"I
have more to boast about than ever any man had. I am the
only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church
together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the
whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor
Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a
work as I." — Joseph Smith
- Joseph Fielding Smith - Laws of God must be obeyed,
they cannot be changed, "In other words, if there is one
divine law that he does not keep he is barred from
participating in the kingdom, and figuratively guilty of
all, since he is denied all."
Complete Worthiness Required. "So in the celestial kingdom
we must be worthy in every point, or we fail to receive the
blessing. The kingdom of God must exist in absolute unity.
Every law must be obeyed, and no member of the Church can
have a place there unless he is in full accord." Answers to
Gospel Questions, vol. 3, pp. 26-27 (1960)
- Bruce R. McConkie - "I shall set forth what we must believe
relative to the Father and the Son in order to gain eternal
life.
I shall expound the doctrine of the Church ... I shall express the views of the Brethren ...
It is no secret that many false and vain and foolish things are being taught in the sectarian world and even among us about our need to gain a special relationship with the Lord Jesus.
... In an effort to be truer than true they devote themselves to gaining a special relationship with Christ that is both improper and perilous .... Another peril is that those so involved begin to pray directly to Christ because of some special friendship they feel has been developed. In this connection a current and unwise book, which advocates gaining a special relationship with Jesus contains this sentence — 'Because the Savior is our mediator, our prayer go through Christ to the Father and the Father answers our prayers through His Son.'
This is plain sectarian nonsense. Our prayers are addressed to the Father, and to Him only. They do not go through Christ ... " Church News, p. 5 (March 20, 1982)
- Orson Pratt - Great Pyramid of Egypt clearly portrays key
events from history, including the organizing of the LDS
church. Conference Report, p. 86-87 (1880)
- John Taylor - "Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the
Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of
men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it.
..." Doctrine and Covenants, 135:3 (1844)
- Spencer W. Kimball - "Our sincere sorrow should lead us to
forsake (stop) sinning. It does little good to admit that we
have sinned if we do not stop doing the evil thing. If we
truly repent of our sins, we will do them no more. If a
person has stolen, he will steal no more. If he has lied, he
will lie no more. If he committed adultery, he will stop
this evil practice."
"To make our repentance complete we must always keep the
commandments of the Lord (see D&C 1:32). A person is not
fully repentant who does not pay his tithes or does net keep
the Sabbath day holy or refuses to obey the Word of Wisdom.
He is not repentant if he does not sustain the authorities
of the Church ..." Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 200 (1969)
cited in Gospel Principles, pp. 120-122 (1978)
- Joseph Smith - There will be an eventual restoration of
sacrifices as part of the restitution of all things. Those
who say that sacrifice was entirely done away with by the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ "are certainly not acquainted with
the duties, privileges and authority of the priesthood, or
with the Prophets." History of the Church, vol. 4, p.
211-212 (1840)
- Joseph Smith - "God made Aaron to be the mouthpiece for the
children of Israel, and He will make me to be god to you in
His stead, and the Elders to be mouth for me; and if you
don't like it, you must lump it."
History of the Church,
vol. 6, p. 319-320 (1844)
- Joseph Smith - "I have more to boast about than ever any man
had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a
whole church together since the days of Adam. A large
majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John,
Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did
such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him;
but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet. You
know my daily walk and conversation."
History of the Church,
vol. 6, p. 408-409 (1844)
- John Taylor - "After dinner we sent for some wine. It has
been reported by some that this was taken as sacrament. It
was no such thing; our spirits were generally dull and
heavy, and it was sent for to revive us. I think it was
Captain Jones who went after it, but they would not suffer
him to return. I believe we all drank of the wine, and gave
some to one or two of the prison guards."
History of the
Church, vol. 7, p. 101 (1844)
- Brigham Young - "Gold and silver grow, and so does every
other kind of metal, the same as the hair upon my had, or
the wheat in the field; they do not grow as fast, but they
are all the time composing or decomposing ..."
Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, p. 219 (1852)
- Heber C. Kimball - The earth is alive, conceives and came
from its parent earths.
Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 36
(1857)
- Brigham Young - "no man or woman in this dispensation will
ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the
consent of Joseph Smith. ... every man and woman must have
the certificate of Joseph Smith, junior, as a passport to
their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are."
Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p. 289 (1869)
- Brigham Young - Sun and moon both inhabited, and the earth
will become like the sun with it is "celestialized."
Journal
of Discourses, vol. 13, p. 271 (1870)
- Brigham Young - Examine the character of the Savior, and
those who wrote the Old and New Testaments and compare them
with the character of Joseph Smith. Joseph's character
stands as fair as any man's mentioned in the Bible.
Journal
of Discourses, vol. 14, p. 203 (1871)
- Bruce R. McConkie "God the Father is a perfected, glorified
holy Man, and immortal Personage. And Christ was born into
the world as the literal Son of this Holy Being; he was born
in the same personal, real, and literal sense that any
mortal son is born to a mortal father. There is nothing
figurative about his paternity; he was begotten, conceived
and born in the normal and natural course of events, for he
is the Son of God, and that designation means what it says."
(1 Nephi 11). Mormon Doctrine, p. 742 (1966)
- Joseph Smith - The term 'Mormon' comes from mon in Egyptian
which means good, and with more in front of it, or mor,
comes to mean "more good."
Times and Seasons, vol. 4, p. 194
(1843)
- Oliver B. Huntington - As far back as 1837 Joseph Smith said
the moon was inhabited. "He described the men as averaging
near six feet in height, and dressing quite uniformly in
something near the Quaker style. In my patriarchal blessing,
given by the father of Joseph the Prophet, in Kirtland,
1837, I was told that I should preach the gospel before I
was 21 years of age; that I should preach the gospel to the
inhabitants upon the islands of the sea, and — to the
inhabitants of the moon, even the planet you can now behold
with your eyes. The first two promises have been fulfilled,
and the latter may be verified." Young Woman's Journal, vol.
3, p. 263-264 (1892)