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From our lesson today: Quote:
The Lord has established all things in order and has given us a perfect system. Men cannot improve upon it. If we would carry out that which the Lord has revealed, as he has revealed it, then all things would be perfect, for the organization is a perfect organization; the theory of it—the plan of it—is without flaw.The Lord has set up in his church a priesthood organization headed by apostles and prophets. And he has also given other organizations … to aid and assist in the priesthood.
Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Fielding Smith, Chapter 8: The Church and Kingdom of God
How do you deal with this attitude? It’s not actually possible. The “system” or “theory” has all been revealed through men. Men are imperfect. How can pure water stay pure after it passes through an impure filter?
We could walk a middle way by saying God’s doctrines and directives are perfect but only get distorted when He tries to relay them to us via other men, but the lesson doesn’t really give that option. It talks about the different organisational strands of the church with the inference that these are part of the perfect theory revealed.
The real crux of the argument is in: Quote:If we would carry out that which the Lord has revealed, as he has revealed it, then all things would be perfect…
And we don’t need to look any further than the priesthood ban to see that leaders are not infallible. Just because they say something is from god doesn’t automatically make it so. I also find that statement funny in that revelation, by definition, is an imperfect process. Faith is always involved and having faith implies
nothaving a perfect knowledge. Plus this whole perfect organization bit runs the classic risk of “how can something that is perfect change?” That causes more harm than good IMO. It runs the risk of locking people into an incorrect, dated mindset. It also flies in the face of ongoing revelation, the restoration is ongoing after all.
If there’s one system that the lord put in place that cannot be improved upon my vote would go down for agency.
I like the point about agency 
I don’t buy it. I have said before on the forums that I really don’t have a problem with the organization of the church – it does what it needs to do relatively efficiently. Does that make it perfect? If it was perfect during the time of JFS, why has it changed since then (seventies, for example)? I kind of got into an argument with the husband on the way home from church about this 😆 I simply disagree. Luckily, our teacher didn’t quote that part. In fact, when he asked about how the Lord runs the Church, one of the former Bishops in the group said, Quote:Through imperfect people. We have to deal with the results.
Don’t get me wrong; there were parts of the lesson today with which I disagree (like that we should serve however we are called). Overall, however, it was a good lesson.
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