AboutBrian Rogers Expertise LDS for over 45 years. Very knowledgable regarding LDS theology and practices, Early Christian history, Biblical inerrancy, etc. active on FAIR private list.
BYU and UoU
Question Who was the lsst prophet in the Old Testament to have the Melchizedek priesthood? And is there a difference in having the sealing powers of the Melchizedek Priesthood and the Melchizedek Priesthood itself?
Answer Morning John,
I know you sent this question last Sunday and I apologize for the late reply. I work for the Dept. of Homeland Security and the inauguration has taken ALL my time this past week.
First thought regarding who was the last prophet to hold the MP in the OT. Bottom line is, I don't know. Here is why. The last prophet mentioned in the OT is Malachi, as you know. However, without doing some research, I do not recall where Malachi falls in the OT time line. There may be a prophet or two who came after Malachi but whose writings appear prior to Malachi in the OT. This is sort of like the NT, where, after the Gospels, the writings are presented according to the length of the individual documents, with the exception of Revelation. Each of the Pauline letters get shorter as we read them, but I doubt that is the order in which Paul wrote them. I would not be surprised to learn one day that there were other prophets in OT times that are not mentioned specifically in the OT nor do I recall the order in which they were written against the order they appear in the OT of the ones we do have.
Additionally, I do not know which prophets who wrote the OT books, had the MP or the AP. The reason I state this is that Christ called John the Baptist a prophet and in LDS theology, John only has the AP. So is it possible that say, Malachi or any of the prophets that appear near the end of the OT, held only the AP? Could be, I do not know. Having said that, I suspect all OT prophets did hold the MP, but I cannot prove it.
I think of the sealing powers of the temple as a duty within the MP, attached to the office of a high priest. Every person that I know of, who is a sealer in the one of our temples, is a High Priest. Yet, not every temple worker, who is a High Priest in the temple is a sealer. My father worked in the Temple, as an ordinance worker who conducted temple sessions, but was not a sealer who conducted a sealing as part of the marriage ceremony.
