April- Article of Faith 6 & 9

Because there are 13 Articles of Faith and only 12 Months in the year I knew I would have to double up one month.  I decided to go out of order and study Article of Faith #6 and #9 this month.  I chose these two because they have to do with the organization of the church and continued revelation and this month is GENERAL CONFERENCE.  I hope to be able to view/study conference different after studying these articles of faith.

Article of Faith #6

We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists and so forth.

I found a lot of scriptures about revelation coming from and only from the Prophet (Amos 3:7).  D&C 43: 1-7 says "Through him whom I have appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelation from my hand... there is none other appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelation until he ne taken... receive not the teachings of any that shall come before you as revelation...that you may not be deceived...he that is ordained of me shall come... to teach those revelations which you have received and shall receive through him whom I have appointed. "  I like this set of scriptures because it talks about there being one prophet on the earth today. This supports and is echoed in D&C 28:2-8 "No one shall be appointed to receive commandments and revelations in this church except my servant...the head of the church; For I have given him the keys of the mysteries, and the revelations which are sealed, until shall appoint unto them another in his stead."

I also spent a lot of time reading D&C 107 which is the Organization of the Priesthood. Here are some of the things I found. 

Prophets: Presiding High Priest over the High Priesthood (66); Presides over the whole church (91); seer, revelator, translator and prophet (92)

Apostles: Special witness of the name of Christ in all the world (23); Traveling Presiding High 

Counsel- build up the church, regulate affairs (33); Keys to proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (35)

Quorum of the 70: also witnesses with different duties (25); direction from/under 12 (34); called upon to assist the 12 in preaching and administering (38)

Pastors (Bishops):administering all temporal things (68); Judge of Israel (72)

Evangelists (Patriarchs): ordained by the 12 (39)

Article of Faith #9

We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

                                                                                                                                                           

I focused this study on these three statements has reveled, now reveals and will yet reveal.  The 'has revealed' part made me turn to the scriptures, which are past revelations.  I thought of this as both things that were revealed and have already come to pass like the birth and death of the Savior (Isaiah, Malachi and Samuel the Lamanite) or the restoration of the church in the latter days (2 Nephi 25:17); and also things that are still yet to come, like the 2nd Coming (Revelations).  

The statement "He does now reveal" made me think a lot about General Conference and the messages and teachings given to us from our Latter-day Prophets and leaders.  In recent years we have received the Proclamation to the Family, last year there were changes in missionary service ages and there are new temple videos that were just produced.  All of these things come through revelation given to the Prophet.  I am so grateful for a living prophet and the guidance that he gives.

The third statement is "He will yet reveal" and this is where I focused the majority of my study.  I think this statement supports that we have a living prophet (AoF6) that is still currently getting revelation and it pushes me to now be content but to continuously study and learn about the gospel.  I found so many scriptures about continued revelation, here are a few:

D&C 121:26-32 "God shall give unto you knowledge... that has not been revealed..."

D&C 76:7- "I reveal all mysteries... from days of old, and for ages to come...concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom."

D&C 124:41 (Chapter concerning the Baptism of the Dead and requirements of saints) "I deign to reveal unto my church things which have been kept hid from before the foundation of the world, things that pertain to the dispensation of the fulness of times."

Daniel 12: 4- "Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end..."

Studying this topic strictly from the scriptures (and not from any conference talks or recent addresses) I gained a new understanding of the importance of the scriptures and what they can teach. This also confirmed my belief in the Latter-day leaders and their teachings because they support these scriptures.  

**This month I learned a lot of things but one thing that stuck out to me early on was that everything is so tied together.  If you believe one aspect of the gospel it filters into another; this is so true with my study of the Articles of Faith, they truly teach the building blocks and simple core truths of the gospel.