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Prophets and Church leaders/Revelation after Joseph Smith
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Criticism
If every President of the Church is a prophet, seer, and revelator, why have so few revelations after Joseph Smith been added to the Doctrine and Covenants?
Response
The Doctrine and Covenants contains foundations revelations establishing core doctrines, the organization of the Church and the priesthood, and the manner of ordinances. Prophets after Joseph Smith have and continue to receive revelation, but only in a few circumstances have these revelations been foundational enough to necessitate them being added to the LDS canon.
This pattern is reflected in the Bible as well. Moses, the founding prophet of that dispensation, produced five books of scripture, which were the basis of religious instruction for the next several centuries. The books that followed Moses for the next couple centuries were mostly historical accounts (Joshua, Judges, Ruth), with only occasional revelations recorded by subsequent prophets.
Joseph himself stopped receiving so many revelations as the government of the church was established. At this point in his life he said that the Lord should not be petitioned for every little thing, especially if revelations on the same subject had already been given or information "about the things the knowledge of which men ought to obtain in all cencerity before God for themselves." After the 12 apostles were organized the number of revelations that Joseph received decreased dramatically. Around 1835 Joseph stopped receiving revelations as people remember him to have done, nine years before his martyrdom.[1]
Endnotes
- [note] Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 257.
Further reading
FAIR wiki articles
FAIR web site
External links
- Spencer W. Kimball, "Gospel Forum: The official revelations to the Church apparently ended with the 1890 Manifesto issued by President Wilford Woodruff. What is the position of the Church on continuous revelation?”," Ensign (February 1971): 20.off-site Note that this article pre-dates the 1978 revelation on priesthood to President Kimball.