We also have a statement of the First Presidency, which I posted in the other thread, that states that the priesthood ban is (at the time) a “commandment of the Lord”.
CatholicGuyNY,
Here is the statement from the early 1950’s you posted:
First Presidency of the LDS Church
"The attitude of the Church with reference to Negroes remains as it has always stood. It is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord, on which is founded the doctrine of the Church from the days of its organization, to the effect that Negroes may become members of the Church but that they are not entitled to the priesthood at the present time. The prophets of the Lord have made several statements as to the operation of the principle. President Brigham Young said: “Why are so many of the inhabitants of the earth cursed with a skin of blackness? It comes in consequence of their fathers rejecting the power of the holy priesthood, and the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the holy priesthood, then that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess the priesthood, and receive all the blessings which we now are entitled to.”
President Wilford Woodruff made the following statement: “The day will come when all that race will be redeemed and possess all the blessings which we now have.”
The position of the Church regarding the Negro may be understood when another doctrine of the Church is kept in mind, namely, that the conduct of spirits in the premortal existence has some determining effect upon the conditions and circumstances under which these spirits take on mortality and that while the details of this principle have not been made known, the mortality is a privilege that is given to those who maintain their first estate; and that the worth of the privilege is so great that spirits are willing to come to earth and take on bodies no matter what the handicap may be as to the kind of bodies they are to secure; and that among the handicaps, failure of the right to enjoy in mortality the blessings of the priesthood is a handicap which spirits are willing to assume in order that they might come to earth. Under this principle there is no injustice whatsoever involved in this deprivation as to the holding of the priesthood by the Negroes."
Here follows, then, the basis of the words used to describe the “priesthood ban” as a “commandment”:
Abraham 1:25 Now the first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the government of Ham, which was patriarchal.
26 Pharaoh, being a righteous man, established his kingdom and judged his people wisely and justly all his days, seeking earnestly to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first generations, in the days of the first patriarchal reign, even in the reign of Adam, and also of Noah, his father, who blessed him with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the Priesthood.
27 Now, Pharaoh being of that lineage by which he could not have the right of Priesthood …
A principle at work with respect to the “right of Priesthood” is that not only must it be used in righteousness or it’s power and authority is completely lost by the person who holds the priesthood by ordination, but that it must be recognized to be in effect through revelation from God, and it was revealed to Noah and later to Abraham that the descendants of Ham were not allowed to be given the priesthood, yet they would be blessed with the “blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom”.
I have to wonder why those complaining about the operation of the principle of some holding the priesthood by revelation from God and others not holding the priesthood, don’t apply the same complaining with respect to the tribe of Levi among the tribes of Israel in that the tribe of Levi had a special authority given to them. It appears no one is complaining about that–yet it is a distinction due to lineage.
It appears to me that the underlying complaint is against God giving revelation as to who is authorized to hold His priesthood. One who has that underlying complaint, might as well take it up with God in prayer and ask Him about it.
Probably no one on earth is going to be able to satisfy the complaints of any person about who receives the priesthood and who doesn’t. The complaints will only be able to be satisfied if the person doing the complaining understands the principle of personal revelation and the principle of revelation guiding the authority of the priesthood on earth and its authorized use, and that person who was doing the complaining prays to God and receives their own personal answer from God through personal revelation whereby they finally become content about both the operation of the principle among the tribes of Israel, and the operation of the principle whenever the priesthood is given to men on the earth.
Receiving personal revelation would implicitly require that the person doing the asking be righteous and repentant, desiring to know through the sincerity of their heart and without a personal agenda, and having studied the matter out such as studying about the tribe of Levi holding a special priesthood authority among the tribes of Israel and why that took place.
So I’m basically saying that neither I nor anyone will ever be able to satisfy the never-ending complaints about God and His priesthood authority on the earth among those with such complaints in their hearts or on their lips. The only way they are going to be satisfied is to take the matter up with God and let Him teach them.
