Bible Study for Mormons
The following is found on pages 161-165 in Meeting the Mormon Challenge With Love, by Elder Leon Cornforth:
Mormon doctrine regarding priesthood authority and its supposed restoration by Joseph Smith, Jr. and the Mormon Church raises several interesting questions. Let's consider the following:
1. Mormons believe that a person's sins can be forgiven only by a properly administered baptism--that is, a baptism administered by one who operates under the restored priesthood authority. Yet Joseph Smith's own account makes it clear that both he and Oliver Cowdery were themselves ordained to the Aaronic priesthood before being baptized! Joseph Smith's account reads as follows:
"We [Joseph Smith and his friend, Oliver Cowdery], on a certain day, went into the woods to pray and inquire of the Lord respecting baptism for the remission of sins, that we found mentioned in the translation of the plates. While we were thus employed, praying, and calling upon the Lord, a messenger from heaven descended in a cloud of light, and having laid his hands upon us, he ordained us, saying: Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the priesthood of Aaron.... He commanded us to go and be baptized, and gave us directions that I should baptize Oliver Cowdery, and that afterwards he should baptize me....After which I laid my hands upon his head and ordained him to the Aaronic priesthood, and afterwards he laid his hands upon me, and ordained me to the same Priesthood, for so were we commanded. The messenger who visited us on this occasion, and conferred this Priesthood upon us, said that his name was John, the same that is called John the Baptist in the New Testament, and that he acted under the direction of Peter, James, and John, who held the keys of the Priesthood of Melchizedek, which Priesthood, he said, would in due time be conferred on us, and that I should be called the first Elder of the Church, and he (Oliver Cowdery) the second" (The Pearl of Great Price, Writings of Joseph Smith, 2:68-72).
This claim is the chief cornerstone of Mormon doctrine concerning the priesthood, so let's look at it carefully. According to Mormon teaching, Joseph Smith, Jr. was at this time a divinely-inspired man, engaged in translating ancient records given him by an angel. He is approached by John the Baptist and ordained to the Aaronic priesthood. Yet he has never been baptized for the remission of sins! Does it not seem strange that here is a man chosen of God, placed in possession of a gift of inspiration, and actually set to work translating messages from God before being baptized? And what is stranger still, this same man had previously held several conversations with angels, as he claims, and this angel had told him all about the book he was to translate, and also that his sins were forgiven--but said not a word to him about baptism, the act by which Mormons believe one's sins are pardoned! By his own account, Joseph Smith had received his first "vision" in 1820, nine years before his baptism! The angel Moroni had revealed to Smith the existence of the golden plates on which were written the Book of Mormon in 1823, six years before Smith's baptism! Why need such a man be left in darkness, unbaptized, for so many years, while having frequent interviews with angels?
Furthermore, there seems to be some confusion in Smith's account regarding exactly when his ordination to the Aaronic priesthood (and that of Oliver Cowdery) actually took place. According to Smith, John the Baptist first ordained him and Oliver Cowdery to the Aaronic priesthood and then commanded them to baptize each other. But Smith says that following this baptism, he (Smith) ordained Cowdery to the priesthood and Cowdery, in turn, ordained him--as John the Baptist had commanded! John the Baptist virtually repudiates his own act of ordination by commanding them to ordain each other following their baptism! If John the Baptist's ordination was valid, why need they be ordained again? If his ordination was not valid, why did he ordain them in the first place? Why didn't John simply command them to ordain each other at once, instead of doing the work himself and then proceeding to repudiate it by commanding them to do it over after him? Furtrhermore, if Smith and Cowdery were not actually ordained to the Aaronic priesthood until they had ordained each other following their baptism, then their baptism was not valid, because it was not preperly administered by one who was operating under the restored priesthood authority!
2. There is no biblical record that John the Baptist, Peter, James, or John were ever themselves ordained to either the Aaronic or Melchizedek priesthood. How, then, could they ordain others to this role? According to Mormon doctrine, pristhood authority can be bestowed on an individual only by one who has himself been ordained to that priesthood in an unbroken line from the legitimate ordination restored to Joseph Smith, Jr. Yet, we have no evidence that John the Baptist, Peter, James, or John--those who "ordained" Joseph Smith, Jr. and Oliver Cowdery--were themselves ever ordained as priests! Indeed, as we have seen, the Aaronic priesthood expired with the death of Christ, and the Melchizedek pristhood is reserved for Jesus Christ alone. Thus all Aaronic or Melchizedek prists and temples on earth since Jesus died are counterfeits!
Furthermore, as we have seen in chapter 7, when a person dies, he remains unconscious in the grave until the resurrection at the second coming of Jesus. John the Baptist, Peter, James, and John--the personages whom Joseph Smith claims came to him and ordained him to the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods--had died centuries before. According to the inspired Word of God, "the dead know not anything...neither have they anymore a portion for ever in anything that is done under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6).
3. The Aaronic priests must come from the tribe of Levi (see Deuteronomy 10:8). Jesus was from the tribe of Judah. Joseph Smith, Jr. stated that his lineage was from the tribe of Joseph. Thus both Jesus and Joseph Smith, Jr. are disqualified from belonging to the Aaronic priesthood. Even Jesus Himself could not qualify for the Aaronic priesthood as Hebrews 7:14 makes plain: "It is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood." Numbers 4:2, 3 further states that the Aaronic priests must not only be from the tribe of Levi, they must be between thirty and fifty years of age in order to serve. "Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, after their families....From thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter...to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation." According to Joseph Smith, Jr.'s account, he was in his mid-twenties when he was ordained to the Aaronic priesthood. Thus he is futher disqualified from the Aaronic priesthood. Most Mormon male children are ordained to the Aaronic priesthood at the age of twelve, which is contrary to the counsel given in Numbers 4:1-3. Nor are they all of the tribe of Levi--another disqualifying fact for the Mormon priesthood practices.
4. According to Mormon teaching, John the Baptist intimates that the sacrifices of the Old Testament sanctuary service are to be restored. In Joseph Smith, Jr.'s account of his ordination, John the Baptist tells him and Oliver Cowdery:
"Upon you, my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which hold the keys of the ministering angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness" (The Pearl of Great Price, Writings of Joseph Smith, 2:69).
If this means that animal sacrifices are to be restored again, this would be a repudiation of Christ, the great sacrifice which was symbolized by all the sacrifices of the Old Testament sanctuary ritual. Paul says, "we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all....There is no more offering for sin" (Hebrews 10:10, 18) Hence there is likewise no more need for additional Melchizedek priests, other than Jesus, our great High Priest. There was only one offering for sin (Christ's own sacrifice on Calvary), and after His resurrection, Jesus became the High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary (temple) to present that offering once and for all time. 1 Timothy 2:5 makes this matter crystal clear when it states: "For there is one God and one mediator [priest] between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."
CONCLUSION:
We have seen that the Bible knows nothing of a complete apostasy of the church and the withdrawal of the gospel and priesthood authority from the earth. The claims of Mormons to be God's agents in restoring the gospel and a legitimate priesthood authority to the earth are, therefore, without any Scriptural foundation.
In fact, according to the Bible, everyone who genuinely believes in and follows our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is accepted into the priesthood of Christ. "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9). God's royal priesthood is for whoever believes in Christ. It is not an Aaronic or a Melchizedek priesthood restored. It is a priesthood bestowed on all who follow the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a priesthood of believers made available through Christ to every man, woman, and child in every age.
Now if God's people are priests, they must have a sacrifice to offer to God. Paul indentifies what that sacrifice is. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service" (Romans 12:1) He says further, "Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased" (Hebrews 13:15, 16).
God is calling us to be a holy sacrifice, a living sacrifice, a sacrifice of praise. When we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, He touches us with His mighty, transforming power and through Christ we are made "holy, acceptable unto God" (Romans 12:1).
Since Christ's death on the cross, this is the only true and acceptable priesthood on earth. The New Testament reveals no other!
Our next study is going to be questions and answers regarding the Law of God.