Animal Sacrifice Restored

[Canadaigua]

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 172-173; History of the Church 4:210-212.

 

"Sacrifice to Be Part of Restoration

It will be necessary here to make a few observations on the doctrine set forth in the above quotation, and it is generally supposed that sacrifice was entirely done away when the Great Sacrifice [i.e.,] the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus was offered up, and that there will be no necessity for the ordinance of sacrifice in future; but those who assert this are certainly not acquainted with the duties, privileges and authority of the Priesthood, or with the Prophets.

The offering of sacrifice has ever been connected and forms a part of the duties of the Priesthood. It began with the Priesthood, and will be continued until after the coming of Christ, from generation to generation. We frequently have mention made of the offering of sacrifice by the servants of the Most High in ancient days, prior to the law of Moses; which ordinances will be continued when the Priesthood is restored with all its authority, power and blessings.…

All Ordinances Restored

These sacrifices, as well as every ordinance belonging to the Priesthood, will, when the Temple of the Lord shall be built, and the sons of Levi be purified, be fully restored and attended to in all their powers, ramifications, and blessings. This ever did and ever will exist when the powers of the Melchizedek Priesthood are sufficiently manifest; else how can the restitution of all things spoken of by the Holy Prophets be brought to pass? It is not to be understood that the law of Moses will be established again with all its rites and variety of ceremonies; this has never been spoken of by the prophets; but those things which existed prior to Moses' day, namely, sacrifice, will be continued.

It may be asked by some, what necessity for sacrifice, since the Great Sacrifice was offered? In answer to which, if repentance, baptism, and faith existed prior to the days of Christ, what necessity for them since that time? The Priesthood has descended in a regular line from father to son, through their succeeding generations. (See Book of Doctrine and Covenants.) (October 5, 1840.) HC 4:207-212."

 

 

This topic came up in another thread and there was a brief discussion on it but that thread was closed prior to really having a good discussion on this specific topic.  I am starting a new thread on this because this is a fascinating topic and I would love to learn more about how this will play out within the LDS church.

 

Do LDS believe that they will be the ones who will restore animal sacrifice in the future?

Edited December 18, 2014 by Canadaigua

[3DOP]

Not animal sacrifices. Our bodies as a "living sacrifice", per St. Paul, Canadaigua. (Rom 12:2) And "spiritual sacrifices", per St. Peter: "Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." (I Pet. 2:9)

 

Although Mormons don't agree with us Catholics whose priests offer the "Holy Sacrifice of the Mass", I am glad that they have apparently seen that sacrifice is the essence of priestly activity. On that it appears we agree. Thank you for the great quote from the LDS Prophet. No...it isn't about animals. But maybe you are a dispensational Protestant? Even if you aren't, the only Christians I have ever heard of that think animal sacrifices are on their way back are Protestants.

http://dispensationalist.blogspot.com/2011/03/animal-sacrifices-in-millennium.html

Edited December 18, 2014 by 3DOP

[The Nehor]

We have to find a red heifer first.

[strappinglad]

We have to find a red heifer first.

They thought they had one a few years back , but they found a couple of pesky white hairs on it .

[Robert F. Smith]

We have to find a red heifer first.

Yeh, that gets the ball rolling, since only the ashes of a red heifer can purify the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  However, the Jews will take care of that when the time comes, after which they will build a new temple there and begin offering the full panoply of old fashioned sacrifices, in accord with Malachi 3:3 (D&C 13:1).  The priests among the Jews in Israel have been preparing for it for years already.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB8W0cLM9uA

 

http://www.templeinstitute.org/multimedia.htm

 

The Great LDS Temple in the "New Jerusalem," will be built on the Temple Lot in Independence, Missouri, in the Center Stake of Zion.  Perhaps at the same time that the Temple in Jerusalem is being built by the Jews.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Robert F. Smith

[mfbukowski]

We have to find a red heifer first.

I have known a few of...... oh, never mind.

[Canadaigua]

Not animal sacrifices. Our bodies as a "living sacrifice", per St. Paul, Canadaigua. (Rom 12:2) And "spiritual sacrifices", per St. Peter: "Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." (I Pet. 2:9)

 

Although Mormons don't agree with us Catholics whose priests offer the "Holy Sacrifice of the Mass", I am glad that they have apparently seen that sacrifice is the essence of priestly activity. On that it appears we agree. Thank you for the great quote from the LDS Prophet. No...it isn't about animals. But maybe you are a dispensational Protestant? Even if you aren't, the only Christians I have ever heard of that think animal sacrifices are on their way back are Protestants.

http://dispensationalist.blogspot.com/2011/03/animal-sacrifices-in-millennium.html

The quotes from your leaders are speaking about animal sacrifices.

 

So the question remains is that something that the LDS church plans on restoring or have they backed away from this teaching?

[3DOP]

The quotes from your leaders are speaking about animal sacrifices.

 

So the question remains is that something that the LDS church plans on restoring or have they backed away from this teaching?

 

I have never heard of Mormons proposing that there will be a return to the spilling of the blood of bulls and goats. Your quotes are all I have ever heard from Mormons on this subject and your quote is insufficient to establish that Mormons are looking forward to happy times when they can return to the slaughter of animals to appease God. I have offered a New Testament alternative form of sacrifice which seems more likely to me than that. The quote from "my leaders" denies that the formal Mosaic rites of animal sacrifice will be restored: 

 

"It is not to be understood that the law of Moses will be established again with all its rites and variety of ceremonies; this has never been spoken of by the prophets; but those things which existed prior to Moses' day, namely, sacrifice, will be continued."

 

 

 

  

[Kenngo1969]

Never backed away from it to my knowledge:  It's reiterated in Doctrine & Covenants 13: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/13?lang=eng

[Duncan]

Do whatever you want, I am still going to eat KFC, that's the animal sacrifice I want

[Kenngo1969]

Do whatever you want, I am still going to eat KFC, that's the animal sacrifice I want

C'mon, Duncan!  Get with the program!  You're only s'pose to eat the sacrifice if you're a priest!

[Duncan]

C'mon, Duncan!  Get with the program!  You're only s'pose to eat the sacrifice if you're a priest!

 

 

been a priest since 1994-i'm covered!

[HappyJackWagon]

We live during a time of continuing restoration (as Uchtdorf put it) and Joseph Smith believed in the restoration of ALL things. This was important in his teachings about plural marriage. So if the restored gospel is intended to restore ALL things, even including things like polygamy, then why would we think animal sacrifice wouldn't be included?

[thesometimesaint]

We live during a time of continuing restoration (as Uchtdorf put it) and Joseph Smith believed in the restoration of ALL things. This was important in his teachings about plural marriage. So if the restored gospel is intended to restore ALL things, even including things like polygamy, then why would we think animal sacrifice wouldn't be included?

 

Non sequitur.

 

We still believe in sacrifice. We dedicate our lives to following Christ. To be a witness for him in all that we do, in all places, and at all time. To sacrifice all that we own, and will own, all of our time, talents, energies, including our very lives if necessary to the building up of his kingdom.

[Calm]

I am not personally arguing this, just providing it as a POV I've seen...

There is a need to restore practices that are not taught as having fulfilled their purpose in the past, there is no need to restore works that have been completed. Animal sacrifice was to teach Israel to look forward to Christ, now there is the Atonement itself to better teach the principle needing to be restored (taught in its fulness).

One could also reason practices like circumcision are now restored/taught through the Endowment and other covenants received.

In essence, all the principles of the Gospel need be restored or taught in their fulness once again or revealed in that fulness the first time, only practices that continue to best teach those principles need to be restored themselves though.

Edited December 18, 2014 by calmoriah

[teddyaware]

The quotes from your leaders are speaking about animal sacrifices.

 

So the question remains is that something that the LDS church plans on restoring or have they backed away from this teaching?

 

The restored sacrifices the Prophet Joseph Smith was speaking of are the "living sacrifices" mentioned by the Apostle Paul. The ordinance of baptism is one of these living sacrifices, whereby the 'initiate' symbolically gives up his or her life and is buried (in water) in the likeness of the death and burial of Christ.

 

But more particularly, the Prophet Joseph Smith was referring to the living sacrifices that take place every working day in the temples of the Latter-day Saints. Along the same lines of symbology found in the ordinance of baptism, the ordinances of the LDS temples are designed to empower the Latter-day Saints to offer up themselves as living sacrifices acceptable to God.

 

The Latter-day Saints also believe baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost (the companion ordinance to water baptism which is in the likeness of glorious resurrection from sacrificial death) and the holy temple ordinances of living sacrifice existed during the Patriarchal period, prior to the advent of the Law of Moses which was "added because of transgressions." In our temples, we Latter-day Saints are clearly and unambiguously taught that sacrifice by the shedding of blood ended with the with the death of Christ, but we are also taught that the offering up our lives in symbolic ordinances of "living sacrifice" would continue.

 

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Paul)

Edited December 18, 2014 by teddyaware

[CV75]

Do LDS believe that they will be the ones who will restore animal sacrifice in the future?

I do, but I may be mistaken! I'm sure there are ways for the “sons of Levi [to] offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness" outside of animal sacrifice. But I don't see a restoration of animal sacrifice as inconsistent with the reason for our not practicing animal sacrifice today (the Lord having accomplished the anticipated Sacrifice); He may well command that it be practiced again with retroactive recognition of His Sacrifice, or with additional significance.

[Robert F. Smith]

The quotes from your leaders are speaking about animal sacrifices.

 

So the question remains is that something that the LDS church plans on restoring or have they backed away from this teaching?

They haven't backed away from anything on this matter.  This is clearly a Jewish issue, not a Mormon one, and Jews are central to the Restoration.  I take it that you understand that Jewish priesthood is officially recognized by LDS theology, and that Joseph Smith had Apostle Orson Hyde dedicate Palestine to the final gathering of the Jews in 1841 (Hyde's dedicatory prayer on Mount Olivet is available in English & Hebrew on a monument there).  Most Mormons are wholly ignorant of the fact that the Jews are still the covenant people of God.  See Article of Faith #10.

[HappyJackWagon]

Non sequitur.

 

We still believe in sacrifice. We dedicate our lives to following Christ. To be a witness for him in all that we do, in all places, and at all time. To sacrifice all that we own, and will own, all of our time, talents, energies, including our very lives if necessary to the building up of his kingdom.

Can you explain why this is non sequitur? I don't understand how this doesn't follow unless you are arguing that "restoration of ALL things" does not really include ALL things. I'd like to understand the fallacy.

[Kenngo1969]

been a priest since 1994-i'm covered!

A Levitical one, in the literal sense of that word?  How did you manage that?

[Duncan]

A Levitical one, in the literal sense of that word?  How did you manage that?

 

oh, you just have to know the right people

[3DOP]

Perhaps it would be to the point to look at Malachi 1, the last book of the Protestant and LDS Old Testaments. In the first part of the chapter, the prophet speaks to the priests who offer "'polluted bread' upon my altar". It seems that this is in reference to the offering of animals in sacrifice that are blind, lame, and sick. The prophet chides them by asking if they would offer such a gift to their political leader, the prince. Obviously not. Then God, speaking by the mouth of the prophet proclaims a future time when there will be a great and purest, most perfect sacrifice, that will be offered the world round, and not by the Levitical priests, because it will be an offering made by the nations:

 

"For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts." (Mal. 1:11)

 

I do not insist here that this passage must refer to the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass, which is how it is interpreted by my fellow Catholics and me. I could be gratified if anyone might see how this view fits very well into what Malachi was saying. But the main point all could take would be that nearly four hundreds of years before the birth of God's Son, there was a prophet pointing to a different and superior kind of sacrifice, then offering up the best of our herds and the fruits of the field. I would suggest that if we fast with good cheer, or we give alms to the poor willingly, in fulness of faith, for the sake of God and His Christ, hoped to be our reasonable service, it is a spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God.

 

According to how I understand it, there is an ordained priesthood, in which both Catholics and Mormons believe, according to the order of Melchisedec, but every true believer is a priest according to St. Peter, and obliged to make spiritual sacrifices, carrying our own crosses. Figuratively speaking, when we bite our tongues for the sake of God and His Christ at someone who irritates us, when we fulfill sometimes onerous duties of our state in life without complaint, believing it is the will of God, we are carrying OUR crosses, and are uniting ourselves with that Holy Cross which redeems the world. 

 

I hold that in addition to the holiest priestly Sacrifice of the Mass, these sacrifices of the Gentiles spoken of, offered unceasingly, "from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof", "great among the Gentiles", "in every place" refers to those sacrifices which are offered up by the priesthood of believers when like their Lord before them, they offer up everything to God, not excluding our very bodies, WHICH IS OUR REASONABLE SERVICE (Rom 12:2). It is unreasonable to offer the Lord of Hosts and King of kings, our Creator and Father anything less than everything we are and have. After all, he gave us every talent and gift and good thing. He will return us a bountiful reward, and more abundantly than we can imagine if we offer our sacrifices faithfully, willingly, with joy and good cheer, like Jesus, who endured the Cross, "for the joy that was set before Him" (12:2 again! Hebrews).

 

God help us who understand and reverence the Cross of Jesus, the only saving and ultimate sacrifice, to be more and more faithful as priests, by the grace of the Holy Ghost, and through the Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father.

 

Rory 

Edited December 19, 2014 by 3DOP

[Kenngo1969]

oh, you just have to know the right people

[Canadaigua]

The restored sacrifices the Prophet Joseph Smith was speaking of are the "living sacrifices" mentioned by the Apostle Paul. The ordinance of baptism is one of these living sacrifices, whereby the 'initiate' symbolically gives up his or her life and is buried (in water) in the likeness of the death and burial of Christ.

 

No he was speaking about animal sacrifices.  There are many other quotes from LDS leaders on this topic.

[Canadaigua]

They haven't backed away from anything on this matter.  This is clearly a Jewish issue, not a Mormon one, and Jews are central to the Restoration.  I take it that you understand that Jewish priesthood is officially recognized by LDS theology, and that Joseph Smith had Apostle Orson Hyde dedicate Palestine to the final gathering of the Jews in 1841 (Hyde's dedicatory prayer on Mount Olivet is available in English & Hebrew on a monument there).  Most Mormons are wholly ignorant of the fact that the Jews are still the covenant people of God.  See Article of Faith #10.

You said "Jewish priesthood is officially recognized by LDS theology"

 

So you believe that people who are not LDS, do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and have not even been baptized have the authority to restore an ordinance of God?