Читать книгу Essentials in Church History - Joseph Fielding Smith - Страница 17

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In the days of Noah the Gospel was universally rejected, save by Noah and his immediate family—in all eight souls. Noah had labored diligently and long to bring mankind to repentance, but without avail, “for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth” (Moses 8:29). After the destruction of the wicked in the flood, the Gospel continued to be taught by Noah and the later patriarchs, but quite generally it was not received. Melchizedek, king of Salem, through his faithfulness, became a great high priest, and the people of the Church in his day honored him by calling the “Holy Priesthood after the order of the Son of God,” by his name, “out of respect or reverence to the name of the Supreme Being” (D. & C. 107:4). From Melchizedek, Abraham received the Priesthood, and to Melchizedek, as the properly authorized servant of the Lord, Abraham paid tithes of all he possessed (Gen. 14:20).