LDS Quotes on Revelation
“While I believe all that God has revealed, I am not quite sure I understand what he has revealed, and the fact that God has promised further revelation is to me a challenge to keep an open mind and be prepared to follow wherever my search for truth may lead.”
| "A Final Testimony"
“It is my duty to say to you that the need was never greater for new revelation than now…The doctrine of inspiration is lost. Miracles, prophecy, the holy life, exist as ancient history [only]. Men have come to speak of revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead. It is the office of a true teacher to show us that God is, not was; that He speaketh, not spake.”
| The Complete Essays and Other Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Most frequently, revelation comes in small increments over time and is granted according to our desire, worthiness, and preparation.
“Most books contained in libraries of the world were authored for contemporary readers. And they were generally written for profit, with royalties accruing from successful sales.
“Not so with the Book of Mormon. It was written anciently for our day. It reveals the endless Lordship of Jesus Christ in accounts of two ancient American dispensations, preserved for the benefit of us who live in this dispensation of the fulness of times. Certainly no royalties came to its authors. In fact, they paid dearly for their privilege of participation. What motivated them? Their devotion to God! The book’s four major writers—Nephi, Jacob, Mormon, and Moroni —were all eyewitnesses of the Lord, as was its martyred translator, the Prophet Joseph Smith.”
| "A Testimony of the Book of Mormon," Conference October 1999
“Joseph Smith [as a young man] could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter; let alone dictat[e] a book like the Book of Mormon.”
| in “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” 290.
“There seem, in fact, to be only two views we can hold about awe. Either it is a mere twist in the human mind, corresponding to nothing objective and serving no biological function, yet showing no tendency to disappear from that mind at its fullest development in poet, philosopher, or saint: or else, it is a direct experience of the really supernatural, to which the name Revelation might properly be given…
“This consciousness is neither a logical, nor an illogical, inference from the facts of experience; if we did not bring it to our experience we could not find in there. It is either inexplicable illusion, or else revelation.”
There are those within the Church who are disturbed when changes are made with which they disagree or when changes they propose are not made. They point to these as evidence that the leaders are not inspired. They write and speak to convince others that the doctrines and decisions of the Brethren are not given through inspiration.
Two things characterize them: they are always irritated by the word obedience, and always they question revelation. It has always been so. Helaman described those who “began to disbelieve in the spirit of prophecy and in the spirit of revelation; and the judgments of God did stare them in the face” (Helaman 4:23). “They were left in their own strength” (4:13), and “the Spirit of the Lord did no more preserve them; yea, it had withdrawn from them” (4:24). Changes in organization or procedures are a testimony that revelation is ongoing. While doctrines remain fixed, the methods or procedures do not.
| Ensign, November 1989, p. 15
“It seems to me an unreasonable thing, to suppose that there should be a God that has so much concern for us…and yet that he should never speak; that there should be no word [from him].”
| The Works of Jonathan Edwards
“[There were persons during medieval times who] “could commune with God, and who, by the power of faith, could draw aside the curtain of eternity and gaze upon the invisible world . . . , have the ministering of angels, and unfold the future destinies of the world. If those were dark ages I pray God to give me a little darkness, and deliver me from the light and intelligence that prevail in our day.”
| Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool: F. D. Richards & Sons, 1851–86), 16:197
“Revelation is the blessing that facilitates every other blessing, . . . blessings that are not had through any other way. [The promise is an] abundance of everything that God has given, that we would never be wont that way. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s in quantity, but it’s just so incredible having our eyes opened and having that kind of direction in our life.”
| Sabbath Sanctification: A Tithing of Our Time, an Offering unto the Lord