From: Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Freemasonry and the Origins of Latter-day Saint Temple Ordinances (Orem, Utah: Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2022), 240-42, 502-4:
The More Sure Word of Prophecy
On 27 August 1843, the Prophet
said that Jesus Christ received “the fulness of priesthood or the law of God”
on the Mount of Transfiguration. [1380] In a related sermon a few months
earlier, he had unfolded the meaning of the reference in 2 Peter 1:19 to an
additional blessing the apostles received at the time, namely the “more sure
word of prophecy.” [1381] Continuing his effort to “stir up” the Saints “in
remembrance of these things” (vv. 13, 12), Peter had reminded his readers of
his firsthand experience at the Mount of Transfiguration. The overall
scriptural account is cryptic, and translators have struggled particularly with
the reference to the “more sure word of prophecy” in verse 19—a “crux
interpretum” for the entire book according to Jerome H. Neyrey. [1382]
On the Mount of Transfiguration,
Peter and his companions had become “eyewitnesses of [the] majesty” [1383]
of the glorified Jesus Christ and had heard the voice of God the Father
declare: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” [1384]
Joseph Smith asked his hearers, “What could be more sure” than that?
The Prophet answered by saying
that the only more sure witness of salvation that can be had than hearing the
Father testify of the Son is hearing His personal promise that we ourselves
will be exalted with His Son: [1385]
IT
is one thing to receive knowledge by the voice of God (“This is my beloved Son,”
etc.) and another to know that you yourself will be saved. To have a positive
promise of your own salvation is making your calling and election sure—that is,
the voice of Jesus saying, “My beloved, thou shalt have eternal life.”
Brethren, never cease struggling until you get this evidence. And take heed
both before and after obtaining the more sure word of prophecy.
After summarizing the three linked
keys that are hidden in the first chapter of 2 Peter Joseph Smith earnestly
enjoined the Saints to do everything necessary to make their calling and
election sure so they would be eligible to receive the divine knowledge that
constitutes the ultimate power of salvation. This knowledge did not come merely
when Peter heard the voice of God speak. Rather, it came afterward, through the
“more sure” promise made with the father’s personal oath [1387] to Peter
that he would obtain the fulness of the joys of the celestial kingdom forever
and ever. [1388]
Though scholars often fail to
grasp the full nature and import of Peter’s experience on the Mount of
Transfiguration, some at least have a sense of the implication of 2 Peter 1:19
for every reader of the epistle. For example, according to the editors of the ESV
Bible “believers are admonished to ‘pay attention’ to the certainty of the ‘prophetic
word’. In the contrast between ‘we have’ and ‘you will do well,’ Peter is
apparently emphasizing that the interpretation of the apostles (‘we’) is to be
regarded as authoritative for the church (‘you’)” [1389]—while striving
themselves, meantime, to obtain the same “prophetic word” that Peter possessed
(that is, “take heed [unto our more sure word], as unto a light that
shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts).”
[1390] In other words, not only Jesus and Peter, btu each one who
endures to the end in keeping “all the commandments” and obeying “all the
ordinances of the house of the Lord,” [1391] can look forward with eager
anticipation to the day when they will hear the Father’s declaration that they
have become, at last, sons and daughters in sufficient likeness of His beloved
Son, of whom He can also say He is well pleased.
1380 J. Smith, Jr. et al., Words, 27 August 1843,
p. 246, spelling, punctuation, and grammar
modernized.
1381 Ibid., 21 May 1843, pp. 204–209.
1382 J. H. Neyrey, 2 Peter, Jude, pp. 178–179.
1383 2 Peter 1:16.
1384 2 Peter 1:17.
1385 J. Smith, Jr. et al., Words, 21 May 1843, Martha
Jane Knowlton Coray Notebook, p. 208, spelling, punctuation, and grammar
modernized.
1386 Public Domain.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Transfiguration_bloch.jpg
(accessed 21 December 2015).
1387 The personal oath of the Father described
here is the same oath referred to Doctrine and Covenants 84:39, when it
mentions “the oath and covenant which belongeth to the priesthood” (see M. G.
Romney, Oath). Elder Bruce R. McConkie explains (B. R. McConkie, New Witness,
p. 313):
Man
and Deity enter into the covenant of the priesthood, but only the Lord, meaning
the Father, swears the oath.
This same oath, by which one
enters the Church of the Firstborn (Doctrine and Covenants 88:3-5; 93:21-22; J.
Smith, Jr., Teachings, 27 June 1839, p. 151) and receives the knowledge of his
“election sure”—and to which allusion is made throughout scripture—is perhaps
most clearly expressed in Psalm 110:4:
The
Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the
order of Melchizedek.
Commenting on the oath that is
found in Psalm 110:4, President Joseph Fielding Smith said (J. F. Smith, Jr.,
Oath, p. 92):
To
swear with an oath is the most solemn and binding form of speech known to the
human tongue; and it was this type of language that the Father chose to have
used in the great Messianic prophecy about Christ and the priesthood. Of him it
says: “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou are a priest for ever
after the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalm 110:4.)
In
explaining this Messianic prophecy, Paul says that Jesus had “an unchangeable
priesthood,” and that through it came “the power of an endless life” (see
Hebrews 7:24, 16). Joseph Smith said that “all those who are ordained unto this
priesthood are made like unto the Son of God, abiding a priest continually,”
that is, if they are faithful and true.
And
so Christ is the great prototype where priesthood is concerned, as he is with reference
to baptism and all other things. And so, even as the Father swears with an oath
that his Son shall inherit all things through the priesthood, so he swears with
an oath that all of us who magnify our callings in that same priesthood shall
receive all that the Father hath.
See also 2 Samuel 7:14: “I will
be his father, and he shall be my son”; Psalm 2:7: “the Lord hath said unto me,
Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee”; Psalm 89:3-4: “I have sworn…
Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all
generations”; Psalm 89:19-20: “I have exalted one… with my holy oil have I
anointed him”; Psalm 89:26-29: “He shall cry out to me, Thou art my father, my
God… I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy
will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of
heaven”; Psalm 89:34-37: “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing
that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not
lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun
before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful
witness in heaven”; Psalm 132:11-12: “The Lord hath sworn in truth… Of the
fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. If thy children will keep my
covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also
sit upon thy throne for evermore”; Psalm 110:4: “The Lord hath sworn, and will not
repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek” (See Hebrews
6:17-20; 7:20-28); Matthew 25:21: “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord”;
Revelation 4:1: “Come up, hither”; 2 Nephi 31:20: “thus saith the Father: Ye
shall have eternal life”; Enos 1:27: “he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye
blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father”;
Mosiah 26:20: “I covenant with thee that thou shalt have eternal life”; Doctrine
and Covenants 88:3-4: “This Comforter is the promise which I give unto you of
eternal life, even the glory of the celestial kingdom”; Doctrine and Covenants
132:49: “I seal upon you your exaltation, and prepare a throne for you in the
kingdom of my Father, with Abraham, your father”; Moses 6:68 (See E. T. Benson,
What I Hope, p. 8): “thou art one in me, a son of God; and thus may all become
my sons”; Hymns (1985), Hymns (1985), #21: “Yea, keep His law with all thy
might Till thine election’s sure, Till thou shalt hear the holy voice Assure
eternal reign, While joy and cheer attend thy choice, As one who shall obtain”;
ibid., #81: “Thus saith our God: ‘Ye have eternal life!’“; ibid., #134: “His
voice is heard: ‘Ye shall obtain.’”
1388 See J. Smith, Jr., Teachings, 27 June 1839,
p. 150. More will be said about this topic below, in the section on the oath
and covenant of the priesthood. For extensive discussions of this and related
topics, see B. R. McConkie, NT Commentary, 3:325-350; B. R. McConkie, Promised
Messiah, pp. 570-595.
1389 L. T. Dennis et al., ESV, p. 2419n1:19.
1390 Emphasis added. Likewise, summarizing the
thrust of Peter’s arguments, Simon S. Lee writes (S. S. Lee, Jesus'
Transfiguration, p. 143):
I
believe that [the] theological thinking of 2 Peter is almost equivalent to both
the Markan discipleship of following Jesus in his suffering, death, and
glorification (Mark 8:27–9:13) and Paul’s understanding of the believers’
continuous transformation into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18–4:6).
1391 J. Smith, Jr., Teachings, 11 June 1843, p.
308.