Mormon Fundamentalism

It is a common belief amongst many Church members that the Church President is incapable of publicly making mistakes on matters of doctrine, as the Lord would take his life before he did so. They believe that this is what Wilford Woodruff meant, when he told the Saints, “the Lord will not permit me or any other man who stands as President of the Church to lead you astray. … If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out of my place, and so he will any other man who attempts to lead the children of men astray from the oracles of God and from their duty.”¹ There are many Latter-day Saints, however, who would reject such an interpretation, as they believe that it renders the President of the Church perfect, to the point where he cant make mistakes, or without sufficient free agency to do so. The concept of a religious leader being incapable or prevented from making doctrinal errors is known as infallibility, and has been an accepted belief of the Catholic Church since 1870: “Catholics believe the Pope, be he saint or sinner, is preserved by God from leading the church into doctrinal error. This is referred to as his infallibility.”²

Such a belief has been condemned by latter-day Prophets of God, such as John Taylor, who said: “No person was ever dismissed from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for disbelieving in the infallibility of President Young. I do not believe he is infallible, for one; and I have so taught publicly. I am in the Church yet. Neither have I ever heard President Young make any such pretensions.”³ Indeed Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., went as far as saying that, “infallibility is a fabrication devised by the powers of darkness to act as a counterfeit for revelation.”⁴

President Woodruff’s statement, however, is not clear or definite enough by itself to support the claim that he was trying to convince the Saints that he was infallible, although those antagonistic to Mormonism often level that charge. His words do not clarify what would be necessary to lead the Saints astray, or whether he refers only to someone leading most or all of them away. Many people do indeed set out with the intention of leading Saints away from the Church, and many seem to succeed in this. Yet Brother Wilford’s words say that “any other man who attempts to lead the children of men astray” will be removed out of their place. However, we do not see even ’successful’ anti-Mormons being removed from this life, although we would undoubtedly see them removed from membership in the Church, or at least the privileges thereof. We might also wonder too whether his remarks refer just to Church members, or to all “the children of men”.

This leaves us with the question of what ‘place’ would a Church President (or any one else) be removed from if they were to attempt to “lead the children of men astray”? Interestingly the scriptures describe the results of the President of the Church himself falling or failing in his mission, and the result of such a course. From the Old Testament to the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord has given examples and outlined procedures to follow when such a sad event occurs.

There are certainly examples of Prophets being literally killed by God for disobedience and unrighteousness. The Lord warned the ancient Israelites of how he would destroy fallen prophets, and also how he would punish them for following such prophets:

“And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh [unto him];

That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord God.”⁵

It seems then that the ancient Saints had the individual responsibility of finding out for themselves whether their prophet had fallen, and if they did not recognize this and continued to follow, then they were liable to be held accountable for doing the wrong things their leader had told them to do. An official Church publication from the last century warned the Saints then of making the same mistake: “We have heard men who hold the Priesthood remark, that they would do anything that they were told to do by those who presided over them, even if they knew it was wrong: but such obedience is worse than folly to us; it is slavery in the extreme;”⁶

Joseph Smith referred to such a time in the Bible when the people of God placed too much confidence in their leaders, and that they “were darkened in their minds,” because, “they were depending on the Prophet.”⁷ Likewise, his successor, Brigham Young told of the results of continuing mindlessly upon such a path and how to avoid the possibility, “How easy it would be for your leaders to lead you to destruction,” he said, “unless you actually know the mind and will of the Spirit yourselves.”⁸ And should the Saints not judge for themselves, with the Spirit, the truthfulness of what they were taught? “Without taking this course, a people or nation is liable to be led astray by their leaders” And the solution? “when the people understand for themselves - when they know and understand the things of God by the Spirit of revelation, they are not only satisfied, but safe.”

So the responsibility lies with us to judge for ourselves whether we are being led along the right path, and to be watchful and mindful, and to have the Spirit with us that we will know the very moment someone is trying to lead us in another direction than the path God wants us to follow. We have seen from the examples and counsel given that we cannot wait for a prophet to be removed before finding out whether they are in the process of trying to lead us astray. We have also read the remarks of two of the founding Prophets of this dispensation stating that such a situation is possible in our own day.

“For it shall come to pass that the inhabitants of Zion shall judge all things pertaining to Zion. And liars and hypocrites shall be proved by them, and they who are not apostles and prophets shall be known.”⁹

The Fate of those Who Seek to Lead the Saints Astray

Scriptural examples of the Lord removing false prophets from this life are also complemented by other passages in which God has allowed them to live and carry on their work, and give some indications of why He has done this. Thus showing that the Lord does not always remove a Prophet at the point they will lead the Saints astray, and sometimes there is a purpose in mind behind some of God’s people mistakenly veering off the path of righteousness. Their punishment may be more gradual than immediate death, but eventually they will receive the chastising hand of the Lord.

“Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit:”¹⁰

There is a fate worse than death to a false prophet and to those people who follow him, which is the loss of one of the greatest gift God granted them in this life - revelation. He is without true direction, as are his followers, who wander in the wilderness. Joseph himself was warned that if he failed in his mission this gift would be taken from him: “Except thou do this, thou shalt be delivered up and become as other men, and have no more gift.”¹¹ Joseph would have perhaps remained in his Church office for a little while, as our Heavenly Father does not speak of him dying, although he would lack the power of revelation, and be removed from his ‘place’ as Prophet, at least as far as the heavens are concerned. As Micah says of such a man, “ye shall not have a vision .. for there is no answer of God.”¹² Which explains the statement of President Woodruff regarding any man who should seek to lead the Saints astray; they shall have their spiritual gifts removed, and their ‘place’ in the heavens will become vacant.

Some might suppose that the Saints would quickly be informed of such a result, but the Lord has given us the responsibility to judge, and should we judge wrongly we must learn the result of our actions, and so we may continue following someone who is no longer following God’s word and will. When this is what the people want, the Lord allows it, and if we look around the world today we will see many people following their own false prophets. None of us are exempt from this danger if we do not maintain a continuing witness of who the Prophet of the Lord is and if he remains so.

Others could still argue that the Lord would not allow such an occurrence in our day, yet, speaking of our day it was prophesied that, “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”¹³ In other words, he will allow people to believe what they want to, to receive what they want if they ask for it enough, and to have messages from the Adversary if they will not receive and take heed to what he has to say. As Brother Brigham reminded the Saints, “if they would not believe the revelations that God had given, He would suffer the Devil to give revelations that they - priests and people - would follow after. … if they would not have the truth they would have error sent to them, and they would believe it.”¹⁴ In fact the Lord has on occasion given His people what they have desired even when it is against His will:

“But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.”¹⁵

Safeguards and Guidelines

However, the Lord has provided other safeguards and guidelines to help us ensure that we remain faithful to him, whilst supporting those leaders He appoints when necessary to do so. He has given us a canon of his sacred word which we are in the habit of calling the standard works. Within it’s volumes are contained the selected words of many prophets that are considered to be relevant to us today for instruction, example, encouragement, and to enable us to judge the truth. President Joseph Fielding Smith gave it as the standard by which the Saints could judge his words: “If I ever say anything which is contrary to the scriptures, then the scriptures prevail.”¹⁶ And in this statement he was but mirroring the views of Joseph Smith himself: “If any man will prove to me by one passage of holy writ, one item I believe to be false, I will renounce it [and] disclaim it as far as I have promulgated it.”¹⁷

Joseph stands in a unique position amongst latter-day Prophets, he is the head of this dispensation, and presides over the Priesthood keys for it. His teachings are also a standard by which to judge his successors in the office of Church President. For he warned, “if any man preach any other Gospel than that which I have preached, he shall be cursed;”¹⁸ And told the Saints, “I never told you I was perfect; but there is no error in the revelations which I have taught.”¹⁹

So the teachings and revelations from the first prophet of this dispensation serve as a foundation stone on which the Church was built, and so the Church and its members will not succeed in building up Gods kingdom if they try to build upon anything other than that firm foundation. Disagreement between present and past leaders then is a sure test of whether their remarks are made by revelation or are personal opinion, as Brigham Young points out:

“Do you know why some men give counsel different one from another? Because they undertake to give counsel without the Spirit of the Lord to dictate them. But when the Spirit dictates, then each one knows what to do, and their counsel will be the same. Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, all the Patriarchs and Prophets, Jesus and the Apostles, and every man that has ever written the word of the Lord, have written the same doctrine upon the same subject; and you never can find that prophets and Apostles clashed in their doctrines in ancient days; neither will they now, if all would at all times be led by the Spirit.”²⁰

So, if a modern Church President should contradict a doctrine revealed through the scriptures or his predecessors then it will be apparent that he is speaking as a man, rather than a revelator regarding that point, whatever else he might be inspired upon. This is an important test which several passages of scripture and quotes from prophets testify to:

“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word,[it is] because [there is] no light in them.”²¹

“And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.”²²

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”²³

“Mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrines which ye have learned; and avoid them.”²⁴

“The gospel in its simplicity, is to be found in the revelations, the teachings of the prophet and the early leaders of the Church. We shall make no mistake if we follow them.”²⁵

“How, it may be asked, was this known to be a bad angel? by his contradicting a former revelation.”²⁶

“The Holy Ghost does not contradict its own revealings. Truth is always harmonious with itself.”²⁷

“None of the revelations of the prophets either past or present have been repealed … These revelations received by our prophets and seers are all of God, and we cannot repeal or disannul them without making God out a liar, and God cannot lie.”²⁸

A prophet is a Prophet “only when he was acting as such”²⁹ . Even the Church President when acting as President of the Church is not always acting as a Prophet. Does he need a revelation to restate a policy, or to tell the Saints to keep the commandments God has already given? We should remember that he is also a representative of the Church and it’s members, as well as the Lord, and will sometimes be their spokesman as well as His. The Church President is also someone who has opinions, which the Lord does not prevent him from sharing. As President of the Seventy and Church Historian, B.H. Roberts pointed out:

“We believe in an inspired Priesthood for the Church; we believe in inspired teachers; but that does not require us to believe that every word that is spoken from the pulpit is the very word of God. Sometimes they speak merely from their human knowledge, influenced by passions; influenced by interests of men, and by anger, and vexation, and all those things that surge in upon the minds of every servant of God. When they so speak, then that is not scripture; that is not the word of God, nor the power of God unto salvation; but when they speak as moved upon by the Holy Ghost, their voice then becomes the voice of God.”³⁰

The only way we know if he is acting as a Prophet is if: a) he reveals the words of the Lord, b) he states that a particular course of action or direction is the will of the Lord, c) he does not contradict the scriptures or revelations from his predecessors, d) the Spirit witnesses to us that what he has said is true. Although it does not necessarily follow that because we feel the Spirit accompanying his sermon that his words are a revelation to the whole Church. I am sure that most of us have heard talks from other Latter-day Saints in our ward or branch, and thought to ourselves, “the Lord wanted me to hear that.”

Unless there is a direct statement that what he says is the word of the Lord, then whatever else we may assume or feel about it, it remains only a personal assumption that he was acting as a Prophet instead of as a representative of the Church, encouraging us to keep the commandments and avoid evil like any other Church member would. First Presidency member, Charles Penrose, went even further, “President Wilford Woodruff is a man of wisdom and experience, and we respect him, but we do not believe his personal views or utterances are revelations from God; and when ‘Thus saith the Lord’ comes from him, the Saints investigate it: they do not shut their eyes and take it down like a pill.”³¹ He was not alone in his remarks, but was expanding on the counsel of the Prophet Joseph, who taught, “If anything should have been suggested by us, or any names mentioned, except by commandment, or thus saith the Lord, we do not consider it binding.”³²

President Hinckley has gone to pains to point this out. For example when he warned people about the need to prepare for emergencies and get out of debt (and what could happen if they didn’t) he stated, “this is not a prophecy”. When speaking about whether he had personally received any revelations, he maintained that, “We don’t need much revelation,” and “We don’t need a lot of continuing revelation”³³ President Hinckley has also seemed to admit that there are times he is uncertain of his communications with his Father in heaven when he said, “I think He answers my prayers, … I think He answers them.” Nor does he pretend to know all things, even on matters of doctrine. For example, when asked about why blacks weren’t allowed to have the Priesthood previously, he stated, “I don’t know what the reason was.”

There lies with us the personal responsibility to judge the President of the Church, although we should seek to not be judgmental towards other members views about what he has said or done, nor feel obligated to share a similar view. We must realize also that being in a position to judge does not mean that we are in a position of authority, or that our judgments do not come without consequences, as the Lord spoke of the need to not judge unrighteously. We must remain respectful of the office and authority he does hold.

The Old Testament records that on one occasion the Lord actually instructed the a Prophet to tempt one of the tribes of Israel with wine, but they held firm to the covenants they had made, and disobeyed the Prophet, and were blessed by God for doing so. President Lorenzo Snow related this story to the Saints in his day:

“I will refer again to the Rechabites, and the strong temptation that they were under when invited to the Temple of God, and there, in one of the apartments, asked by Jeremiah, one of the greatest prophets, to drink wine; or, in other words, to do something they had been instructed by their father not to do. But they could not be moved, the teaching of their father had found an abiding place in their hearts, and the consequence was that they utterly refused to do what the Prophet of God told them to do. The Lord Himself admired the course that they took in this matter and was led as I before said, to make such a glorious promise to the house of Rechab;”³⁴

Would we have the same courage to stand up for a true principle no matter what a leader might ask of us, or whatever decision the majority took? Joseph had such courage, and proclaimed, “I will always maintain a true principle, even if I stand alone in it.”³⁵

Whilst the current President of the Church may be a man of integrity and wisdom, we should also remember not to put our trust in him as a man, for even he could fall or fail in moral or ethical matters. The scriptures even describe the procedure for trying him in a disciplinary council should he do so.³⁶ It is not man we should put our trust in, not trust in the “arm of flesh” that the sacred canon warns us against,³⁷ but in God alone, and everyone and everything else should be put to the test, and should never be trusted above what God has stated.

Ultimately, the heads of homes, holding the Priesthood, and presiding over their families, should be revelators to their children and wives. Being worthy to administer the blessings of the Gospel, and to be a Christ-like example. Every individual will need to know and discern the voice of the Spirit for themselves if they hope to be exalted, for “no man can live on borrowed light.”³⁸

“And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’S people were prophets, [and] that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!”³⁹

“God has not revealed anything to Joseph, but what He will make known unto the twelve, and even the least Saint may know all things as fast as he is able to bear them.”⁴⁰

“We often hear it said that the living Oracles must be in the Church in order that the Kingdom of God may be established and prosper on the earth. I will give another version of this sentiment. I say that the living Oracles of God, or the Spirit of revelation must be in each and every individual, to know the plan of salvation and keep in the path that leads them to the presence of God.”⁴¹