38. CFM: Acts 22-28

Original title: LDS Testimony: From Prophets to Follow and Laity who Follow

In this episode, Brendon and Skyler discuss the thirty-second lesson in the LDS Come, Follow Me sunday school manual. This week (July 31-August 6) is titled "A Minister and a Witness" and covers Acts 22-28.

We invite you to worship with us on any Sunday - either at First Baptist Church of Provo or Christ Presbyterian Church in Magna. We welcome visitors!

Pastor Brendon's Colossians series can be found here.

Seminary Manual: here and here

JSH-1.24; Alma 5.45-46; D&C 90. 13,16

Joseph Smith: here and here

"Praise to the Man" (Hymn No. 27); "Follow the Prophet" (Children's Songbook, pg. 110)

Gospel Principles: Prophets of God

"The Living Prophet: The President of the Church" (manual)

"Pure Testimony" (M. Russell Ballard)

"I Testify" (Ezra Taft Benson)

"Fourteen Fundamentals In Following the Prophet" (Ezra Taft Benson)

Just as an example of what used to be clearly taught by LDS President-Prophets, here is a sermon by Brigham Young: JD 1.46-53, 7.290-291 and 9.147-150.

"Finding Answers to Gospel Questions" (Bruce R. McConkie), esp. see section no.3. - wherein he quotes Joseph Fielding Smith (who would become a president-prophet of the LDS chuch) as saying: "It makes no difference what is written or what anyone has said, if what has been said is in conflict with what the Lord has revealed, we can set it aside. My words, and the teachings of any other member of the Church, high or low, if they do not square with the revelations, we need not accept them. Let us have this matter clear. We have accepted the four standard works as the measuring yardsticks, or balances, by which we measure every man’s doctrine." Yet, how does this square with Joseph Smith, Brigham Young - and even points taught by Ezra T. Benson cited above.

"The Soil and Roots of Testimony" (John Carmack)

"The Place of the Living Prophet, Seer, and Revelator" (Harold B. Lee); one pertinent quote by Pres. Lee is: "The only one authorized to bring forth any new doctrine is the President of the Church, who, when he does, will declare it as revelation from God, and it will be so accepted by the Council of the Twelve and sustained by the body of the Church."

Heber C. Kimball: JD 9.27

Franklin D. Richards: JD 26.302

Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt wherein it states: "Lift up your head and rejoice; for behold! it is well with my servants Joseph and Hyrum. My servant Joseph still holds the keys of my kingdom in this dispensation, and he shall stand in due time on the earth, in the flesh, and fulfill that to which he is appointed..." (p. 294, 1985 ed.)

Elias by Orson F. Whitney (e.g. Canto IX)

The Inevitable Apostasy by Ted R. Callister: "If there had been significant righteousness among the Saints, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles would have continued." (p. 46)

Joseph Smith claimed: "I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam...Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet..." (HC 6:408; here)

There is a quotation from Jana Reiss worth quoting in her book The Next Mormons by Jana Riess: "Even the notion that Mormons would call the president of their church 'the prophet' is a mid-twentieth century innovation; the practice can be dated to 1955, during the presidency of the exceptionally popular David O. McKay. Before 1955 the term 'prophet' was used in LDS periodicals to refer to founding leaders Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, or else to prophets from scripture." The footnote reads: "From the newspaper's beginnings until 1955, for example, no headline of the Church News ever used 'prophet' to connote the current LDS president. By the 1960's, however, such references to McKay as 'our prophet' and 'the prophet' were becoming routine...McKay's immediate successor, Harold B. Lee, expressed concern with the 'almost worshipful attitude' Mormons had begun expressing toward the president of the church and sought to stop it; during his administration only one headline referred to him as 'prophet'. However, his tenure of less than a year was 'too brief to reverse the accelerating adoration by rank-and-file". (pp. 191, 285-286; see The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn)

For a recent, albeit extreme and controversial, example of a "testimony" is found here / here.

As A Thief in the Night by Dan Erickson

Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? by Sandra and Jerald Tanner

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization by Anthony Esolen

Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. by Daniel Treier and Walter Elwell

Christianity and Liberalism; The Person of Jesus by J. Gresham Machen

Core Christianity; Christless Christianity by Michael Horton (also here and here)

Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books by Michael Kruger

The Gospel Code: Novel Claims about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Da Vinci by Ben Witherington III

The Structure of Biblical Authority by Meredith Kline

Note: It should be noted that in Mark 12 - Jesus, when asked what the greatest commandment is, begins with the Shema and thus, the monotheism denied in Mormon and/or LDS theology.

Contrary to what seems to be popular understanding among LDS, the Trinity is a monotheistic doctrine, and to claim that the Godhead are "three separate beings and persons" is to be polytheistic, no matter the aesthetic preference of someone like Jeffrey Holland. (also see here, and here to see how Joseph Smith spoke about the Trinity; also see The Trinity: An Introduction by Scott Swain for a short introduction to the foundational Christian doctrine.)

Moses warns against false prophets who lead people after other gods (Deut. 13.1-5); and Paul warns in Galatians that "even if we or an angel from heaven" preach a different gospel, let him/her be anathema, as well as warning against false apostles, men who preach "another Christ" - saying that "even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light." (Gal. 1.7, 2 Cor. 11.4,13-14) And of course, the apostle John warns against "false prophets" and commands we "test the spirits". (1 John 4.1-3)