Why Do Mormons Obey Their Prophet?
Filed under: Basic LDS Beliefs, Church Organization, Counsel from Church Leaders, Jesus Christ, LDS Q&A
Mormonism is often known as a strict religion with many rules. Mormons are often asked why they obey and why they let others decide how they should live.
It is helpful to understand a little about the role of the Mormon prophet and how Mormons view him. With this knowledge, it is easier to understand why Mormons are willing to follow a prophet.
Students of the Bible are familiar with the concept of prophets. In Old Testament times, God called men to be prophets to deliver God’s word to the people. While each person is able to pray to God privately and learn His word, it would be very complicated to pray about each possible doctrine individually. God also has messages for us we might not think to pray for. A prophet serves as a channel for all the information a person needs to live according to God’s plan. In a world in which many prominent people are willing to guess at God’s word, and to teach their personal beliefs as scripture, a prophet is a sure source of information. Christians want to be certain they are living as Jesus taught, and not as someone else has decided they should live.
Adam was the first prophet on earth, speaking directly to God to learn truth and to find out what God wanted Him to do. Other prophets soon followed. Of course, there have been times when God withdrew prophecy because the people refused to listen or to honor the prophets, but He has always restored them. Prophets were on the earth to prepare the people for the first coming of Christ, and as we approach the second coming, we naturally need prophets again. For this reason, God restored prophets to the earth in modern times. The second coming requires as much preparation as did the first coming.
But how do the Mormons know their prophet really is the prophet God has chosen for this time? Mormons are taught from early childhood, and, if they are considering becoming Mormon, to ask God who the prophet is. They are instructed not to take the word of anyone on earth—not the Church’s word, not that of their parents, not that of their teachers. All of those sources are a place to be taught the gospel, but no one can give another person a testimony. A testimony can come only from God through confirmation from the Holy Ghost.
“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,” taught James, believed by many scholars to be the half-brother of Jesus. (See James 1:5) Each person is entitled to turn to God for wisdom and to find out for Himself, from the only source that is completely trustworthy, that the head of the Mormon church is indeed God’s prophet. Prior to baptism, prospective members are interviewed and asked if they have taken this step.
Once a member has gained a testimony of the prophet, they can trust His teachings. However, should they at any time feel uneasy about something, they can again return to God to pray about it. This is why Mormons who have taken the time to pray about their choices are unshakable. They gained their testimonies directly from God.
Some outsiders will warn their members not to pray about which church to join, or about the prophets, because they claim the petitioner won’t know who is answering. Mormons, however, trust God. Because God promised in the Bible that we could ask Him anything and receive an answer, we trust Him to keep that promise. We know God can do anything, including answering us in a way we can recognize as coming from Him. The better we know God, and the more time we spend talking to Him and “listening” to Him, the more familiar His “voice” will become to us. Of course, prayer answers seldom come through a voice, so this is a symbolic way of speaking. It means we can recognize the ways he communicates with us, and understand how to know what the answer is. Mormons ask God because they believe Him when He makes promises.
Learn how to recognize answers to prayers.
Having an understanding of the process followed by Mormons to learn whether or not God speaks to us through prophets as well as individually, you are ready to understand why Mormons are willing to take direction from this prophet. You may already understand it, if you are a person who always strives to do what God wants you to do.
Mormons are taught the gospel of Jesus Christ as it is revealed in the scriptures. These scriptures include both the Old and New Testaments, as well as scriptures revealed through prophets in modern times, including the Book of Mormon and also as it is revealed to the prophets.
These scriptures teach us both the penalties for ignoring God and the blessings that come from obedience. We’ve seen throughout history that fear of punishment is not enough to make people obey God. Noah relentlessly taught the gospel to the people, and warned them of the upcoming flood. Despite this, they chose to ignore his warnings and continue in their sins. Why did they do this? Some probably didn’t believe Noah. Others thought it couldn’t happen to them. Most disobeyed simply because they did not love God more than they loved their sins.
Although Mormons are taught the consequences of disobedience, they don’t focus on them. Instead, they are taught to obey out of love for God. “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” Jesus taught. (See John 14:15) Love should always be the reason for obedience. Obedience that grows out of love for God is sincere and powerful. It is easier to keep the commandments for One we love, and the greater our love, the greater our obedience. Obedience that comes from fear or from a mere sense of obligation seldom lasts and does not produce all the blessings of obedience done from the heart. Obeying from love enlarges our spirit, increases our testimony, and helps us to become a better person. It allows us to become more like Jesus Christ.
A previous Mormon prophet, Ezra Taft Benson, taught, “When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.” (See Elder Donald L. Staheli Of the Seventy CES Fireside for Young Adults on 2 March 2003.)
Parable of the Talents
Filed under: Bible, Finding Happiness, Jesus Christ, New Testament, Teachings of Christ, The Bible
In the New Testament, Jesus told a parable of a man who, about to leave on a trip, gave each of his servants some talents (coins) to have stewardship over. Each received a different amount. Most of them used the talents in such a way as to increase the value of the stewardship by the time the master returned. However, the person who had received the smallest number of talents—only one—hid his in the ground to protect it, rather than working to make it worth more than it was worth originally.
Even though the man had only one talent, and others had as many as five, he was expected to make good use of that talent and to expand its value, rather than to bury it where it couldn’t help anyone.
Today, we often look around and see that others have far more talent than we do. When our talents don’t seem as many, we might feel less valued by God. When our talents are less great, we might wonder if it’s even worth doing anything with them.
Mormon beliefs teach that our talents are gifts from God. The number we’re given, or even the extent of them, really isn’t the point of the talents. They were given to us to do something with, and if we use them well, they will have value and even increase.
I’m an author. I didn’t write something publishable the first time I sat down to write. It took many years of writing badly written stories, articles, and books—beginning when I was only six years old—before I wrote something anyone was willing to publish. I received a large stack of rejection letters over the years before I received the first acceptance letter, and still receive rejections today, even after publishing a book that got good reviews.
My books will never be best sellers. I simply don’t have that kind of talent. Does that mean I shouldn’t write? Of course not. What I write may not make history, but it has helped a few people, and so has value. I’ve improved my ability to write over the years, and since I can live forever through the atonement, I expect I will improve a great deal in the next few million years. However, I can’t wait for the next life to get started; mproving my talents is one of my earthly assignments.
Sometimes we misjudge how talent and success work. I decided many years ago to return to school and take a math class, because I wanted to better help my children with their math. I’d always been awful at math, and was extremely frightened to take this class. However, I ended up getting straight A’s in every test, the first A’s I had ever received in math. A student who was not doing well noted my grade on the posted grade sheet and complained it wasn’t fair that I got A’s. He said it was easy for me because I was naturally good at math. I explained my history of math failures. My grades weren’t the result of talent; they were the result of hard work. We were required to do every other odd numbered problem. I did every problem, often three or four times. I worked a few weeks ahead of the class in case I got stuck and I received one-on-one help from the professor almost weekly by making use of office hours. I even cornered a professor or two I wasn’t taking classes from when I was really desperate.
Talent can help us to be successful, but hard work is also critical. I may never be a math genius, because my brain isn’t configured for that type of thinking. My talent in math was miniscule, but hard work made up some of the difference. Even with great talent, work is critical.
Of course, hard work can’t turn you into a genius in every case. Anyone who has heard me singing to my toddlers in the church nursery knows I’m never going to be a great singer, but even though singing might not be my talent, I can still sing, at least to toddlers who don’t care. I used to worry a lot about what I wasn’t good at. However, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve stopped worrying about this so much and I’ve begun to focus on what I can do, or might be able to do if I really worked at it.
When I felt overwhelmed about writing a book, a friend pointed out that if I wrote only one page a day, I’d have a book in a year. I only had to focus on my one little page. Many of us are very busy and don’t feel we have much time for talents. However, if we give that talent even fifteen minutes of our time each day, we will be working toward something that will be ready for our greater attention in a few years, when we have more time.
The Savior, Jesus Christ, instructed us to make wise use of every gift God has given us. If we take even our tiniest talents and work at them, turning to God for help, we can magnify them and thereby honor the giver of the gift. The parable of the talents was given to us to remind us to make use of our God-given gifts to become the person God knows we can be.
Secular and Spiritual Learning
Mormons have long been supporters of education, both secular and spiritual. Joseph Smith organized adult education schools to further both his own learning, since he’d had little schooling, and the learning of others. Mormon pioneers opened schools even before they were completely settled into Utah. Today, Brigham Young University is recognized as a quality school. Education is a key factor in the Mormon faith.
However, while counseling its members to get all the education they can, both formal and self-directed education, they counsel them to keep their priorities in order.
In the Bible, Jesus commanded his followers to seek first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33) This suggests an appropriate pattern for our learning: First learn spiritual things, and then learn secular things. This doesn’t mean we have to put off secular learning until we’ve mastered the gospel. It means to make sure we don’t neglect our spiritual educations while achieving our secular education. When we have a firm foundation in spiritual knowledge, we are better able to discern truth from falsehood in our secular studies.
Henry B. Eyring taught: “Our first priority should go to spiritual learning. For us, reading the scriptures would come
before reading history books. Prayer would come before memorizing those Spanish verbs. A temple recommend would be worth more than standing first in our graduating class. But it is also clear that spiritual learning would not replace our drive for secular learning.
The Lord clearly values what you will find in that history book. And He favors not only Spanish verbs but also the study of geography. His educational charter requires that we have “a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms” (D&C 88:79). There is also an endorsement for questions we study in the sciences. It is clear that putting spiritual learning first does not relieve us from learning secular things. On the contrary, it gives our secular learning purpose and motivates us to work harder at it.
To keep spiritual learning in its proper place, we will have to make some hard choices of how we use our time. But there should never be a conscious choice to let the spiritual become secondary. Never. That will lead to tragedy. Remember, you are interested in education, not just for mortal life but for eternal life. When you see that reality clearly, you will put spiritual learning first and yet not slight the secular learning. In fact, you will work harder at your secular learning than you would without that spiritual vision”
Mormon beliefs assure us we can take with us when we die what is in our hearts and what is in our minds. The knowledge we gain today will go with us into our eternal lives, and this should influence what knowledge we choose to gain. Knowledge that will help others live better lives on earth and knowledge that will be valuable in heaven are likely to be the most valuable types of education. Hours spent memorizing batting averages probably has very little value in either life, but finding out how to save a life in an emergency has great value in our earthly life. Memorizing scriptures will serve us both here and in heaven.
A secular education is important in furthering the Mormon teachings of self-reliance. Education in childhood, whether gained through a traditional school or a homeschool (the church is neutral on homeschooling) prepares a child for adulthood and college. A formal college education gives a person the credentials society currently requires to obtain good employment and can increase the likelihood of a family being able to support itself and of being able to earn enough money that the mother in a two-parent home will be able to remain home with the children.
Mormons are encouraged to create a habit of life-long learning in both secular and spiritual matters. It’s important, therefore, to teach children how to be self-directed learners.
When my children were young homeschoolers, they overheard a woman complaining that she’d always wanted to learn history, but couldn’t because she couldn’t go to school right now. On our way home, they asked, completely baffled, why the woman thought you could only learn history in a school. They were learning history right at home. Whether or not a child is homeschooled, they must learn how to learn. They should be filled with joy at the thought of learning something, not for a grade, or candy, or a reward, but for the pure joy of learning. If they don’t get this at school, they must get it at home. Help them find fun educational books to enjoy in their spare time, carry out science experiments that don’t “count” and memorize poetry. Then, whether or not their lives are currently allowing them to attend school, their adult lives will be filled with learning.
It can be challenging, in a busy life, to find time for learning. Often, goal oriented people will push aside spiritual learning to make more time to learn what they need for school or work. Mormons often study their scriptures first thing in the morning, before the challenges of the day begin to intrude. This literally puts spiritual learning first. During the course of a day, they might put on a talk by a church leader to listen to as they do housework, or read a spiritual book during lunch.
Secular learning can also be fit into a busy day. A poem taped over the sink can be memorized while the dishes are washed. A book on tape can educate during the morning commute. An ordinary conversation can provide an introduction to a new topic. When you meet someone new, find out what they know best and begin asking questions. Most people love to talk about their passions and a fifteen minute conversation can educate you in an entirely new field.
Periodically evaluate the types of learning you are doing. Are you achieving a balance? If you’re spending six hours a day on secular learning, it is wise to include more than fifteen minutes of spiritual learning into the day. Is there a way to blend the spiritual and the secular? For instance, when I taught my children ancient history during our homeschool, we combined it with Old Testament reading and the two types of learning complemented each other and increased our learning in both the secular and the spiritual. Someone studying medicine in college might supplement that with God’s teachings on health. A mother who is immersing herself in child development books might also read articles by church leaders on parenting. The two types of learning do not have to be placed into separate boxes and isolated from each other. Blend the two and achieve a richer and fuller education.
God Has the Bigger Picture: A Mormon Message of Comfort in Troubled Times
(This is Part I of a reproduction of a fireside presentation to Mormon Youth on October 21, 2001.)
We lifted my eight-year old daughter, Talia and held her up over the retaining wall in the back yard where she glimpsed the world from a few feet higher than her usual vantage point, observing a creamsicle-colored full moon and the twinkling of many lights of a nearby development. In retelling her experience, she remarked, “Wow, Mom! I gasped! I didn’t know it could look like that. I just wanted to stay there for an hour—! I felt her spirit capture the joy of “things as they really are” from a loftier perspective.
Perspective gives us patience, purpose, and a place for our emotions—even transforming them. Let’s increase ours together–look up, step back a few feet. What might life events look like from God’s view?
Take a peek with me into the divine geometry of nature. All things, say Nephi and Alma, typify (that is, teach or denote) something about God. Now here is a stunning reality.
This image is called a fractal; it’s part of what is known as the Mandelbrot series—Mandelbrot is the name of the scientist who discovered it. It’s a design that has been generated on the computer through an equation. We won’t get into mathematical technicalities here, but for now, observe what happens as we magnify just the small rectangular portion marked on the image. Read more
When They Fall
Filed under: Adversity, Family & Friendships, The Adversary
Mistakes! We’ve all made them. Some mistakes are easily corrected, others can take quite a lot of time and effort to fix. I’ve made my share of mistakes. I will probably make a few more before my time on this earth is through. Big or small, I can honestly say that I’ve learned from my mistakes. They’ve made me a better person, a better mother and wife. My mistakes and my journey to overcome those mistakes are as much a part of me as any other attribute that makes me – me.
But what happens when our children make mistakes? Are we as patient or as understanding? Do we forgive? Do we look at it as an opportunity for them to grow, or do we only see the looks that we imagine our neighbors and friends are giving us? Do we view it as a reflection of our abilities (or lack thereof) as parents? Are we somehow threatened by our children’s mistakes because of the way it might make us look?
One of the hardest things a parent has to do is watch their children make mistakes. It is hard to stand by and watch your child make bad choices. It’s even harder to watch them suffer the consequences of those poor choices.
As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are taught that each of us is given the gift of agency. Agency is the ability and privilege God gives us to choose and to act for ourselves. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much that he allowed us to choose.
And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free.
He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you. (Helaman 14:30-31)
He will not force us to obey Him and follow His will. Instead, He gave us the freedom to choose for ourselves. Knowing the pain I feel when I watch my children make mistakes, I can imagine how much more our Heavenly Father hurts when we make mistakes. Yet, as a loving Heavenly Father, His way is not to force, but to guide, to forgive, and to give us chances over and over again.
Can we do any less for our own children? Yes, we’d rather they didn’t make some of the mistakes they made. Yes, we wish they had made smarter, better, worthier choices than they made. Yes, we hurt, we’re disappointed, sometimes we’re even angry. But now is not the time for “I told you so” speeches. Now is the time for love, an outpouring of unconditional love.
As a mother, I need to trust that I’ve raised my sons the best way I know how. I need to remember that I’ve taught them the word of God. I need to remember that I’ve tried in every way I know how, to instill in them a love for everything that is good, virtuous, and praiseworthy. Then, I need to stand back and allow them to exercise their agencies. I will always guide, counsel, and advise, but in the end, it is up to them. I need to acknowledge that they too will make their share of mistakes. When (not if) they fall, I will be there to help them pick up the pieces. When they fall, I will be there to help them find their way back. When they fall, I will forgive them.
President Howard W. Hunter, 14th President of the Church, taught:
To fully understand this gift of agency and its inestimable worth, it is imperative that we understand that God’s chief way of acting is by persuasion and patience and long-suffering, not by coercion and stark confrontation. He acts by gentle solicitation and by sweet enticement. He always acts with unfailing respect for the freedom and independence that we possess. He wants to help us and pleads for the chance to assist us, but he will not do so in violation of our agency. He loves us too much to do that, and doing so would run counter to his divine character.
Given the freedom to choose, we may, in fact, make wrong choices, bad choices, hurtful choices. And sometimes we do just that, but that is where the mission and mercy of Jesus Christ comes into full force and glory. He has taken upon himself the burden of all the world’s risk. He has provided a mediating atonement for the wrong choices we make. He is our advocate with the Father and has paid, in advance, for the faults and foolishness we often see in the exercise of our freedom. We must accept his gift, repent of those mistakes, and follow his commandments in order to take full advantage of this redemption. The offer is always there; the way is always open. We can always, even in our darkest hour and most disastrous errors, look to the Son of God and live.
Don’t you just love that? There aren’t enough words to express how grateful I am for the gift of the Atonement.
I’m thankful for a loving Heavenly Father and for His gift of Agency. The knowledge that He trusts me so much that He allows me to choose gives me the courage to pick myself up when I’ve made mistakes. I’m so grateful for a Church that teaches us about the wonderful principle of Agency. I’m thankful because I know that this gift is available to my children as well. It is available to all of us.
This, and other teachings of the Church, gives me eternal hope. I have hope that, whatever mistakes my sons may make, they will make it right. I have hope that when they do mistakes, they will remember that their Heavenly Father will forgive them if they sincerely repent of those mistakes. I have hope that when they fall, they will pick themselves up and try again. I have hope that when they fall, they will learn and grow and become better men because they corrected and overcame their mistakes.