Elijah Able’s Calling

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Elijah was an African-American member of the Church that lived in Nauvoo at the time of the Prophet Joseph Smith. What calling did Joseph Smith give Elijah?

a.                  Bishop

b.                  Undertaker

c.                   Body guard to the prophet

d.                  City policman

Yesterday’s answer:

C.   Patriarchs

During a February 19, 1834 meeting of the Stake High Council in Kirtland, Ohio, Joseph Smith Sr. blessed his sons Joseph Jr. and Samuel Harrison. Then John Johnson Sr. blessed his son Luke. Almost five months later, during the organization of a high council in Clay County, Missouri, on July 7, 1834, Peter Whitmer Sr. “came forward and blessed three of his sons in the name of the lord Viz “David, John & Christian Whitmer.” He was followed by Joseph Knight Sr. who “blessed his son Newel Knight in the name of the Lord.” The next year, LDS Church President Joseph Smith Jr. instructed members of the newly formed Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “It is the duty of the twelve in all large branches of the church, to ordain evangelical ministers, and they shall be designated unto them by revelation. The order of this priesthood was confirmed to be handed down from father to son, and rightly belongs to the literal descendants of the chosen seed, to whom the promises were made.” It was understood that “evangelical ministers” referred to patriarchs.

Marquardt, H. Michael, Early Patriarchal Blessings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Smith-Pettit Foundation, 2007), viii.