JOEL - I agree with some of the things you said. But here are some things I disagree with:
We believe and have faith that the Prophet would not lead the church astray. The reason for including the procedure for removing a prophet only reflects God's position of being no respector of person. He judges all mortals equally and places the same rules over each one no mater what their position.
Brigham Young never demanded that the members accept
his Adam-God teachings. It was never considered as
scripture or official church doctrine. It never posed
as a threat to the salvation of the church members if
they also believed it or did not believe it. Therefore
no reason to hold a trial about it.
Most of the basic doctrine of the church was revealed
to Joseph Smith who wrote it in the D&C oracles. There
hasn't been much more basic church doctrine that God
has needed to give us since then. Other Church
presidents and apostles have written a few others as
God deemed it necessary(D&C 136; D&C 138; Proclamation
on the Family; Revelation on the Priesthood).
In my
opinion every Church President and Apostle since
Joseph Smith have demonstrated their ability and gift
to "receive and write the will of the Lord" every time
they speak in General Conference twice per year. So I
see no problem here.
The problem with those who have published the
so-called Second Book of Commandments is that they do
not trust in latter-day revelation from our current
prophets.
The teachings and councel from our current prophet
will always take precedence over what past prophets
have said, and even in some cases what is written in
the scriptures. Our changing world requires us to have
a latter-day prophet to help us know what we need to
do today; and it might be different than what God
wanted the saints to do 150 years ago. I agree with
President Ezra Taft Benson who said:
The prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in
everything.
The living prophet is more vital to us than the
Standard Works.
The living prophet is more important to us than a dead
prophet.
The prophet does not have to say "Thus saith the Lord"
to give us scripture.
The prophet tells us what we need to know, not always
what we want to know.
(Ezra Taft Benson, "Fourteen Fundamentals in Following
the Prophet", Tambuli, June 1981, 1)
This is the way it has to be. Members do "have the God-given right to NOT sustain the President of the church". But how can we know for sure that a few disenchanted members are going to be right about what God wants as opposed to what our prophets say? If the majority of the church membership("common council of the church") believes that the prophet is starting to lead us astray, we have to have faith in the system of the First Presidency and 12 Apostles who will, along with the church members, detect it and prevent it from happening(D&C 107:82). But a few disgruntled members do not make up "the common council of the church".
Return to top