Standing up in opposition to religious tradition feels in a small way like this “tank guy” must have felt in Tianneman Square. Let me add the caveat that I am not trying to find fault with the leaders of the Church. I am not trying to “steady the ark”. I don’t consider myself a righteous person by any degree.
This past week at general conference I heard something very disturbing from the mouth of one of our church leaders. I love and respect this particular leader and am perfectly fine sustaining him as a leader in the church, I just happen to not agree at all with the premise that he taught over the general conference pulpit. This man said the following:
“Do not listen to those who have not been ordained and/or set apart to their Church calling and are not acknowledged by common consent of the members of the Church.”
So those inclined to believe and follow this particular leader, please stop listening (or reading) now.
This leader is proud to declare that he is a descendent of the Smith family through Hyrum. Perhaps this quote from Joseph would be good to compare with this particular general conference teaching:
“It is the constitutional disposition of mankind to set up stakes and set bounds to the works and ways of the almighty.” (Preaching at the temple stand 13 Aug 1843, Ehat pg 238)
“Mormonism is truth; and every man who embraces it feels himself at liberty to embrace every truth. … The first and fundamental principle of our holy religion is, that we believe that we have a right to embrace all, and every item of truth without limitation or without being circumscribed or prohibited by the creeds or superstitious notions of men or by the dominations of one another.” (TPJS)
It is apparent to me anyways that this modern teaching is setting a stake of sorts as to how the Lord can teach us and reveal truth to us.
This modern teaching sets up a stake by implying any truth regarding our salvation and worth incorporating into our lives will only come from those properly called and ordained by the church.
Anyone outside of this is not worth listening to. All I can say is wow! This counsel floored me.
I can see where he is coming from, the church today is losing members and some perhaps are being led away by “those who are not ordained and set apart” however the answer is not to further constrain us and shakle us in our pursuit of truth.
Suppressing ideas only weakens faith and inevitably leads to strife.
The answer is to not give us vomit to eat, even pre-digested milk run through the correlation department and call it nourishment.
The answer is to repent and follow the doctrine of Christ and be humble even as a child and not to be proud and lofty and to pretend to more that what is currently in our possession.
As a witness of Christ and his doctrine and as one under covenant to stand as a witness at all times and all places I cannot let this particular teaching from general conference stand unchallenged; for in a future conference these words might be quoted by another leader and on and on it goes, the teachings and precepts of men get accepted as from God.
We as Latter-day Saints have been doing this since Joseph the Seer died and it’s no wonder why we have drifted to the point of where we are today.
The first thought that came to my mind during this address were the words of Zenos as quoted by Jacob in the Book of Mormon (see Jacob 5):
48 And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: Is it not the loftiness of thy vineyard–have not the branches thereof overcome the roots which are good? And because the branches have overcome the roots thereof, behold they grew faster than the strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves. Behold, I say, is not this the cause that the trees of thy vineyard have become corrupted?
Are the Latter-day Saints lofty today? Have we overcome the roots? Do we take strength unto ourselves? Do we realize from whence our blessings come? The covenant that we are trying to receive was it not an everlasting covenant first offered to the Fathers before? It is new to us gentiles but everlasting nevertheless.
Is this why the Angel counseled Joseph by quoting the prophets saying that our hearts need to be turned to the fathers lest the earth be laid waste and desolate at the Lords coming?
He must have just been referring to temple work so all is well with us since we have built so many.
49 And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto the servant: Let us go to and hew down the trees of the vineyard and cast them into the fire, that they shall not cumber the ground of my vineyard, for I have done all. What could I have done more for my vineyard?
Was the Lord willing to do this in the days of the restoration? Did Joseph perhaps intercede on the early saints behalf to give us a little more time? Maybe the early saints were privileged to be chastened by their enemies and driven out instead of being destroyed.
We didn’t merit the kind mercies of the Lord then and we don’t today.
It is only the longsuffering and mercy of our Father that allows us to remain even to this day. It is because of the intercession of Christ saying “Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.”
50 But, behold, the servant said unto the Lord of the vineyard: Spare it a little longer.
51 And the Lord said: Yea, I will spare it a little longer, for it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard.
52 Wherefore, let us take of the branches of these which I have planted in the nethermost parts of my vineyard, and let us graft them into the tree from whence they came; and let us pluck from the tree those branches whose fruit is most bitter, and graft in the natural branches of the tree in the stead thereof.
The day of the gentiles is coming to an end. There will be a change in branches. We arrogantly assume we are the good branches that we are the “true church” and that we deserve to be seated in the highest room of the wedding feast, however it would behoove us to apply the Lord’s parable to us today:
When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;
And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.
But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. (Luke 14:8-11, KJV)
The Lord is going to effect a marvelous work and a wonder as the natural branches are grafted back into their mother tree. As the scattered outcasts of Israel are gathered back to the new and everlasting covenant which Christ made with their fathers. The hearts of the Jews will turn to their fathers and they will learn of Christ (again).
According to the teaching and prophecies of Christ and the other prophets whom he quoted during his Lehite visit, there is only going to be a remnant of the wild branches who will abide the day that is coming and will be able to participate in this work.
So my humble petition is for us to repent, humble ourselves even as a child and receive what Christ is willing to give unto us and to receive it by whosoever He decides to do it by.
It is possible that it may not be coming from those “who have been ordained and/or set apart to their church calling and are acknowledged by common consent of the members of the Church.”
It is possible that it will come from the established hierarchy. The point is we don’t know and if we place limits as to how much truth we will receive and by whom we will receive it, we may one day future regret it.
If this is the case then the counsel of this particular Elder instead of blessing us will cause us to spiritually stagnate. If that is the only way we will receive truth then wo unto us for we will have arrogantly set up bounds as to what the Lord can do.
Did not the Lord say “I will show unto the children of men that I am able to do mine own work.” I will leave it up to each of you then to discern from whence comes the idea so prevalent in our culture of “hearken unto us, and hear ye our precept; for behold there is no God today, for the Lord and the Redeemer hath done his work, and he hath given his power unto men.”
Since this particular leader likes to recite parables of ships and such, let me leave a parable with you:
There once was a ship the S.S. TGSZ that was built and launched at sea many years ago. After sailing both calm and rough seas some of the crew decided to mutiny which led to the seizure and death of the captain and first mate. Others of the crew after overcoming the mutinous band took over attempting to sail the ship. After many days the passengers started to notice a few things wrong.
First was that the rudder was broken which allowed the ship to only sail in a giant circle; although the perception of both captain and crew was that she was sailing to her correct destination. The captain didn’t believe it and ordered those who thought so punished and silenced so as to not frighten the passengers.
The second problem noticed was that there were cracks in the bulkhead under the water that only a few noticed as part of their jobs attending under deck. The captain ordered those people beaten and silenced and kept sailing on.
Many days later holes started appearing in the ship to which the passengers quickly plugged with their fingers so as to keep the ship afloat. These passengers began warning others on board as to the precarious situation they were in. When the captain and crew heard of it they assured them that the ship could never be sunk and that as long as they stayed on they would make it to their destination.
The captain and crew were angry with those who were causing a stir and began to have them secretly thrown off the ship as to not frighten the other passengers. However these passengers who were first aware of the holes were the ones to plugging them with their finger and anything else that they could.
With these pesky, disruptive and “deceived” passengers removed, pretty soon the ship began listing heavily to its port side, and unable to right her or steer her properly, she was dashed to pieces on the jagged rocks and many people perished.
Of course I may be deluded and listening to the whisperings of the adversary. In fact all may be well in Zion and in her “good ship” and it is me who is on the broad road to destruction.
That is the beauty of these things. Truth cleaveth to truth, light cleaveth to light and it matters not who believes it or who rejects it as far as truth is concerned, it remains unaffected.
It does matter a great deal to each of us individually if we will receive truth or not. In fact it is one of the most important things we can do while on this mortal sojourn. Joseph once taught the saints:
“I am rough stone, the sound of hammer and chisel was never heard on me nor never will be. I desire the learning and wisdom of heaven alone. Have not the least idea but if Christ should come and preach such rough things as he preached to the Jews, but this generation would reject him for being so rough.” – 11 June 1843. Preaching at Temple Stand. Joseph Smith diary by Willard Richards. Ehat & Cook pg 210.
If you desire the wisdom and learning of heaven, if you desire to be someone who would not reject the teachings of the Savior should He decide to send a messenger outside of the established hierarchy then I suggest you consider long and hard whether the particular teaching in question from conference is a precept of man, a philosophy of man mingled with scripture, a true tenet or the word of the Lord to us.
I am not bearing witness to any messenger other than Christ but I also refuse to put up stakes or boundaries as to how the Lord can accomplish his work. For all I know the Davidic servant talked about so much in the scriptures could come from outside the church.
The One Mighty and Strong could be referring to someone outside of the church to come in the future; Or this could be referring to someone within the church but outside the hierarchy (however they would likely be tossed out or marred should this be the way); Or this could be one of the 15 apostles; Or this scripture reference may have already been fulfilled and is irrelevant for us to ponder.
It would behoove us to not place limits on what the Lord can do and how He will do it.
Let me leave you with the words of Christ regarding how those commissioned by Him who teach His truths will be received by the world (let me give you a hint, they won’t be treated as celebrities or rock stars; there won’t be buildings named after them. People will not fawn over their every word. They will not be idolized):
Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.
Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. (Luke 6:22-23, KJV)
For those of you who feel that something is not right with our inherited traditions and that something doesn’t feel right about our common collective narrative, you are not alone. Whether you get crushed by the tank or the tank backs off and turns course, what matters is standing tall as a witness for truth nevertheless.