I want to tell you, first of all, that the Spirit of God directs in our lives if we let Him, and sometimes we are not even aware of it. ... The first time that I had an experience, I didn't even realize what was happening. On Children's day at Stone Church, the children were singing "The Old Old Path." I heard a voice. The young woman who had taken me to church was hoping I would hear a rousing good sermon. Well, there was no rousing good sermon. It was children's day. But we don¹t minimize what the Lord can do. I heard a voice say, during one of those verses, "Here¹s something to investigate!"
I looked around. No one had spoken to me. They were singing another verse. I heard that voice again. It wasn¹t a loud voice, but it was a penetrating voice, "Here's something to investigate."
I looked around at the girl who had taken me to service. She was watching the children. So I listened to another verse of the song, and I heard that voice again, "Here is something to investigate."
Well, I never had experienced anything like that before. ... So I did begin to investigate. I had come from Montana, and when I returned and took my bride with me, she said to the Pastor, "Harvey, why didn't you tell Arthur about the gospel before?" And he said, "Many a time we'd be out with the groups skiing, and as I'd say to the Lord, "Now, when we ski to the bottom of this mountain and start back - climb the climb – I'm going to tell Arthur about the Gospel." The voice of the Lord would say to him, "He's not ready yet!" That¹s always haunted me to think that I wasn't ready, but God knows. He knows when we're ready. We don't push these events. And if I had time, I could tell you many times when people have said, "But my prayers aren't answered!" Oh yes. They're answered in God's own due time.
Priesthood
I learned something about Priesthood. I was very young in the work, ... a young, green Priest in the church . And a lady called me to her home. ... Julia was a married lady, and when I walked in the door with my projector and screen, and set it up to show her some slides, she said, "Sit down. I want to tell you something. I want to be baptized." I said, "But I haven't told you about the Gospel." She said, "Well let me tell you. Some months ago before you came, I saw myself being baptized by a young man, and when you walked in that door, you were that young man!" Well, that took me back, and I have never forgotten that we don¹t run before God. We wait on him, and many times, he has already prepared the way ahead of us.
Also during our time in Joplin, I was holding a series at Rich Hill ... and one morning I was awakened very early after a very vivid experience. I saw myself going into a very different part of the country, and I knew it would soon be because there was my boy who was still using a bottle to drink his milk. Coming to me away from the people seemed to be a leader, and I saw his face and countenance very distinctly. I didn't understand what this was all about until the very next year. I was released from appointment and decided to do my graduate study at Baylor University. I quickly made my arrangements and went to Waco, Texas. And that was on a Saturday night. I went to the Y, took a room and then in my prayers I said to the Lord, "Now I'm an Elder. I need to be about your work. I'm going – I've heard that there is a branch at Marlin, Texas. I'm going to get on the bus, go down there, and if that isn't right, then, I'll go from there."
So I did. I got off the bus, asked the taxi driver if he knew where the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was. He said, "Yes, that's Jim Allen's church. I'll take you there. When I got out, I heard them singing a song that sounded familiar. I went in and sat down on the home made wooden bench. I had taken my books with me and pretty soon I saw this tall Texan leave his class and come over to me and said, "You¹re an Elder, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"You'll preach for us this morning."
"Yes." He didn¹t ask me. He just began to ask me my name, where I came from. Didn't ask me for any credentials, and I wondered about that.
Well, I stood up and took out my Book of Mormon and preached from that - I could read then - and when I was through and was meeting the people, I said to a young woman, "Is everyone here that would usually be here?" and she said, "No. I have a brother who is on a baseball team. He plays baseball every Sunday. He doesn't come to church." I said, "Tell him I'd like to see him." That evening I preached again, and there he was. I looked at him, and he was that young man that I had seen back in Rich Hill, Missouri. So in a very short time I said, "Prepare yourself for Priesthood."
"Why. Brother Rock, I can't do that! I can't take on Priesthood."
I said, "No. You can't, but with the Lord's help, you can."
Well, he since then has been the District President and has his headquarters in Austin, Texas, and he has taken on his work. You see God knows, and if we just give him an opportunity, he can let us know about it and we can follow his direction.
There's something else to that story. In that same little branch in Marlin, Texas, later several men said to me, "You know we were praying that someone would come that could turn on this light for us, and one time in our prayers it was shown to us that a younger man would come in and come up on the platform and pull the string and turn on the light. We saw you come in and do that." Of course, that was God's direction. It was nothing that man had done at all. You know, it's interesting they had on their rostrum, above the pulpit, a pull light and a raw bulb, and they had seen that light pulled on.
That about Priesthood - there have many, many other times, and many of you men could testify yourself of that experience that you've had in Priesthood. I firmly believe that no man should accept his Priesthood until he is convinced and he's gone to the Lord and he knows he has a conviction about this Priesthood. It's far too valuable and important for him to do anything else. He should never take it because man has called him. He must be sure that God has called him for this Priesthood.
Records
Now I want to talk a minute about records. ... The 85th section of the Doctrine and Covenants and Revelation the 20th chapter are concerned with our standing before God, and the books were opened - books, plural - and then the book of life. So you see it was very distinctive. Well, at the present time we have three books, the Inspired Version of the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants.
I had only been in the church - oh, I'd been baptized about three months. I had just come here from Montana ... and was working in Kansas City. I came home that evening. I was going to a prayer meeting at Stone Church. I lay down for just a little rest, when there opened before me this vision. I found myself standing in what we call a dry wash or a gully in the mountains and sensing the Spirit of God so strong I knew I was only there because the Spirit of God had allowed it. ... It was like an unseen hand rolled back the vegetation - thick vegetation - I saw myself standing before the mouth of a cave - a shallow cave - and there was a stone slab on four pillars of stone. And on that stone slab were what appeared to be records. I peered at them, and saw that some were curled on the edges - looked like they were hammered metal. Others looked like stone. Others looked like they were leather, and I was wondering about this when the voice of intelligence said to me, "These are the records of all the ages."
Well, I have never forgotten that, because when I see men tampering with the records of God, and putting their interpretation on it, it worries me, because God has put forth his records and hidden them up and the records tell us that they will be coming forth - additional records - will be coming forth. Somebody is going to be embarrassed when they've changed those records. Now on that I stand firm and testify. And I don't want to be embarrassed. I don't want your living Bible. I don't want a lot of these Bibles. I want the Word of God, and it's interesting, you find the word for God in the very beginning of Genesis in the ancient Hebrew. ... We don't have to look ahead or take modern interpretations. Go back and see what God said to those early prophets who took him at his word, and wrote it down.
Bob Baker had a similar experience of seeing these records, but after he heard my experience, he couldn't understand it. That part of the country where he and others believed that some of these records might be in Mexico, there isn't anything that looks like dry wash or stones that are uncovered. Then, there was a picture taken of a mountain and the bluff that juts out there, and I could see enough to say to one of the men, "Why didn't you go up into that area?"
He said, "That's interesting that you should ask. You can't get there except by rope ladder or helicopter. It's a very protected area."
Well, in later years, they've taken another picture of that area, and they looked, and some of the vegetation had been scraped away. There had been an earthquake. God can bring that to pass. We don't have to worry. He's going to hide up His records until they come forth in their own due time. The records are true. And they tell us some very, very interesting things.
Apostasy
There was another time, in the mid sixties, that I heard a voice. It seems I was in a large building. I'm not going to describe it too carefully, but I saw men leaving their posts of duty. Now this deals with Priesthood. And the voice of intelligence, said to me, "These men are through. They¹ve done all they could to lead the people to the foolish teachings of men." I didn¹t quite understand in the mid sixties just what this was. There were many other details. And so this was Priesthood apparently who took the teachings of men rather than the teachings of God, and the day would come when they would be through.
As I walked out the door (of that building), I saw a group of men in close formation, dressed in very simple green uniforms with just a simple bill cap. I didn't quite understand, because in the mid sixties there was a lot of militancy that we were hearing about, and I was hesitant to walk through their ranks when all at once the leader motioned and they parted and I walked through safely.
I contemplated what that could have meant for - oh some weeks. ... It has occurred to me in the intervening years, those were the men that God had prepared to carry on His work, symbolic - the simplicity of the men, the strength they had, the age they were, the determination they had would carry on God¹s work, and those who were walking out didn't even know they were around.
These seem like simple illustrations to us, but really, in the intervening years, I've begun to understand more and more - when people would say to me, "What would happen if the Priesthood would walk away from Christ's church?" Well, I remember a scripture that the gates of hell shall not prevail. And many others that Christ¹s church will remain.
I was concerned when I saw back in the mid sixties in this very vivid experience I had. I walked the streets and I stood beside some vehicles and there were representatives of our people in those vehicles. As they looked around they saw they were captured by the enemy, and the voice of intelligence said to me, "These people will lose their souls over this!" And I was deeply concerned, and in prayer. Further than that I began to walk upon the street, I met a sister Mormon who's not living now, and I looked beyond her and she was crying softly. As she put her arm over my shoulder she said, "Oh, Brother Rock, I¹m so happy that some of the Priesthood stayed with the Gospel!" Sounds like we may have a time of falling away, and I concluded that was what I was seeing at that time.
In this next experience, some years after his death, I saw Evan Fry in a book store back in the stacks, way in the back of the store. The front was full of - oh - gifts and all kinds of brick-a-brack and matter. And he was weeping softly. His wife was with him. Dorothy said to him, "There's Arthur." He didn't answer at all. He just wept softly. For a few years I couldn't bring myself to walk into that store. When I did walk in, it was as I saw it in my experience. The scriptures were put way on the back shelf somewhere. Some of them were missing. God knows what man will do even though we say, "Is this predestination?" No, not a bit! He has given us our agency. .... .
A few years later, I walked into another building. I won't give you all the details of it, but it was designated as a headquarters building. And I saw a few of the Priesthood gathering some very precious material out of the books and there was an editor standing ready to take that material, and the voice of intelligence said to me, "This is for the reteaching of the people." Exact words, "For the reteaching of the people!" The people in this country will have to be taught the Gospel again, many of them - not all - for the scriptures tell us that there will be a remnant. Now a remnant is a very small group of people, that will be left. This has always concerned me very much.
World Affairs
As I see the scriptures - Ezekiel the thirty eighth and the thirty ninth chapters, I realize that this is already just about to burst forth that that king of the north will come in with his great hordes on little old Israel, and it even names Syria and other countries will join with the one from the north, and that's when God will show his hand. You read it in the thirty eighth and the thirty ninth chapter of Ezekiel. And don't let it give you the horrors at all. Because you know what it says there - I think it says about 85 percent of that great army and all her satellites will be lost. And there'll only be a third of Israel left. And then, during that time, that one from the north with all her satellites will look to the country without walls and will have an evil thought. Who's the country without walls? The United States. "But my people will I preserve."
You know the scriptures have always fascinated me. There's always an answer. There's always a hope. I know that we do watch for signs, and I suggest just by way of brevity now, that you read your scriptures. I know it's not a very popular thing today, but that's a blueprint. I've always claimed in my some forty years of ministry that the scripture is the blue print. You know Hitler had his blueprint - Mein Kampe. No body paid any attention to it. He followed it to the letter. Don't you think God has a blueprint for his people? He certainly has, and He¹s given it to us in His scriptures.
Healing
I want to just relate a bit about the laying on of hands for the healing of the sick. I heard a class this morning by Jim Robbins and also a sermon at eleven o'clock by him. He's been like a son to us. About a year ago, he had surgery for cancer. I don't recall. Maybe he only has a third of his stomach left. And the doctors said to him, "You¹ll need to have whatever treatment - and he said, "I'm not going to take it."
"You'll only live a short time," he was told. I was called to the San with others to administer to him. When I arrived, I didn't have that heavy feeling. We laid our hands on him. We prayed for him, and when we were through, I thought, "This isn't right! I should be devastated because the doctor has said that he wouldn't live very long." A few days later he went home. I don't think he had enough insurance to keep him in the hospital. But when he was at home on his bed he said, "Shut the door, Arthur." So I did. And I said, "First I want to tell you something, Jim. You know what you've meant to me along with my children. And I told him the experience at the hospital, and I said, "I couldn¹t feel badly about this. I don't know what's the matter. Why don't I feel just devastated?"
"Well", he said, "Maybe I can throw a little light on it for you. Now I realize I know what the doctors told me. I won't live, but at this time I turned my life around, and I gave my life over completely to God. Whether I live, I live unto Him. Whether I die, I die unto Him."
Now, that's scriptural. That fellow right now is preaching his third sermon today, and he's lived. I don't know how long he's going to live, and that doesn't matter. He's doing what God wants him to do.
God's in his heaven, and Jesus Christ will return to the earth, and of course, I'd like to see him, at least from afar off, I'd like to see him. But it doesn't really matter. That may happen some day. I know it will at the time when he returns and our bodies are made perfect and whole.
Life After Death
I want to speak just a moment about the Spirit returning to God who gave it. We have a very distinctive teaching in the Restoration church, and it is that the Spirit and the body compose the soul of man. I was ill in the Sanitarium with a kidney stone, and in the night I had this very vivid experience of seeing this nurse, and I recognized who it was - seeing like an unseen hand taking her spirit away, and I saw her earthly body prone on the floor. And that spiritual body was most beautiful, not anything to be desired, but shimmering and beautiful with personality, and then I was reminded that God, who gives life takes it - takes the spirit back to him. She was in the hospital with terminal cancer. Her room was near mine. Her nurse wheeled her into my room the next morning, and I guess I must have had a very shocked and surprised look on my face. She said, "Brother Rock, are you all right?"
"Yes". I didn¹t tell her this experience. Two weeks later she was dead, and I was asked to speak at her service, and I told the experience. It meant a great deal to me, because it verifies scriptures that we have. The spirit will return to God who gave it. Life is one eternal round. There is the spirit world before we come here. We have this third part of our life, and then we're taken back to God who gave it. That's over simplification, but this I'm sure of it.
Seventeen years ago ... I had this very vivid experience. I saw my mother as she was in the hospital in Missoula, Montana. I saw when her life left her, and I saw standing a little ways off, my grandmother and a little girl. And then I remembered that my mother had lost a little sister. I motioned for them to wait and motioned for the nurse to wait while I offered a prayer before they came for mother. I awoke in the morning and wrote that prayer down verbatim. Now that was seventeen years ago. My mother's still living. She's in a rest home, not too well. At the time I asked them to wait, she had never been baptized except sprinkled in the Methodist church. Since that time, I have had the privilege of baptizing her and confirming her - offering the confirming prayer. I feel assured her spirit will go back to God who gave it. You see, very simple illustrations, but they verify for us some of the teachings that we have.
Zion
... The 85th section of the Doctrine and Covenants and in Revelation it speaks concerning life after death and that Zion will be established and it will be a Celestial way of life, and it will be on the earth. The earth will be restored as it was before. Great hope for our people if we watch for the signs in the scriptures.
Many things I could testify, and I trust I have testified of some. Zion will be! It will be in Jerusalem, that Holy City, and will be in the New Zion here. Christ will return and walk among his people. He'll come as a thief in the night and set in order, and then he'll come in a glorious coming. Of this I am sure, Zion will be. My Patriarchal blessing said to me, "You¹ll live to see the day when men in high places will fall because of their wickedness. In that day, you watch and wait and see what happens." But that wasn't all. I was told if faithful, I would stand with the Saints in Zion. Zion will be. That I can testify!
Good Counsel
I'm grateful for these experiences even though they're hard sometimes to see this happen in the lives of people. I can only say, "You men of the Priesthood, stand firm with the teachings of the scriptures because the day is coming, and it can't be far away, when we'll return to the fulness of the gospel, and the people will have to be taught again as many of us were taught by the Spirit." Wasn't it Paul who said, "I wasn't taught of men." No foolish teachings of men taught him. He was taught by the power of the Holy Ghost, and that's the only way we can be taught.
And I pray that no matter what your discouragement may be, or how you may feel or how other people may feel, go back to your scriptures. Go back to your prayers. Go down on your knees. Ask of God, and you'll be amazed and surprised at the power that will flood over you, and you'll know of a surety that God is and that Jesus Christ is his only begotten son, and He will return to claim his own. I pray we can be His own!
[top]