Pratt's Voice of Warning

I just finished Parley P. Pratt's missionary book, "A Voice of Warning: An introduction to the faith and doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." It's a 130 pager he wrote back in 1837 when there was still a whole lot of doctrine to come forth (currently free on Amazon). Even today it's an excellent read and I would encourage particularly prospective missionaries to add it to their "missionary libraries" of things to read before they go out so they will be more effective witnesses for Jesus by understanding better how the prophecies of the Bible have testified of the modern Restoration of the gospel.

Here is my 4 page summary. If that's tl;dr, try this: Biblical prophecies should be understood literally. That includes prophecies of a restitution of all things in the latter days, including ongoing revelation and all the spiritual gifts.


Chapter 1 - On Prophecy Already Fulfilled
The Point: Most of the sectarian Christian world teaches that the Bible is not to be understood literally but "spiritually." This has led to mass confusion, strife, and blindness.

There are two great causes for this blindness ... . First, mankind have supposed that direct inspiration by the Holy Ghost was not intended for all ages of the Church ... [and] secondly, having lost the Spirit of Inspiration, they began to institute their own opinions, traditions, and commandments... . And the moment they departed from its literal meaning, one man's opinion, or interpretation, was just as good as another's... . 

 Now, if we should find in our researches that every prophecy which has been fulfilled to the present year, has been literally fulfilled, then it follows of necessity that every prophecy which is yet future will not fail of a literal fulfillment.

He cites many, many Old and New Testament prophecies, from Noah in Genesis 6 who needed to build a literal ark for a literal flood through Kings, Chronicles, Isaiah, Daniel, Jesus' birth and sacrifice, and Revelation, and not excluding the fate of Jerusalem and the Jewish people after the death of the apostles. Along the way, Elder Pratt points out that many of these prophecies either point to the apostasy of Christianity from the the simple truths revealed by Jesus or have not yet been fulfilled, urging that there must yet be further revelation and further prophecies fulfilled literally.

The heathen nations of the latter days are to be convinced in the same way that Cyrus was; that is, there are certain events plainly predicted in the Prophets, yet future, which, when fulfilled, will convince all the heathen nations of the true God, and they shall know that he hath spoken and performed it. And all ... [shall] be constrained to acknowledge that all has come to pass even as it is written.

Chapter 2: On the Fufilment of Prophecy Yet Future "What is Prophecy but History reversed?"

 If you were to believe the things written in the Bible that are yet to come, you will be under the necessity of believing miracles, signs and wonders, revelations, and manifestations of the power of God, even beyond anything that any former generation has witnessed. ...

How does God make a covenant with the people in any age? The answer is, By communicating His will to them by actual revelation.

He establishes again through Isaiah that Jew and Gentile "have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant" and that it must therefore be established anew by modern revelation.

Chapter 3: The Kingdom of God

[When the Kingdom of God is again restored on the earth] it will be so unlike every other system of religion now on earth, that he will be astonished that any person, with the Bible in his hand, should ever have mistaken any of the systems of men for the kingdom of God. ...

He quotes Jesus' final charge to the apostles in Mark 16:15-18 to show that the kingdom of God includes 1) representatives sent forth by divine call and revelation, 2) the conditions of faith, repentance, and baptism to be saved or else there will be damnation, and 3) signs "shall follow them that believe" - note, not "shall follow only the Apostles" or "shall follow them that believe for the next 50 years or so and then cease" but all those who believe will have these signs.

But, says the astonished reader: "Have not these signs ceased from among men?" I reply, prove that they have ceased, and it will prove that the Gospel has ceased to be preached, that men have ceased to believe and be saved, and that the world is without the kingdom of God; or else it will prove that Jesus Christ was an imposter, and His promises of no effect.

On point number 1, he has an extended and lovely analogy of a President of the United States giving Mr. A.B. authority to swear in foreigners as new citizens of America. On his death, Mr. C.D. "happens to find the commission given to A.B., and, applying it to his own use, assumes the vacant office." He tells additional foreigners who apply to him that they are now citizens, even though they had not followed the forms and requirements set down in law for it. When their citizenship someday comes into question, "the President inquires -- "Who is C.D.? I never gave him a commission to act in any office, I know him not, and you are strangers and foreigners to the commonwealth, until you go before the legally appointed successor of A.B., or some other of like authority... ."

And so it is with the kingdom of God. The Lord authorized the Apostles and others by direct revelation, and by the spirit of prophecy, to preach and baptize... but after a while they died, and a long time passed away, and men, reading over their commission ... have had the presumption to apply these saying as their authority, and without any other commission, have gone forth professing to preach the Gospel, and baptize, and build up the church and kingdom of God; but those whom they baptize never receive the same blessings and gifts which characterized a saint or citizen of the kingdom in the days of the Apostles. Why? Because they are yet foreigners and strangers, for the commission given to the Apostles never commissioned any other man to act in their stead.

Chapter 4 introduces the Book of Mormon and quotes extensively from his brother, Elder Orson Pratt's missionary tract. He quotes a letter from Oliver Cowdery, who assisted Jospeh Smith to translate and publish the Book of Mormon. That letter includes some interesting details about how Joseph found the gold plates. Among those details is how the box was constructed in which the Book of Mormon, Urim and Thummim, etc. were found and a physical description of the gold plates. When the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith the first time he tried to reach in and claim the gold plates but could not, he saw the heavens opened and:

'While [Joseph] thus stood, gazing and admiring, the angel said, Look!' And as he thus spake, he beheld the Prince of Darkness, surrounded by his innumerable train of associates. All this passed before him, and the heavenly messenger said: 'All this is shown, the good and the evil, the holy and impure, the glory of God, and the power of darkness, that you may know hereafter, the two powers, and never be influenced or overcome by that wicked one. Behold, whatever entices and leads to good, and to do good, is of God, and whatever does not, is of that wicked one. ... The way of holiness is peace and rest. You now see why you could not obtain this record, that the commandment was strict, and that if ever these sacred things are obtained, they must be by prayer and faithfulness in obeying the Lord. They are not deposited here for the sake of accumulating gain and wealth, for the glory of this world; they were sealed by the prayer of faith, and because of the knowledge which they contain, they are of no worth among the children of men, only for their knowledge. On them is contained the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it was given to His people on this land... . ... No man can obtain them if his heart is impure, because they contain that which is sacred. ...

The chapter also includes some suggestive but [it turns out after a few decades more have looked into it] not reliable hints at the Hebrew origins of the Native American peoples.

Chapter 5 on the resurrection and restoration

Parley points out that if we would understand how the earth will be restored to its former, paradisaical glory, then we first must understand what the earth was like in those days. He cites a number of scriptures to do so, including entire chapters of Isaiah, Ezekiel, 3rd Nephi, and Ether.

It appears from the above, that all the holy Prophets from Adam to Christ, and those that followed after, had their eyes upon a certain time, when all things should be restored to their primitive beauty and excellence. We also learn, that the time of restitution was to be at or near the time of Christ's second coming; for the heavens are to receive Him, until the times of restitution, and the Father shall send Him again to the earth. ...

He testifies that since Christ had a literal body of flesh and bones that could eat and be handled, so will we. He also describes the city of Zion and the New Jerusalem. The two cities built and rebuilt in America and Israel are to be joined as one with Enoch's Zion that was translated. He points out that when Ezekiel saw the tree of life and its 12 fruits, they were for the healing of the nations; when John sees them, though, "the nations have no need of healing, for there is no more death, neither pain, nor sorrow, for the former things have all passed away ... consequently, he speaks in the past tense, and says they were for the healing of the nations... ."

He rejoices in the gathering of the Jews, First Nation peoples, and the Lost Tribes as one covenant people. In the next chapter he goes on to explain that since no one else has had a definite charge and commission to preach the gospel and call the Jews [or anyone else for that matter] to repentance, the people who rejected those calls are under no condemnation because they did not reject an authorized call from God. There is only condemnation once on those forefathers who, thousands of years ago, rejected and stoned prophets and slew the Messiah and His chosen messengers, which condemnation no longer falls on the people of our days.

Chapter 6 - The dealings of God with all nations

[If] any nation ... should happen to live up to their privilege, what would they obtain? I answer, revelation, for the best of reasons, because no people ever found God in any other way, nor ever will. ... And if they did obtain revelation, it was their privilege to write it, and make a record of the same ... and this record would be sacred, because it would contain the word of God; and thus it would be a HOLY BIBLE, no matter whether it was written by the Jews, the Ten Tribes, the Nephites, or the Gentiles. ... [In point of fact, when God spoke to Adam, Noah, and Abraham] all these were Gentiles, or, rather, the word Israel had not yet been named upon Jacob by the angel. Now, if it was the privilege of so many Gentiles to get the word of the Lord ... it was the privilege of all the rest... .

One of the things Elder Pratt does exceedingly well is liken the words of the Bible to modern applications. I have not quoted any of them, sadly, because they tend to be lengthy. But he cites here at length the scribes and Pharisees garnishing the sepulchres of the prophets while rejecting Jesus, likening it to modern Christians who "garnish the tombs of the Messiah and His former Apostles" while rejecting and denying the testimony of a modern Prophet and Apostles. "... and if a mob rise and kill him, or burn his house, or destroy his goods, you will either rejoice, or sit in silence and give countenance to the deed..." A prophetic utterance of what would happen to Joseph, and to Parley himself.

Chapter 7 is series of such comparisons. He goes back and forth between Jesus/Paul and modern Christianity. The former insist that signs shall follow those who believe and that we are to seek earnestly the best gifts, while the latter insist that all such things are done away, and that man's wisdom, science, and theological seminaries are sufficient to understand God's will. His closing comparison and comment is:

And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine: for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

And it came to pass, when men had ended these sayings, the people were pleased with their doctrines, for they taught them not as men having authority, but as the scribes.