My husband's church talk on "Following the Prophet"
- Shara Ogilvie
- Feb 24, 2021
- 7 min read
What follows is the manuscript of my husband's talk last week at church. He was just sustained as Elder's Quorem President as well, so during the talk he explains that all church leaders are fallible, including himself, which requires patience and goodwill from everyone as all members learn together.
I absolutely loved the thoughts my husband assembled (over the course of at least 10 hours of study!). So I asked if I could publish his talk here for the benefit of others. There were quotes and concepts I hadn't heard before, or hadn't remembered, which helped me feel more clear about how best to sustain our prophet.
I think there is a lot of misconceptions about how "blind" the members of my church can be in following their leaders. Someone close to me once said I was in a cult where we don't think -- we just do whatever the leaders say. Which is not true. This talk adresses this and other issues.
What can we do to follow and sustain the prophet?
First, we are asked to sustain the church leaders, not obey them.
The church leaders are servants of God. They have not aspired to these positions. They have not campaigned for these positions. They have not sought for these positions. Once they are in these positions, they are never released until they are dead.
The Lord leaves it up to us to whether or not we will obey His servants. He will never force our agency.
So, let's get started by the etymology; the meaning of the word- Sustain. It is a wonderful word. In Latin it means to “stand under, bear up, support, suffer, endure”. That's what Christ did for us, and that's what He has asked us to do - for each other. It is in our baptismal covenant.
Here are 5 Ways to Sustain and Follow the Prophets/Apostles
1. Pray for the Prophet. “During his public ministry, Joseph Smith’s missteps received public rebuke. (Imagine having your personal failures enshrined in scripture!) “Behold,” the Lord declared when Joseph lost the first 116 pages of the Book of Mormon, “how oft you have transgressed the commandments and the laws of God and have gone on in the persuasions of men” (Doctrine and Covenants 3:6). The Lord told him to repent, warning him that, otherwise, he would forfeit his calling.
Subsequent revelations again commanded him to “repent and walk more uprightly” (Doctrine and Covenants 5:21), announced that he had “sinned” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:7; compare 90:1), and chastised him for failing to keep the commandments (Doctrine and Covenants 93:47).
Nevertheless, …God never rejected Joseph Smith as a prophet. And neither should we.
We can pray for leaders that they will have the Spirit to guide them and direct them, even if they are fallible.
Two Quotes: President Oaks, as a member of the First Presidency; in their first press conference in 2018 said: “We don't believe in the infallibility of our leaders”.
And in April 2013, Elder Holland said in General Conference: “Except in the case of His only Perfect Begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. That must be terribly frustrating to Him, but He deals with it. So, should we, and when you see imperfection, remember that the limitation is not in the divinity of the work.”
2. Love the Prophet. We may not always like what the Prophet says or does, but he wouldn't be the Prophet if he always told us what we wanted to hear. “I saw the imperfections in [Joseph Smith],” President [Lorenzo] Snow remarked in his journal. “I thanked God that He would put upon a man, who had those imperfections, the power and authority, He placed upon him ... for I knew that I myself had weaknesses, and I thought there was a chance for me. ... I thanked God that I saw these imperfections.”
3. Sustain the Prophet. Seek personal revelation. President Nelson in a BYU address in September 2019 said, “Ask your Heavenly Father if we truly are the Lord's apostles and prophets. Ask if we have received revelation on this and other matters, ask if these five truths are in fact true.
Truth 1: You are sons and daughters of God.
Truth 2: Truth is truth. “Some things are simply true,” President Nelson taught. “The arbiter of truth is God—not your favorite social media news feed, not Google, and certainly not those who are disaffected from the Church.”
“Many claim that truth is relative and that there is no such thing as divine law or a divine plan. Such a claim is simply not true. There is a difference between right and wrong. Truth is based upon the laws God has established for the dependability, protection, and nurturing of His children. Eternal laws operate in and affect each of our lives, whether we believe them or not.”
Truth 3: God loves every one of us with perfect love.
Truth 4: The Lord Jesus Christ, whose church this is, appoints prophets and apostles to communicate His love and teach His Laws. Sometimes Church leaders are criticized “for holding firm to the laws of God, defending the Savior’s doctrine, and resisting the social pressures of our day,” said President Nelson. “But our commission as ordained apostles is: ‘to go into all the world to preach [His] gospel unto every creature’ That means we are commanded to teach truth.” (Doctrine and Covenants 18:28).
Elder Ballard, in a BYU devotional a couple of years ago said “The Lord called the apostles and prophets to invite others to come unto Christ. That's their job, their mission essentially, and also, we are promised this is the last dispensation. There will be no apostasy.” The church will not fail so if you think about it in that broad sense, inviting others to come unto Christ, they are not going to fail in that mission. That's their calling, that’s what they do!
Truth 5: You may know for yourself what is true and what is not. Again, President Nelson said: “My dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to seek earnestly a confirmation from the Spirit, that what I have told you is true and is from the Lord”.
Some say we have blind obedience, some critics will deceptively point to a key phrase that was once published in our Improvement Era Church Magazine/June 1945. It said, “When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done.” Later, it was discovered that it had been written by a young clerk in the presiding Bishop's office and was sent out without anyone in authority having approved it.
The error in publishing was addressed immediately, by the Prophet, President George Albert Smith, at that time and said the statement “was not prepared by one of our leaders. However, one or more of them inadvertently, permitted the paragraph to pass uncensored. By their so doing, not a few members of the church have been upset in their feelings, and General Authorities have been embarrassed…the passage quoted does not express the true position of the Church. Even to imply, that members of the Church are not to do their own thinking, is grossly to misrepresent the true idea of the church, which is that every individual, must obtain for himself, a testimony of the truth of the Gospel, must, through the redemption of Jesus Christ, workout his own salvation and is personally responsible to his Maker for his individual acts.”
4. Sustain the Other Apostles. They are See-ers, we sustain them because they can SEE. Remember, they are the Watchmen on the tower. They can see the bigger picture of the war, not just the battles.
In the Official Declaration # 1, underneath the Manifesto, there are some General excerpts from President Wilford Woodruff. In it he says, “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”.
More recently, this was in 1996 when President Hinckley had been the Prophet for 1 year. He said,
“I want to make you a promise. I know it's true. The Lord will never let the general authorities of this church lead it astray. It won't happen. We have a Presidency of Three. We have a Council of Twelve Apostles. We meet together in the Temple every Thursday. We pray together, we discuss together, we seek the inspiration of the Almighty, and it's my testimony that it comes”.
We can trust them.
5. Study the Prophetic Word and Choose to Live It. Elder Marion G Romney stated, “those who will through mighty prayer, and, earnest study, inform themselves as to what these living prophets say, and act upon it, will be visited by the Spirit of the Lord and know by the Spirit of Revelation that they speak the mind and will of the Father”.
Be patient, be prayerful and be faithful.
I just want to throw something out that my wife and I have been talking about, perhaps one thing to think about is-maybe the opposite of faith, is not fear, maybe the opposite of faith, is knowledge, because where you don't have knowledge you can have faith.
6. Do not kill them! Not with rocks or swords, but with our words and actions. In our standard works there are numerous examples of people killing prophets. They crucified Jesus, stoned Stephen, they ran the Apostles through with swords or beheaded them, Joseph and Hyrum were martyred, but that is fairly unthinkable today. However, we can kill our prophets and apostles in our minds by ignoring their words and their councils.
Testimony
I am grateful for my new calling, I am fallible, I am not perfect. I will not have this calling until I am dead, I get to go home every night. I am grateful for prophets and apostles. I am grateful for the Spirit of Revelation and the ability to receive revelation. I am grateful for my moral agency that gives me a choice in this world. I am grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, who allowed me to be able to return to a loving Father in Heaven, in spite of my weaknesses and my mistakes. And I promise you, as I covenant with God, I will do my best and I am grateful that you have sustained me.
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