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JON - A man who is an apostate blieves in Joseph Smith, BOM, Bible, Jesus Christ and Frame Work of the Church, but he is an apostate, so named by the church.
He is different in the fact that because we had the priesthood (In Joseph) that when he died the Church slowly has deluded its self. He follows paths that seem to make me feel uncomfortable. I read Satan uses truth and knowledge just to have you do things like loose faith in leadership, which this man seems to do. Loosing faith in leadership, but still believing in Christ, Bible, BOM, D&C and the rest. Can this man be an apostate? If so how. And I feel personally he is, in that fact of the loss of faith in leadership.
JOEL - This person may not be an apostate from Joseph Smith but might be on his way to being one according to the present day church, especially if he lacks the desire to follow current leadership. This all comes down to whether or not one believes in latter-day revelation; not just 19th century revelation, but the revelation we receive from our prophets today. If what Joseph Smith told us was all we needed there would be no need for further guidance by subsequent prophets. But that's not the way it works.
In 1980 President Ezra Taft Benson presented his Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet. Two of those fundamentals are the following:
#2: "The living prophet is more vital to us than the Standard Works."
"More vital" in that even though the scriptures do contain the official church doctrines, if the current prophet tells us to do something, we do it.
and
#3: "The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet."
On this one he goes on to say:
"God’s revelation to Adam did not instruct Noah how to build the Ark. Noah needed his own revelation. Therefore the most important prophet so far as you and I are concerned is the one living in our day and age to whom the Lord is currently revealing His will for us. Therefore the most important reading we can do is any of the words of the prophet contained each month in our Church Magazines. Our instructions about what we should do for each six months are found in the General Conference addresses which are printed in the Church magazine. Beware of those who would set up the dead prophets against the living prophets, for the living prophets always take precedence." (Address given Tuesday, February 26, 1980 at Brigham Young University)
There have been many who have claimed that we have strayed from what Joseph Smith taught and for this reason have left the church and even started their own religions based on the 1830 organization or they at least use it as an excuse to not follow our current prophet. They don't really understand the true doctrine of God's church and how He leads us today.
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