Elder Nelson: Follow the prophet even if it violates your conscience (April 2017)

In April 2017, Senior LDS Apostle Russell M Nelson gave a devotional to the young adults of the South American South area. In his comments he repeated the statement that members should follow the prophet with the assurance that they cannot be led astray. This includes following the Prophet when his teachings contradict your political or social conscience.

[TheShodan]

Follow prophet Nelson... untill the next prophet after throws him under the bus.

[bruce]

If your prophet has spoken, the thinking has been done. Right?

[o.k.johnson]

Gee... what happens when one prophet-- such as Brigham Young --teaches as revelation and doctrine (published in Deseret News 1873 and given at general conference that Adam is God and the only God with which we have to do? That revelation and doctrine taught by Brigham is later contradicted by more recent prophets such as Spencer Kimball Who is a good Mormon to believe? Young didn't espouse a theory. He said it was revelation from God and taught it as doctrine for over 20 years. Kimball and others have said it was false. What prophet do you follow?

And anytime you hear any church leader-- LDS or otherwise-- say follow him regardless and don't criticize or ask questions like Dallin Oaks has taught, you are in a cult.

[jasonsouvannarath]

"Be very careful about who's Advice you follow." Oh don't worry Mr. Nelson, I am!

[robpaulson]

This explains how the mountain meadow massacre could happen . . .

[daric_]

The Bible says to test what a prophet says by what's already been written and judge if his prophecy occurs exactly as predicted. If it doesn't, he's a false prophet and shouldn't be followed.

Instead, the Mormon church teaches that their prophet is true no matter what and that God wouldn't allow the prophet to lead anyone astray.
So we aren't supposed to test prophets if they're true, just believe? Yup, definitely not a cult.

[nicolelovesjesus]

They all talk them same . Like a voice from the back of their throats . So odd !

[jonnyhepcat]

Haven’t they spent the last five years trying to distance themselves from the idea that anything a prophet says is true?

[kevinconley]

What if the prophet said he needed to marry your wife..
Would you let him? Many people did in Joseph Smith's time. I would have taken my wife and ran .

[slicgreendueler]

The last statement he said is the only good advice he gave: "Please be very careful about whose advice you follow." I will be careful, and if it contradicts my political, social, moral, and personal judgment I certainly will not follow it, no matter what authority they claim

[TEA-fjut]

Follow the prophet even if it goes against scripture?
2 Nephi 4
[34] O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.

[zachgarver]

Goes hand-in-hand with Monson's "doubt your doubts, " and Oaks " don't criticize church leaders, even when they are wrong."

[chubbuck]

I can’t believe he actual said the words that the Lord would never allow the prophet to lead his people astray after they’ve released tho race and the priesthood essay.

[joetaylor]

Maybe part of the problem people have is discerning between ""the Lord's anointed" vs. the self-appointed, or maybe even the double-jointed.

[joetaylor]

What does a prophet do? Really . . . what does a prophet do? He / she prophesies. Give me an example of something they're correctly prophesied in the last half century, or maybe forever. Just one example would help.

[gregstephany]

Hey Russ; ... Jeremiah 17:5 tells me something *very* different than what you're saying here. ... ... ... Care to rephrase your idolatrous rhetoric?

[cestmois]

Actually the statement that the prophet will never allow the church astray came not as a revelation but from Wilford Woodruff when he was defenfing his ending plural marrige as demanded by the U.S. government. Lots of members in an uproar about this commandment being canceled. This was the onset of the prophets being infallable. I thought that we were a church led by imperfect humans not papists

[khadijagwen]

"Follow the Prophet even when it violates the Bible". I was a member for 6 years and got so disillusioned that I officially resigned. I had a 30+ year history studying the Bible when I became Mormon. During the time I was a member, I kept finding doctrines that violated the Bible; a big deal for me.

I finally understood that the church is nothing more than a slick multilevel marketing organization. When I quoted the very words of Jesus the Christ, they would say that was an incorrect translation of the Bible.

I am amazed that people attend services despite having told me that they are very disillusioned with it. People have told me that they attend to see their friends, and regard the church doctrine as foolishness.

[aural_supremacy]

The last ward I attended before resigning from the church, the BYU educated Sunday school teacher told me, we don’t have to accept everything the general authorities say and he told me again privately to be careful about what the general authorities wrote but there was a line he wouldn’t cross and that was of course the hero Joseph Smith. So any Latter Day Saints reading this, you know the story about Martin Harris going and trying to get an official endorsement of a portion of the characters from the Book of Mormon?, he saw a Professor Anthon who Joseph Smith’s history said that he verified the writing was genuine and the best translation of Egyptian he has ever seen and he would translate the rest but was told it was a sealed book and when told the book was delivered by an Angel he tore up the letter of authenticity remember that story? Well it turns out that this man, Professor Anthon is not unknown and his entire list of publications and history is online, and guess what? He was not an Egyptologist, in fact there were none in America at that time, Professor Anthon could not have translated Egyptian if his life depended on it but right there in the church history section of Doctrine and Covenants it has the story that he could translate Egyptian and in the 21st century 10, 000 million people still blindly follow this Church of lies.

[danite]

This is really all we need to know . Follow the Profit.