Questions Ancient Prophets Would Have Answered & Questions Addressed

I recently had the opportunity to teach Lesson 37: “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet” and as I was preparing, I thought of how a living prophet could have settled some of the issues faced by the ancients. I put together a short list of some of the big issues that Christians struggled with over the centuries after the avenue of revelation was lost to the Church. While Christians across the globe struggled to find answers, they worked in councils to find a majority so that they could come to a decision on issues from the nature of the sacrament to infant baptism.

We have revelation today in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Prophets live and guide the saints as we work in an ever changing world. Modern prophets have addressed other issues in addition to the ones I have listed below. I am grateful for the direction of a living prophet of God, and am so grateful for the Restoration!

Questions Ancient Prophets Would’ve Answered Had There Been No Apostasy

  1. 110 AD- The nature of the Sacrament
  2. 150 AD- The nature of baptism – prayer, and later, sprinkling
  3. 155 AD- Docetism- The nature of who Jesus is in relation to the Father
  4. 185 AD- The Anthropomorphic reality of the Father and the Son (Origen)
  5. 253 AD- Novatus sprinkled – first ever – Prophets would’ve prevented
  6. 319 AD- The Arian Controversy – God loses his body officially in 325 AD at Nicea
  7. 367 AD- The Canon- Athanasius destroys what is not on his list
  8. 384 AD- The supremacy of the Pope- Siricius
  9. 400 AD- Augustine on Infant Baptism
  10. 412 AD- Augustine vs. Pelagius on the Fall of Adam
  11. 529 AD- The Council of Orange on “Original Sin”
  12. 669 AD- Indulgences first begin, 1095 Pope Urban, 1513 Pope Leo – forgiveness/Atonement
  13. 1054 AD- The Great Schism
  14. 1096-1204 AD- The Crusades – Pope Urban II “God wills it!”
  15. 1380 AD- Wycliffe’s ideas on the Bible, English translation, etc.
  16. 1538 AD- John Calvin on Original Sin (revisiting Augustine of the 5th century)

Questions Addressed by Modern Prophets since Joseph Smith

  1. Going West – settlement – Brigham Young
  2. Location of temples (today over 100)
  3. California, prophecy by Heber C. Kimball “states goods”
  4. Plural Marriage – publicly announced 1852, discontinued 1890
  5. Word of Wisdom Clarification – to commandment status
  6. Sealing Ordinance Clarification – President Wilford Woodruff April 8, 1894
  7. Tithing Clarification- 1899 President Lorenzo Snow
  8. The status of Adam and Eve as a special creation –First Presidency Statement, Improvement Era November 1909
  9. Birth Control – current policy 21.4.4
  10. Abortion – “Reverence for Life” Elder Nelson, Ensign, May 1985
  11. Statement  on war and our obligation to our home countries
  12. Gender roles – Proclamation to the World on the Family
  13. Status of the Family in the gospel plan – Proclamation to the World on the Family 1995
  14. Suicide – Elder Ballard, 1987 (Suicide, Some things we know some we do not)
  15. Pornography
  16. Gambling – President Hinckley “Gambling” May 2005
  17. Priesthood to all worthy males -1978
  18. The Gathering – happens in phases, currently we follow the 1977 Elder McConkie statement: The gathering place for Peruvians is in the stakes of Zion in Peru, or in the places which soon will become stakes. The gathering place for Chileans is in Chile; for Bolivians it is in Bolivia; for Koreans it is in Korea; and so it goes through all the length and breadth of the earth. Scattered Israel in every nation is called to gather to the fold of Christ, to the stakes of Zion, as such are established in their nations. (“Come: Let Israel Build Zion,” Ensign, May 1977, pp. 115-118)
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