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Since taking on the calling of Branch Mission Leader I’ve tried to consistent and authentic with my beliefs. I’ve committed to not teach anything I don’t believe. So far it has been a fairly pleasant and uplifting experience. The nature of Godexisting before birthgift of agencyrespecting our planetMore recently we’ve had lessons of prayer and personal revelation (I need to post them to my blog). Again, I embrace these ideas.
Tomorrow is going to be tough though. I’m teaching lesson 9. Prophets of God.
I usually have a teaching rules of:
– Include 30-50% of the lesson material
– Only use church sourced quotes for other material (quotes by GAs are OK even if they are not on LDS.org)
– Only teach principles that can be taught while maintaining my authenticity
I’m going to struggle tomorrow though. The lesson includes quotes like:
Quote:
Many people live in darkness, unsure of God’s will. They believe that the heavens are closed and that people must face the world’s perils alone. How fortunate are the Latter-day Saints! We know that God communicates to the Church through His prophet.A prophet is a man called by God to be His representative on earth. When a prophet speaks for God, it is as if God were speaking.
A true prophet is always chosen by God and called through proper priesthood authority (my comment: what priesthood authority was Adam or Moses called by?)
No person except the chosen prophet and President can receive God’s will for the entire membership of the Church. The Lord said, “There is never but one on the earth at a time on whom this power and the keys of this priesthood are conferred”
We should do those things the prophets tell us to do. President Wilford Woodruff said that a prophet will never be allowed to lead the Church astray:
“The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as President of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the programme. It is not in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out of my place”
We should follow his inspired teachings completely. We should not choose to follow part of his inspired counsel and discard that which is unpleasant or difficult. The Lord commanded us to follow the inspired teachings of His prophet:
The Lord will never allow the President of the Church to lead us astray.
When we do as our prophet directs, blessings pour down from heaven.
https://www.lds.org/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-9-prophets-of-god?lang=eng I simply do not believe these statements. I could not teach them. I’m working hard to teach a balanced, authentic AND uplifting lesson tomorrow. I’ll let you know.
Good Luck. If it helps try the Brigham Young Quote: Quote:“I am 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 will settle down in a state of blind self security. Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the paths the Lord dictates or not.”
Also the story in the Old Testament when Moses is having a GC with Isreal and one of the interpreters is doing his own prophesying and Moses team complains and Moses said,
Quote:“Were that all men were prophets.”
Just ideas. Good luck.
Whenever I have to teach a lesson like that, I mention that the idea of having prophets to lead the Church is kind of a given for us – but the actual concept of being a people of prophets is overlooked too often. I turn to the Bible Dictionary and focus on the last part that emphasizes the idea of all people being in tune with God enough to “prophesy” (or speak as God would speak). I then direct the discussion toward how we can speak for God in our own lives and what things keep us from doing so – including an over-reliance on others as the only spokespeople for God.
The quote that mom3 shared is good, but I recall another one in your Useful Quotes thread that addresses directly the concept of the need for all to be prophets within their personal spheres. You might want to go through those quotes and find one or more appropriate ones.
Quote:No person except the chosen prophet and President can receive God’s will for the entire membership of the Church. The Lord said, “There is never but one on the earth at a time on whom this power and the keys of this priesthood are conferred”
I’m curious—what are your concerns about this one?Yes. The 14 F’s of the Prophet, GC Oct. 2010, is really what ended my participation in the mormon church. I wish you well.
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Quote:rev. 19:10 the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy
According to this definition any of us can have the spirit if prophecy.
Once I realized that there hadn’t been any significant revelations since the 1800s I reconsidered the role of the modern day prophets, and that is simply to testify of Christ.
The hardest part of this lesson for me would be to teach that the prophet has absolute authority over the world because of his priesthood keys, but it doesn’t sound like the manual is pushing to make that point.
On the question of blind obedience,the Brigham quote is good, I also like to mention that we are encouraged to seek a personal confirmation of anything we are asked to do. This is a good opportunity to teach personal accountability and reasoning things out through prayer and pondering.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was wallowing a bit yesterday wasn’t I? It’s sometimes tough to work within a group of people who really do think that prophets have a weekly catch-up with God/angels. I think the thing that I’ve moved furthest from is this idea of the “orthodox” prophet model. There is too much evidence that they are teaching primarily from their cultural context and not as mouthpieces of deity.
I believe God does guide and inspire people, but is limited in this. He can only do so within the parameters the person is willing to consider. As Elder Uchtdorf said recently: “For a worm in horseradish the world is horseradish.” The black priesthood/temple ban took so long because it was outside of the leaders’ ‘horseradish.’ I’m concerned about the over-willingness of members to climb into the same horseradish space and ignore everything else around it.
I’ll post what I ended up teaching later. Thanks again.
We had a good discussion in the lesson. As usual I had way more material than I could ever cover. I tried to move with the conversation. I started by writing the following on the board:
Heavenly Father & Jesus Christ
Prophet
Quorum of the 12
70s/Area leaders
Stake leaders
Branch leaders
Me
I then asked if this was the route to receiving guidance from God. I was delighted by the answers from 3 people, almost at the same time: “No,” “Yes,” “One of them.”
We then discussed personal revelation/guidance and then the opportunity of reading the words of prophets and getting our own confirmation.
I drew a line from ‘me’ straight round to God and said this is how we can get guidance but that it is often through the filter and within the framework of things said by both current and ancient leaders, teachers and prophets.
I then shared the “For a worm in horseradish the world is horseradish” quote from Elder Uchtdorf. We talked about how we are prone to see the world from our own “horseradish” and sometimes assume that’s all there is to know and that even prophets can be prone to seeing the world from their own “horseradish.” We have never claimed to have perfect or infallible prophets.
I’m not sure how it came up but one of the Elders (one who I think has some doubts or uncertainties) asked: “If there were so many prophets in the Old Testament times, sometimes at the same time or in different places, why is there only one prophet today?” I smiled and said, “there isn’t only one prophet today.”
I got a few eyes pop at this point! The District Leader shuffled in his chair. “First,” I said, “we sustain all 15 as prophets, not just the president. Second, many of our leaders have taught that we are not the only people who can receive God’s inspiration and guidance. We are taught that all humans are God’s children. I don’t believe in a God who would send 1.3billion of his children to China and then leave them in darkness for 5,000 years.”
We then read the following:
Quote:Alma 29:8 For behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and tongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true.
President James E. Faust said: “…we claim that God’s inspiration is not limited to the Latter-day Saints. The First Presidency has stated: “The great religious leaders of the world such as Mohammed, Confucius, and the Reformers, as well as philosophers including Socrates, Plato, and others, received a portion of God’s light. Moral truths were given to them by God to enlighten whole nations and to bring a higher level of understanding to individuals. … We believe that God has given and will give to all peoples sufficient knowledge to help them on their way to eternal salvation.”
https://www.lds.org/ensign/2002/03/communion-with-the-holy-spirit?lang=eng Elder B. H. Roberts said: “While the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is established for the instruction of men; and it is one of God’s instrumentalities for making known the truth yet he is not limited to that institution for such purposes, neither in time nor place. God raises up wise men and prophets here and there among all the children of men, of their own tongue and nationality, speaking to them through means that they can comprehend. … All the great teachers are servants of God; among all nations and in all ages. They are inspired men, appointed to instruct God’s children according to the conditions in the midst of which he finds them.”
http://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/08/a-latter-day-saint-perspective-on-muhammad?lang=eng
Another Elder later asked for the sheet of paper with the quotes on it. He’s from a former Soviet, Eastern European country and I think appreciated a broader perspective.
I’m seriously wobbling these days. This lesson felt like a real stretch. There’s less and less holding me ‘in’ at the moment. Friendship, for sure. A place to lay my universalistic head for a few hours on a Sunday.
As I’ve said before, teaching GP is, in part, a thought exercise. It’s a chance to see if I can teach a lesson each week that will be acceptable to both me and the participants. I get a bit of an easier run of things for a few weeks: ‘scriptures’ and two weeks of atonement. Then it’s two weeks of priesthood. Hmm… I might just take a week or two off.
Here’s the full lesson materials: http://manyotherhands.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/a-thoughtful-gospel-principles-chapter.html Beautiful. Excellent choice of quotes. Well done. I can relate to not knowing how to tackle some of the topics that don’t quite fit your current world view. Luckily, I teach primary at an age where they need to be taught things from a literal perspective, even so I try to focus on the parts of the lesson that present a moral or relevant teaching somehow.
Don’t doubt your abilities. This is far better than I could have done. It is a shame we sometimes focus on an authoritarian view of the prophet – we should have a spiritual guide loved by many people not a dictator. Great lesson. If you stop teaching the lessons, they are going to be taught by someone else who will teach the orthodox lessons that won’t expand their understanding.
Just saying.
Curtis wrote:Great lesson.
If you stop teaching the lessons, they are going to be taught by someone else who will teach the orthodox lessons that won’t expand their understanding.
Just saying.
Yes, don’t Strauss yourself beyond your capacity but also I would have loved to sit in on a lesson like this and observed.It’s quite crucial since something like this can easily go the opposite way and take a person into a negative emotional zone for weeks. So that’s why I am grateful you taught it.
Thank you.
It’s all about diplomacy. We have a ward member who is good at putting across an alternative view. I’m perhaps not so good, but I have my moments. I was quite happy for instance that I managed to get people thinking about the flood as a metaphor for baptism, a few weeks ago… rather than the usual business about nasty people being destroyed. Many of them had never looked at it that way.
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