Good morning everyone. How was your week? Did you do anything fun?

Yes, Brent. You took the cub scouts bowling? I had asked is anyone did anything fun, I think you misunderstood. You actually liked doing that? Good for you. You are a better man than I.

Well, today, we have a lesson loaded with possibilities. The lesson is on continuing revelation.

President Spencer Kimball declared that the Church continues to be guided by revelation:

"We testify to the world that revelation continues and that the vaults and files of the Church contain these revelations which come month to month and day to day. We testify also that there is, since 1830 when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, and will continue to be, so long as time shall last, a prophet, recognized of God and his people, who will continue to interpret the mind and will of the Lord. ...

"Expecting the spectacular, one may not be fully alerted to the constant flow of revealed communication. I say, in the deepest of humility, but also by the power and force of a burning testimony in my soul, that from the prophet of the Restoration to the prophet of our own year, the communication line is unbroken, the authority is continuous, a light, brilliant and penetrating, continues to shine. The sound of the voice of the Lord is a continuous melody and a thunderous appeal. For nearly a century and a half there has been no interruption" (in Conference Report, Apr. 1977, 115; or Ensign, May 1977, 78)

This seems to be a pretty bold statement. Since the church is led day-to-day by revelation and the vaults and files of the church contain these many revelations which come month to month and day to day, can anyone tell me of any of these revelations that have occurred in the past month?

Tom? No?

Sally? No?

Elizabeth? No?

Okay, how about in the last year?

Fred? No?

Tamy? No?

Randy? The Crossroads Mall in Salt Lake? Well I think that was about 18 months ago. But it really does seem to be important to our eternal salvation (cough).

How about in the last 10 years? Okay, now I see some hands.

Yes, Fred. Get out of debt, okay...

Yes, Sally. Don't look at pornography, okay...

Yes, Randy. Oh, all of the temples that are being built all over the world. Okay, thanks.

Have we not received anything new or important to our time in our society today?

Yes, Sally. Oh, okay thanks for clarifying. We shouldn't look at pornography on the internet. That really does apply to our internet age.

Okay, now hold on a second. What you are describing here doesn't really seem to fill up files and vaults like Spencer was saying. Revelation really isn't administrative paperwork, right? I mean I can see that filling up filing cabinets, but I'm trying to get my mind wrapped around this revelation thing. Really what is revelation?

Yes, Brent. You had understood from the time that you were a child that revelation was really when God or Christ spoke or appeared to the prophet. That's kind of what I thought as well. I kind of envisioned it like the scene in Monty Python's Holy Grail, when God appeared and said in his god-like voice, "Arthur, Arthur..."

Quinn made it pretty clear that the apostles in Joseph's and Brigham's time were told that they should in fact have visions of Christ and meet him face to face. But since so many of the apostles were not having this happen, this requirement for the apostles was dropped about 1900. But really what is revelation?

Yes, Tamy. Oh, really? Good. Now Tamy has brought with her a transcript of an interview by David Ransom with Gordon Hinckley that was published in Compass, an Australian periodical. Go ahead and read, this should be interesting.

Gordon B. Hinckley: Now we don't need a lot of continuing revelation. We have a great, basic reservoir of revelation. But if a problem arises, as it does occasionally, a vexatious thing with which we have to deal, we go to the Lord in prayer. We discuss it as a First Presidency and as a Council of the Twelve Apostles. We pray about it and then comes the whisperings of a still small voice. And we know the direction we should take and we proceed accordingly.

DR: And this is a Revelation?

Gordon B. Hinckley: This is a Revelation.

DR: How often have you received such revelations?

Gordon B. Hinckley: Oh, I don't know. I feel satisfied that in some circumstances we've had such revelation.

Wow, that is very interesting. He seems to be much less enthusiastic about it than Spencer. So Brent, this kind of contradicts what you and I both understood revelation was from what we were taught in our youth. So President Hinckley is telling us that revelation is a whispering of a still small voice. What happened with the God and/or Jesus visiting Joseph, Lorenzo, and Wilford? You know sometimes I get a small voice that whispers to me that I should have a piece of fresh apple pie. Does that qualify me as being able to receive revelation?

Yes, Sally. What? No comment on my apple pie revelation? Okay, you are right, Gordon doesn't seem to indicate that this revelation is received very often. He says that he felt satisfied that in some circumstances revelation had been received. It doesn't sound like that would fill vaults and files does it? Why the inconsistencies?

Yes, Tom. Well, maybe. Perhaps Gordon needs to read Spencer's Miracle of Forgiveness. Maybe that would help him open the windows of heaven a little more completely.

Yes, Tamy. You thought the title was It's a Miracle to Be Forgiven? Well, I can certainly understand why you had that in your mind. The book has caused a lot of guilt, grief, and pain for many.

Okay, okay. This is all very interesting. Our lesson is on continuing revelation, but it really doesn't seem that there is much in the way of memorable continuing revelation. I used to live by a bond trader who worked for the church. He used spreadsheets, calculators, and analytical tools to help him with his bond trades. He didn't use revelation there. The lesson has suggested some continuing revelation that we could discuss. We are not going to have time to cover these today, but I will mention them and we can cover them next week. The key revelations to be discussed are: correlation, black males receiving the priesthood, publication of the new LDS versions of the scriptures, and the additional quorums of the Seventy.

Yes, Randy. Yes, yes that is really everything that they listed as being continuing revelation. I understand that you have a hard time with that. Let's wait and talk about it next week. Perhaps you could read up a bit on these topics in preparation.

Good morning everyone.  How are things going?  Anything exciting going on this weekend?

How about you Brent, anything?  You spent the day yesterday cleaning your house so that your extended family can come on Thanksgiving and make a mess of your house?  Well at least you can dazzle them with your momentary cleanliness, right?  Well, we did the same thing.

Tamy, will you give the opening prayer?  Thanks.

  Well let's get back into the lesson here.  This is a carryover from last week on continuing revelation.  Does anyone remember what we discussed last week?

  Yes, Randy.  Correct, we briefly reviewed the record on continuing revelation.  The record doesn't really look very good.  President Hinckley said that we really didn't need very much because of the scriptures, and when it does happen it is really just a feeling, not the angelic visit, nor the visit of God or Jesus Christ that we may have expected.

  Today's lesson includes several examples given by the lesson manual as significant examples of continuing revelation: correlation, black males receiving the priesthood, publication of the new LDS versions of the scriptures, and the additional quorums of the Seventy.  Like we discussed last week, these topics seem kind of lame examples of continuing revelation, but we will discuss.

  How about correlation?  This is just one of those lovely topics.  Some members love to talk about how the church is the same, wherever they go.  This is a product of correlation.  McDonalds loves to talk about how a Big Mac? is the same from one store to another.  This is a correlated food preparation.  Some people observed that the correlation program sucked the life and local relevance out of the church.  But anyways, correlation is proposed as an example of continuing revelation.  Any ideas on that?

  Yes, Randy.  You are correct that Harold Lee announced in 1961 the priesthood correlation committee, but it took a decade to evolve to the point that it completely took over the auxiliaries, disenfranchising the Relief Society, previously an independent, women managed, organization.  But this gets to the question of whether or not it was a revelation.

  Yes, Sally.  You are correct.  Lee had been lobbying for the correlated programs for well over a decade and was turned down, time after time.  In one of these battles, in 1948,  President George Albert Smith vetoed Lee's proposal.  In return, Lee ridiculed Smith's views.[i]  

  But really now, what has all of this to do with continuing revelation?

  Yes, Liz.  I think I agree with you.  Lee had a couple of pet programs.  Early in his apostolic career, he had little power and so this program was shot down due to its unpopularity with his more traditionally minded seniors.  As he gathered more tenure and power, his program was essentially adopted, nearly two decades later.  Like you, I don't think this has anything to do with revelation and everything to do with the gaining of personal power.

  How about the topic of black males receiving the priesthood?  What do we know about this?

  Yes, Sally.  Yes we do know that Joseph Smith did not prohibit black males from receiving the priesthood.  As you said, Brigham Young announced it, essentially as a policy once the Saints had reached the Salt Lake Valley.  But let's focus on the lifting of this ban and the potential role of revelation.

  Yes, Fred.  Correct, the continuing revelation aspect of this issue relates to the 1978 revelation to President Kimball.  How did this revelation come about?

  Yes, Penny.  What you are saying is important to really set the stage.  In November, 1969, Hugh B. Brown was able to get a proposal[ii] allowing full priesthood for black males approved by the Quorum of the Twelve.  As counselors in the First Presidency, both Brown and Tanner approved this document as well.  All approved, except Harold Lee, who was absent at the initial approval and signing of the proposal.  Rumor has it that Lee was very angry about the proposal once he read it and personally visited every person who signed the document and had him rescind his signature.[iii]  

  So here we have it, the black ban on the priesthood was a policy instituted by Brigham, not based upon any revelation that we have been able to find, and a near successful attempt to end that ban in 1969.  When Spencer Kimball became president, he spent the better part of a year discussing the situation, having meetings and solemn assemblies on the topic.  He talked quietly about how important it would be for places like Brazil with a lot of mixed racial marriages.  He did a lot of lobbying, and preparing people for change.  Then he had a revelation.  How convenient.  In industry, when dealing with any kind of a controversial topic, we have lots of meetings and pre-meetings, one-onone meetings, essentially to gain consensus before the public meeting for approval.  This is called, "getting your ducks in a row."  President Kimball got his ducks in a row before having a revelation on black males and the priesthood.  It also helped that Harold Lee had died by then.

  Yes, Frank.  I agree, it does seem kind of odd to call this continuing revelation.  And, I don't really know if the priesthood will be extended to all people, regardless of gender.  I suspect it may eventually happen, but probably not in my lifetime.

[i] Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, p. 19

[ii] Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, pp. 13-15

[iii] Arrington, Adventures of a Church Historian

(continued from previous post)

Okay, now onto the next topic that may have potentially been impacted by continuing revelation, New LDS versions of the scriptures. What do we know about that?

Yes, Andrew. By the way, thanks for commenting, you are usually pretty quiet. Very interesting. So your seminary teacher told you that the CES system had been lobbying for years to get a standard reference book, preferably as part of the standard works that would include references across all of the standard works, and include the Joseph Smith Translation footnotes for the Bible. Hmmmm... I didn't hear it quite so directly, but I had heard a similar story when I attended seminary in the late 70's.

It is rather odd, but as I read the lesson manual on this topic, nowhere did it say anything about a revelation. It just said, "...after years of careful work under the direction of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve, the Church published a Latter-day Saint edition of the Bible." It almost appears that any change of any significance is considered a revelation. I hadn't really thought it through before, but that ties in quite nicely with President Hinckley's saying that revelation is really just a feeling. Hypothetically, maybe it sort of went down like this:

Apostle 1: President and fellow apostles, the CES has been begging for years for a correlated, cross-referenced reference, including the JST for our standard works. Can we do something to help them?

Apostle 2: Well, we used the old versions for years. Why should we change?

Apostle 3: Change can be good, particularly if we correlate it.

Apostle 4: I like correlation. It reminds me of McDonalds, except I take the patty off, except in the winter time.

Apostle 5: President, can we vote on putting together a committee to study for several years how to put together a cross-referenced reference, including JST for our standard works?

Apostle 6: I'm cold, can you turn up the heat, you know with my limited blood circulation in my legs, my feet get cold. Thanks for turning up the heat.

President: Let's pray and see how we feel.

Apostle 1: I feel warm. It's a nice feeling.

All Apostles and Presidency Members: We agree. It feels good. This is a revelation.

Well, except they never said it was revelation. The correlated Sunday School manual just used it as an example of continuing revelation without saying that there was actually any revelation associated with it. Isn't that a standard propaganda technique? Favorable or unfavorable impact by mere contextual association, but I digress.

Onto the last topic, additional Quorums of the Seventy. The lesson manual says, "... for many years there were only seven General Authorities of the Church who served as Seventies. They made up the First Council of the Seventy." What do we know about the Seventies and how their role changed?

Yes, Tamy. We do know that as part of the power struggle between the various church hierarchical structures that the Seventies were more or less diminished.[1] In fact, shrinking in size and importance from several quorums when Brigham was consolidating power under the apostleship after Joseph was killed.

Yes, Rick. We also know that the hierarchy change dramatically from time to time as it suited the administrative needs of the church and the personal needs of those in power.

So why is this a revelation? We have a scripture, D&C 107:93-97, that says that we should have essentially as many Quorums of Seventy as is needed to meet the needs of the church and the members. We have canonized scripture that tells us this is what we need to do. We have historical precedent that shows that this can be done. We have an administrative, functional need for more middle to senior level managers in the hierarchy. Okay, now why is this and example of continuing revelation?

Yes, Sally. You know what, you are probably dead right. The leadership probably had a feeling that this was correct. According to President Hinckley that is revelation.

Okay, out of time. Let's dispense with the closing prayer. No more than 10,000 calories on Thanksgiving folks. Keep it under control.

[1] Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power