A reply I made in an LDS group today to a member commenting that another LDS member should not be reading the BoM and liken to our day, unless some General "Authority" first teaches it:
No offense, but what kind of mindless people are we to be with this kind of idea? YOU and WE are supposed to get the gifts of the spirit. ONE of them is the gift of discernment. Another is to even prophecy. Moses: "Would to God that all the Lords people were prophets!" Christ taught to search, seek, ask, knock. Anyone, who speaks as moved upon by God (spirit) to do so, those words are accountable as valid as scripture. No matter who says it.
The BoM is a warning to the latter day failure of the church that brought it about. We are the ones Mormon was talking to. We have and read the book! It is a warning that God will wipe this land clean if the people within this land allow similar corruption as occurred in the past, and contains promises to restore Zion to descendants of previous righteous prophets once they and we, some of the gentiles who actually get the fulness (something the church never got since Nauvoo failure), repent and get to a point of true religion. What is that? That every person, regardless of some church title, has equal responsibility and duty before God and others, to equally prophecy, discern, preach and teach and invite, as much as some elected GA that so many want to pin all of their own duties and responsibilities upon. You want true Mormonism? This was it! Depending on a middle man, is nothing but IDOLATRY. The scriptures warn against this. True and real prophets warn against this. True prophets teach you to go and do what they do, like Moses and Joseph Smith. They don't pridefully and selfishly teach that they will usurp your individual duties to connect with God, cripple you from doing what you need for exaltation, and teach that they will be your middle man to tell you all you need to learn and know. Real prophets don't get in the way of your own connection with the Godhead! Scriptures prophecy that in the last days even young people will prophecy. GA's aren't young, are they. If we are to Zion, we need to do it with truth and proper mindset. How can we ever see eye to eye, if each of us are not getting revelation and inspiration and explanations and teachings from the Lord? If we are all connected with the same source, how amazing that would be. Search the scriptures. Understand what the modified and amended Endowment Ritual still teaches us to go and do! Read Joseph Smiths writings in the WJS. These warnings and truths are there.
Even BY made many errors and led astray in many ways. He literally and spiritually brought this church into the "wilderness". But he taught truth (likely remembering things Joseph taught in these cases) when he stated that none of us should pin our own duties upon a pres of the church or anyone else:
BY: Do not be deceived, any of you; if you are deceived, it is because you deceive yourselves. You may know whether you are led right or wrong, as well as you know the way home . . . What a pity it would be if we were led by one man to utter destruction! Are you afraid of this? I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by Him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would thwart the purposes of God in their salvation, and weaken that influence they could give to their leaders, did they know for themselves, by the revelations of Jesus, that they are led in the right way... Let all persons be fervent in prayer, until they know the things of God for themselves and become certain that they are walking in the path that leads to everlasting life.
George Q Cannon:
It is the design of the Lord to develop within every man and woman the principle of knowledge, that all may know for themselves. He has poured out His holy spirit upon all of us, and not upon President Young nor upon bro. Joseph alone. The Lord designs that the principle of knowledge shall be developed in every heart, that all may stand before Him . . . doing understandingly what He requires of them, not depending upon nor being blindly led by their priests or leaders, as is the universal custom, and one of the most fruitful sources of evil to the people on the face of the earth. God intends to break down this order of things, and to develop in the bosom of every human being who will be obedient to the gospel and the principles of truth and righteousness, that knowledge which will enable them to perform understandingly all the labors and duties he requires of them . . . We must all learn to depend upon God and upon Him alone. Why, the very man upon whom we think we can rely with unbounded confidence, and trust with all we possess, may disappoint us sometimes, but trust in God and He never fails.
Charles Penrose:
Our testimony does not depend upon Joseph Smith; it does not depend upon Brigham Young; it does not depend upon John Taylor, or upon the council of the Twelve Apostles, which is now the presiding quorum in the Church. I pin my faith to no man’s sleeve; I am a believer in the Scripture which says, “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm.
Though these 3 men lived in times after a real prophet was taken from the church in 1844, what they said here was truth.
No man should be placed between you and God. WE have a duty to connect with the Lord Himself, as shown in the temple and shown by example in every book of scripture we have. It is what Joseph Smith was trying to get into the heads of the church members. What Moses was trying to get his people to go and do. What Nephi meant when he tried to warn US, the readers in the last days, to avoid - wrongly relying on arms of flesh.
The Lord is the one to look to, connect with, correspond with. Not another man. The Lord has all the power and authority to bestow. Go to Him, because He is always the way, and men are fallible so it's proper to do so just in case. This is serious stuff.
The BoM is a warning to the latter day failure of the church that brought it about. We are the ones Mormon was talking to. We have and read the book! It is a warning that God will wipe this land clean if the people within this land allow similar corruption as occurred in the past, and contains promises to restore Zion to descendants of previous righteous prophets once they and we, some of the gentiles who actually get the fulness (something the church never got since Nauvoo failure), repent and get to a point of true religion. What is that? That every person, regardless of some church title, has equal responsibility and duty before God and others, to equally prophecy, discern, preach and teach and invite, as much as some elected GA that so many want to pin all of their own duties and responsibilities upon. You want true Mormonism? This was it! Depending on a middle man, is nothing but IDOLATRY. The scriptures warn against this. True and real prophets warn against this. True prophets teach you to go and do what they do, like Moses and Joseph Smith. They don't pridefully and selfishly teach that they will usurp your individual duties to connect with God, cripple you from doing what you need for exaltation, and teach that they will be your middle man to tell you all you need to learn and know. Real prophets don't get in the way of your own connection with the Godhead! Scriptures prophecy that in the last days even young people will prophecy. GA's aren't young, are they. If we are to Zion, we need to do it with truth and proper mindset. How can we ever see eye to eye, if each of us are not getting revelation and inspiration and explanations and teachings from the Lord? If we are all connected with the same source, how amazing that would be. Search the scriptures. Understand what the modified and amended Endowment Ritual still teaches us to go and do! Read Joseph Smiths writings in the WJS. These warnings and truths are there.
Even BY made many errors and led astray in many ways. He literally and spiritually brought this church into the "wilderness". But he taught truth (likely remembering things Joseph taught in these cases) when he stated that none of us should pin our own duties upon a pres of the church or anyone else:
BY: Do not be deceived, any of you; if you are deceived, it is because you deceive yourselves. You may know whether you are led right or wrong, as well as you know the way home . . . What a pity it would be if we were led by one man to utter destruction! Are you afraid of this? I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by Him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would thwart the purposes of God in their salvation, and weaken that influence they could give to their leaders, did they know for themselves, by the revelations of Jesus, that they are led in the right way... Let all persons be fervent in prayer, until they know the things of God for themselves and become certain that they are walking in the path that leads to everlasting life.
George Q Cannon:
It is the design of the Lord to develop within every man and woman the principle of knowledge, that all may know for themselves. He has poured out His holy spirit upon all of us, and not upon President Young nor upon bro. Joseph alone. The Lord designs that the principle of knowledge shall be developed in every heart, that all may stand before Him . . . doing understandingly what He requires of them, not depending upon nor being blindly led by their priests or leaders, as is the universal custom, and one of the most fruitful sources of evil to the people on the face of the earth. God intends to break down this order of things, and to develop in the bosom of every human being who will be obedient to the gospel and the principles of truth and righteousness, that knowledge which will enable them to perform understandingly all the labors and duties he requires of them . . . We must all learn to depend upon God and upon Him alone. Why, the very man upon whom we think we can rely with unbounded confidence, and trust with all we possess, may disappoint us sometimes, but trust in God and He never fails.
Charles Penrose:
Our testimony does not depend upon Joseph Smith; it does not depend upon Brigham Young; it does not depend upon John Taylor, or upon the council of the Twelve Apostles, which is now the presiding quorum in the Church. I pin my faith to no man’s sleeve; I am a believer in the Scripture which says, “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm.
Though these 3 men lived in times after a real prophet was taken from the church in 1844, what they said here was truth.
No man should be placed between you and God. WE have a duty to connect with the Lord Himself, as shown in the temple and shown by example in every book of scripture we have. It is what Joseph Smith was trying to get into the heads of the church members. What Moses was trying to get his people to go and do. What Nephi meant when he tried to warn US, the readers in the last days, to avoid - wrongly relying on arms of flesh.
The Lord is the one to look to, connect with, correspond with. Not another man. The Lord has all the power and authority to bestow. Go to Him, because He is always the way, and men are fallible so it's proper to do so just in case. This is serious stuff.
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