Monday, January 8, 2024

John A. Widtsoe on the Importance of the Priesthood in Latter-day Saint Theology

  

The Lord has given us the promise of salvation, <and> He <has> also has made clear the conditions of salvation. The first condition of salvation, as laid down in modern revelation, is the acceptance of the plan of salvation—the plan of which we have spoken several times in these talks, the plan formulated by God in the heavens above. The <plan> must be accepted. There is no possibility of salvation outside of that <it;> which of course is a self-evident proposition if it be true that salvation is tied up eternally with the Priesthood, because the Priesthood is connected definitely and organically with the plan of salvation. That means that Those who want to be saved, those who desire to achieve salvation, must accept Jesus Christ. There can be no salvation without <otherwise> the acceptance of Jesus Christ. The revelations are very clear on that subject. And, as I have said already, a condition of salvation is that those who achieve it must be in possession of the Priesthood, or in some way be made partakers of it, even though their suborn wills may not wholly receive all that is included in the plan of salvation under the authority of the Priesthood. (John A. Widtsoe, Lecture 5, “The Meaning of Salvation,” February 10, 1938, Modern Revelations and Modern Questions, 3)