Divine Investiture of Authority

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Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation 1:27-28.
[All revelation to prophets comes through Christ, not directly from the Father].


JEHOVAH GIVES ALL REVELATION. All revelation since the fall has come through Jesus Christ, who is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. In all of the scriptures, where God is mentioned and where he has appeared, it was Jehovah who talked with Abraham, with Noah, Enoch, Moses and all the prophets. He is the God of Israel, the Holy One of Israel; the one who led that nation out of Egyptian bondage, and who gave and fulfilled the Law of Moses. The Father has never dealt with man directly and personally since the fall, and he has never appeared except to introduce and bear record of the Son. Thus the Inspired Version [JST] records that 'no man hath seen God [the Father] at any time, except he [God the Father] hath borne record of the Son." [JST, Jn 1:19.] ...

CHRIST MAY SPEAK AS THE FATHER. In giving revelations our Savior speaks at times for himself; at other times for the Father, and in the Father's name, as though he were the Father, and yet it is Jesus Christ, our Redeemer who gives the message. So, we see, in Doctrine and Covenants 29:1, that he introduces himself as 'Jesus Christ, your Redeemer,' but in the closing part of the revelation he speaks for the Father, and in the Father's name as though he were the Father, and yet it is still Jesus who is speaking, for the Father has put his name on him for that purpose.

FIRST VISION AND REVELATION. We have a wonderful illustration of how revelation comes through Christ presented to us in the Vision given to the Prophet Joseph Smith. The Father and the Son appeared unto him, but it was not the Father who answered his question! The Father introduced Joseph to His Son, and it was the Son who answered the important question and gave the instruction.

Had Joseph Smith come home from the grove and declared that the Father and the Son appeared to him and that the Father spoke to him and answered his question while the Son stood silently by, then we could have accepted the story as a fraud. Joseph Smith was too young and inexperienced to know this at the time, but he made no mistake, and his story was in perfect harmony with divine truth, with the divine law that Christ is the Mediator between God [the Father] and man.


Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary 3:137


In divers manners] How does God reveal himself? Though the ways may be infinite, the perfect and crowning way is by direct revelation, by visions, by personal visitations. According to the laws of mediation and intercession which the Father himself ordained, he has chosen to reveal himself through the Son, ordaining that all revelation shall come through the Son, though that holy personage frequently speaks in the Father's name by divine investiture of authority; that is, he speaks in the first person as though he were the Father, because the Father has placed his name upon the Son. The sole reason for the personal appearance of the Father is to introduce the Son, as is illustrated by the appearance of the Father and the Son at the commencement of this dispensation. (Jos. Smith 2:12 20.) And hence the Biblical statement: "No man hath seen God at any time, except he hath borne record of the Son." (Inspired Version, John 1:19.) Christ the Son is, of course, the God of Israel through whom the will of the Father was manifest to that chosen people. [RE: Hebr 1:1.]

 

See also James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith, 466-473. "The Father and The Son: A Doctrinal Exposition by The First Presidency and The Twelve." This explains the three ways in which Jesus can be referred to as The Father (one of which is Divine Investiture of Authority), and the one way in which He cannot.