Proxy, Parable, and Priesthood: Official Declarations 1 and 2. The Doctrines of Baptism for the Dead and of Priesthood: A Shaft of Light from the Throne of God to our Hearts

I. Proxy, Parable, and Priesthood 
Doctrine and Covenants, Official Declarations 1 and 2
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/od?lang=eng
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/od/2?lang=eng

What was true in 1890 stands true today. Let us, then, duly liken the word of scripture given to yesterday’s prophet unto ourselves. To liken is to think "para-bolically": it is to make parables--and it is for those with ears to hear, to hear.

(Private members of the Church may dream in parables but must never shove hands at the ox-borne ark.)

“Press dispatches having been sent for political purposes, from Salt Lake City, which have been widely published, to the effect that [certain parties] “in their recent report to” [other parties] “allege that [baptisms for the dead for unauthorized persons] have been contracted” “during the past year.”

“I, therefore, as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, do hereby, in the most solemn manner, declare that these charges are false. We are not teaching [members to perform unauthorized or celebrity baptisms nor endorsing doctrines having to do with the history of priesthood availability], nor permitting [that is to say, authorizing] any person to enter into its practice.”

“I hereby declare my [continued commitment or] intention to submit to those [agreements and policies already contracted], and to use [technology and] my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise.” 

Again: “Whatever was done in this matter was without my knowledge.” “There is nothing in my teachings to the Church or in those of my associates, during the time specified, which can be reasonably [note the word well] construed to inculcate or encourage [such baptisms or any doctrinal speculation about priesthood availability], and when any [member] of the Church has used language which appeared to convey any such teaching, he has been promptly reproved. And I now publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from [participating in unauthorized baptisms or teachings].”

Following the signature of Wilford Woodruff to this official declaration, we further learn that the living President of the Church of Jesus Christ is “the only man on the earth at the present time who holds the keys of the sealing ordinances.” Any baptism, confirmation, ordination, endowment, sealing, or even teaching, of which the living Prophet does not approve, and so approving duly confirm or seal, “are of no efficacy, virtue, or force."

For: “All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, and expectations, that are not made, entered into, and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, of him who is anointed. . . are of no efficacy, virtue, or force in or after the resurrection from the dead ” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:7). President Thomas S. Monson holds the keys of the sealing ordinances today.

Three pointed questions logically follow:

Will I accept of an offering, saith the Lord, that is not made in my name? 

Or will I receive at your hands that which I have not appointed? 

And will I appoint unto you, saith the Lord, except it be by law, even as I and my Father ordained unto you, before the world was?

The conclusion is clear: "For whatsoever things remain are by me; and whatsoever things are not by me shall be shaken and destroyed" (Doctrine and Covenants 132: 9-11; 14, http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132?lang=eng).

II. The Doctrines of Baptism for the Dead and of Priesthood

Let go the parable and turn to the words of the very same prophet of yesterday, the same prophet who dedicated the Salt Lake Temple on April 6, 1893.

Upon first learning of the doctrine of baptism for the dead, Wilford Woodruff wrote:

“It was like a shaft of light from the throne of God to our hearts. It opened a field wide as eternity to our minds.”

“It appeared to me that the God who revealed that principle unto man was wise, just and true, possessed both the best of attributes and good sense and knowledge. I felt he was consistent with both love, mercy, justice and judgment, and I felt to love the Lord more than ever before in my life. . . . I felt to say hallelujah when the revelation came forth revealing to us baptism for the dead.”

“The first thing that entered into my mind was that I had a mother in the spirit world. She died when I was 14 months old. I never knew [my] mother” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church--Wilford Woodruff, 185: http://www.lds.org/manual/teachings-wilford-woodruff/chapter-18?lang=eng).

III. The 1978 Revelation on Priesthood: A "Fully Sufficient Answer"

We turn now to 4 May 1978 and 1 June 1978 and to the matter of Official Declaration 2, the Revelation on Priesthood:

"At the end of the joint meeting of the Presidency and Twelve on May 4 [1978], when the priesthood policy was discussed, [Elder] LeGrand Richards asked permission to make a statement. He then reported:

'I saw during the meeting a man seated in a chair above the organ, bearded and dressed in white, having the appearance of Wilford Woodruff. . . . I am not a visionary man. . . . This was not imagination. . . . It might be that I was privileged to see him because I am the only one here who had seen President Woodruff in person.' "

1 June 1978, following the Revelation on Priesthood (Declaration 2):

"President Kimball also later said, I felt an overwhelming spirit there, a rushing flood of unity such as we had never had before.' And he knew that the fully sufficient answer had come.

Emotion overflowed as the group lingered. When someone reminded President Kimball of the earlier appearance of Wilford Woodruff to LeGrand Richards in the room, Spencer said he thought it natural: 'President Woodruff would have been very much interested, because he went through something of the same sort of experience' with the Manifesto" (Edward L. Kimball, BYU Studies, "Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood," 52-3; 59).

President Woodruff's favorite hymn was "God Moves in a Mysterious Way," which includes the following thoughts:

Ye fearful Saints, fresh courage take;
The Clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan his works in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.

We need not apologize for God's mysterious ways, however embarrassing these may prove to us. Better to suffer so, than to make of God's ways a trivial journey.

Young Joseph Smith struggled for two years prior to receiving the First Vision, and was "upbraided not." And the long pleadings for knowledge about the priesthood chastened the prophetic soul of President Spencer W. Kimball. Yet the revelation came not as a rebuke: Official Declaration 2 speaks five times of blessings; it speaks of privileges and promises and temples. No one was chastened; though--as ever--our ignorance was replaced with added light.

Notes
I do not propose to speak to the history of plural marriage nor of the role of the Manifesto (Official Declaration 1) in ending the practice. The above remarks contemplate the doctrine of the keys of the sealing power, whereby approved ordinances alone are made binding and efficacious by the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Even then, the recipient of the sacrament retains full right of reception or refusal.) All other ordinances, no matter where performed or by whom--and no matter the temporary record--are illegal, null, and void in the sight of the Church and in the sight of God. An attempted baptism for the dead becomes a far different thing than an offering or a record "worthy of all acceptation" (Doctrine and Covenants 128:24). 


Initial misunderstandings are only to be expected, but for writers, possibly through neglect of accessible sources, to continue to ignore the plain doctrines about priesthood keys, sealing powers, baptisms, and "a house of order" becomes tantamount to misrepresentation.


The readily available revelations published by the Prophet Joseph Smith over 150 years ago that have bearing on proxy work, or baptism for the dead include: Doctrine and Covenants 110, 124, 127, 128, 132, 137 (and 138: President Joseph F. Smith). See also 1 Corinthians 15:29, the Pauline basis for proxy baptism. Recent articles in the Deseret News treat the latest statements by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about unauthorized baptisms for the dead, including facts about the latest technology to block illegal submissions of names. The real news, of course, is that the dead live on in a world of eternal opportunity and that God continues to speak through His authorized servants today. 


The Latter-day Saint people, who overflow with all but boundless admiration for our Jewish brothers and sisters, are outraged by unauthorized baptisms for the dead. Besides, such illegal actions (and by illegal I mean actions which invoke God's name and authority in vain), instantaneously become yet another club for our non-Jewish critics with which to beat us over the head. The following articles show some understanding of Mormon doctrine within the American Jewish community:


"Outraged by Mormon Proxy Baptism? Not this Jew," 29 Feb. 2010, patriotpost.us

Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe, 29 Feb. 2012, "Mormon Ritual is no Threat to Jews."

Defining "msxr" in the Egyptian Dreambook: A New Dictionary Entry

The Egyptian Dreambook, the New Kingdom classic on dream interpretation, neatly divides dreams into good and evil. Among the evil we find (r.7.7):

"Dreaming about going into (or coming upon) a msxr 

Evil Dream.

It means a secret plot will be hatched against him."

hr shm.t hr msxr
DW
xpr bs pw nj md.t r=f


What is a msxr? The word remains without definition in the Egyptian lexicon.

Lexicographer Rainer Hannig considers the unique word, or spelling, to be a mistake for msxn. And what is a msxn? M, prefixed to a noun, is the morpheme of place: msxn is, accordingly, a place of sxn, that is, a place of rest, ein Ruheplatz. The word often refers to the descent of the divine powers into statues of the gods housed in the temple.

Yet while Hannig is right on the money in identifying msxr as a nominal form marking place, I wonder why he disregarded (or rejected) the possibility of reading the word as m+sxr (place of sxr)?

Sxr is the verb of planning, of counsel, and m+sxr thus signifies place of counsel, meaning that secret court where plans are made. The Akkadian word mapras, by the way (a word familar to all students of Afroasiatic grammar), not only serves to name, for linguists, the construction marking place in that language; it literally signifies place of prs, or place of separations, i.e., decisions. Egyptian msxr also calls to mind Arabic majlis, the place of sitting, of counsel. Yet msxr need not refer to an official Rathaus; it might be anywhere the cunning meet to plot. It might refer to any corner.

The dreamer has thus gone into--did he stumble upon it?--the very place where secrets are discussed and plans laid, a precarious ground to walk upon in a groundless dreamworld. In Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, you will recall, dreams have no sure ground: the dreamer may even be suspended above the earth, as if on a crow's-nest.

Indeed the Egyptian Dreambook's interpretation of the dream all but insists on the reading of msxr as place of counsel, for we learn that a "secret word" will now work against him: the dreamer has, in fact, now activated (xpr) a secret plot against himself by entering into its own place, the secret council. The two noun phrases, msxr and bs nj md.t, coincide perfectly:

"Dreaming about stumbling upon a place of counsel.

Evil.

It means a secret plan will be hatched against him."


The wording in the Egyptian Dreambook also recalls an obscure place in the Doctrine and Covenants, a book which shows many parallels to Semitic and Egyptian usage:

And now I show unto you a mystery [bs], a thing [md.t = thing or word] which is had in secret chambers [msxr], to bring to pass [xpr] even your destruction in process of time, and ye knew it not: But now I tell it unto you, and ye are blessed (38:13-14).

Although the anxious reader is not told what Brother Joseph further saw or heard about the secret chambers and its mystery, the plotting, "in process of time," unfolds far differently than that which the Egyptian Dreambook portends. Joseph the Dreamer unravels the Egyptian dream unto favor: the plot against his life bursts with blessing on his head.


Notes

There are two editions of the Dreambook. Alan Gardiner prepared the first; an old school chum, Kasia Szpakowska, now Senior Lecturer in Egyptology at Swansea University, Wales, has recently published a new edition.