Sunday, April 4, 2010

A Restoraion of All Things

John Taylor, Mediation and Atonement, p.122 - 123
The remarks of President Joseph Smith are very plain and explicit, and are a strong confirmation of the passage he himself refers to, pertaining to the times of the restitution of all things; which will embrace all systems, doctrines, ordinances, dispensations, and Priesthoods connected with the Church and Kingdom of God. That there will be a full manifestation of all these things, relating to the various times and dispensations, is assured; yet, as Joseph Smith has very properly said, the details of those rituals and observances cannot now be fully defined. But as ancient Israel preserved in the Ark of the Covenant memorials of God's power, goodness and mercy, manifested during the exodus from Egypt, in the two tables of stone and the pot of manna; and of the recognition of the Aaronic Priesthood in Aaron's rod that budded; and as the sword of Laban, the sacred plates already revealed, as well as numerous others yet to be made manifest, and a Urim and Thummim were preserved on this continent; so will there be an exhibition an evidence, a memorial, and an actual manifestation of matters pertaining to laws, ordinances, ceremonies and dispensations, from the commencement of the world to the present time, preserved and manifested in the dispensation that the Lord in His loving kindness has now inaugurated. This will be in accordance with the eternal plans and purposes of God, and with the rights, ceremonies and ordinances belonging to the Priesthoods of God in the different ages, pertaining to the organization of this world, the proposed mediation and atonement of the Son of God, the manifestations and developments of the Melchizedek Priesthood, as the Prophet Joseph has referred to, as well relating to sacrifices in early days as in other matters, the introduction of the Aaronic Priesthood, together with the Ark and the Tabernacle, which we are told were made after the patterns shown unto Moses in the mount-patterns which existed in the heavens; the eternal existence, authority and power of both Priesthoods as connected with God and administering in time and eternity; the attempts of Satan to overthrow the dynasty, power and authority of Jehovah and his complete failure and discomfiture; exhibiting in a panorama all the leading, prominent details of the creation, atonement, redemption, salvation and exaltation of the world and man, the organization of a new heaven and a new earth, and all the purposes of God, His plans and ordinances, manifested through the Priesthood from the first inception of the organization of the world to the final consummation, purification and exaltation of the world and its inhabitants, according to the foreknowledge and determinate counsel of the Almighty.     

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