El Mormonismo y el sacerdocio/La restauración/Melquisedec/Fecha

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Fecha de la restauración del sacerdocio de Melquisedec

  NEEDS TRANSLATION  

Los documentos históricos no dan una fecha exacta para la restauración del sacerdocio de Melquisedec.

• ¿La restauración del sacerdocio estaba "de vuelta de fecha" más adelante por Joseph Smith para justificar el deseo de dominar a la Iglesia?
• ¿Alguien sabe "cuándo ni cómo" José Smith recibió el sacerdocio de Melquisedec?

Cuando se estudia toda la evidencia circunstancial, el tiempo aproximado de la restauración del Sacerdocio de Melquisedec 'puede ser plausiblemente redujo. Aunque la fecha exacta no se conoce, la ventana que se sabe es lo suficientemente pequeña como para impedir una invención posterior de los acontecimientos por el Profeta "aumentar su autoridad."

Aunque los documentos históricos no dan una fecha exacta para la restauración del sacerdocio de Melquisedec podemos señalar su presencia a una ventana de 17 días entre el 15 y el 31 de mayo de 1829.

Sacerdocio Aarónico

José aprendió de Moroni en 1823 que "cuando [las planchas de oro] se interpretan el Señor le dará el santo sacerdocio para algunos, y que comenzará a proclamar el evangelio y bautizar con agua, y después de que tendrá poder para conferir el Espíritu Santo por la imposición de las manos ".^[1] Dos años más tarde, la primera parte de ese pronunciamiento se produjo cuando Juan el Bautista visitó a José y Oliver:

Él dijo que este Sacerdocio Aarónico no tenía el poder de imponer las manos para comunicar el don del Espíritu Santo, pero que esto se nos conferiría más adelante ... El mensajero que nos visitó en esta ocasión y confirió este sacerdocio, dijo que su nombre era Juan, el mismo que es llamado Juan el Bautista en el Nuevo Testamento, y que obraba bajo la dirección de Pedro, Santiago y Juan, quienes poseían las llaves del Sacerdocio de Melquisedec, sacerdocio que, dijo, haría a su debido tiempo se nos conferiría más ... fue el día quince de mayo de 1829, que nos ordenó la mano de este mensajero, y bautizados.^[2] Sabemos que el sacerdocio de Melquisedec, por tanto, todavía no se había dado y debe entregar ya sea ese mismo día o en algún momento después de ese día.

José y Oliver Cowdery se les dijo que volver a ordenar a la otra para el sacerdocio después de ser bautizado. Este iba a seguir las reglas apropiadas de ser miembro antes de recibir el sacerdocio, pero en su caso no podían ser miembros hasta tener el sacerdocio para bautizar a unos de otros. ^[3]

Sacerdocio de Melquisedec

Similar a esta complicación originación del bautismo y la membresía, la ordenación al oficio de anciano a través del sacerdocio mayor no podría ocurrir hasta que se había establecido la iglesia. Después se estableció oficialmente la iglesia tenemos las siguientes evidencias de que José Smith y Oliver Cowdery ya habían recibido el sacerdocio mayor:

1. Agosto 1830, el Señor le habló al profeta José Smith de “Pedro, Santiago y Juan, a quienes os he enviado a vosotros, por medio de los cuales os he ordenado y confirmado para ser apóstoles y testigos especiales de mi nombre, y para poseer las llaves de vuestro ministerio y de las mismas cosas que les revelé a ellos;” DC 27:12
2. April 1830, “And to Oliver Cowdery, who was also called of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to be the second elder of this church, and ordained under his hand.” DC 20:2-3
3. “Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery sought after this higher authority, and the Lord gave it to them, before the rise of this Church, sending to them Peter, James and John. What for? To bestow upon them the Apostleship.” -Elder Parley P. Pratt ^[4]
4. Hiram Page, a son-in-law of Peter Whitmer Sr., and one who was present on the day of the Church’s 6 April 1830 organization, later confirmed that “Peter, James and John” had come and bestowed the Holy Priesthood “before the 6th of April 1830.” ^[5]
5. “I know that Joseph received his Apostleship from Peter, James, and John, before a revelation on the subject was printed, and he never had a right to organize a Church before he was an Apostle.” -Brigham Young ^[6]

Narrow Window

Knowing that the prophet already had the Melchizedek priesthood prior to the organization of the church we can look at the following clues of the May 15 to 30, 1829 ordination window in order of progressively narrowed parameters:

1. Year 1829: There is a manuscript in Oliver Cowdery’s handwriting recording part of DC 18: saying, “Written in the year of our Lord & Saviour 1829.” ^[7]
2. June 1829: In DC 18:9 we read “And now, Oliver Cowdery, I speak unto you, and also unto David Whitmer, by the way of commandment; for, behold, I command all men everywhere to repent, and I speak unto you, even as unto Paul mine apostle, for you are called even with that same calling with which he was called.”
3. Before June 14, 1829: Oliver Cowdery wrote a letter to Hyrum Smith. The letter has some wording that quotes and refers to section 18 in the D&C. ^[8]
4. Before June 1, 1829:
   • Joseph Smith said that he, Emma, Oliver and David Whitmer traveled to the home of Peter Whitmer Sr. “In the beginning of the month of June.” ^[9]
   • David Whitmer is quoted as saying “The translation at my father’s farm, Fayette Township, Seneca County, New York occupied about one month, that is from June 1, to July 1, 1829.” ^[10] If those dates are exact then the Prophet was in New York during the entire month of June.
   • Orson Pratt asked David Whitmer, “Can you tell the date of the bestowal of the Apostleship upon Joseph, by Peter, James and John?” To which he replied: “I do not know, Joseph never told me.” From this we can tell that the visitation either:
     1. Happened during the traveling when Joseph and Oliver were away from David and did not tell him about the occurrence (their trusted friend with whom they shared many other events).
     2. Happened at another time than their travel from Harmony to Fayette.

Location

Critics also raise the issue of where the Melchizedek priesthood restoration occurred.

The bestowal of the Melchizedek priesthood occurred in Harmony, Pennsylvania. ^[11] The time of travel between Harmony, PA and the Whitmer farm would have been three days. The likely hood of the men traveling back to Harmony at the same time as they did the following is near impossible:

• Finished the translation
• Secured the copyright on June 11
• Oliver's letter to Hyrum on June 14
• Joseph's details of how busy they were during this time period at the farm ^[12]

As shown above, after receiving the priesthood they were not yet allowed to ordain each other to the offices within that priesthood. They were told to “defer this our ordination until such times as it should be practicable to have our brethren, who had been and who should be baptized, assembled together, when we must have their sanction to our proceeding to ordain each other.” ^[13]

There are many times^[14] when Oliver confirmed without error that the sequence of events occurred as shown above.^[15]

Other early mentions

Some have claimed that Joseph only began to mention apostolic ordination to the priesthood several years after the Church's organization. This claim is belied by the fact that in March of 1833, the Reverend Richmond Taggart wrote a letter to a ministerial friend, regarding the activities of Joseph Smith himself in Ohio: "The following Curious occurrance occurred last week in Newburg [Ohio] about 6 miles from this Place [Cleveland]. Joe Smith the great Mormonosity was there and held forth, and among other things he told them he had seen Jesus Christ and the Apostles and conversed with them, and that he could perform Miracles."^[16]

Here, then, is a clear reference to Joseph Smith stating he had seen Jesus Christ. Joseph’s ‘conversations’ with the Apostles could be a reference to having seen, spoken to, and been ordained to the Priesthood by the early Apostles Peter, James, and John. Having received that Priesthood Joseph Smith was now qualified to perform healings, and other ‘miracles’.

Plantilla:Endnotes label

1. [back]  As quoted by Oliver Cowdery in a letter to W. W. Phelps printed in (October 1835) Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate 2:199..
2. [back]  JS-H 1:70-72
3. [back]  Joseph Fielding Smith, Essentials in Church History, 27th ed. (1974), 58.
4. [back]  Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses 16:294-295
5. [back]  Letter of Hiram Page to “Brother Wm. [William E. McLellin],” 4 March 1848, Fishing River, Missouri, Second Part, RLDS Archives, Independence, Missouri.
6. [back]  Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 1:137; emphasis added.
7. [back]  Oliver Cowdery, “Written in the year of our Lord & Savior 1829—A true copy of the articles of the Church of Christ,” MS 1829, LDS Church Archives.
8. [back]  Letter of Oliver Cowdery to Hyrum Smith, 14 June 1829, Fayette, New York, LDS Church Archives.
9. [back]  Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 1:48–49. BYU Studies link; Papers of Joseph Smith, 1:293.
10. [back]  Kansas City Daily Journal, 5 June 1881.
11. [back]  DC 128:20; Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 1:40–41. BYU Studies link
12. [back]  Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 1:51–51. BYU Studies link
13. [back]  Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 1:60–61. BYU Studies link; emphasis added.
14. [back]  Reuben Miller Journal, 21 Oct. 1848, MS 1392, LDS Church Archives.
15. [back]  Statement of Oliver Cowdery to Samuel W. Richards, 13 Jan. 1849, quoted in Deseret Evening News, 22 March 1884, 2.
16. [back]  Richmond Taggart to the Reverend Jonathan Goings, 2 March 1833, 2, Jonathon Goings Papers, American Baptist Historical Society, Rochester, New York, quoted in Dan Vogel (editor), Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1996–2003), 5 vols, 1:205. See also Gregory A. Prince, Power from on High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995), 8.