With all their inspiration and greatness, prophets are yet mortal men with imperfections common to mankind in general. They have their opinions and prejudices and are left to work out their problems without inspiration in many instances.
-Bruce R. McKonkie, Mormon Doctrine 608
Thus the opinions and views, even of a prophet, may contain error, unless those opinions and views were inspired by the Spirit.
-Bruce R. McKonkie, “Are the General Authorities Human” Oct. 28, 1966
After the ordination [as an apostle, George Albert Smith] was invited to share his feelings with the members of the Quorum of the Twelve present. “I feel weak and lack judgment compared with men of maturer years,” he said, “but my heart is right, and I desire sincerely the onward progress of the work of the Lord. … I have a living testimony of the divinity of this work; I know that the gospel has come to earth under the direction and guidance of the Lord himself, and that those chosen to preside were and are His servants in very deed. I desire and pray that I may live pure and humble, so that I may be entitled to the promptings and admonitions of the Spirit to guide me throughout my life.”
(Teachings of Presidents of the Church: George Albert Smith, Title page)
“We believe in [the Savior], but we don’t trust him. We get so frightened and intimidated, so horrified, by our own imperfections that we don’t see how he can possibly save us from them, and we lose faith. But if these great prophets had a healthy sense of their own sins and shortcomings, and yet could still confidently maintain that they had a place in the kingdom of God, should we not learn from their examples of trust and confidence—their examples of faith?” (in reference to 2 Nephi 4:17-19)
Stephen E. Robinson, Believing in Christ
Aaron, a Nephite missionary to the Lamanites, was teaching the Lamanite king. As they begin their discussion in Alma 22, the King lets Aaron know he is willing to believe the things Aaron says concerning the nature and will of God. After Aaron teaches the Gospel to the King, the King states that he would forsake even his kingdom if he will be saved by God through Jesus. Aaron tells the King, “If thou desirest this thing, if thou wilt bow down before God, yea, if thou wilt repent of all thy sins, and will bow down before God, and call on his name in faith, believing that ye shall receive, then shalt thou receive the hope which thou desirest. (Alma 22:16)”
Immediately the King responds in kind:
And it came to pass that when Aaron had said these words, the king did bow down before the Lord, upon his knees; yea, even he did prostrate himself upon the earth, and cried mightily, saying:
O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day. And now when the king had said these words, he was struck as if he were dead.
Alma 22:17-18
The course of action taken by the King is described by the prophet Alma while talking to a group of poor and disenfranchised individuals in Alma 32:27. “But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.” Gaining and strengthening our faith in God and His Gospel is made possible by experimenting on His teachings. If there is ever a question as to the veracity, even if you have just a particle of faith or the barest desire to believe, exercise that desire to experiment on the words of Christ and learn the truth.
One of the last promises made in the Book of Mormon describes how we can perform an experiment like the one Alma talks about here:
Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
Moroni 10:3-5
The King, without realizing it, followed both Alma’s and Moroni’s advice to experiment on the words and ask God.
I was reading in “Believing Christ” by Stephen Robinson. In chapter two, I came across a quote I really appreciated. He is talking about our need and inability to be perfect; specifically, that we must continue to pray as we strive to emulate the Savior. Only through Christ can we be made perfect. At one point, he uses the example of the brother of Jared from the book of Ether:
The point is that God has commanded us, unworthy though we may be, to call upon him anyway, because he has prepared a way for us to receive what we desire despite our imperfection. Notice that he says, “according to our desires” and not strictly “according to our merits” or “according to our works,” or according to any other combination some of us might expect. (See D&C 137:9.)
“We must be careful not to canonize [our role] models as we have some pioneers and past [LDS] church leaders — not to dry all the human sweat off them, not to put ceaseless smiles on their faces, when they really struggled and experienced agony.”
Neal A. Maxwell
(via Salt Lake Tribune)
From the Family Guidebook, “The family is sacred in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is the most important social unit in time and eternity.” Friendship, as Joseph Smith has said, “is one of the grand fundamental principles of ‘Mormonism.’
For me, friendship is the glue that holds everything together. True friendship is more of a composite principle– the application of faith, hope and charity between individuals.
Friendship and service within the church can begin to feel like an assignment. True friendship, on the other hand, is something that is organic to our lives. Iris ot a burden to help and assist a friend. Our goal is to make true friends out of the people we serve.
It is only by becoming a true friend to our Heavenly Father that we can become to know him.
Read the rest of this entry »
A question popped up a few days ago on Questions from the Book of Mormon (full disclosure: I run that site). The question was from Mosiah 12:25 and asks
Are you priests, and pretend to teach this people, and to understand the spirit of prophesying, and yet desire to know of me what these things mean?
The context is a prophet named Abinadi is talking to a bunch of wicked priests that are abusing their religious station for personal gain can power. Abinadi is talking to them about the coming Christ and other points of doctrine, and rather than providing answers, they ask him questions because they don’t understand the principles they profess to teach.
We can get so wrapped up in our missionary efforts in using various scriptures to “prove” we are right, or that our denomination is the correct one, or that God exists, or whatever. As a missionary I got caught up in this all the time. Someone asks how is Joseph Smith a prophet? Well, let’s read in Doctrine and Covenants where it says he is a prophet. It stinks of using the word you are trying to define in the definition. What is baking? It is when you bake something. That doesn’t really answer the question, it just circles the answer. Read the rest of this entry »
What Is the Priesthood?
A stark definition would be “The priesthood is the eternal power and authority of God.” That is taken strait from the lesson material. While I was growing up, I remember hearing a slightly different definition: “The priesthood is the power and authority to act in God’s name given to Man.” I think the latter definition is a little limiting; it makes sense, but the priesthood is so much more than just a representative power given to mankind. That definition negates how Heavenly Father and Jesus used the priesthood during the Creation for one example.
Through the priesthood He created and governs the heavens and the earth. By this power the universe is kept in perfect order. Through this power He accomplishes His work and glory, which is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).