An Open Heaven

This affirmation is fundamental to Latter-day Saint identity and marks a clear difference from traditions that hold revelation to have closed with the apostles and the biblical canon. It underlies the movement's conviction that the true church is led directly by God rather than only by scripture and tradition, and it accounts for developments in Latter-day Saint teaching and practice over time. Together with the acceptance of additional scripture, it expresses the restorationist claim that the heavens are open and God continues to direct his people through chosen prophets. How far continuing revelation can carry a church is itself contested among the Restoration traditions that share the doctrine.

The Community of Christ used the same principle of an open canon to ordain women to its priesthood beginning in 1984 and, in the 2010s, to extend full participation and marriage to LGBT members, decisions announced as revelation to its prophet-president and ratified by its World Conference. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, holding the identical doctrine of a living prophet who may receive new revelation, has not moved in either direction, ordaining only men to its priesthood and maintaining its traditional teaching on marriage, illustrating how two churches with the same theological mechanism for change can reach opposite conclusions from it.