My daughter got a call from the Bishop, asking if she would speak in Churuch today -- of course she got the call late Saturday night ...

Luckily, we had a pre-prepared talk or two around (you know how it is, be prepared) and it went well.

I thought I'd put the talk up for the first post here, as it covers some thoughts, even if I've had them before.

Why having a living prophet is important to me.


When we listen to a prophet's voice there are several things we can expect to hear. They are the things that make a prophet a Prophet of God and they are:

1. A Witness or Testimony of Christ.
2. A Call to share and act in the love of Christ.
3. A Call to repent of our sins.
4. Prophetic warnings against particular temptations or dangers of our time.
5. Changes in the procedure or course of the Church for our time.

THE TESTIMONY OF CHRIST

The scriptures reflect, contain and record that all of the prophets have testified of Christ and have rejoiced in him. Paul goes so far as to say that the testimony of Christ is the Spirit of Prophecy.

Important to being a prophet is what is known as "the prophetic witness" -- a testimony and knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is the core of the plane of salvation, the only name by which man can be saved and the good news of the gospel -- which is the gospel or church of Jesus Christ, and no other.

This prophetic testimony or witness of Christ has three parts. First, that Christ is real, he exists, he lives. As the Doctrine and Covenants says in Section 76: "And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony last of all which he give of him: that he lives!"

In every age the prophets have testified that the promised Messiah, Jesus the Christ, is real, that he lives, and that he is living water with a tangible presence and true certainty.

The second part of the testimony of the promised Messiah is that he is the path of salvation. If there was no salvation, an anointed Savior would be meaningless. Christ's reality has meaning to us because he is not only the author and finisher of our faith, but because our faith in him leads to salvation. "For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but to redeem the world." "That whosoever believeth on him, though he were dead, yet shall he live."

The good news or gospel is that there is a Christ and that he can save us.

The third part of a prophet's testimony of Christ is the command to be like him. As Howard W. Hunter said on October 1, 1994 "I invite all members of the Church to live with ever more attention to the life and example of the Lord Jesus Christ ..." "Let us study the Master's every teaching and devote ourselves more fully to his example."

THE MESSAGE OF THE LOVE OF CHRIST
The second message a Prophet brings, after the prophetic witness of the reality of Christ, is the message that we should and must receive and act in the love of Christ. In the New Testament we have Paul's sermon on Charity in 1 Cor. 13 where he tells us that the love of Christ is "the greatest of all" spiritual gifts.

In the Book of Mormon we have the sermon captured in the 7th chapter of Moroni about how without love, faith and hope are meaningless.

Modern prophets have told us to be like Christ "especially the love and hope and compassion he displayed. I pray that we will treat each other with more kindness, more courtesy, more forgiveness." (Hunter, Oct. 1, 1994).

The love that leads to forgiveness is essential to salvation. God has warned us that if we fail or refuse to forgive those who have sinned against us, he will not forgive us of our sins. He has also said "I will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men."

Further, the Christ said "by this may men know that ye are my disciples, that ye love one another." To be saved, to follow, to become disciples, we must have the love of Christ within our hearts. Prophets teach us of Christ and then they teach us of love that we may come unto Christ and be his true disciples.

After all, if Christ did not love us, what could we really expect from him?

LOVE LEADS TO THE CALL TO REPENTANCE

After teaching us of the reality of Christ and of his love, prophets next call us to repentance for our sins -- and call us to repent of our sins.

"To those who have transgressed or been offended, we say, come back. The path of repentance, though hard at times, lifts one ever upward and leads to a perfect forgiveness." (Howard W. Hunter, October 1, 1994. Continually, at every conference we hear that call from the Prophets and Apostles.

Not only do prophets call us to repent of sins generally, at times they call on us as a people to repent of specific sins. For example ... Isaiah and Ezra Taft Benson both warned in detail against pride. Nephi and Jeremiah preached against rebellion. Malachi was sent to preach about the failure to tithe. Abinadi was sent to call people -- especially the governing establishment -- to repentance from gross debauchery.

Elijah warned the people against the worship of false idols. Jacob denounced the love of riches and immorality.

As King Benjamin noted, the ways of sin are endless. But each age seems to have its favorite sins. Each age seems to grow comfortable with some sins, and as that happens, God sends us warnings when the familiar is still sin even though we have now embraced it as comfortable and normal.

THE VOICE OF WARNING

Prophets also cry out warnings to the people. That is the fourth thing they teach. Some times they warn us of sins. There are times when their warning passes "just" the call to repentance, times when we come close to crossing the edge where our sins prevent agency and cry out for destruction from God.

At that time, God sends prophets first, to warn us. We are all familiar with the story of Jonah who warned Ninevah. We all know of the attempted warning of Sodom and Gomorrah. We all know of Noah who preached warning continually -- all the while building the ark against the failure of his warnings.

Finally, we have the story of Lehi who warned Jerusalem and then fled with his family. Thus prophets not only call on us to repent of sin in general, but they also warn us when our sins are about to bring about our destruction.

Prophets also warn us of other dangers. The Word of Wisdom warns against tobacco. Jeremiah warned against military alliance with Egypt. Joseph gave warning of seven years of famine in Egypt. Prophets have warned against many other dangers, from encouraging food storage prior to the great depression, to the prophecies about the end of time. Prophets are indeed watchmen to warn the people as the scripture states.

FINALLY, PROPHETIC CHANGES

Last of the five things prophets teach us, prophets tell us of changes in the way things are or the way things are to be done. This message is the thing most people notice about prophets and the thing most people look to be told. I have left it last in my talk because it is sometimes the least important of the five messages prophets bring.

Christ is the core of the gospel.

Following the message of Christ is the message of his love, without which we are as hollow brass or vain noise, without hope.

Third is repentance and laying hold of the love of Christ and remission of sins.

Fourth is heeding the voice of warning lest we be destroyed.

Finally, we have procedural revelation about how things are to be done. In Moses' time that included the ten commandments and not eating pork, rabbits, lobster, shrimp or catfish. It included limiting the Priesthood only to the sons of Aaron and the tribe of Levi.

In Paul's time that included not eating meat butchered at pagan temples (in order to avoid offending members of the Church who were unable to accept the practice) and allowing gentiles to be baptized into the Church.

In our recent time changes have included the consolidated meeting schedule, extending the priesthood to all worthy men, and the reorganizations in church administration as well as President Hinckley’s command to build more temples. It will undoubtedly include many more things we do not yet even expect and which take us aback at first. After all, when Peter was told to "arise and eat" and partake of food such as pork, rabbit, lobster and shrimp, he drew back and remonstrated with the Lord.

When gentiles were baptized, it caused a scandal. No doubt as time and needs change, God will surprise us again. And he gives us prophets so that we may know that these surprises are the mind and will of God.

All of these things make having a prophet today important to me.

I know that when prophets speak, I can expect to hear them tell five messages, each of which is very important to me.

The five messages are:

1. The testimony of Christ, that he is, that he is the path to salvation, and that we should be like him.

2. The love of Christ, both that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, and that we should love one another.

3. That we must repent and return to Christ and his love.

4. Specific warnings for our time, and

5. Revelations regarding changes for our times.

These are the things we should remember from past prophets as we read their messages in the scriptures. These are the things we should look to hear and learn from when we listen to modern prophets. And these are the things we should retain when we come away from hearing the voice of God, for these are the message of the gospel that God gives us through his prophets.

I leave you with this, in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

The final (word on) prophecy

By: Stephen Marsh

August 9, 2012

So, what do we know about prophets?  What is the final word on prophecy?

So far, in previous posts I have covered:

• What they will tell us.
• How to listen to them, a typography of the things they say.
• Understanding the themes that are each prophet’s mission.
• How to become a prophet. [Scroll down]

This post is on how prophets prophesy and how the word of God is transmitted from God to man by prophets.  The final word, so to speak, on prophecy.

Some context — prophets in the scriptures

There is the classic, prophet in the mode of Moses version “And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” — one that we are told, over and over again is atypical for a prophet and which made Moses special.

More normative are events such as when Peter had his vision that led to gentiles being accepted as members of the Church. Peter was faced with an issue, there had been back and forth, there was a policy in place (no gentiles), he had a vision, and then they had to work out what it meant and the full implications (circumcision not required after all).  That was a process that involved several different levels of revelation, follow-up, clarification and focusing.

Interestingly enough, his first response to the voice of God was to disagree with it “not so.”
Even more common seems to be events such as found in Luke 24:17-21ff.   The apostles had been told things by Christ himself (or had read the scriptures), completely failed to understand them, pondered them, and eventually found enlightenment.

Or Phillip and the Eunuch, where Phillip is told to go to a place, but thereafter works from inspiration.

The pattern

The general pattern is that there is a problem, God speaks, men do not understand, the inspiration is clarified, then they have to work out the implications on their own, with more struggle and concentration on the issue.  Without the reason to face the issue, it seems rare for God to speak (e.g. it went a while for gentiles to be allowed to be baptized, until there was an active reason.  Circumcision issues took some time to work out).

What is striking about many examples is that the prophet involved starts off saying “no” or going in the other direction (Saul of Tarsus anyone?).  God speaks, and like with Jonah, encounters resistance.  There is revelation, but the meaning of it still has to be worked out and developed.

More modern examples

We have some more modern discussions, since Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and others talked about the process.  They talked about how they, like the apostles, were limited in their understanding of God’s words by the weaknesses of their language, their knowledge and their context.  God may be speaking, but they were the ones listening.

Further, they engaged in the process of refining what they understood and what it meant.  Revelation would often go through drafts as they worked out just what it meant, prayed and pondered about it.

What that means for us

First, a preface, so to speak, then specifics.

In preface, I would note that we have a huge administrative burden in the Church and that we have a competing chorus of voices on almost every issue and many, many issues.  It is easy to think that there is an issue or a problem, it is (a) the most important, (b) there is only one side, and (c) there is nothing else any where near as important.  I suspect that not more than 4-5 people in each stake feel that way on a monthly basis.  With 2946 stakes at the end of 2011, that is probably not more than ten thousand people a month who have something they want to say.

Specifics

• Generally, you should expect each prophet to work with their theme.  Historically, that has been true, though Spencer W. Kimball seemed to pick up new themes every time he almost died.
• Generally, you should expect prophets, seers and revelators (such as the first quorum of the 70) to be very engaged in the day to day administrative revelation related tasks of the Church — calling new bishops, new stake presidents, new mission presidents and dealing with related issues.  Over 350 missions, with each president serving three years, means over 100 mission presidents to call and train each year.  350+ to supervise.  I would not be surprised if there were a thousand stake presidency members (presidents and counselors) to call and train each year (that is only about 300 presidencies a year or about 10% a year, it is probably more).
• Generally, you should expect refinement once there is revelation.  I know, you would think that if Christ himself were talking to Peter or John, face to face, day to day, for more than a year, they would get the point without needing refinement, but we are so modern, we probably don’t need as much time, feedback, exposure or refinement?  Maybe not.  We might even need more.  I think it is worthwhile to keep Peter and Paul and their trials and conflicts well in mind when thinking about prophets and the transmission of the word of God to us.
• Generally, you can move prophets to action by moving God.  There is a well documented methodology for it.
• Expect to start off not completely clear on what God is saying or what the important parts are.

What do you think?  Is there something I have missed on what we should expect?

On avoiding cheapshots -- easy advice

It is easy advice since this type of argument is a personal failing of mine.

I'm going to start with an example involving beards.





The classic example is someone who would like to see their husband wear a beard. They start with the argument that the beards looked so good on the old prophets.

The response, is to say "don't you respect the modern, beardless prophets?"

The counter response is "don't you respect Christ's beard?"

You can see in that example that a cheap shot pretty much closes off communication or invites another one in response.

Neither gets to the reasons someone might have for wearing a beard or not wearing one. Beards have gone from a standard for men and pioneers to old fashioned and patriarchial to reactionary to revolutionary and counter-culture to (currently, with short beards) the new mainstream/corporate look (as people wear beards in order to look a little older, a little more mature and to pick up some gravitas).

But none of that is captured in an exchange of cheap shots.

Which is why, in spite of my own weaknesses, I advise others to avoid them -- and feel strongly that any institution should make a serious effort to avoid allowing them as a method of discourse or instruction on anything that matters.