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Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Where has the idea that the 12 Apostles have SEEN Christ come from?

I recently saw a really good question on Facebook and decided that I would answer. My answer turned out to be quite lengthy, and so instead of leaving it on Facebook, I decided to turn it into my most recent blog post.  
Let me first state the question: "From listening to "The Boise Rescue", Elder Oaks mentioned D&C 107:23 that gave the definition of the 12 Apostles (emphasis added):
107:23:the twelve traveling councilors are called to be the Twelve Apostles, or special witnesses of the NAME of Christ in all the world—thus differing from other officers in the church in the duties of their calling."
I found this scripture interesting...has this been misrepresented in the Church throughout the years?...has leadership over the years wanted the membership to believe that they have actually SEEN Christ? (perhaps to further supplant their authority)...where has the idea that the 12 Apostles have SEEN Christ come from?"

My best answer: Oliver Cowdery gave a Charge to the first 12 men called to the office in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints known as 'apostle' exclusively within the quorum of the 12. (There were men before that time who were called and ordained as apostles, but they were WAY more than 12 and it wasn't really an official organized group.) That charge instructed those men that their ordination to become apostles was not complete until after they had received a visitation with Christ while in the flesh. The foremost Mormon historian, Michael Quinn had this to say on the matter in his second book in the Mormon Hierarchy series,"Cowdrey told the new apostles: 'It is necessary that you receive a testimony from heaven for yourselves; so that you can bear testimony to the truth of the Book of Mormon, and that you have seen the face of God.'  Then he continued: 'That is more than the testimony of an angel ... Never cease striving until you have seen God, face to face.'  Cowdrey acknowledged that most of the new apostles had depended on visions of others for their faith and suggested that some might even be skeptical of visions.  Thus it was not necessary to see Jesus to be chosen as an apostle.  However, once ordained each man had a lifelong obligation to seek this charismatic experience: a vision of deity.  Some apostles from 1835 onward reported having had such visions before their ordination.  Apostles in the nineteenth century referred publicly to their visionary witness."

This was a well known and documented statement and idea maintained even outside of those who had been called into that quorum. Therefore the mainstream of the church had the expectation that, personal messianic ministrations were still occurring at least among that body of leaders.

That charge was recorded and subsequently given to each new member of that quorum -as they were called- until the early 20th century. At that time, due to feelings of inadequacy by an overwhelming majority of those who had been called to be apostles and yet never received any such audience with the Savior- that charge was dropped and new members of the 12 were from that point on referred to the scripture that you quoted in your OP.

However, publicly the dropping of that charge was never officially declared -in fact it has only been private journals from that time which have since been reproduced that revealed that this change even occurred.
What I have found is that little claim was made to that type of experience by the leaders of the church from Brigham Young down until the 1960's and 70's. In fact during the administration of Heber J. Grant, he was quite vocal that not only had he not received any such experience, he actually prayed not to have it, as he believed it would more than likely lead to deception and apostasy. (For a more in depth discussion on this matter, I would suggest reading Passing The Heavenly Gift, by Denver Snuffer, a local Utah attorney that has written quite extensively on both LDS church doctrine and history.)

What drummed the notion -that leaders were chatting with the Savior every Thursday- back into the mainstream thoughts of the church was, in my estimation something that is ultimately two fold:

#1-) The power grab by the David O. McKay administration, to not only be called the president of the church, but to be called "The Prophet." Before David O. McKay, the latter title was used only for Joseph Smith -but because Heber J. Grant was such an unpopular president, with whom many lay members (and even local leaders) disagreed and contended with, the McKay administration sought to subdue any resistance by laying hold on the title 'Prophet.' (The idea behind this addition is that one can argue and disagree with a president, but if you disagree with a prophet, then damnation is at stake! You can read more about this in David O. McKay And The Rise Of Modern Mormonism)
This obviously lead to the missionary propaganda that was spread forth wherein we boasted of having a 'Living Prophet' and it is pretty hard to assume that title without having the associated idea that a prophet receives messages from God. Thus leading to the idea that the president/prophet is speaking with God, and if speaking with Him, then of course at least occasionally He might drop in for tea and crumpets.

#2-) During the 60's and 70's the work that Jerald and Sandra Tanner (among others) stirred up began to really hit hard. A lot of stuff that had been partially buried for decades regarding a range of topics were brought out in order to try and combat much of what became labeled as 'anti-Mormon' information. That effort by the leaders of the church (specifically Bruce R. McConkie and his father-in-law Joseph Fielding Smith, who attempted to correlate church doctrine according to their own, personal views) to combat this 'anti' material, drug to light many teachings that had for quite some time been discarded. That is not to say that these teachings I am referring to had not been known, but just not in a uniformly digestible way that could be made to accommodate a religious organization as spectrally wide theologically as where the church had originated from. Among those were the teachings of Joseph Smith, that included having ones calling and election made sure, second anointing's and having a personal visitation with Christ.

At first, these teachings were paraded as a jewel from the King's closet, that once again could set us apart (read:above) from everyone else. Once the general membership got hold of such ideas there was a very positive reception that buoyed up the notion to further research and promulgate these ideas even further.

The love fest didn't last long however for these backward ideas, as leaders began to be barraged with questions every time an occasion presented itself of whether they had their calling and election made sure; what is that like; insight into how one could personally go about accomplishing that; what Jesus looked like; etc. In addition to those problems also came others (non-leaders) who began teaching regarding these ideas, and really made it seem like they (the non-leaders) were having these experiences. Which offended the leaders sensibilities because if a non-leader was speaking with Jesus, and the leader was not...what would that mean? (Which this is a whole other discussion.)

So in reaction to these new problems, the leaders attempted to slam the door on anyone speaking of these 'deep doctrines' and chastised any who did as being truer than true; looking beyond the mark; and even apostate.

However the damage had already been done, the teachings had spread wide enough that they couldn't be denied (which was heretofore the tactic employed anytime the administrators didn't want to address an issue.)
So they stopped talking about it hoping that it would go away...and largely it did. Except for the modern perception that General Authorities all have received their second anointings; thus they have had their callings and elections made sure and therefore regularly chatted with Jesus....or at least played in the annual Celestial Fall Equinox Golf For-Florida-Real-Estate-Charity Tournament that He sponsors each year...however this year, I have it on good word that He cancelled it due to the Shemitah. The only addition to those ideas is that, they are all to 'sacred' to even be acknowledged and so don't ask because they can't tell.

2 comments:

Rob said...

Howdy,
You wrote:
"Except for the modern perception that General Authorities all have received their second anointings; thus they have had their callings and elections made sure and therefore regularly chatted with Jesus"

I think what you meant was:
"Except for the modern erroneous perception that because General Authorities all have received their second anointings, they have had their callings and elections made sure (not the same) and therefore regularly chatted with Jesus."

Also, although McKay expanded the power wielded by the president of the church moreso than any of his predecessors save Brigham Young, he was not the second president referred to as "the prophet." For proof, search for the term "prophet" here:
http://www.lds-general-conference.org/x.asp

You will find it was a subtle change that happened over time after the death of Joseph Smith.

Edwin Wilde said...

Very well put, Rob.