In a sermon
dated May 25, 1862, Brigham Young said the following:
With us the Bible is the first book, the Book
of Mormon comes next, then the revelations in the book of Doctrine and Covenants,
then the teachings of the living oracles, yet you will find, in the end, that
the living oracles of God have to take all things of heaven and earth, above
and beneath, and bring them together and devote them to God, and sanctify and
purify them and prepare them to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Gold and
silver, houses and lands, and everything possessed by the Saints will be
purified and cleansed by the power of God, and prepared to enter into the new
Jerusalem when the earth is sanctified. We have to learn to handle all things
which pertains to the heavens and earth in a way to glorify God, and devote all
to the building up of his kingdom, or we cannot magnify our Holy Priesthood and
calling. (JOD 9:297-98)
What is important
about this text, about from the eschatology (teaching, not “heaven-going” as a
reward for the faithful, but a paradisical/celestialised earth), but that, in
terms of authority, living oracles are subordinated to the books of scripture. Such
should give pause to those who abuse some comments by Brigham Young (which are
wrested from their context) that all his sermons are en par with inscripturated
revelation (cf. The
Immediate Negative Reaction of Church Leadership to Ezra Taft Benson's
"Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet"). Notwithstanding, Brigham also (correctly) teaches that, unlike inscripturated revelation (which are passive sources of teaching and authority), living oracles are active, an advantage they have over Scripture, and one of the reasons why Latter-day Saints reject Sola Scriptura (on this, see Not By Scripture Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scriptura).
