Foundation stones of the true Church
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That God reveals His will to prophets and apostles as in days of old is the unflinching declaration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to all the world, said Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.
Speaking Saturday morning, Elder Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve focused his address on the apostleship and the importance of its perpetuation in the true Church of Jesus Christ.
"In so doing I speak not of the men who hold that office but rather of the office itself, a calling in the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood which the Savior Himself has designated for the watchcare of His people and the witnessing of His name," he said.
Elder Holland's remarks came minutes after President Gordon B. Hinckley announced the calling of two new apostles, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf and Elder David A. Bednar.
During his remarks, Elder Holland explained that the apostolic and prophetic foundation of the Church was to bless in all times, but especially in times of adversity or danger.
"Against such times as come in our modern day, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve are commissioned by God and sustained by you as 'Prophets, Seers and Revelators,' with the president of the Church sustained as the 'Prophet, Seer and Revelator,' the senior Apostle, and as such the only man authorized to exercise all of the revelatory and administrative keys for the Church."
In New Testament times, in Book of Mormon times and in modern times these officers form the foundation stones of the true Church, positioned around and gaining their strength from Jesus Christ, he said.
"Such a foundation in Christ was and is always to be a protection in days 'when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you' (Helaman 5:12)," Elder Holland explained.
He recalled meeting a Church member in Prescott, Ariz., who gave him a note explaining why meeting an apostle was so important to her. He read from that note: "Forty-one years ago I prayed earnestly to the Lord, and told Him I wished I had lived on earth when the Apostles walked upon it, when there had been a true Church and when Christ's voice was still heard. Within a year of that prayer Heavenly Father sent two LDS missionaries to me and I found that all those hopes could be realized."
Elder Holland said his own ancestors recorded a similar hope during the tumultuous year of the first settlements of the United States of America.
The principle of present revelation is "the very foundation of our religion," he added.
"For one and all — ecclesiastics, historians, and laymen alike — the issue is still the same," he said. "Are the heavens open? Does God reveal His will to prophets and apostles as in days of old?"
Elder Holland said Joseph Smith's life answered the question, "Do you believe God speaks to man?' "
"In all else that he accomplished in his brief 38 years, Joseph left us above all else the resolute legacy of divine revelation — not a simple, isolated revelation without evidence or consequence, . . ." he said.
"We do thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet to guide us in these latter days, because many of those days will be windblown and tempest tossed. We give thanks for that morning in the spring of 1820 when the Father and the Son appeared in glory to a 14-year-old boy. We give thanks for the morning when Peter, James and John came to restore the keys of the Holy Priesthood and the offices in it. And in our generation we give thanks for the morning of Sept. 30, 1961, 43 years ago this weekend, when (then) Elder Gordon B. Hinckley was called to the apostleship, the 75th man in this dispensation to be so named."
