Answers to Gospel Questions, Vol 1 Pt. 2
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What Are Pastors and Evangelists?
Question: "Why do we not have pastors and evangelists in the Church as mentioned in the Prophet Joseph Smith's thirteenth Article of Faith? If they are names for bishops and missionaries, why then don't we call them such?"
The dictionary definition of a pastor is a correct one even from our understanding of this term; it is "a Christian minister who has a church or congregation under his official charge." The term pastor does not refer to an order in the priesthood, like deacon, priest, elder, seventy, and so on, but is a general term applied to an officer who presides over a ward, branch in a mission or a stake, and it could even be applied to a president of a stake. There are several references to pastors in the Old Testament, particularly in the Book of Jeremiah. I quote one or two of these showing that this is a general term applied to the priests and teachers in Israel, and not to an order of the priesthood:
And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. (Jeremiah 3:15)
For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the Lord: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered. (Ibid., 10:21.)
As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee. (Ibid., 17:16.)
From these passages you will see that it is clear that the Lord has reference to the priests and rulers over the children of Israel and not to an order, or office, in the priesthood. The Prophet Joseph Smith was following Paul's expression (Ephesians 4:11) and had reference to those who had jurisdiction over the flocks (Jeremiah 23:1-2) or branches of the Church. We can say truthfully that a bishop is a pastor; so is an elder who has charge of a branch of the Church, or a president of a stake who has direction of a number of wards and branches.
According to the dictionary and the generally accepted view of the word evangelist, it is "a preacher who goes from place to place holding services especially with a view of church revivals." He is a "preacher of the gospel." The term evangel means gospel, or good news.
Now consult your dictionary (See Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary.) further and you will find this: "A Mormon officer of the Melchizedek or Higher Priesthood, whose special function is to bless." After reading this, turn to page 381, Volume 3, of the Documentary History of the Church, or to Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page 151, and you will find the Prophet's explanation in relation to the evangelist. In case you do not have these books I will quote the passage for you.
An Evangelist is a Patriarch, even the oldest man of the blood of Joseph or of the seed of Abraham. Wherever the Church of Christ is established in the earth, there should be a patriarch for the benefit of the posterity of the Saints, as it was with Jacob in giving his patriarchal blessings unto his sons.
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Question: "According to I Timothy, Chapter 3, verses 12-13, it refers to deacons as husbands of one wife, etc. Why is the office of a deacon in the Church today held by very young boys?"
Answer: It was the judgment of Paul that a deacon in that day should be a married man. That does not apply to our day. Conditions were different in the days of Paul. In that day a minister was not considered qualified to take part in the ministry until he was thirty years of age. Under those conditions' deacons, teachers, and priests were mature men. This is not the requirement today. There are in all kinds of churches today ministers who are under that age, and there is no requirement in the Church in this dispensation that a person must be a matured man before he can take part in the ministry or hold the priesthood. Nor was it the rule in very ancient times, for we learn that Noah was only ten years of age when he was given the priesthood under the hands of Methuselah. (D & c 107:52) John the Baptist was ordained when only eight days old when he was ordained by an angel,". . . to overthrow the kingdom of the Jews, and to make straight the way of the Lord before the face of his people."(Ibid., 84:28.) but John did not enter this ministry until shortly before the coming of Christ to be baptized and enter his ministry. John was a few months older than our Savior.
So you see there is nothing wrong, nothing out of order, in what we are doing, for it is by revelation from the Lord.
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Why Is Oil in Used in Administering to the Sick?
Question: "Why is it that we use oil in administering to the sick? There is no reference in the Doctrine and Covenants directing its use. In our discussions this question has been raised, and why some other oil would not answer just as well as olive oil? When was this practice of anointing with oil introduced?"
Answer: We use olive oil in administering to the sick because the Lord has instructed it. It is true there is no mention in the Doctrine and Covenants to the use of oil in administering to the sick, but there are references to the anointing with oil in the conferring of authority and sacred blessings. This practice has come down to us from the time of the organization of the Church, according to the pattern anciently given. It was an olive leaf that the dove brought to Noah indicating that the water of the flood was abated. From that time on the olive leaf or branch and the dove have been emblems of peace and purity. In many parables in the scripture, the olive tree is mentioned as symbolic of righteousness and having reference to the kingdom of God or the Church. In the fifth chapter of Jacob, in the Book of Mormon, is found a prophetic parable of the planting of branches of the "tame olive tree," or the house of Israel, in various corners of the earth, and how, when they grew and bore fruit and commenced to decay, the husbandman grafted into these branches of the main tree branches from the wild olive to see if they would revive. This parable portrays the scattering of Israel through the ages and is intensely interesting. Likewise, we find in the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 101, there is a parable of the planting of twelve olive trees in the Lord's vineyard. This also has prophetic meaning. In Revelation 11:4, the Lord speaks of his two witnesses as two olive trees, and in Zechariah 4:11-14 is a similar prophetic parable. So we find through all the prophetic writings that olive trees and olive oil are emblems of sacredness and purity.
When the Prophet Joseph Smith sent to the brethren in Missouri a copy of the eighty-eighth section of the Doctrine and Covenants, he prized it so highly that he wrote to them saying: "I send you the olive leaf which we have plucked from the Tree of Paradise," thus applying the thought of purity and wisdom.
Anointing with oil, An ancient custom
The use of olive oil in anointing is from very ancient times. It was the custom to anoint prophets, kings, and holy messengers as a stamp or token of their official calling. In Leviticus, 8:6-12, is an interesting account of the calling of Aaron, and how Moses not only anointed Aaron, but likewise the altar and the vessels, and sanctified them with holy oil. Samuel also anointed Saul and proclaimed him king in Israel, and when Saul transgressed, David was anointed in his stead to be king of Israel. This custom continued in Israel until they were rejected by the Lord and scattered.
The olive tree and its golden oil were among the greatest treasures of Israel. The Lord said to Moses:
And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.
In the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the Lord: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel. (Exodus 27:20-21.)
No other kind of oil will do in anointing. It is very apparent that the oil from animal flesh would never do, and there is no other kind of oil that is held so sacredly and is more suited to the anointing than the oil of olive; moreover, the Lord has placed his stamp of approval on it.
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The Nature of Translated Beings
Question: "I desire some information in relation to the nature of translated beings. It is my opinion that they occupy an intermediate position between mortality and immortality, where they are not subject to the pains and sicknesses common among mortal men. Some of the members of our class express the thought that they have become immortal, but by appointment, granted by the Lord, they remain on earth to accomplish some special work assigned to them. We are anxious to know just what their nature is."
Answer: If you and your friends will take time to read the twenty-eighth chapter of Third Nephi, you will find the complete answer to your question. Jesus granted to each of the twelve disciples he had chosen among the Nephites whatsoever they desired before he left them. Nine of them asked for the privilege of coming to him speedily after their earth mission was finished, and to them he said:
Blessed are ye because ye desired this thing of me; therefore, after that ye are seventy and two years old ye shall come unto me in my kingdom; and with me ye shall find rest. (3 Nephi 28:3)
The three others remained silent fearing to tell him what they desired, but he understood their thoughts, and to them he said:
Therefore, more blessed are ye, for ye shall never taste of death; but ye shall live to behold all the doings of the Father unto the children of men, even until all things shall be fulfilled according to the will of the Father, when I shall come in my glory with the powers of heaven.
And ye shall never endure the pains of death; but when I shall come in my glory ye shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortality to immortality; and then shall ye be blessed in the kingdom of my Father.
And again, ye shall not have pain while ye shall dwell in the flesh, neither sorrow save it be for the sins of the world; and all this will I do because of the thing which ye have desired of me, for ye have desired that ye might bring the souls of men unto me, while the world shall stand.
And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one. (Ibid., 28:7-l0.)
Later, as he was writing of this event, Mormon wondered just as your friends are wondering, if these three had been changed from mortality to immortality so he inquired of the Lord and thus he recorded his answer:
But behold, since I wrote, I have inquired of the Lord, and he hath made it manifest unto me that there must needs be a change wrought upon their bodies, or else it needs be that they must taste of death;
Therefore, that they might not taste of death there was a change wrought upon their bodies, that they might not suffer pain nor sorrow save it were for the sins of the world.
Now this change was not equal to that which shall take place at the last day; but there was a change wrought upon them, insomuch that Satan could have no power over them, that he could not tempt them; and they were sanctified in the flesh, that they were holy, and that the powers of the earth could not hold them.
And in this state they were to remain until the judgment day of Christ; and at that day they were to receive a greater change, and to be received into the kingdom of the Father to go no more out, but to dwell with God eternally in the heavens. (Ibid., 28:37-40.)
If we would only think, we would realize that translated beings are still mortal and will have to pass through the experience of death, or the separation of the spirit and the body, although this will be instantaneous, for the people of the City of Enoch, Elijah, and others who received this great blessing in ancient times, before the coming of our Lord, could not have received the resurrection, or the change from mortality to immortality, because our Lord had not paid the debt which frees us from mortality and grants to us the resurrection and immortal life. Christ is the "resurrection and the life," and the "first fruits of them that slept," therefore none could pass from mortality to immortality until our Savior completed his work for the redemption of man and had gained the keys of the resurrection, being the first to rise having "life in himself" and the power to lay down his life and take it up again, thus freeing all men from the bondage which the fall had placed upon them.
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