Faith & Spirit Quote by Orson Pratt

Pratt writes like a man trying to keep a religion from hardening into a museum. The line is framed as a test of loyalty - not to a fixed text, but to a living pipeline. By defining the "true servant of God" as someone who refuses to say revelation has ended, he turns a theological dispute into a moral sorting mechanism: if you claim the canon is closed, you are not merely cautious or traditional; you are peddling "false doctrine."

The intent is defensive and expansionist at once. Early Mormonism was built on the scandal of ongoing prophecy - new scripture, new directives, new claims of divine authority. Critics could dismiss that as improvisation, while rival Christians could disqualify it by insisting the New Testament was the final word. Pratt counters by inverting the premise: the real betrayal is drawing a boundary around God. "Never" and "full" do the heavy lifting, casting closure as arrogance and openness as humility.

Subtext: revelation is not just spiritual nourishment, its governance. If God can speak again, then priesthood authority can legislate again, and the community can adapt without admitting it's merely changing its mind. That elasticity is power, but it also asks for trust in a living hierarchy.

Context matters. Writing in the 19th century, amid Protestant claims of sola scriptura and anxieties about "enthusiasm" and sectarian excess, Pratt is staking Mormonism's difference as a virtue. It's a polemic disguised as piety: to freeze revelation is to domesticate God; to accept new revelation is to accept the movement that claims to carry it.