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The Long-Promised Day

• Continuing Revelation

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We believe all that God has revealed, all that
He does now reveal, and we believe that he will
yet reveal many great and important things
pertaining to the Kingdom of God. Ninth
Article of Faith
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• Elijah Abel
• Ordained an Elder by Joseph Smith, Jr. on 3 March
  1836
• Ordained Seventy by Zebedee Coltrin on 4 April
  1841
• Served three missions

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• In the spring of 1838 I heard the first Gospel
  sermon by a Latter-day Saint. His name was
  Elijah Abel
• -- Eunice Kinney, 1891

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• 1879 Elijah Abel applies for permission to be
  endowed
• 31 May 1879 A meeting is held by John Taylor
  with Joseph F. Smith, Abraham O. Smoot, Zebedee
  Coltrin, and others, to recall Joseph Smiths
  teachings on men and women of color
• Elijah Abel is denied permission to be endowed

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• Died, Elijah Abel In the Thirteenth Ward,
  December 25th, 1884, of old age and debility,
  consequent upon exposure while laboring in the
  ministry in Ohio. Deceased was born in Washington
  County, Maryland, July 23rd, 1810. He joined the
  Church and was ordained an Elder as appears by
  certificate dated March 3rd, 1836. He was
  subsequently ordained a Seventy, as appears by
  certificate dated April 4, 1841. He labored
  successfully in Canada and also performed a
  mission in the United States, from which he
  returned about two weeks ago. He died in full
  faith of the Gospel.

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Jane Manning James

• Jane Manning James
• We walked until our shoes were worn out, and our
  feet became sore and cracked open and bled until
  you could see the whole print of our feet with
  blood on the ground.

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• Inasmuch as this is the fullness of times and
  through Abraham's seed all mankind may be
  blessed, is there no blessing for me?

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• My faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter
  day Saints is as strong todaynay it is if
  possible strongerthan it was the day I was first
  baptized. I pay my tithes and offerings, keep
  the Word of Wisdom. I go to bed early and arise
  early. I try in my feeble way to set a good
  example to all.

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Green Flake
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Lucinda Flake
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Daniel Bankhead Freeman
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Mary Ann Perkins
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Amanda and Samuel Chambers
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Len and Mary Hope

• Id be willing to be stripped of my skin if only
  I could hold that priesthood.

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Walker Lewis

• Ordained an elder in 1843 or 1844 by William
  Smith (Joseph Smiths brother)
• We have one of the best Elders -- an African --
  in Lowell. Brigham Young, 26 March 1847
• Emigrated to Utah 1851 returned East 1852 died
  1856

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William McCary

• Bi-racial African and white? Native American?
• Baptized February 1846, and ordained an Elder, at
  Winter Quarters
• Claimed to be a prophet and to be the incarnation
  of Biblical and Book of Mormon figures

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William McCary

• Excommunicated in 1847
• Gathered a group around him near Winter Quarters,
  and instituted his own brand of plural marriage
• First known Mormon sermons critical of blacks are
  preached against McCary

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• There is not now, and there never has been a
  doctrine in this church that the negroes are
  under a divine curse. There is no doctrine in the
  church of any kind pertaining to the negro. We
  believe that we have a scriptural precedent for
  withholding the priesthood from the negro. It is
  a practice, not a doctrine, and the practice
  someday will be changed.
• David O. McKay, 1954

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• Day after day I went alone and with great
  solemnity and seriousness in the upper rooms of
  the temple, and there I offered my soul ... I
  wanted to do what he wanted. I talked about it to
  him and said, Lord, I want only what is right.
  ... We want only the thing that thou dost want,
  and we want it when you want it, and not until.
• -- Spencer W. Kimball

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• We witnessed an outpouring of the Spirit which
  bonded our souls together in perfect unity a
  glorious experience. In that bond of unity we
  felt our total dependence upon heavenly
  direction.
• -- David B. Haight

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• The Spirit of the Lord rested mightily upon us
  all we felt something akin to what happened on
  the day of Pentecost and at the dedication of the
  Kirtland Temple. From the midst of eternity, the
  voice of God, conveyed by the power of the
  Spirit, spoke to his prophet ... And we all heard
  the same voice, received the same message, and
  became personal witnesses that the word received
  was the mind and will and voice of the Lord.
• -- Bruce R. McConkie

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• It was a quiet and sublime occasion. There was
  not the sound as of a rushing mighty wind, ...
  No voice audible to our physical ears was heard.
  But the voice of the Spirit whispered with a
  certainty into our minds and our very souls.
• -- Gordon B. Hinckley

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• He has heard our prayers, and by revelation has
  confirmed that the long-promised day has come
  when every faithful, worthy man in the Church may
  receive the holy priesthood . . .
• -- Official Declaration 2, verse 8

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• Forget everything that I have said, or what
  President Brigham Young or President George Q.
  Cannon or whomsoever has said in days past that
  is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke
  with a limited understanding and without the
  light and knowledge that now has come into the
  world. We get our truth and our light line upon
  line and precept upon precept. ...

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• We have now had added a new flood of
  intelligence and light on this particular
  subject, and it erases all the darkness and all
  the views and all the thoughts of the past. They
  dont matter any more. ... It doesnt make a
  particle of difference what anybody ever said
  about the Negro matter before the first day of
  June of this year.
• Bruce R. McConkie (CES Symposium, August 1978)

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• The folklore must never be perpetuated. ... They
  early church leaders were doing the best they
  knew ... All I can say is, however well intended
  the explanations were, I think almost all of them
  were inadequate and/or wrong. ...
• -- Jeffrey R. Holland

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• Racial strife still lifts its ugly head. I am
  advised that even right here among us there is
  some of this. I cannot understand how it can be.
  It seemed to me that we all rejoiced in the 1978
  revelation given President Kimball.

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• Now I am told that racial slurs and denigrating
  remarks are sometimes heard among us. I remind
  you that no man who makes disparaging remarks
  concerning those of another race can consider
  himself a true disciple of Christ. Nor can he
  consider himself to be in harmony with the
  teachings of the Church of Christ.

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• How can any man holding the Melchizedek
  Priesthood arrogantly assume that he is eligible
  for the priesthood whereas another who lives a
  righteous life but whose skin is of a different
  color is ineligible?
• -- Gordon B. Hinckley, General Conference, April
  2006