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Wuwei I find your analysis intriguing. Just to bad we got stuck in a time of little from on high being sent down wuwei wrote:
We have Nephi who conversed with God, had God show him how to build a ship, had angels appear to defend him, shocked his brothers when they opposed God’s work, caused a tempest to be still with a prayer after being unbound, and on and on and on.And then we have say, King Benjamin. To my recollection, King Benjamin doesn’t talk about seeing God, angels, or anything approaching the experiences of Nephi. He is remembered for gathering the people together and preaching a sermon on how to act towards each other and God. He refers to the records he’s been given. His discourse doesn’t contain any new or shocking doctrine. It was just a call to rememberance of the things that had already been taught. A very effective one, but that’s it.
Then we have the book of Omni which has many people who were in charge of keeping God’s sacred records who neither received revelation nor were very righteous in some cases.
I think that prophets and leaders such as Nephi are incredibly rare. Those such as Benjamin are few and far between, but much more common. And those who are given an important position but aren’t necessarily prophets at all in the true sense are the most common.
I think that we have entirely convoluted the titles of Prophet and President. If we understand Prophet to mean someone like Nephi, Joseph Smith, Abraham, Moses, etc. –People for whom the heavens have literally opened– then we are confronted with the reality that there have been relatively few of these people in the existence of the world.
Do I personally feel the current leadership is on par with Nephi?…No. Do I think there are some, if not many, that approach King Benjamin?… Yes. Are there lots of Chemishes who just put their name in the book and pass it on?… Yep.
:clap: :clap: :clap: Mate, that is brilliant. I couldn’t agree more. I put JS in the “Nephi” category, I put GBH in the “King Bejamin” category, and I put TSM in the “humble servant but not a burning-bush prophet” category.
mackay1- No I haven’t read “God Who Weeps” yet. It’s on my husbands kindle. When he’s done – I get it. While I wait I am trying to keep my emotions unmarked by anticipation. I hope it helps. wuwei – Great insights. I think we tend to forget that even “unrighteous guys” are recorded as record keepers after Omni. Or at least guys who didn’t see themselves as “prophet, leader” material.
My additional thoughts on Prophetic revelation is Joan of Arc. Her entire story, the freedom of France from the Hundred Year War, and her death at the stake all center on Prophetic, visionary revelation. So how and who is always interesting to me. God clearly works in mysterious ways.
wuwei, thanks for your comment. I love it – and not just because I’ve said much the same thing to lots of people over the decades. 
Wuwei, awesome insights. I love this forum.
At peace…
wuwei wrote:It also helps to remember that the ones the create stories of the presidents of the church seeing Jesus in the temple or other such things are not the leaders themselves but members. I’ve heard so many Mormon legends that I can only imagine would make TSM laugh a bit. I think it’s a need of many in the church to believe that the person at the head of the church has seen the end times and knows the eternities. I know that I wish that were the case.
Kumahito wrote:Mate, that is brilliant. I couldn’t agree more. I put JS in the “Nephi” category, I put GBH in the “King Bejamin” category, and I put TSM in the “humble servant but not a burning-bush prophet” category.
I was doing some research yesterday about why “once a Bishop, always a Bishop.” The most satisfying answer that I came up with was that Bishop is an office of the Aaronic Priesthood and so theoretically once that office is attained it remains. You might get released from the calling but not the “office” of Bishop. (Perhaps similar to someone who is made an Elder prior to serving a mission – after the mission is over they are still an Elder.) I also found it interesting that to be a counselor in the first presidency one needs to be a high priest (not an apostle). To be the President of the Church one must be an apostle. They don’t stop being an apostle when they become president, the priesthood office is apostle.
So it seems like somewhat of a misnomer that we call the president of the church “the living Prophet.” I feel like the term “Prophet” carries all sorts of baggage that might not necessarily apply to the titles of Apostle or President. Unfortunately, we Mormons seem very vested in the term prophet with all of the miraculous powers that this term implies.
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