"Ye Shall See the Salvation of God!"

A revelation through Apostle Joseph Luff*

Apostle Joseph Luff Quorum of Twelve 1887–1909

UNTO THOSE WHO HAVE EARS TO HEAR:

Your zeal for my cause is pleasing unto me and your present travail for my Church shall bring forth according to my pleasure, for wheresoever my law is in honor and my ordinances are held as a sacred thing, even as they were delivered unto you from the beginning, behold there is my Church; and he that imagineth change in them hath not known me, for I change not, and my ordinances are my witness.

Whoso laboreth to maintain the integrity of these among my people confesseth me as his Lord; but he that varieth therefrom, seeketh not to build up my Kingdom, but his own.

I called forth a people from the world in these last days and entrusted them with treasures from heaven, that they might be agents unto me—that through them I might achieve in my own way, and that the glory of my purpose might appear; but I have not been trusted, nor have my provisions been accounted sufficient, and my people have returned to the world for their equipment and to make effective their instruments of accomplishment.

They have mingled my sacred things with their carnal selections. They have made of my house a resort for pleasure. They have employed the revenues of my Church to promote pursuits that are secular and interests for which no provision is made in my law. They have sought to embellish my provisions and the creations of my will with the inventions of their own imagination, until I am nowhere to be found amid the spectacles of their performance in the separateness of my own attire, and I have no longer a peculiar people on the earth who are content with me as I am and as I have revealed myself. My covenant with many has been counted insufficient, and for purposes outside of my gospel’s intent, they have adopted the vows of other shrines and pledged themselves in secret places where I cannot be found.

I have heard your cries unto me and it is my will to deliver. My means are available and sufficient; but who will be content therewith and permit me to glorify myself in them after the manner of my preference? Ye have prayed that my Kingdom may come and my will be done among you as it is done in heaven, and in this ye do well; but who shall be your instructor in these things? Who hath knowledge of things as they are done in heaven, or who, better than your Heavenly Father, can perform on earth what He hath accomplished in heaven? If His law and ordinances are sufficient in heaven, shall they prove insufficient if honored on earth?

Ye would be loyal to me and therefore have arisen against usurpation by man in my Church. Blessed are ye in so doing, and if ye will be consistent in this my favor shall attend you, for ye have had great occasion. But remember, ye are but reaping today what ye sowed on yesterday, for had ye been as zealous of my house and mine ordinances heretofore, then the ears of those entering my house would not have been saluted (by your consent) with sounds of revelry and mirth and human dogmas and philosophy, nor their eyes with spectacles of carnal display which seek but to entertain; but rather with those things which I delivered unto my Church from heaven, to be used for my glory—those things which voice only holiness unto the Lord and wherein your discipleship to me is revealed. Such is my gospel purpose, for therein have I revealed myself, as I wish men to behold me, and as I wish to be revealed in them—and this for my glory in their sanctification.

If unto one belongs the right to lessen the sacredness of any of my institutions, then belongs it also unto another to pervert the purposes of my law as his inclinations or ambitions may lead. For if ye consent that the soil be corrupted to grow the weed of your selection, then be not surprised if the thistle and thorn of your discomfort shall later appear.

Know ye not that the field is mine and the seed given for your sowing is from heaven? If therefore ye desire God’s Kingdom, as it is in heaven, among you, plant only the seed wherein alone the desired fruit is found. If ye desire celestial harvest, purge yourselves of terrestrial longings and set your affections on things above.

The policies and assumptions against which you proclaim shall not prevail, for I am jealous of my law. And whom I shall permit to occupy must minister as a servant, even as did your Lord, for I alone am supreme; and if my people shall be agreed in holding my word and ordinances in honor and shall keep themselves pure before me, and preserve my tabernacles in the holiness unto which they have by formality dedicated them, ye shall see the salvation of God and that speedily (Concerning Our Whereabouts, pp.10–11; italics added).

*While this revelation is so appropriate for our time, please note it was received April 5, 1925.

Books by Joseph Luff—Concerning Our Whereabouts, The Old Jerusalem Gospel,  Autobiography of Elder Joseph Luff, and others—are available for purchase at the bookstore and online.