Powers of Church Officers
Not every person nor every
holder of the priesthood is authorized to receive the transgressor's sacred
confessions of guilt. The Lord has organized an orderly and consistent program.
Every member in the Church is answerable to an ecclesiastical authority. In the
ward, it is the bishop; in the branch, a president; in the stake or in the
mission, a president; and in the higher Church echelon of authority, the
General Authorities with the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles at the
head.
The function of each is much
the same as that of the bishop, so we shall mention him particularly as showing
the pattern. The order of heaven provides that the members of the ward will
counsel with the bishop. A bishop is, by the very nature of his calling and his
ordination, a "judge in Israel." (See D&C 107:72.) The Lord has
given to the bishop, in his ordination, certain powers and authority:
And unto the bishop of the
church, and unto such as God shall appoint and ordain to watch over the church
and to be elders unto the church, are to have it given unto them to discern all
those gifts lest there shall be any among you professing and yet be not of God.
(D&C 46:27.)
Thus, none shall be exempted
from the justice and the laws of God, that all things may be done in order and
in solemnity before him, according to truth and righteousness. (D&C
107:84.)
The bishop will determine the
merits of the case. He it is who will determine by the facts, and through the
power of discernment which is his, whether the nature of the sin and the degree
of repentance manifested warrant forgiveness. He may deem the sin of sufficient
gravity, the degree of repentance sufficiently questionable, and the publicity
and harm done of such considerable proportions as to necessitate handling the case
by a Church court under the procedure outlined by the Lord. All this
responsibility rests on the bishop's shoulders. Seminary teachers, institute
directors and auxiliary and other Church workers can wield a powerful influence
on people in distress by imparting wise counsel and sympathetic understanding,
but they are without ecclesiastical authority and jurisdiction and will not
attempt to waive penalties but will send the sinner to his bishop who should
determine the degree of public confession and discipline that is necessary.
If careful consideration
indicates the necessity, action for dis-fellowshipment is taken and this denies
the blessings of Church activity and participation, though it does not deprive
the sinner of membership or priesthood. When such action is taken, it remains
for the repentant one to continue in his efforts to be faithful and prove
himself worthy to do all that he would normally be permitted to do. When this
is done sufficiently, to the satisfaction of the Church court which imposed the
penalty, generally the hand of fellowship may be restored and full activity and
participation be permitted the erring one.
But if, after all factors are
considered, the nature and seriousness of the transgression seem to the bishop
to require excommunication, the transgressor is required to stand trial before
a proper Church court to have his case considered. In the cases of male members
of the Church holding the Aaronic Priesthood or no priesthood, and all female
members of the Church, the action of a bishop's court only is required in
judgment, even including excommunication, though the higher courts may take
original jurisdiction. For holders of the Melchizedek Priesthood, a bishop's
court may give first consideration and may disfellowship only; the court must
remand the transgressor to the higher court if more drastic action is
recommended.
After the stake presidency and
high council have tried a case, if the defendant feels that justice has not
been given, or that the hearing did not give him a fair trial, he may appeal
his case to the First Presidency of the Church and the Council of the Twelve.
(See Handbook of Instructions for more detail.) (Spencer W. Kimball, The
Miracle of Forgiveness [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1969], 327-28)
Power to Bind and Loose
There are cultists who claim
that the Church might sever a person from the Church but could not affect his
eternal status or take from him the Holy Ghost or his priesthood or temple
blessings. This is but wishful thinking, for the Lord has pledged to acknowledge
the acts of his servants, and his Church is his kingdom. And when the person is
excommunicated by the bishopric, the high council, or the higher councils, it
is as though the Lord had personally with his own voice pronounced the penalty.
That this kind of authority,
reaching in its effects from this life into the future phases of eternity, was
to be a feature of the Church of Jesus Christ is clearly shown by the Savior's
words:
And I say also unto thee, That
thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it.
And I will give unto thee the
keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven. (Matt. 16:18-19.)
The Lord was speaking to
Peter, who was the chief apostle, and it is the first apostle who holds all the
keys of the priesthood. At a later time Jesus said:
Verily I say unto you,
Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye
shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matt. 18:18.)
The Prophet Joseph Smith
explains:
Now the great and grand secret
of the whole matter consists in obtaining the powers of the Holy Priesthood.
For him to whom these keys are given there is no difficulty in obtaining a
knowledge of facts in relation to the salvation of the children of men—.
Herein is glory and honor, and
immortality and eternal life—. (D&C 128:11-12.)
Bishops Remove Penalties, Not
Sins
Although there are many
ecclesiastical officers in the Church whose positions entitle and require them
to be judges, the authority of those positions does not necessarily qualify
them to forgive or remit sins. Those who can do that are extremely few in this
world.
The bishop, and others in
comparable positions, can forgive in the sense of waiving the penalties. In our
loose connotation we sometimes call this forgiveness, but it is not forgiveness
in the sense of "wiping out" or absolution. The waiver means, however,
that the individual will not need to be tried again for the same error, and
that he may become active and have fellowship with the people of the Church. In
receiving the confession and waiving the penalties the bishop is representing
the Lord. He helps to carry the burden, relieves the transgressor's strain and
tension, and assures to him a continuation of Church activity.
It is the Lord, however, who
forgives sin. This point, and the position of the bishop and comparable
officers in the matter, was brought out in the following instruction given to
bishops of the Church by President J. Reuben Clark on April 5, 1946:
I have been very much
interested in what the bishop has said about forgiveness. There is a great
principle involved there, as he indicated, and we must not, I think, conclude
that forgiveness can be obtained merely for the asking. It has come to our
attention that in one of our foreign missions boys came to the presiding
officer, admitted their sin, they confessed, they were sorry, I suppose they
wept, and he forgave them. Then they went back into the ranks, came back a
month or six weeks later, confessed again, and were again forgiven.
I do not understand that that
is the law of the Church. Sin is a terrible thing. The Lord does forgive, and
he requires us to forgive, because he has said, "I will forgive whom I
will, but of you it is required to forgive all men." We forgive them as
members of the Church and receive them back into membership and fellowship.
There is in the Church... the
power to remit sins, but I do not believe it resides in the bishops. That is a
power that must be exercised under the proper authority of the priesthood and
by those who hold the keys that pertain to that function. Woo back every
sinner. Forgive them personally. The Lord has said that. Do all you can, but
short of that formal remission the matter then rests between the transgressor
and the Lord, who is merciful, who knows all of the circumstances, who has no
disposition but to aid his children, give them comfort, guide them, and help
them. But the Lord has said, "I cannot look upon sin with the least degree
of allowance." So we leave it with him, and our prayers go with the
prayers of the transgressor that God will forgive him, but the path of the sinner
was never smooth and I believe never will he. We must pay the penalty, but
God's mercy tempers his justice. His love is boundless, his desire to see us is
infinite All of us have done something that would be better left undone. All of
us need the mercy of God and his love, and we should look at all the others,
our brothers and sisters, knowing that we, with them, have something for which
to be forgiven, but we must remember we must pay whatever the price be that the
Lord exacts.
Let it be said in emphasis
that even the First Presidency and the Apostles do not make a practice of
absolving sins. They waive penalties in the course of their ministrations. Thus
the forgiveness or waiver of penalty is not something to be taken idly or thoughtlessly
and is not to be given for a mere token effort or trial, but only for a
genuine, wholehearted repentance. Little reward can be expected for a tiny
effort to repent, for the Lord has said that it must be a total repentance
"with all his heart" and the error must be forsaken fully and wholly,
mentally as well as physically. The "filthy dreamer" of the day or
night, or an adulterer who still has desires toward the object of his sin, who
still revels in the memories of his sin, has not forsaken it "with all his
heart" as required by holy scripture. But if the repentance is total, the
scriptural "thou shalt forgive" not only is required of individuals
but seems to unlock doors even for leaders. (Ibid, 331-33)