02-Continuing Revelation

2.   Continuing Revelation, which the Church claims since the Restoration begun in 1820

"If a faith will not bear to be investigated; if its preachers and professors are afraid to have it examined, their foundation must be very weak."

—George Albert Smith, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 14, pg. 216 https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/JournalOfDiscourses3/id/5311

          In 1903 Joseph F. Smith (who had been the prophet for 2 years) testified under oath to the U.S. Senate (Smoot Hearings, Vol. 1, pages 483-84) that he could not say he had received revelations, just inspirations as are available to any good member of the Methodist or other churches

https://archive.org/details/SmootHearings/page/n489 —

https://archive.org/details/SmootHearings/page/n485

·        After the first Q12 of this dispensation was chosen in 1838, the remainder of the Q12 had as of 1903, chosen the replacement to fill a vacancy, without revelation. https://archive.org/details/testimonyOfImportantWitnessesFromTheSmootHearing/page/n71

Note, the LDS Church now specifies that it was the Three Witnesses (Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris) that chose the 1838 Q12 (except that Brigham Young had been tapped to be one by Joseph Smith a week earlier).  https://www.lds.org/ensign/2017/10/young-adults/five-lessons-for-young-adults-from-young-apostles/the-calling-of-the-restorations-original-apostles?lang=eng See also History of the Church 2:187 https://byustudies.byu.edu/content/volume-2-chapter-13

·        The prophet is selected by seniority, not revelation or inspiration as the Church today claims. Smoot Hearings, Vol. 1, page 368 https://archive.org/details/SmootHearings/page/n369

·        Joseph F. Smith testified in 1903 that the last revelation other than the polygamy Manifesto had been received in 1882—21 years earlier, by John Taylor.  That means that there were none by Wilford Woodruff or Lorenzo Snow, except the Manifesto, and none in the first two years by Joseph F. Smith.

https://archive.org/details/SmootHearings/page/n289

·        In 1949, the First Presidency issued a Statement that the ban on blacks holding the priesthood was doctrine, in fact it was a "direct commandment from the Lord".  As quoted in the attached letter of Sept 27, 1961 by Presidents Henry D. Moyle and Hugh B. Brown, counselors to President David O. McKay, to Stewart Udall

Note: The LDS Church keeps the 1949 Statement of the First Presidency locked away in its vaults.  See footnote 5 to E. Dale LeBaron, “Official Declaration 2: Revelation on the Priesthood,” in Sperry Symposium Classics: The Doctrine and Covenants, ed. Craig K. Manscill (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004), 332–346 https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/sperry-symposium-classics-doctrine-and-covenants/23-official-declaration-2-revelation

·        Despite the First Presidency being declarative and precise that it was doctrine and a direct commandment from the Lord, the Church today claims it doesn't know where the ban originated.

"1852, President Brigham Young publicly announced that men of black African descent could no longer be ordained to the priesthood, though thereafter blacks continued to join the Church through baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Following the death of Brigham Young, subsequent Church presidents restricted blacks from receiving the temple endowment or being married in the temple. Over time, Church leaders and members advanced many theories to explain the priesthood and temple restrictions. None of these explanations is accepted today as the official doctrine of the Church."  https://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng

·        Apostle Neil Anderson has written (https://www.facebook.com/lds.neil.l.andersen/posts/1019168671591667?__tn__=K-R) that just two nights after President Nelson became the prophet, he had a two hour experience of revelations that have “expanded exponentially” as compared to those he received before as an apostle.

Questions:

2a-Why do you pay tithing as Lorenzo Snow declared on May 18, 1899 if the very next prophet did not recognize there having been any revelations from 1882-1903 except for the Manifesto on polygamy?

2b-Why are there apostles and prophets if there are no revelations?

2c-How can we know if anything pronounced as doctrine, as a direct commandment of the Lord, by these men is such if when they have so declared something in 1949, some 70 years later the Church claims it was just theories or explanations of men?

2d-Do you believe that those born with a congenital condition are "handicapped" because they were less valiant in the pre-existence than those born without congenital conditions?

2e-Why do they claim it is by revelation/inspiration that the new prophet is picked when history proves out Joseph F. Smith's statement that it is, by custom, just a matter of seniority?

2f-Was President Monson not getting the "signals" of revelation that President Nelson did in 2 hours during the second night after he became the prophet? Are stopping home teaching, shrinking the Sunday meetings to 2 hours and castigating the word "Mormon" as a "major win for Satan" revelations when tithing was not, according to the first prophet to succeed Lorenzo Snow?

2g-What's so special about the "gift of the Holy Ghost" if, as President Joseph F. Smith said, any good Methodist or member of another church could get that inspiration too?