The 14 Fundamentals: Number 7

This point doesn’t sound that bad by itself but once again it’s the commentary that bothers me the most:

“Thou hast declared unto us hard things, more than we are able to bear,” complained Nephi’s brethren. But Nephi answered by saying, “the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center” (1 Nephi 16:1, 3). Or, to put it in another prophet’s words, “Hit pigeons flutter.”

Said President Harold B. Lee: You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church. It may contradict your political views. It may contradict your social views. It may interfere with some of your social life…Your safety and ours depends upon whether or not we follow….Let’s keep our eye on the President of the Church…

But it is the living prophet who really upsets the world. “Even in the Church,” said President Kimball, “many are prone to garnish the sepulchres of yesterday’s prophets and mentally stone the living ones”…Why? Because the living prophet gets at what we need to know now, and the world prefers that prophets either be dead or mind their own business. Some so-called experts of political science want the prophet to keep still on politics. Some would-be authorities on evolution want the prophet to keep still on evolution. And so the list goes on and on…How we respond to the words of a living prophet when he tells us what we need to know, but would rather not hear, is a test of our faithfulness…

This seems to imply that if you don’t like what the prophet says then you are wrong as if being unpopular with the world is an expected sign of a being a true prophet. Maybe some people have perfectly understandable reasons for not accepting what the prophets say such as that some of what they say does not really make sense or appears to be wrong.

I think it is accepted by everyone that the prophet is not trying to be socially popular, and is often warning us of what is a danger in society…so it stands to reason things he says will not always be what everyone wants to hear.

But there are so many wants and needs that vary among people…I don’t know how such a blanket statement can be universally true for everyone.

There will always be people who don’t want to hear what you have to say. Being the president of a Church with several million members, there is GOING to be dissent in certain areas. However, I disagree with the statement that we put flowers on dead prophet’s graves, while stone the living ones. We haven’t had a good stoning in a couple decades now, and I think the things that our older prophets have said have been criticized to the hilt, especially Brigham Young!!! Not so with Thomas Monson.

The prophet tells us what he wants us to know, not always what we wish to know.

I like that way of wording it too.

I like Brian’s first comment. And I can go along with the idea that the prophet tells us what we need to know as far as the church is concerned. In addition to that I think we should all have a direct line to God so he can tell us what HE wants us to know — on personal topics.

And I don’t discount the idea that personal revelation for personal circumstances may not always agree with the counsel for the church as a whole.

The prophet tells us what he wants us to know, not always what we wish to know.

Well said.

I think after the prophet tells us, then many other leaders take that word, and they try to tell us it is what we SHOULD wish to know, and what we should be obedient to.

As it has been mentioned before, the strong words of obedience often come from the ancillary leaders calling on members to sustain the prophet, not directly from the prophet telling us to obey him.