Very long post submission by dash

[Anonymous]

I received a PM with the following. dash realizes it is WAY too long for this forum, and I think it needs some tweaking, especially near the end, but I think the heart of it is great for us here. I am posting it below for everyone to read and make suggestions as to how to condense / edit / split / whatever it to make it fit here better:

Quote:

Official Doctrine

One of the best-kept secrets in Mormondom is how Official Doctrine is established. Understanding that process is useful in distinguishing those teachings that are constant over time.

D&C 28:13 simply directs that “all things must be done in order, and by common consent in the church, by the prayer of faith.” But a survey of Church history reveals a well-established pattern of canonizing scripture. Since 1830 there have been six occasions when additions have been made. On each occasion, it was with the approval of the First Presidency, the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, and then ratified as binding by a sustaining vote of the entire membership.1 Those occasions were:

1) Bible & Book of Mormon was accepted with the organization of the Church in 1830

2) Doctrine and Covenants was accepted in 1835

3) Doctrine and Covenants additional sections were added, and Pearl of Great Price officially added in 1880

4) Polygamy was repealed in 1890.

5) The priesthood was given to all peoples regardless of race in 1978.

6) D&C 137 & 138 were added in 1976.

Elder B.H. Roberts explained that “The Church has confined the sources of doctrine by which it is willing to be bound before the world to the things that God has revealed, and which the Church has officially accepted, and those alone. These would include the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price; these have been repeatedly accepted and endorsed by the Church in general conference assembled, and are the only sources of absolute appeal for our doctrine.” (1)

There are many things Mormons commonly accept as Official Doctrine that are not. While official publications, policies, procedures, pronouncements, pontifications are necessary and important for the running of the Church, they still don’t measure up to the standard of being Official Doctrine. They don’t meet the standard B.H. Roberts described as something the Church “is willing to be bound before the world to the things that God has revealed, and which the Church has officially accepted.” (2) This is a singular standard that the Church holds as its ultimate test. Everything else is, by definition, less official, less sure.

President Harold B. Lee explains, “It is not to be thought that every word spoken by the General Authorities is inspired, or that they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost in everything they write. I don’t care what his position is, if he writes something or speaks something that goes beyond anything that you can find in the standard church works. (3)

Following is a short discussion of five items often assumed to be Official Doctrine, but fail the above standard. They are official talks and statements, official publications, official policy, books by GA’s, and conventional wisdom. Following a discussion of them we will compare them to Eternal Truth and then conclude with suggestions how we can best work in an environment where we assume a large responsibility for our own feelings, thoughts, and actions regarding mankind and God.

Official Talks and Statements by GA’s

While many members say statements by the FP and Q12 are Official Doctrine, history shows GA’s statements have occasionally not proven to be infallible.

· Brigham Young taught the Adam-God theory no other GA has. It has been repeatedly disavowed by Church leaders.

· Several GA’s taught that polygamy is essential for salvation and would never be removed from the Church. (4)

· Several GA’s from Brigham Young to Bruce R McConkie taught the Blacks would never get the Priesthood. (5)

· Joseph Fielding Smith said he didn’t believe man would ever set foot on the moon. (6)

· Apostle Franklin D. Richards promised the Martin and Wiley handcart companies the Lord would protect them on their journey so they would arrive unscathed. Nevertheless, 200 died on the way. (7)

Infallibility of prophets and apostles is not, nor has it ever been a doctrine of the Church. They are wise men, with many decades of life experience, and enjoy a special relationship with God because of their calling. But the calling does not absolve them from the weaknesses of mortality. Nor are they absolved of errors in understanding or judgment. Just like the rest of us, they make mistakes both trivial and sometimes tragic.

Official Teachings & Publications

The Church publishes manuals for church classes, magazines, missionary materials, and General Conference addresses. Since 1972, they have been prepared by the Co-correlation Committee to insure consistency and remove any errors. As a result of Church publications are addressed to the lowest common denominator. A sixth-generation Mormon who’s served a mission, been Bishop, Stake President etc. etc, gets the same Sunday School lesson as a brand new member in a brand new branch in Bangladesh.

Official Policy

Like any organization, the Church has a need to establish policy so consistency and direction can be established. Occasionally these policies incorrectly take on the aura of Official Doctrine.

· The Family, Proclamation to the World is not official doctrine because it has not been approved by the membership, but a it is a pretty clear guide for the Church’s teaching and its standards for behavior.

· President McKay had a personal dislike for crucifixes and directed the Church building committee to not use them, though they had been used earlier. But once initiated in the Church Building Committee, his personal preference have taken a life on their own decades later, as subsequent GA’s add speculative justification without regard to history.

· President Heber J. Grant, in 1921 made abstinence from the four verboten WofW items a requirement for a temple recommend. But there is no claim to any revelation as a basis for the change. (

· Temple recommend questions change every few years. In the 19th century, temple goers were asked if they maintained proper fences or let their cows wonder into their neighbor’s fields. (9)

· GA’s frequently taught that the Lamanites were the primary ancestors of the American Indians. In 2007, the introduction to the Book of Mormon changed to stating Lamanites were among the ancestors of American Indians.

Books written by GA’s

Many books are written by the general authorities to help us understand gospel principles and practices. They can be very helpful in this but care should be used with the usual caveat that their private opinions have not been usurped by their divine calling.

Conventional Wisdom

There’s lots of things many people erroneously believe are Official Doctrine, among them:

· To be a good member, you must be a Republican.

· Caffeinenated soft drinks, chocolate bars, etc. are verboten, along with coffee.

· GA’s will never lead you wrong. You will be perfectly safe if you follow what they say.

· Temple garments will protect you from physical harm, like fire or chemical burns only harm you where you weren’t covered.

· Always trust Church leaders advise over those worldly types like psychologists, social workers, philosophers and other workers for the devil.

· Ad nauseam

Eternal Truth

Official doctrine, official teaching and publications, official policy, and conventional wisdom do not equate to Eternal Truth. At best, they are only approximations of it.

As Nephi said “I do not write anything upon plates save it be that I think it be sacred. And now, if I do err, even did they err of old; not that I would excuse myself because of other men, but because of the weakness which is in me, according to the flesh, I would excuse myself.” 1 Ne. 19: 6, 20

Putting great eternal truths into human language is at best a difficult, drawn out process. Nevertheless, the Lord has promised he “will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have. 2 Nephi 28:30

After all, “We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.”

For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have. (2 Ne. 28: 30)

But it requires an on-going give-and-take between God and man to get it right. And God, in the view of LDS, will not force truth upon us. He gave us our free agency to work out these issues with His help, but nothing more. He has a further restriction, when giving guidance for the Church. He has one set of policy, procedures, pronouncements pontifications that goes out to 14 million members. One size fits all. Something inevitably gets lost in that shuffle.

Conclusion

So what’s a body to do? Well if you are in James Fowler’s 3rd stage (see the Support section of this forum for a discussion of Fowler’s Stages of Faith), then you probably won’t get through the first few paragraphs of this essay. If, however, you are in the 4th or higher, you may be open to another way.

The truth of the matter is that even for the canonized Standard Works we rely on the FP and Q12 to properly interpret them for us. Guarding the proper interpretation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is their primary stewardship. So the GA’s correctly interpret the scriptures, but if they teach something contrary to the scriptures we know they are wrong. That’s circular logic that could get you into the psyc ward, if you’re not careful.

But every Mormon missionary teaches that as we listen to the GA’s and read the scriptures, we should follow Moroni 10:4-5 to get our own personal witness. We have a system of checks and balances to guide us: Scriptures, the GA’s, and personal revelation. Of the three, personal revelation is the hardest to develop for most of us. Appealing to authority, whether scripture or GA is relatively quick, and easy. It is harder to work out our own salvation, taking full responsibility for our feelings, beliefs, actions and relationships with our fellow men and with God.

Fowler would probably agree with the Church’s encouraging us to take responsibility and develop those relationships, rather than just be puppets on a string, a la Stage 3 Mormons.

Brigham Young said “the greatest fear I have is that the people of this Church will accept what we say as the will of the Lord without first praying about it and getting the witness within their own hearts that what we say is the word of the Lord.” (10)

Harold B. Lee said, “We can know or have the assurance that they are speaking under inspiration if we so live that we can have a witness that what they are speaking is the word of the Lord. There is only one safety, and that is that we shall live to have the witness to know.” (11)

We have the responsibility to learn for ourselves, the what and how of applying spiritual truths in our stewardships (our personal lives, the lives of family members, and in the fulfilling of our church and professional assignments).

“And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.” Moroni. 10: 4-5

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. James 1:5

The Brethren are responsible for leading some 14 million members in 160 different countries, while the world is teetering on the edge of destruction from a number of possible threats. Their stewardship is to guide the Church and call the world to repentance. They can only speak with one voice to the 14 million souls.

In the mean time, we have to be concerned with our own stewardships, learning how to be most effective in our lives and in the lives of those who we touch. If we can become centered and confident in what we believe, we are then more capable of helping our fellow man, and may well see how we can best work within the framework of the Gospel and the Church.

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Please Note:

I have made every effort to be as accurate as possible to represent the teachings of the Church. Nevertheless, I am presenting only my understanding.

Footnotes

(1) Brigham H. Roberts, sermon of 10 July 1921, delivered in Salt Lake Tabernacle, printed in Deseret News (23 July 1921) sec. 4:7.

(2) (Tabernacle Sermon, July 10, 1921, printed in Deseret News, July 23, 1921, sec 4, p7 )

(3) Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye In Holy Places, pp. 162-3, “The Prophet, Seer, and Revelator,” Address delivered to seminary and institute teachers, BYU, July 8, 1964.

(4) http://www.mormonwiki.org/Polygamy

(5) http://en.fairmormon.org/Blacks_and_the … sthood_ban

(6) May 14,1961 – Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith address to stake conference in Honolulu.

(7) http://action.publicbroadcasting.net/ku … 65810.page

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_Wi … te_note-46

(9) http://mormonmatters.org/2009/02/16/tem … on-reeves/

(10) Deseret News, 9 Dec. 1857, 317; 12 Feb. 1862, 257.

(11) (Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye In Holy Places, pp. 162-3, “The Prophet, Seer, and Revelator,” Address delivered to seminary and institute teachers, BYU, July 8, 1964)

[Anonymous]

I really like it! My immediate thought was to make it a part of our library. It is clear, concise, documented and well thought out. It isn’t really written as a forum post, but we could start a thread linking to this piece and talk about it or field suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Would you be willing to talk with dash about moving it to the libray section and doing a post linking to it?

[Anonymous]

sure.

I will talk to Dash.

[Anonymous]

I like it, too!

[Author]

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