FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Question: Does the ordination blessing given to Heber C. Kimball contain a false prophecy that he may "stand unto the coming of our Lord"?
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Criticism
Critics claim that the ordination blessing given to Heber C. Kimball is an example of false prophecy:
- that he shall be made like unto those who have been blessed before him [see Lyman E. Johnson and Brigham Young]; and be favored with the same blessing. That he might receive visions; the ministration of angels, and hear their voice; and even come into the presence of God; that many millions may be converted by his instrumentality; that angels may waft him from place to place, and that he may stand unto the coming of our Lord, and receive a crown in the Kingdom of our God; that he be made acquainted with the day when Christ shall come; that he shall be made perfect in faith; and that the deaf shall hear, the lame shall walk, the blind shall see, and greater things than these shall he do; that he shall have boldness of speech before the nations, and great power.[1]
Source(s) of the criticism
- Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Mormonism—Shadow or Reality?, 5th edition, (Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1987), 188.
Response
The only statement which is even slightly problematic is the promise that Kimball "May stand unto the coming of our Lord."
This is not a claim that Heber will live to see the second coming as a mortal, but merely that he will remain faithful in his calling and duties until the Lord's millennial reign.
Endnotes
- [note] History of the Church, 2:189. Volume 2 link