general, but a serious problem arises in light of the ongoing fulfillment of prophecies for these last days. Will the Bible be able to provide the right counsel for these times, at the right moment, to tell or warn you of things not yet seen and give the right counsel and direction? In fact, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine of Covenants and Pearl of Great Price face the same problem. What then is the answer to this concern?
In Christendom, there are more than 34,000 different Christian denominations across the world. All are different and they do not all have the same beliefs in Christ and salvation. In other words many have differing doctrines about the same thing. Some believe in baptism by water, others believe baptism by sprinkling, others baptism by desire and others, no baptism at all. Some believe Jesus Christ is a real person and others merely an expression from a greater single being. Some believe the Holy Ghost still communicates, others claim such communication has ended with the end of the early Christian Church and believe that the Holy Ghost is no longer needed since we have all we need in the Bible. Yet there are many different Bible versions which exclude scripture, added scripture, mistranslated the original Hebrew and Greek texts or purposely left out some things for some unknown reason. It is these Bibles that other Christians claim are sufficient.
Consider this. Of those thousands of Christian denominations, many are localized and only exist within the community in which they operate. Others have a few more branches in a larger area and even the country, but few are around he world, yet each is different. Will God speak to each one that has their own agendas to save them all? In the Bible the example shown is that God’s people, who he guides and protects, are of one name, one Church and on faith, all abiding under one prophet as the leader of the Church. This is the same in the Old Testament and in the New Testament with the Apostles. When the Church fell into apostasy, many different faiths arose, each with their own agendas and the leader of the Church and God’s people, a prophet, was not present. This happened in the Old Testament and after the New Testament when the last apostle left. When there was no leader from God to lead his Church, there was also no revelation given to people and they were without, all left to their own devices and doctrines as a result. After the early (New Testament) Christian Church fell away, the same pattern manifested, which led to many Christian denominations with their Creeds and differing doctrines and own devices. To them I say, “where is God’s true Church, the one where God leads his people, in accordance to revelation from God, in worship under one faith, one Church and one set of doctrines given to them by the Holy Ghost?”
Now comes my observation and in this I do not make prophecy.
The Church of Jesus Christ has always been lead by revelation and God’s people within it, received it. IN all times of great trouble, in the scriptures, God’s people carried the written word of God, yet even with the written word, they required revelation just the same. IN all the examples and events in the scriptures, God still gave revelation to guide, instruct and warn them of dangers. These last days of trouble is no different.
All God’s faithful are going to require continued revelation for direction, guidance and warnings. The importance of this spiritual communication from the Holy Ghost cannot be overstated. This says that each of us should be able to communicate with Heavenly Father and receive his counsel and direction through his Holy Ghost. Even with the written word, revelation was and still is crucial because mankind does not know everything, cannot see everything and certainly does not have all wisdom. It is prideful to claim that everything needed is found within the bindings of the scriptures. In John 21:25, John the prophet clearly said, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”
To those who claim they have all they need within the bindings of one book – shame on you for your pride.
As it was then in the Old and New Testament times and in the Book of Mormon, Doctrine of Covenants and Pearl of Great Price, it is not possible to have every direction, instruction or guidance when society and/or the world completely falls to evil before the second coming of Jesus Christ. This Church is across the world and communication to all of us may become interrupted. This tells us that each of us may become potential leaders in our individual geographical area when needed. It is these leadersr who shall receive direct communication from God to help lead others into safe places or into proactive actions that God deems necessary for protection. This is just common sense when looking that this from a spiritual logistic point of view when all falls in the world and all Christians are persecuted.
As the prophets of this Church warned of the coming storms, the manner which these storms will manifest has not been given, therefore, anything pretty much goes. The General Authorities will not be able to communicate to everyone in this Church when things go really sour and all communication becomes disrupted or down. Leadership then falls accordingly to each branch, stake, family and so forth to lead properly and I am sure this will likely be setup well ahead of the final fall. Since the scriptures do not contain any great detail of what will occur these last days and when it will happen, that opens the door to serious problems for each person who has not developed their own connection with the Lord through the Holy Ghost, for not everyone will recognize when evil will be present or near and not recognize when a latter-day prophecy is being fulfilled.
Spiritual communication is therefore crucial and any denial of this effectively shuts a person off from God and his help, all because of disbelief. Where is faith then?
For other Christians that denounce personal revelation in any manner or form, will not accept this article and remain smug in their personal idea of faith, thinking that all they need is the Bible. With those Christians that reject any idea or validity that the Holy Spirit does communicate with each of us, even to Mormons, will quite likely end up caught in the upheaval, while the faithful and believers of personal revelation will have already moved on because the Holy Ghost has already warned them well ahead of time. Other Christians who disbelieve in communication with the Holy Ghost can search their relative Bible versions all they want as the dark storm rolls over them and not one of them will have the answer of what to do, all because they rejected the truth about the power of God to communicate through his Holy Ghost.
They have ignored or forgotten their own weaknesses which God gave them, weaknesses that will greatly hamper their ability to know what to do because their weakness has raised to the surface in the face of sudden adversity. We see this all the time in the world. A few are able to perform rightly in the time of great adversity, but many will falter and fall. For all Christian believers, this will happen, it is just common sense, because they have ignored the truths set out in the scriptures about revelation.
The Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine of Covenants and Pearl of Great Price are designed to prepare us for these last days. Once the time of preparation is over and the time of action and open communication with the Spirit is required, the true faithful (whether in this Church or not) will hear the voice of the Spirit and abide in his directions. It is these that will be saved and those that refuse to listen, will fall behind. That is one of the tests of faith in these darker latter days.
What of those, by some circumstance of birth or life, are unable to communicate with the Spirit and carry out his direction? The faithful, even of act and belief, will receive help from those who can hear the Spirit of God, as God does not forsake any true faithful. Simply speaking, God has it all covered, but these Christians who have denounced or rejected doctrines about revelation, will not be covered because of their lack of faith in the power and workings of God and all their beliefs about the Bible and Christian Creeds will not help them.
Amen.
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