General Authority and Personal Authority – Rational Faiths

[Anonymous]

Roy wrote:

[quote=”hawkgrrrl”

Unfortunately he then contradicts what he is quoted as saying previously about working out exceptions to counsel between the individual and the Lord.

Quote:

Unfortunately, it is common for persons who are violating God’s commandments or disobedient to the counsel of their priesthood leaders to declare that God has revealed to them that they are excused from obeying some commandment or from following some counsel. Such persons may be receiving revelation or inspiration, but it is not from the source they suppose. The devil is the father of lies, and he is ever anxious to frustrate the work of God by his clever imitations.

And he started the talk so well… :thumbdown:

Agreed — Cwald had a problem with it — that our personal line can’t conflict with the priesthood line. Then what good is the personal line? What I see here is a GA who would like to see members think for themselves on matters that don’t conflict with general church policy or commandments, but to maintain a certain amount of control/provide a caveat which places control back in the hands of the leaders when it comes to organizational interests threatened by the personal line.

I think it’s ALL up for revision by the personal line — some commandments and most policy. Naturally, you’d have to think long and hard about violating certain bedrock commandments and policies, but the situations are so diverse in this life. You can’t possibly cover them all with policy derived in ivory towers or even by “revelation”.

Case — years ago, I ate something and it went down the wrong way. I couldn’t breath — people whacked me on the back, still nothing, it got dire. There was nothing around but coffee. I grabbed one and drank it to get the food down my throat. It went down and I survived.

I never drank coffee again. And it was never a temptation (and never has been since). But I think I did the right thing — just as Eve did the right thing in eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The personal line trumped commandments in that case, and I’m glad it did.

[Anonymous]

SilentDawning wrote:

Roy wrote:

[quote=”hawkgrrrl”

Unfortunately he then contradicts what he is quoted as saying previously about working out exceptions to counsel between the individual and the Lord.

Quote:

Unfortunately, it is common for persons who are violating God’s commandments or disobedient to the counsel of their priesthood leaders to declare that God has revealed to them that they are excused from obeying some commandment or from following some counsel. Such persons may be receiving revelation or inspiration, but it is not from the source they suppose. The devil is the father of lies, and he is ever anxious to frustrate the work of God by his clever imitations.

And he started the talk so well… :thumbdown:

Agreed — Cwald had a problem with it — that our personal line can’t conflict with the priesthood line. Then what good is the personal line? What I see here is a GA who would like to see members think for themselves on matters that don’t conflict with general church policy or commandments, but to maintain a certain amount of control/provide a caveat which places control back in the hands of the leaders when it comes to organizational interests threatened by the personal line.

I think it’s ALL up for revision by the personal line — some commandments and most policy. Naturally, you’d have to think long and hard about violating certain bedrock commandments and policies, but the situations are so diverse in this life. You can’t possibly cover them all with policy derived in ivory towers or even by “revelation”.

Case — years ago, I ate something and it went down the wrong way. I couldn’t breath — people whacked me on the back, still nothing, it got dire. There was nothing around but coffee. I grabbed one and drank it to get the food down my throat. It went down and I survived.

I never drank coffee again. And it was never a temptation (and never has been since). But I think I did the right thing — just as Eve did the right thing in eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The personal line trumped commandments in that case, and I’m glad it did.

Sounds like a traumatizing experience. No wonder you don’t like coffee.

I think most people would have done the same thing. What were your choices, suffocate or have a taste of coffee? I hope you didn’t have to think too much before you made the decision.

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