3 things about prophets

[Sunday21]

I think this is an important article. Our prophets are not all knowing and sometimes we have made mistakes. For this reason, it is important to obtain your own guidance on important issues. 

https://mormonhub.com/blog/faith/3-things-about-prophets/

For example, I have had a bishop be very firm that I needed to get married and to be very disappointed when I rejected his preferred candidate.

I wish that people would Remember that prophets can make mistakes when they are discussing past events and policies. Also pouring over the details of addresses made at funerals etc may mean that you are led astray by speculation and upsetting yourself over nothing. 

If a past policy or piece of information from an elderly document or talk is upsetting to you, maybe the policy was not from God?

I am suspicious of the reports that our leaders will never lead us astray. I suspect that many past policies were indeed misguided.

“Excerpts from Three Addresses by President Wilford Woodruff Regarding the Manifestohttps://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/od/1

The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as President of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the programme. It is not in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out of my place, and so He will any other man who attempts to lead the children of men astray from the oracles of God and from their duty. (Sixty-first Semiannual General Conference of the Church, Monday, October 6, 1890, Salt Lake City, Utah. Reported in Deseret Evening News, October 11, 1890, p. 2.)”

I think the this quote can be interpreted as the Lord will not allow the prophet to lead us into apostasy. However, that does not mean that policies and statements cannot be misguided. Remember the prophet who said we would never get to the moon? Joseph Smith speculated that a wide range of locations in North and South America were sites of Book of Mormon activity. Either the BOM activities ranged over a very broad area or he was wrong sometimes. And what about the dispersed weekly meetings that are now contained in the 3 hour block? We have always been well meaning, but not always right. Thus we should not get too bent out of shape with stray statements from old documents.

On the other hand there are some pieces of guidance on which the brethren have focused their energies on which we are on firmer ground for example temple recommend restrictions.

 

Edited February 8, 2018 by Sunday21