---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 17
number: 11
published: 1914-09
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Priesthood Quorums’ Table: Answers to Questions", *Improvement Era* 17, no. 11 (September 1914): 1085.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera17011unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera17011unse
start_page: 1085
end_page: 1085
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-09)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera17011unse
  publication_year: 1914
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Priesthood Quorums’ Table: Answers to Questions

<!-- page:1085 -->

Priesthood Quorums' Table
                          —
    Answers to Questions. I. Question: When and by whom were the
Nephites ordained to the Priesthood before the time of Christ?
    Answer: Lehi, founder of the Nephite race, was a prophet of the
Lord, in Jerusalem, and had the Priesthood before he was commanded
of the Lord to leave the land of his nativity and journey to the promised land. Nephi, his son, also was a prophet, and held the Priesthood,
and most likely the other sons of Lehi held the Priesthood also, but
Laman and Lemuel failed to magnify their callings. Lehi and Nephi
could not have conversed with the Lord as they did nor received the
commandments which they recorded in their scriptures without holding the Holy Priesthood. Who ordained them is not stated in the
Book of Mormon, but the Priesthood they held was conferred upon
their posterity from generation to generation.
     II.  Question: Why did kings reign among the Nephites when
they were keeping the commandments of God? They were promised
that no kings should rule over them.
     Answer: The promise was not made that, "no kings should rule
over" the Nephites. The reference referred to is evidently that found
in II Nephi 10:11-16.  This prophecy had reference to the time of the
Gentiles, and reads: "And this land shall be a land of liberty unto the
Gentiles, and there shall be no kings upon the land, who shall raise
up unto the Gentiles," etc. It has no reference to the Nephite nation.
However, for hundreds of years the Nephites were ruled by Judges.
(See Mosiah, 29th chapter.)
     III.  Question: When did the Nephites first begin to inhabit
North America?
   Answer: About six hundred years before the birth of Christ.

M   I   A   SCOUTS ON THE SUMMIT OF LITTLE MOUNTAIN, JULY
                           24. 1914