Orson Pratt

“ ONE OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
The kingdom of God is an order of government established by divine authority. It is the only legal government that can exist in any part of the universe. All other governments are illegal and unauthorized. God, having made all beings and worlds, has the supreme right to govern them by his own laws, and by officers of his own appointment. Any people attempting to govern themselves by laws of their own making, and by officers of their own appointment, are in direct rebellion against the kingdom of God. ”

“ The vast majority of mankind made war against it—overcame, killed, and destroyed its officers and loyal subjects, until not a vestige of it was left remaining on the earth. For seventeen hundred years the nations upon the eastern hemisphere have been entirely destitute of the "kingdom of God"—entirely destitute of a true and legal government—entirely destitute of officers legally authorized to rule and govern. ”

“ The kingdom of God is a theocracy. And as it is the only form of government which will redeem and save mankind, it is necessary that every soul should be rightly and thoroughly instructed in regard to its nature and general characteristics. ”

“ God is the King. In him exists all legal authority. He alone has the right of originating a system of government on the earth. He claims this right by virtue of his having made man and the earth he inhabits. Man, therefore, is indebted to God for his own formation and for the formation of the planet on which he dwells. He also claims the right of establishing his government among men, by virtue of his superior wisdom and power. If God had sufficient wisdom and power to construct such a beautiful world as this, with all the infinite varieties of vegetables and animals appended to it ”

“ Each atom of the Holy Spirit is intelligent, and like all other matter has solidity, form, and size, and occupies space. ”

“ An impostor, like Simon Magus, may deceive ignorant people by witchcraft and sorcery, but he can never deceive them by pretending to give the Holy Ghost through prayer and laying on of hands. This is a power that none but a true minister of God possesses; it cannot be counterfeited by the devil. The devil can counterfeit the miracles of Christ, but he cannot counterfeit the gift of the Holy Ghost. None but the lawful ministers of Christ can minister the spirit. This then is an infallible sign by which to distinguish true apostles from false ones. ”

“ The antediluvians were overthrown by a flood, because they rejected the government of the Almighty, and instituted their own governments in its stead. Noah and his family were the only loyal and obedient subjects to the legal power: they alone were saved. The universal desolation and utter abolishment of all the unauthorized man-made governments of the old world, should have been an everlasting warning to all future generations to avoid the same rebellion, and to establish no governments on the earth of human origin. ”

“ God the Father and God the Son cannot be everywhere present; indeed they cannot be even in two places at the same instant; but God the Holy Spirit is omnipresent—it extends through all space, intermingling with all other matter, yet no one atom of the Holy Spirit can be in two places at the same instant, which in all cases is an absolute impossibility. ”

“ No finite number of atoms can be omnipresent; an infinite number of atoms is requisite to be everywhere in infinite space. Two persons receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, do not each receive at the same time the same identical particles, though they each receive a substance exactly similar in kind. It would be as impossible for each to receive the same identical atoms at the same instant, as it would be for two men at the same time to drink the same identical pint of water. It is these three all-powerful substances that stand at the head of all legal government. ”

“ God is the King. In him exists all legal authority. ”

“ You need not expect that the true God will make any reply to petitions offered to any other being.
The true God exists both in time and in space, and has as much relation to them as man or any other being. He has extension, and form, and dimensions, as well as man. He occupies space; has a body, parts, and passions; can go from place to place—can eat, drink, and talk, as well as man. Man resembles him in the features and form of his body, and he does not differ materially in size. When he has been seen among men, he has been pronounced, even by the wicked, as one of their own species. ”

“ You are not yet a child of the kingdom. Know assuredly, that unless you find some man who has been sent by the command of God as was Aaron, and get him to remit your sins through your faith, repentance, and baptism, and have him to minister to you the Holy Ghost, as did the ancient apostles—you need not flatter yourself that you can be saved. Do not deceive yourself upon this all-important subject. Do not suffer any man to baptize or administer unto you unless God has spoken unto him by the voice of his servants, and authorized him to minister in his name. ”

“ At various times, during the last four thousand years, God has asserted his rights, and endeavoured to establish his own authority, his own laws, and his own government among the children of men. ”

“ Hence we can perceive the propriety of Jesus commanding them to wait "at Jerusalem until they should be endued with power from on high;" for without this additional power they could neither save themselves nor others. Many persons have flattered themselves, that they can be saved without the assistance of a minister sent of God. But this is a vain delusive hope; for Jesus hath expressly said, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Now as no man can be saved out of the kingdom, it is necessary that he should be "born" into the kingdom ”

“ The Godhead consists of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is a material being. ”

“ Morality is a property of some being or substance. A property without a substance or being to which it appertains is inconceivable. A property can never have figure, shape, or image of any kind. Hence, a moral image never had an existence except in the brains of modern idolators. ”

“ A "spirit" is as much matter as oxygen or hydrogen. It has many properties in common with all other matter. Chemists have discovered between fifty and sixty kinds of matter; and each kind has some properties in common with all other matter, and some properties peculiar to itself which the others do not inherit. Now, no chemist, in classifying his substances, would presume to say, This substance is material, but that one is immaterial, because it differs in some respects from the first. ”

“ It is only in a popular and improper sense that any such affirmation is made concerning the Infinite Spirit, or that we speak of God as every where present. God is in every place in a sense, altogether incomprehensible by finite minds, inasmuch as his relation to space and extension is peculiar to infinitude. Using the terms as we use them of ourselves, God is not here or there, any more than he exists now and then. ”

“ The Father is a material being. The substance of which he is composed is wholly material. It is a substance widely different in some respects from the various substances with which we are more immediately acquainted. In other respects it is precisely like all other materials. The substance of his person occupies space the same as other matter. ”

“ All persons who shall suffer themselves to be baptized, or partake of these ordinances through the administration of these illegal unauthorized persons, after having been duly warned of the evil thereof, will bring themselves under great condemnation before God, and unless they repent of that sin they can in no wise be saved. The twelve apostles were called by new revelation, but that did not authorize Paul, Barnabas, Timothy, or any other person. Each one had to receive a separate call by new revelation for himself. No one could lawfully act under a commission given to some other person. ”

“ The Holy Spirit being one part of the Godhead, is also a material substance, of the same nature and properties in many respects, as the spirits of the Father and Son. It exists in vast immeasurable quantities in connexion with all material worlds. This is called God in the scriptures, as well as the Father and Son. God the Father and God the Son cannot be everywhere present ”

“ An order of government, established by such an all-wise, powerful being, must be good and perfect, and must be calculated to promote the permanent peace, happiness, and well-being of all his subjects. ”

“ It must exist in inexhaustible quantities, which is the only possible way for any substance to be omnipresent. All the innumerable phenomena of universal nature are produced in their origin by the actual presence of this intelligent, all-wise, and all-powerful material substance called the Holy Spirit. ”

“ So the substance called spirit is material, though it differs in a remarkable degree from other substances. It is only the addition of another element of a more powerful nature than any yet discovered. He is not a being "without parts," as modern idolators teach; for every whole is made up of parts. The whole person of the Father consists of innumerable parts ”

“ If any person would have authority, let them obtain a new commission from God, as his servants always did in ancient times, and if they officiate without such new commission, then know assuredly that they are impostors. ”

“ The two persons were as much alike in form, in size, and in every other respect as fathers and sons are of the human race; indeed, the human race are "his offspring," made in his likeness and image, not after his moral image, but after the image of his person. There is no such thing as moral image. ”

“ Dear reader, your future well-being in all time to come, depends upon your rightly understanding these seven subjects. Read, therefore, with serious attention, and your mind shall be opened to see things that you never saw before; things too of infinite importance, without which you can in no wise be saved. ”

“ It is the most active matter in the universe, producing all its operations according to fixed definite laws enacted by itself, in conjunction with the Father and Son. What are called the laws of nature are nothing more nor less than the fixed method by which this spiritual matter operates. ”

“ If several of the atoms of this Spirit should unite themselves together into the form of a person, then this person of the Holy Spirit would be subject to the same necessity as the two other persons of the Godhead, that is, it could not be everywhere present. ”

“ Their authority is all assumed—it originated in man. Their laws are not from the Great Lawgiver, but the productions of their own false governments. Their very foundations were laid in rebellion, and the whole superstructure, from first to last, is a heterogeneous mass of discordant elements, in direct opposition to the kingdom of God, which is the only true government which should be recognized on earth or in heaven. ”