The Book of Mormon, and the End of the World (19 April 1886)

THE BOOK OF MORMON, AND THE END OF THE WORLD.

BY ELDER L. F. MONCH

[CONTINUED FROM PAGE 240].

“In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’’—Matt, xviii, 16.

But let us see if we cannot find a key i by the aid of which each member may know for himself whether he has been baptized correctly or not, be the form immersion, pouring or sprinkling; and, further, by which we may also be enabled to ascertain for ourselves whether the personage officiating is authorized of God, or simply assuming the responsibility of his own choice.

In Acts xix, 1–7, we have the following interesting account of a baptism: “And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, ho said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed! And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized! And they said, Unto John’s baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve.” Here we have an instance of twelve men having been baptized with the baptism of John, e. the very same form of baptism with which our Savior was baptized, yet it was of no benefit to them, and they had to be baptized the second time before they could receive the promised blessing, “the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Now this is the reverse of what transpired when Peter and John went to Samaria to confer the gift of the Holy Ghost upon those “ men and women” baptized by Philip. Of this we read: “Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus,) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost” (Act viii, 14–17). In this case a rebaptism was not necessary as in the case of the twelve Ephesians, and hence we read that the Apostles simply prayed for them and laid their hands on them, after which they received the Holy Ghost.

Here we have, therefore, two beautiful examples of true and false baptisms, plainly showing the invalidity of the former, though by immersion, and hence precisely the same as those baptized without authority. And further, while through the former the twelve Ephesians could not receive the Holy Ghost till they were baptized correctly according to the heavenly pattern in every particular, including proper legitimate authority from God, the latter received the Holy Ghost immediately after the duly authorized servants of God placed their hands upon them, blessing them with this gift. Indeed, wherever we read of a correct baptism in the Scriptures, we find that it was followed by the bestowal of this gift, as the following incidents will show.

In the case of our Savior, wo read: “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” When the people on the day of Pentecost exclaimed, “Men and brethren what shall we do!” we are told that Peter said, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” This promise, the reception of the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism, agrees precisely with what transpired when our Savior was baptized, and also with the experience of the twelve Ephesians after they were correctly baptized, as well as the Samarians upon whom Peter and John conferred the Holy Ghost after they had received the same ordinance. And further, the statement that Peter made, “this promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call,” shows that the promise of this gift was not only to those who were there present, but to their children, and even to those who were afar off, reaching down to our days, or as many as God would call to become members of His Church; and the remark, repent and be baptized, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost, shows that it was only promised on condition of repentance and baptism, with the latter limited again by the heavenly pattern as shown.

By this however we do not claim that this is the only condition upon which the Holy Ghost is given, but simply that it is an evidence that the act is acceptable unto our Father in heaven, and that he acknowledges it by the bestowal of this gift the same as He acknowledged the conversion of Cornelius and his family as acceptable unto Him by the bestowal of this same gift as a proof to Peter and his companions that tho call was of god, and that they might not object to receiving them into the fold of Christ, through the door of baptism.

Here then we have a grand key; baptism as we have proven in a previous number, was established for the salvation of the human family by the highest authority in heaven the Father and the son. if the act is performed correctly, i.e. in accordance with the pattern set in the baptism of our Savior; our Father in heaven acknowledges it by bestowing upon the subject the third great witness in heaven, the gift of the holy ghost, which testifies of the Father and the son, leads him into all truth, and reveals things to come thus virtually making prophets of those who have this gift; but if the baptism is a sham the one officiating having no authority, or, in short if it is contrary to the proper legitimate pattern given to us of heaven, though it may be John’s baptism itself, i.e. like it so far as immersion is concerned, the subject receives no such gift and he can not be a prophet because the Holy Ghost is not in him. Oh how beautiful! God will not be mocked by sham ordinances, nor suffer his chosen ones to be let astray if they but exercise the heavenly gifts which He has placed within the reach of all who desire a blessing at his hand. Let us understand this gift so that we may know what to expect when we have yielded obedience to this ordinance.

The twelve Ephesians after they were baptized correctly, and Paul had laid his hands upon them “spake in tongues and prophesied.” Peter in giving us an account of the outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles and those with them on the day of Pentecost says, this is what the Prophet Joel predicted: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith god, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit j and they shall prophesy.” Acts ii:6, 19 our Savior, after giving the commandment to His Apostles to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature declared: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.” Mark xvi:16. 19

if we now ask the members of these many sects who have received the ordinance of baptism in various ways, have you received the holy ghost since you believed and were baptized? Do you and your ministers speak in tongues and prophesy? Do your young men see visions, and your old men dream dreams? Is the Spirit of God poured out upon you to that extent that they propose? Do you cast out devils when any of your members are thus afflicted? Do you take up poisonous serpents without receiving any harm from them as Paul did upon the isle of Melite? When any of you by accident drink “any deadly thing, do you escape merely through your belief without being hurt, Do you lay hands upon the sick when they are in pain and distress? and then do they through this Holy Administration recover? If the answer will be limited to a truthful statement in accordance with the facts, will not these members be compelled to say like the twelve Ephesians, ‘‘We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost”?

Who does not know that the world does not believe in such things any more; yet according to the words of our Savior, Peter, and Paul shall such be the case when members have received the Holy Ghost through obedience to the ordinances of God, as we have plainly and distinctly shown; and according to the words of Joel shall this take place in the last days in which period of the world’s history we are now positively living. But instead of such a state of things what do we find? If any one should prophesy he would be laughed at and branded as a false prophet, stoned, clubbed and persecuted, and perhaps thrown into prison or banished from the country if he is a foreigner. Dreams, as we once saw printed in large letters in a church over the sacristy door as a motto, are deceptions, and visions are regarded as from Satan. The speaking of tongues is no more known, and scarcely one minister in a thousand could tell us what it is, to say nothing of a lay member. If a man is possessed of the devil, he is examined by doctors, and pronounced insane, after which he is sent to the insane asylum, there to be tormented by the keepers and Satan, till his body at last succumbs to these tortures, and the poor victim finally finds rest in an untimely grave. If any are sick, instead of laying hands on them as the Savior commanded, and anointing them with oil as the Apostles did, and as James in chap. 5, verse 14, commands, the doctor is sent for, and if the patient gets better it is printed in the newspapers that everybody may know it, in order that the doctor may receive the glory and — more money; but should he kill him with his medicine, people declare it was so ordained, and no one is to blame, neither could any power on earth have helped him. If any one has taken poison, as in the previous instance, the doctor is sent for; if he can not assist him, the unfortunate individual must die, it matters not how many bishops, priests or ministers may be standing around. If any one is bitten by a poisonous serpent, he is counseled to fill himself full of bad whisky or alcohol; if that does not help and the doctor knows no other remedy, then the only remedy lies in the grave,—no one thinks any more in this age of infidelity and wickedness to rely upon heavenly aid. This is the condition the religious sects find themselves in today.

When Nicodemus visited our Savior by night he acknowledged His divinity by virtue of the miracles He wrought, saying, “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” (St. John, iii:2). If then miracles, visions and dreams are evidences of the divinity of the religions which are established, we can come to but one conclusion with respect to them, and that is they are not of God, and that in one sense they are really telling the truth when they say the heavens are closed and that God does not manifest Himself to them any more; but the reason is, as the Prophet Isaiah informs us, “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. There is a crying for wine in the streets: all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.” Never was there a more truthful prophecy, for never was there such a universal cry of distress, such a wail of poverty of the unemployed from all parts of the habitable globe, sent up to the courts of heaven as at present. And in vain do these poor distressed famished hordes plead before earthly potentates for help, forgetting that the reason of all this is because they have suffered their ministers to change the ordinances of God, and have, therefore, closed the heavens; that He can no longer hear them, and they worship Him in vain, because these ministers are only “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

There is but one remedy, and that is by following the example of these 12 Ephesians, repent of their sins, and be re-baptized by a fully authorized servant of God, and have hands laid upon them for the gift of the Holy Ghost, which will lead them into all truth, and hence reveal them a way out of this dilemma: if they do not, “it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant so with the master: as with the maid so with the 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 has spoken this word.” (Isa. xxiv: see whole chapter). None of these gospels therefore can be “the everlasting gospel” because God does not acknowledge their ordinances by the bestowal of this great third witness, the gift of the Holy Ghost, in consequence of which they are left in the dark, and are in great distress.