Joseph Smith III, prophet of the Restoration (1860-1914) said, “The powers of the Priesthood, of which we have in times past heard so much, are conferred for no other purpose than the salvation of man; and are continued only in the just exercise of them in pursuit of this object; . . . . ” (Tidings of Zion, January/February 2009; Abuse of Priesthood)

In 1997, James E. Faust, Second Counselor in the First Presidency (LDS) stated, “For us, priesthood power is the power and authority delegated by God to act in His name for the salvation of His children. Caring for others is the very essence of priesthood responsibility. It is the power to bless, to heal, and to administer the saving ordinances of the gospel.”

Let me get this straight. If I should turn it around and ask, “What must I do to be saved?” the answer would not be, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” So am I to assume Acts 16:25-34, and the entire Book of Hebrews are not valid? Just where does the priesthood come into this act of faith? For that matter, if the priesthood holds the magic key to salvation, why did Jesus have to die?

I suppose if I were to pose the question to a priesthood member there would be some throat clearing and pitying looks. The he would take me to the Doctrine and Covenants, which contains a veritable goulash of definitions, duties, inspirations and incantations, none of which have anything to do with salvation and very little to do with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus has taken a back seat ever since Joseph Smith first put that funny looking rock in his hat and began dictating the Book of Mormon.

Every good LDS/RLDS/CoC/Restorationist knows that the Bible is flawed and needed Smith’s fine tuning, including writing himself into his “Inspired” Version. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t change Acts 16:25-34 which, in essence, says that faith is the only condition of salvation. Nor did he alter the Book of Hebrews. The fact remains: prophecy ended John the Baptist (Luke16:16) and Old Testament priesthood ended with Jesus Christ.

The audacity of Joseph Smith is never more evident than in his creation of the priesthood. He not only stood in judgment of the Bible but he created a disaster of a priesthood out of whole cloth, inserting Melchizedek in the Book of Genesis as he saw fit. You can read about Joseph’s priesthoods in Part Way to Utah, by Paul Trask.

In His amazing love

Jan