Gift of Prophecy

Gift of Prophecy

Gift of Prophecy
Mormon History Related

"Who could deny that [Joseph Smith] was blessed with the gift of prophecy? 'Elder John A. Widtsoe, after making a study of the Doctrine and Covenants, concluded that it contains nearly eleven hundred statements about the future. If one extends beyond the Doctrine and Covenants to other scripture, to the personal promises the Prophet gave in blessings, to comments made in sermons, to his counsels in the midst of his own brethren and sometimes in private and sacred circumstances, and to predictions he wrote in letters, they would far exceed that eleven hundred' (Madsen, Joseph Smith the Prophet, 37)."The Prophet Joseph Smith said, for example: 'Brethren, I have been very much edified and instructed in your testimonies tonight, but I want to say to you before the Lord, that you know no more concerning the destinies of this church and kingdom than a babe upon its mother's lap. . . . This church will fill North and South America?it will fill the world' (quoted by Wilford Woodruff in The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff [1946], 38?39)."Elder George A. Smith of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles recalled hearing the Prophet once say 'that we may build as many houses as we would, and we should never get one big enough to hold the Saints' (Deseret News Weekly, 27 June 1855, 123). How true that is as we see the growth of the Church today."
-- L. Tom Perry, "By the Hands of His Prophets," Ensign, Aug. 1998, 51